Dear Son of a Beaurocrat (humor intended)
My license plate says it all: Live Free or Die.

or was that live freeze and then die.... or was it Live free and swat black flies. I can't ever remember the whole thing. I just remember General John Stark said it, and I think he was right.

In any case, This penchant on the part of beaurocrats to put big ugly stickers on works of art and on the owned objects of others just says it all. It reminds me of dogs trying to pee on trees they don't own, and then claim the forest is better off for their actions. Yeah, I see the value of license plates on cars but why put threatening notices on the tags manufactures put on pillows... "Remove this tag from this pillow ...." and you are reminded that its a beaurocrats pillow first.

The simplest answer is let us put hte tax stamp inside the boat in our cargo hatches. Personally, I think taxing personal water craft PWC is a dumb idea to begin with. I think stamping a boat is even weirder, but if your state can't see its way clear to seeing that, then at least don't ask us to put the blasted things on the prow of our PWC

Look, the loveliest part of any craft be it wooden boat or tupperware, wind powered or turbocharged, is her prow. Guess what end of the boat the beaurocrats always want to spray paint "kilroy was here" on. It is graffiti, an act of vandalism on the part of an unthinking collective that is supposed to protect the freedoms we have. A wooden baot hand built is an act of expression. This stamps paid in full on the expression. That's not what this country is about. In the end, its the tax stamps that got a whole lot of tea tossed in Boston harbor. There are more stamps now then ever back then. Even King George didn't tax stamp pillows.

Where a stamp or licence plate improves public safety I am all for it. I just don't think it helps public safety to stamp personal water craft. It helps keep a beaurocracy active collecting a tax that is easier gotten in less destroctive ways.

I am also not against user fees. I am against stamps. I'm willing to pay my way. But its short sighted to go after personal water craft. Now that sea kayaking has become a maney making industry many officials have looked atthe dollars in the sport and thought to impove their own annual budgets. This issue is going to show up more and more. Not less and less. I think paddlers do pay their dues. Case in point, I travel to paddle and I bring my wallet. I buy, I rent, I tip. I leave a little green behind me everywhere I go. Most of us do. A sticker to add to the side of my boat just to mar the hours I put into breathing life into her, just to prove that I paid up an additional sur tax directly to officialdom, beyond the green I put in the state coffers I am visiting is short sighted.

Tell your Dad, that I wouldn't leave my boat next to a subway car, by the cross bronx expressway to get spray painted. For the very same reason, I don't take my boat to sticker states. And when my boat deosn't go my wallet doesn't go either. Oregon will make more if facilittes paddlers then if it becomes a tool booth state of stamp stickers. Its a law that drives tourest money out to other states.

Case in point, I Went to a wedding this weekend in NY state. Driving across NH VT and NY. I drove past at least 15 wooden boats. Some, near Lake Champlaign I think I even recognized from this BBS. I was the black ford truck flashing his lights with a thumbs up out the window congratulating your efforts. Well, near Randolph, VT I went by a nice one from a state that requires the beurocrats version of "kilroy was here." It was on a 70's eddition white sedan. A red white and blue pice stripe on cedar.

The gentlman driving had obviously build her and displayed his colors but that wasn't enough. His state wanted stickers over his artistic and patriotic expression. Instead, of taping ugly stickers and numbers. He had hand carved detachable wooden plates with numbers and stickers on them. The law in his state forced him to mar his boat with one inch numbers randomly generated. His attempt to get around the sticker stuckers in his state capital, looked horrible but it made the excelelnt statement. I looked at his efforts and it said "this is ridiculous." Not his efforts. It is ridiculous that his state does not support his right to build and use a beautiful boat. His efforts were a great protest. It said "hey look at the dumb thing they are trying to get me to do." I might add he was also driving out of state where I can assume he was removing them to paddle free.

Its also not just states that are considering this. My own neighborhood requires its own stamp. Lake associations and neighborhood associations and state parks are all doing the same. It provides them with the illusion of being organized. They have inventoried and cataloged as if that has fixed a thing.

Tell em to stick the stickers where the sun don't shine. (inside the boat) or better yet not at all. Its bad for boating, bad for business and bad for the cofffers. Its a dumb idea/

!RUSS