Not everyone was pleased with the 1st Annual "Ride to Remember..." - see letter to the Editor: www.times-herald.com and click on "Opinion" to the left side bar and then scroll down until you see a letter dated 9/1/07 "Disservice to the Community".
Never mind that this writer [Mrs. Pat Craven] has seemingly enjoyed taking an ax to me as a public official on past ocassions. I don't personally know her and I don't specifically recall why she had such a bitterness toward me. But then again, her bitterness and penchant for writing letters to the editor are not limited solely to me and is often printed in the paper with similar diatribes against others. Sad for Ms. Craven and her organization's event, they didn't do anything to promote it locally or elsewhere that is known to those who helped put on the Mike Stokely Foundation Ride. I guess Ms. Craven and her event staff thought people from around the State would have come to their purely local ride in the first place, and as for the 1st Annual "Ride to Remember..." it was promoted far and wide, including on WSB AM 750 Radio and around the world on internet. Reportedly, the Mike Stokely Ride had people around the world flying "with us", running on aircraft carrier decks, and "riding with us" in Iraq. The Mike Stokely Ride coordinators, which included dedicated volunteers from Unit 57 of the American Legion Riders, worked for months to pull together and plan the Ride, including working without sleep for the last 40 plus hours. They traveled all over the State of Georgia to observe other Rides and see what "worked" and what didn't. They made numerous personal contacts, phone calls, and sent a gillion email. They made the Mike Stokely Foundation, Inc. 1st Annual "Ride to Remember..." the successful event that it was and that 215 motorcyclists CHOSE to come to when they could have easily chosen other rides or other matters to give their time to on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - including Ms. Craven's event.
I have had several people come forward and insist I respond; others have said they were going to do so. I have no plans to write the paper a letter and I have asked that the others not do so as well. The paper's ploy here is to use Jerry Springer type ink fight to sell its papers without concern for fairness or truth and their only interest is selling their paper, which is not even very widely read by most of the Coweta County Citizenry. Proverbs in the Old Testament is a very wise approach to handling situations like this.
This is not the first time the Times-Herald has stuck this knife in my back, and that of our family. When the SGT Mike Stokely Road Dedication was initiated by independent State action without our requesting it be done, and stories ran in the Atlanta media on such 2006 legislative action, the local paper saw it then called me up and wanted to do an article. They ran it front page, made a big deal and then turned around and ran some unsigned letters form "citizens exercising their free speech" that were critical of me and our family with such diatribe as "my son serves in Afghanistan; if he gets killed will they name a road after him? Probably not!"; and "the Stokelys are selfish for letting the road be named..." The Times-Herald has now done it again with this latest letter, but at least this time it is a signed letter.
Such Jerry Springer tactics and sucking off the straw of what has happened to our family, and especially the sacrifice of Mike Stokely, and then attacking us is uncalled for and I will not participate in this silly game played by the Times-Herald. I can find a way to live without the Times-Herald and to to say the least, the least, the Times-Herald is persona non-grata in my world.
Mike Stokely's service to his country was founded upon verbally stated willingness to sacrifice his life for his country and the freedoms we enjoy. He then went and put his word in action and gave his life on August 16, 2005 near Yusufiyah in the Triangle of Death, south of Baghdad. When he paid that price for our freedom, he didn't put any exclusions on the purchase he made, and as such, even those who would attack his dad and his family are allowed the full benefits of his sacrifice, the very least of which is freedom of speech, even if that freedom is abused and then used to attack his dad with misinformation, even outright lies printed in a local paper.
Robert Stokely
[Ed Note: An opposing view can be found in several of the comments lately...true to form the opposition view is not offered with another solution only an attack against a political party and the administration as well as ad hominem attacks against this author. What sad pathetic people hate breeds. ]
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