Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it and am sad to see it go. I either leave town on Memorial Day weekend or choose not to drive if I stay in town.

This is why people talk about "privilege." You realize lots of people don't have those options, right?

Rolling Thunder isn't any more disruptive for locals than any other event that brings in a lot of people. Cherry Blossom season, Marine Corp Marathon, Rock n Roll Marathon, and 4th of July are some events off the top of my head that I find more disruptive than Rolling Thunder. Disruptions are just part of daily life here. Accusing someone of not recognizing their privilege really doesn't make sense in this context.

I really disagree with you. Rolling Thunder lasts longer and impacts more areas. I remember several years ago the riders complaining a lot about not get the police escorts they expected. In reality they were very disorganized and bands of riders not part of the single procession were expecting escorts. They also think they should be treated like a funeral procession and stop traffic on the interstate. I enjoyed watching it in the past, but it is time to end. There are other and better ways to honor the memory of the soldiers who were impacted by the Vietnam War.

+1.

Sign up to see if you are a bone marrow match for the many veterans who suffer from multiple myeloma caused by agent orange exposure in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who had a very scary interaction with them yesterday, I am glad to see them go. I normally try to avoid any area they are going to be but I wasn’t thinking on the commute home and went over the Key Bridge. Not only were they in their normal pack, they were stopping on the bridge in rush hour traffic while the bridge was backed up to take photos. Apparently they go ape**** if you accidentally switch into the lane they’re in (I had to turn onto Whitehurst Freeway and I think they thought I was trying to cut them off). They started cursing at me and one gentleman threatened to get off his bike (he wasn’t clear on what he would do after that). I’m pregnant and it was kind of terrifying. I’m a woman of color and I have no idea if that had anything to do with it, I really hope not.

This. They are just a bunch of low life’s pretending to be veterans. It was time for it to end. Now if they could just ban them at the beach in September that would be glorious. Memorial Day is a time when a lot of families gather in DC for many different reasons including visiting graves. It’s not a party for the motorcycle gang. It’s just disruptive. As for the bikers lol they are the Trump supporters.

How vile thou art.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad to see it end. I'm tired of them grid locking the city every Memorial day! It feels like a hostile take over.

But they have been doing it for decades before you moved to the area.

What an absurd assumption. I like it, but I came to DC in 1987 and there was not Rolling Thunder then.

Surprised you moved here knowing that you would have to endure the horror of Rolling Thunder. Brave girl!!

Anonymous wrote:Best place to watch with dc's? Never been and want to take advantage of last chance!

Find a big shade tree on Constitution and get something cold to drink. No good or bad place, only sunny and shady ones!

Good. Two of them cut me off yesterday and were weaving in and out of traffic. They create such danger.

Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday a motorcycle rider from Colorado followed another too closely and caused a 3-motorcycle accident on 66 on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend with people trying to leave town. This is not uncommon. Put that many extra drivers/riders on our roads and accidents are bound to happen.

How many car (non-motorcycle) accidents occurred yesterday in the area? One motorcycle accident is hardly a reason for shutting the event down.

I took my 8-year old to watch Rolling Thunder one year. Anyway, it wasn't just Vietnam War vets there. There was an older European gentleman who flew in because something about Rolling Thunder resonated with his war experiences during some UN response. There was an elderly Native American with a baseball cap announcing he was a Navajo wind talker from WWII. There was a woman who said she was a nurse in the Vietnam War. My daughter approached all these people (and others), thanked them for their service, and asked them to sign a R.T. booklet she had. That's how she learned their story. Among the riders, one that tugged at my heartstrings was a beautiful, willowy youngish woman riding a big hog, with a flag announcing she was riding in memory of her dad who was killed in the Vietnam War. He never got to see his daughter grow up.

I believe we owe these veterans BIG. They were conscripted into the military for a war that was not our problem, and used as cannon fodder. The rich and sophisticated were able to get out of service, but these people were not so fortunate.

Furthermore, the last time I went to watch Rolling Thunder, there were plenty of younger veterans from Middle Eastern conflicts, in lighter motorcycles.

So I say memorial weekends in D.C. should belong to them for as long as they want it. I think it's too bad the Powers-That-Be think they're too unsophisticated and rough to be anything but embarrassing. If you ask me, they earned the right to roll through D.C. and remind all of us who gets sent to fight these wars. The Pentagon should be bending over backwards to accommodate the people they sprayed with Agent Orange and other toxic concoctions for as long as they wish to be accommodated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the hate culture of DC - as evidenced here...

Or the swastika i saw on a helmet 3 years ago. I know most of the folks are cool. But that sent chills to me. I thought what very confused person and let me get away from here this time next year.

That’s actually one of the reasons they are ending it. It’s attracting a lot of riders who have no military connection or interest and who want to espouse hate. There was a good article on it in the Washington Post last year, interviewing the man who runs Rolling Thunder today and is just done with it.

Anonymous wrote:As someone who had a very scary interaction with them yesterday, I am glad to see them go. I normally try to avoid any area they are going to be but I wasn’t thinking on the commute home and went over the Key Bridge. Not only were they in their normal pack, they were stopping on the bridge in rush hour traffic while the bridge was backed up to take photos. Apparently they go ape**** if you accidentally switch into the lane they’re in (I had to turn onto Whitehurst Freeway and I think they thought I was trying to cut them off). They started cursing at me and one gentleman threatened to get off his bike (he wasn’t clear on what he would do after that). I’m pregnant and it was kind of terrifying. I’m a woman of color and I have no idea if that had anything to do with it, I really hope not.

This. They are just a bunch of low life’s pretending to be veterans. It was time for it to end. Now if they could just ban them at the beach in September that would be glorious. Memorial Day is a time when a lot of families gather in DC for many different reasons including visiting graves. It’s not a party for the motorcycle gang. It’s just disruptive. As for the bikers lol they are the Trump supporters.

good Riddance!

Anonymous wrote:Rolling Thunder is much, much more tolerable than Cop Week.

Both of these need to go.

I am in my mid 40s. In a private high school in this area I was barely taught anything about the Vietnam war. In fact most of post World War II history was crammed into a few weeks of an honors history course. I bet my experience was not unusual and it probably is still glossed over today so the relevance of Rolling Thunder and their relevance is lost on many.

Personally as a local it will be nice next year to be able to go downtown next year easily and take advantage of the long weekend to hit up places we don’t have time for normally. We hated dealings with the road closings and biker crowd aonstayed away. I bet DC was losing out to tourist dollars who would spend more in the city than the biker crowd.

Anonymous wrote:It’s the hate culture of DC - as evidenced here...

Or the swastika i saw on a helmet 3 years ago. I know most of the folks are cool. But that sent chills to me. I thought what very confused person and let me get away from here this time next year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it and am sad to see it go. I either leave town on Memorial Day weekend or choose not to drive if I stay in town.

This is why people talk about "privilege." You realize lots of people don't have those options, right?

Rolling Thunder isn't any more disruptive for locals than any other event that brings in a lot of people. Cherry Blossom season, Marine Corp Marathon, Rock n Roll Marathon, and 4th of July are some events off the top of my head that I find more disruptive than Rolling Thunder. Disruptions are just part of daily life here. Accusing someone of not recognizing their privilege really doesn't make sense in this context.

It’s totally different. It’s all weekend and disrupts traffic. Marathons block some streets for a few hours. Cherry blossoms and July 4 are lots of extra walkers. Yes, they all bring crowds, but not crowds that block traffic all over the place.

its all weekend? i thought the motorcycle ride was only on sunday afternoon.

The thousands of motorcycles cause traffic disruptions all weekend long. Yes the official event is only on Sunday. It'd be like if 100 marathoners decided to test out the run the day before and ran in the streets, even though traffic is still trying to get through.

So you're complaining about . . . congestion? On a holiday weekend?

Just stop, Princess. I know it's louder that Aiden and Camille are used to, but break out those matching sound protectors you got them and you'll be fine.

Yesterday a motorcycle rider from Colorado followed another too closely and caused a 3-motorcycle accident on 66 on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend with people trying to leave town. This is not uncommon. Put that many extra drivers/riders on our roads and accidents are bound to happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it and am sad to see it go. I either leave town on Memorial Day weekend or choose not to drive if I stay in town.

This is why people talk about "privilege." You realize lots of people don't have those options, right?

Rolling Thunder isn't any more disruptive for locals than any other event that brings in a lot of people. Cherry Blossom season, Marine Corp Marathon, Rock n Roll Marathon, and 4th of July are some events off the top of my head that I find more disruptive than Rolling Thunder. Disruptions are just part of daily life here. Accusing someone of not recognizing their privilege really doesn't make sense in this context.

I really disagree with you. Rolling Thunder lasts longer and impacts more areas. I remember several years ago the riders complaining a lot about not get the police escorts they expected. In reality they were very disorganized and bands of riders not part of the single procession were expecting escorts. They also think they should be treated like a funeral procession and stop traffic on the interstate. I enjoyed watching it in the past, but it is time to end. There are other and better ways to honor the memory of the soldiers who were impacted by the Vietnam War.

+1.