On July 29, the Louisiana Confederation of Clubs and Independent Riders (COC&I) held a Biker Town Hall in lieu of its normal meeting in Alexandria.  The guest speaker was Clay Higgins (R) U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. Jacque and I had the honor of being invited to represent and speak about the MRF and ABATE.  MRF President Kirk "Hardtail" Willard was also in attendance. 

We met up with Congressman Higgins at the Cajun Harley Davidson in Scott, just west of Lafayette and rode with his group of a dozen or so bikes to Alexandria. Jacque gave a briefing to a standing room only crowd about what A.B.A.T.E. is, what we do for the motorcycle community in Louisiana and our proposed legislative agenda for 2024. I told the story of how we came to be involved with the Town Hall by being in Congressman Higgins' D.C. office when Swamp, the COC&I Commander, called to speak with him about it. I then turned the mic over to Hardtail. He spoke to a very attentive group of bikers from across Louisiana about the dire situations for motorcyclists due to the push to get rid of combustion engines, the dangers of autonomous vehicles, the effect of using E15 gas in small engines, etc. Congressman Higgins took the floor and spoke of the precious rights afforded to all of us by the 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th amendments of the Constitution and then took many questions from the audience.