Gorham Lions Show

Another good show by the Gorham Lions Club. But not without some discrepancies and disappointments.

The weather held - actually got hot. And everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Of the disappointments, only two can be laid at the feet of the hosts:

1) they failed to enforce the classes, and
2) at least one class was way over-stuffed

As for the former, they had a "foreign class" and a "VW class", yet a mini cooper and a VW were not to be found in either - they headed, instead, to Special Interest, as did a nearly stock '59 Chevy and a nearly stock (but my-t-fine) Nova. In the case of the Mini Cooper, he knew better - at first, he drove down to the foreign class, but when he saw how tough the competition was in that class, he jumped class to Special Interest, where he was able to literally steal 1st place. The Lions should not have permitted that. As for the owner of that car, he showed a lack of honesty, integrity and self-respect. If the trophy meant so much to him that he was willing to cheat to get it, then I hope he enjoys it. But he must know that he certainly did not earn it.

Altogether, there were 4 vehicles in Special Interest that did not belong there - and even worse, people voted for them, and two of them won. One TRUE special interest was a home-built electric car. He would have been the legitimate winner in a fair vote. But he did not even place, because cheaters took the awards home. And I find that reprehensible. We can only hope that sometime in the near future "the folks" will get the message that a vehicle out of its class does not deserve any votes at all. Only then will we achieve a place where the classes will be honest and respected. Until then, we will have something less. Here's a tip - if voting on the best doughnut, don't vote for a cookie. If it is out of its legitimate class, ignore it!

The latter problem - overstuffed class - was TRUCKS. There was only one class for all 2X and 4X trucks. That resulted in a huge class, where people were trying to compete with others that simply were not even in the same class. And that is as unfortunate as allowing class-jumping.

As an aside, a couple of classes were split - there we Special Interest vehicles in the Special Interest area and others in the area behind the trucks, a couple hundred feet away. And the mini-trucks were also split in different areas. This makes it difficult to vote in classes that are not "together".

With any luck, the Lions, who were perfect hosts, will divide the trucks up a bit next year, and will take a more active role in enforcing the classes. Then, instead of having a very good show, they would have a near perfect one.

There was one other great disappointment, but one over which the Lions had no control: "Buddy System" block voting. I noticed that a certain large group of participants used their collective power as a group to sway the results for their buddies in certain classes by voting as a block. That is just as reprehensible and dishonest as class jumping. It amounts to "rigging" the results. They know who they are. And now they know that I know. And like the class jumpers, if they want trophies that badly, then may they enjoy them - but they did not EARN them.

There is nothing anyone can do about abuse of the "buddy system" of voting. But we do not have to do anything about it, because eventually each of us ends up answering for everything we have ever done. And they will get their just desserts. Until then, we can find some solice in the fact that most of us are better than that. And when we see it happening, we can let them know that we disapprove.

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