Statement on George Floyd

Steve_Jones said:

I'm not angry at all, I just won't donate next time. If you want "donations" to keep the lights on, no problem. To turn around and use it to donate to another cause, that's pretty lousy. If they donated to planned parenthood, that's cool? NRA? For them to preach no politics, then donate to a political group and announce it here, is hypocrisy at its finest.
 

Some of us donate without the need to tell everyone about it. 

GRM decided to reapportion part of their marketing budget to this cause.  In this situation, everyone hurts.  For some it's physical pain. For others, it's emotional pain or monetary pain.  They made a choice to stick up for their fellow man.  I'm sorry you don't like their choice.

As for your donation, please go ahead and tell me how much it was.  I'll double it.

It's been a few hours since I checked, but the total loss we've seen in monthly pledges was $13. We can survive that. 

Tom Suddard said:

It's been a few hours since I checked, but the total loss we've seen in monthly pledges was $13. We can survive that. 

berkeleyin savage. 

I hope there's a write up in the next issue about the donation and it's recipients.

I'm just surprised you couldn't find a local survivors of police brutality group to donate to instead of a national level group known for their abhorrent behavior and questionable financial distribution practices. 

To be fair, law says charities only have to give 1% of donations to the cause they claim to support, just might have gone over better finding one that gives closer to 100% instead of closer to 1%. 

Tom Suddard said:

It's been a few hours since I checked, but the total loss we've seen in monthly pledges was $13. We can survive that. 

Tom - seriously man, that’s uncalled for and dramatically immature. People hold different beliefs than you and they hold them to such a strong degree that they feel like a site that they’ve invested tons of time and thought into has become hostile to them and so they leave. And you’re going to play the “sorry not sorry we won’t miss you” game?? You WANT your site to be full of only people who agree with you and/or disagree but not strongly?? 

Dude. This post IS political in nature; the org you donated to, whether you knew it at the time or not, has political leanings and some find it really offensive (again, ideology is intertwined with politics and therefore one’s belief about what is or isn’t a human right— think abortion, homosexual rights, the right to guns to defend self, etc.). There’s a reason this board has a no politics rule. And you felt like it was okay to violate it, and that’s your prerogative. But to rub it in people’s faces when they’re bothered? Immature and offensive. Please reconsider your tone. 

I wasn't going to bring it up, but was asked a direct question, and clarified that Jerry shouldn't feel required to make up for the loss. 

In reply to P3PPY :

The no politics rule was not violated with this post. This isn't and shouldn't be a political issue. The issue is that a large number of our neighbors, coworkers, and friends don't feel safe in their country. I don't see how this is political at all. 

And for the record, LGBT rights and abortion shouldn't be political either. 

In reply to RevRico :

Completely understand the sentiment. We were limited to national organizations for this. And just to correct the record, 67.8% of the SPLC's funds go to program expenses. 

In reply to P3PPY :

I've been getting more and more salty as this night goes on... 

they never violated their own rule. they didn't discuss politics... 

they openly posted on their media platform that they support the Black lives matter movement and openly stated they made a charitable donation and who they made it to, which I applaud their transparency. 

if that was enough to make people turn away... 

In reply to Steve_Jones :

the hole you keep digging by not choosing to JUST STOP POSTING is becoming cringeworthy.

Man,  what a E36 M3 show.  Might as well forget the no politics thing.  Well,  it was nice while it lasted.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

If you won't say how much you contributed, then I will find out from Tom.  Then I will double your donation and send you a check for the amount you paid.  Then you can feel good about yourself.

We talked to the mods before posting this, and decided to moderate with a very light hand for a bit to give room for discussion. You'll also notice that no comments have been deleted or users banned for attacking us, our actions, or our beliefs. This is our kitchen table, you're welcome at it, and we welcome the tough discussions that will keep this online family strong.

That said, it's bed time for me. I'll continue this discussion in the morning.

Thanks, 

Tom. 

Man this thread is going downhill faster than a roller coaster. 

The fact that we knew exactly what some folks viewpoint on this would be before they even opened their pie holes lets us know they are fine with politics on this board but only for them.   I love that their biggest complaint is about the ex CEO of the SPLC and when it was pointed out he was fired for the reason they had issues with him they continued to say that's why they hate the SPLC.   

Our world of giant business lobbying means that if you have a group that is looking to work on the national level and actually accomplish anything you have to play this E36 M3ty lobbying game.   If you don't you just don't get anything done.   So yeah there are other charities to give to, many of them great people doing local and small regional work.    Many of them may have better policies than SPLC but few have the power to push towards the real change that is required.   I'm fine with GRM working with a national level charity especially since we come from all over even if I don't like the entirety of that groups work they are one of the few big enough to have a chance to get E36 M3 done.

Mixing of business and politics and religion is one of the core problems we face as a country.   

Donations, Charity, etc, should be personal, not an 'expense' of a business.  

Sports is where we go to get away from politics and religion, or we used to, now even that can't be left alone.

Wow, I missed all of this today. 

Thanks, Suddards. I'm proud and honored to know you. 

Ironic reason that I missed this discussion. I had some SCCA Nationals stickers to remove from my miata. While this was going on, I was replacing them with my GRM dork and SCCA Unite stickers.

I'm going to be proudly showing my support at Sebring on Sunday.

nimblemotorsports said:

Donations, Charity, etc, should be personal, not an 'expense' of a business.  

 

Businesses give billions to charities every year.  Like those donations, this one is tax deductible.

When I very first signed up here it was made clear that this was an apolitical site.

Now a donation to the SPLC shake-down artist?

Not a good move.

Probably should not say any more, but I know a few folk the SPLC has put on their "List" and they are some of the best folk anyone could know.

I am a newb here-so doubt anyone will care about my opinion-but you gave $$ to SPLC?  Really?  Not a joke?

SPLC? The same organization that support the Facist(despite their very ironic name)hard core leftist head bashers known as Antifa?

SPLC on Antifa: "Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a broad, community-based movement composed of individuals organizing against racial and economic injustice. Those who identify with the label represent a large spectrum of the political left".

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/06/01/designating-antifa-domestic-terrorist-organization-dangerous-threatens-civil-liberties

Right-they are just nice people organizing to help create equality for all-unless you are a race ,class,or color that they don't like.

Then-how does that bike lock feel bouncing off your skull? I'm thinking not good! What's next? Antifa donations?

These are NOT good people. Seriously. Someone at Grassroots needs to do just a LITTLE research. Pretty appalling lack of judgement. If there was another org that designated hate groups-for sure SPLC would be on it.

Back in the day I used to buy Grassroots magazines and I just "refound"this website. And I was really happy to mostly lurk here. Posted a little. Might post a bit more.

I will continue to read here for free but I think I will now pass on any $$ of any sort towards Grassroots if they are going towards left wing(or right wing for that matter) hate groups such as this. Doesn't matter if left or right-hate is hate.

I really urge you to do more research on this group.They are anti American, and pick and chose to designate organizations as hate groups(or importantly NOT to designate some organizations as hate groups) based on their agenda more than anything.

While they do get some of them right,that doesn't change this fact. Epic Fail Grassroots. Just sad.

I'm not really sure how to express my thoughts but here it goes. I'm glad GRM is taking a stand for respect and fair treatment. I applaud their willingness to put their money where their mouth is. Do I agree with their choice of organization to donate too? No. But I'm not going to ridicule them and make disparaging remarks. Such behaviors are at the root of the problems we are seeing in our country.  We can disagree without being disagreeable. We can have different moral values without hating others who do not share our ideals. 

Now here is my vent. I'm tired of the media fanning the fires of hatred and discord, every negative interaction that occurs between individuals of different races is automatically assumed to be out of racism. Is it not possible that some people are just selfish jerks and hot heads who don't care who they hurt. I believe there is more good in this country than the media tells us there is. Everytime I take a look at the news the underlying message I see is "Hey America you suck.  You`re all a bunch of racists, your stupid, the rest of the world has better education,  the rest of the world has handled COVID better, they have a better standard of living, they are more inclusive, they are skinnier, happier, and healthier than you. " and on and on. 

I believe we are better and can be better than these messages that divide and weaken our nation.  Now is the time to stand up and be better, do better, and treat each other better than we would treat ourselves. Get rid of the labels that divide us. Those labels don't determine our value as a human beings.  Stop putting others and ourselves down. And last of all stop trying to hang each other on the words we may have said "wrong" or expressed differently than you would have. You don't have to agree someone to love them and just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you hate them.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Jerry From LA said:

nimblemotorsports said:

Donations, Charity, etc, should be personal, not an 'expense' of a business.  

 

Businesses give billions to charities every year.  Like those donations, this one is tax deductible.

Yes and that is the problem.   Here is a good discussion that just touches on one part of it.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-2TEwdRnX0

In reply to RALLYRS :

I have no idea where to start with this. "Antifa" is not the name of an official, organized group. It's literally just a term that means "anti-fascist". Furthermore, your claims make it sound like armed thugs wearing all black are going around beating up innocent old white ladies. That's not at all what antifa is. It's people standing up to white supremacist wackos.

Also, white supremacists have been known to impersonate antifa to stir up conflict.

slowbird said:

In reply to RALLYRS :

I have no idea where to start with this. "Antifa" is not the name of an official, organized group. It's literally just a term that means "anti-fascist". Furthermore, your claims make it sound like armed thugs wearing all black are going around beating up innocent old white ladies. That's not at all what antifa is. It's people standing up to white supremacist wackos.

Also, white supremacists have been known to impersonate antifa to stir up conflict.

So Antifa is just "people standing up to white supremacist wackos, are they?

Tell that to Journalist Andy Ngo. Some of your nice "Anti Facist"(yeah right!)buddies put him in the hospital for the crime of being a conservative and filming them with a go pro. And he is obviously not even White.

Watch the video:

https://youtu.be/fLgKN1ij8eM

Yeah that's some fine "standing up to white supremacist wackos" they are doing right there!

There are countless videos and news stories of these scumbags effing people up physically if they disagree with their leftist,anti American agenda. 

Have you been living under a rock? I could post stuff for literally hours.

If Tucker is too right wing a source- here are 2 from the hard left.

 Vox and Rolling Stone will NEVER be accused of right wing propaganda:

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/8/12/17681986/antifa-leftist-violence-clashes-protests-charlottesville-dc-unite-the-right

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/antifa-on-trial-how-a-college-professor-joined-the-lefts-radical-ranks-630213/

Sure-I'm sure there are a few passive ones who don't throw bottles, or pepper spray people ,or try to bash in their skull with objects from their backpack for disagreeing with their communist agenda, but clearly some if not many of them do. Are you blind?

How are they any better than KKK or other scumbag white supremacists?    F#*K those a holes! And the White supremacist aholes too!  People on either political side who go to protests to assault people are cockroaches,and hopefully get what they deserve,either from the other side,or the police.

And you are going to defend these nutjobs? That tells me quite a bit about you.

Seriously. Try again.