Exercise Your Right to Choose: BOYCOTT THE STURGIS RALLY OR NOT.
3/9/2006 DAYTONA BEACH. News and analysis of the possible impact of a boycott.
by the publisher of Bikers USA. A boycott of two or three years could deal a crippling blow to the South Dakota economy. A half-hearted threat of a boycott has no effect whatsoever. While attending the Daytona Beach Bike Week, Pro-choice supporters are announcing their call for a boycott of the Sturgis Rally in protest of South Dakota’s recent law which bans abortion. The law is extreme and makes abortions illegal regardless of reason. Even if a fetus is the result of rape or incest, South Dakota says it is illegal. Yesterday, the governor signed it into state law.
South Dakota has officially headed back to the days of back alley abortions, unsterile coathangers or knitting needles, and poor young women bleeding to death or dying from infection. Many of them died in Mexico. Young women from wealthier familes often fared better, traveling to exclusive, secret clinics that were very expensive.
Roe v Wade is the federal law in the United States of America which ended that horror, by acknowledging the womens right to choose. It is likely that South Dakota will soon try to defend its’ new state law in the US Supreme Court which has recently been stacked with more coathanger advocates.
Tourism in South Dakota is a large industry, second only to agriculture. The largest single tourism event is the Sturgis Rally. Boycott organizers realize that a well-organized, effective boycott of Sturgis would send a strong message. A boycott of two or three years could deal a crippling blow to the South Dakota economy. A half-hearted threat of a boycott has no effect whatsoever.
The state could survive a mediocre boycott or a boycott of just one year, 2006. It could ruin some small businesses. It could have an effect on gypsy vendors, unless the rally were replaced by another, in a nearby state, but other than Little Sturgis, it just wouldn’t be Sturgis.
It would only bring about an economic disaster if it were combined with other actions by other large groups of people against the economy of South Dakota.
Half of the country is against abortions, and many of the anti-abortionists are from nearby states, so Sturgis would still get 400,000 to 500,000 visitors. It could make a dent. I expect it would be a very small dent.
For a moment, let’s say that the boycott is highly successful, and the Sturgis Rally only gets one wayward buffalo to show up. History tells us that if South Dakota was hit with economic disaster, President Bush would find some way to get economic assistance to the affluent who don’t need it. The most effective boycott would only end up hurting the lower income working class.
Boycott organizers would be wise to anticipate such a response by the President. They would also be wise to get some advance support in the event of such a response. Only Congress has sufficient powers to keep the President in check. We’ll know if this is still true when Congress shuts down the deal to turn our ports over to the United Arab Emirates, and Congress overrides his promised veto as expected. The good news is that the decision whether to boycott or attend the Sturgis Rally is up to each of you. It is your choice. You can still make a choice about some things rather than have the government impose themselves where they have no business. | 
