Perhaps you’ve read all the ado about Bill Ayers being invited to speak at the noon Kiwanis club in Elgin.
It reminded me of MY experience before the Elgin Kiwanis. I received a call from Ken Miles (RIP) a couple of years ago asking me to speak to the group. I didn’t know Ken prior to the call but learned he was a local attorney in Elgin for decades.
Ken said he had read about me in the newspaper and thought I’d be an interesting presenter. I agreed to speak on August 22, 2006 and arranged time off from work.
On August 16th I got a call from Ken. He told me that my presentation was CANCELLED. As it happened Ken announced to the group that Doug Heaton was going to speak the following week and a member by the name of Jeanette insisted that I NOT SPEAK. She cajoled the president and he told Ken to cancel me.
Ken told me that in 39 years of arranging the programs he had NEVER been told to cancel a guest speaker. The reason? Jeanette didn’t want to have me speak because she didn’t want the group to be labeled the “white racists club.”
Ken went on to tell me about some of the other people who had addressed the Elgin Noon Kiwanis.
~Atheist Rob Sherman.
~A practicing Hare Krishna.
~A member of the Arab League.
~A sex therapist for pets.
~A man from the sanitary district who explain how they treat excrement.
So, I was the first (and as far as I know, ONLY) person ever banned from speaking at the Elgin Noon Kiwanis Club.
As it turned out, they installed a new president in October of 2006 and Ken finally did get me there to speak. It was election day, November 7, 2006.
The walls held firm, there were no lightning bolts, and I gave my presentation. One woman (I learned later, the famous Jeanette) asked me a leading question about my affiliation with the Minutemen, but that was it.
So I find it particularly interesting to see the controversy over Bill Ayers. I’d call Ken Miles about it but I understand he passed away last fall.
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"As it turned out, they installed a new president in October of 2006 and Ken finally did get me there to speak. It was election day, November 7, 2006."
ReplyDeleteMr. Heaton, that newly installed president (October 2006)was none other than Rich Jacobs. You should publicly thank him for allowing your program to commence. As I understand it, it was his decision.
Obviously, the Kiwanis Club of Elgin does believe in FREE SPEECH and applies it to everyone, including you and AFLA.
Agree, disagree with the speaker/program is your choice. Support/boycott Kiwanis fund raising activities is your choice. Censorship and threatening the host organization is just plain unpatriotic. Mr. Heaton, your program was rescheduled two months later and you were able to present your racist views (my humble opinion).
Ken Miles is smiling right now, thoroughly enjoying the press the Kiwanis Club is receiving. Did you know Ken Miles invited Mr. Bill Ayers to speak to the club last Fall prior to the presidential election? Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of Mr. Miles, that program was rescheduled.
Thank you, Rich Jacobs. You are so magnanimous.
ReplyDeleteThere should never have been any question about my presentation in the first place.
As for Ayers, I made no comment about him or his right to speak.
"your racist views (my humble opinion)."
ReplyDeleteOxymoron. Posts under anonymous, calls you racist, presents no basis for his expressed bigotry toward you; and claims he is HUMBLE. Now that is funny.
And I'd bet he describes himself as liberal. By literal definition of liberal he is anything but. Fascist might be much closer to truth (in my humble opinion).
wow- there it is honest folks, Heaton informed by an anonymous blogger that he should thank his lucky stars he was finally allowed to speak. For myself,I'm feed up with the corrupt pols and crooked cops who GAME the system and keep out the taxpayers who foot the bill$$$. Suport pension reform,support the IRC and let's EXPOSE these crooks> CONPA
ReplyDelete