Jonathan “Make them feel like Rock Stars!” Dreymann
died in August, 2009 – two years and two months ago. One month ago I was expelled from the
Illinois Patriot Guard Riders FB group.
The ILPGR, Inc. was established two years ago and has been a continuous
cause of splintering of the membership and alienation members ever since. I see my expulsion as only the most recent
instance.
I have been a member of the national PGR since March 12, 2006
and have participated continuously since then.
We each witness, grieve and participate in our own unique ways. This website is my way. There are other ways. I view the role of the coordinating
organization (the ILPGR or the ILPG or the WWR) as simply to give us an
opportunity to express our respect for the fallen hero. “The only prerequisite is Respect.”
For example, I have brought my grandson to
many missions, but never my dog. I have
seen several others bring their dogs. It
strikes me as a peculiar breed of absurdity for a coordinating organization to
attempt to punish members. In fact,
expulsion is the only punishment available.
If I cannot attend a KIA funeral as an ILPGR member, then I will still
attend as an ILPG member – or a WWR member or a journalist or simply a member
of the mourning public.
The triumvirate of the ILPGR is elected by a small group of
people they appoint – an inherently incestuous, undemocratic and defensive
arrangement. It is hard to imagine how
the State Captain, the Assistant State Captain and the Deputy Assistant State
Captain could possibly conclude the have any legitimate authority over any
member.
In appealing my expulsion I have found all three to be resistant
to any discussion of policies and instead reduce everything to
personalities. At the same time, all
three have been opaquely obtuse. The
only charge I have learned about any other expulsion is “name-calling” and the
only charge against me is “inappropriateness”.
It is no accident that the spin-off organizations are founded on
openness and inclusiveness. The ILPG has
linked to this website from its beginning; the ILPGR never has. After great effort on my part documented here
the ILPGR triumvirate will not reconsider my expulsion.
I give the Deputy Assistant State Captain (shown in red) the
last word, with the exception of the footnote shown in this blue:
Sent:
Saturday, October 08, 2011 8:11 AM
To: 'Don Russ'
Cc: 'Gary Schrock, SC'; 'Consolidated'; 'veronica storck'
Subject: Your Email of 10-7-2011
You will find my responses
to your email inserted below.
Subject: Are we on the same team or not?
From: Don Russ
Date: Fri, October 07, 2011 9:20 am
To: cowboy@ilpatriotguard.com
Donald E. Russ
Patriot Guard Rider
October 7, 2011
Gary Schrock, State Captain
(by email)
Dear Gary,
I understand that the Illinois
Patriot Guard Riders is not a secret organization that blackballs members for
unstated reasons. Accordingly, and in the service of transparency, I
consider this to be a public document.
Since you consider this a “public document”, there
are some misstatements of fact and editorial comments that I choose to respond
to at this particular point in time. Although I may not respond to each and
every comment and/or allegation made by you right now, please do not interpret
that to mean that I necessarily agree with or otherwise accept them as fact. I
may, or may not, choose to respond to the others at some later point in time.
Yesterday I attended part of a
KIA mission. It was in
I was glad to talk to you briefly at
the Owen Stuckey funeral. I think we both knew that was not the time or
place for that type of discussion but I had never had an extended conversation
with you before so I was glad for it. I remember that you said that Todd
LeClair, your predecessor as State Captain, was always on the defensive and
that you were taking the offensive. No doubt, a better journalist
(or had we a better time and place) might have found out what you were on the
offense against – especially since subsequent events have made the ILPGR Board
appear simply reactionary, and reflexively so.
Journalism, or at least credible journalism, is
about investigating and reporting the facts. That is different than editorial
opinion.
You had called the ILPG “impostors”
as I suppose the Warriors Watch were the impostors before them.
You have this posted this on your website as I
write this…
“8/18: I just spoke to Matt Charlier.
He said he will “not turn down a (KIA) family’s request”. That is
evidence that his organizational mission is not simply to celebrate the
warriors, but to step in front of the Patriot Guard Riders.”
Since the national organization may
soon lose the organizational name to Twister, I wonder how one can recognize an
impostor. (The WWR national website has proven more reliable than the PGR
national website.) Your words to me were conciliatory but Fred
Vukadinovic was standing in the flagline nearby;
after you traveled so far to come so close it seemed inconsistent that you
failed to approach him and seemed to me an opportunity you missed to act on
your words. The reason this is troubling to me stems from those
subsequent events that are the subject of this email.
You once wrote on your website that you don’t go to
missions to make friends. I wonder why you think that an honor mission for an
IL PGR RC (Owen Stuckey) who had been killed on his motorcycle was the
appropriate venue for a conversation between Fred Vukadinovic and Gary (unless
it would have had something do with Owen Stuckey). see footnote
Apart from Ride Captains, Senior
Ride Captains and ASRCs, and ILPGR administrators, I understand that the
essential leadership of the ILPGR is yourself and your two lieutenants:
Assistant State Captain Dan Hough and Deputy Assistant State Captain Mark Pleasant.
You are incorrect in your understanding of who, or
what, the “essential leadership” consists of.
I hope to learn that your two
lieutenants have misunderstood your vision.
I arrive at positions and decision independently,
based on my analysis of the facts and circumstances involved.
Indeed there is nothing democratic
about the ILPGR organization. The ILPGR website leadership page says,
“Senior Ride Captains (SRC) will be voting members, on behalf of their Regional
members, within the IL. PGR” but the SRCs are not chosen by their “regional
members” – they are appointed by the board. It is a fraud to claim that
the board is bound by people they appoint.
We are bound by the majority vote of the entire
Board in necessary matters. There is not always universal agreement, and in my
personal experience on the Board I have never seen any personal consequence
associated with an opposing vote.
Every Illinois SRC I have ever met
has been totally devoted to the PGR mission, but that is not what keeps them in
office. Disrespecting a fallen hero does not jeopardize their office so
much as disrespecting the board.
You have come to a conclusion that is not based on
fact.
Which brings me to
the case of SRC Fred Vukadinovic and ASRC Eric Kuhn.
After a meaningless (for the reason explained in the previous paragraph) vote
of the SRCs the board discharged them and then, adding insult to injury, had
the national PGR organization expel them. Fred is one of the best RCs the
PGR has ever had and no one has more passion for the PGR mission than
Eric.
I disagree with your analysis, and you are
factually incorrect.
So I was glad to find that they had
started the Illinois Patriot Guard (ILPG) separate from the Illinois Patriot
Guard Riders (ILPGR).
I have come to understand that.
On August 9th after you, Gary, posted an actual link to the ILPG in the ILPGR FaceBook group and after Larry Walthers
posted the names of the ILPG principles I posted a link to an article (on my
website) about them. Dan deleted it without any comment to me, so I
didn’t know that it was his deliberate action. So I reposted it and asked
about it. Dan wrote, “if you remove the avatar
you may post it if not it will be removed again”
By “avatar” he meant the graphic
from the article that FB associated with the link, which was the ILPG
logo. (That logo had also been previously published in the ILPGR FB
group.) So Dan’s requirement was rather astounding. You had posted
the link and Larry had posted the names and they were not deleted.
Apparently the only thing I did wrong was to be sympathetic. But instead
of admitting that, Dan put the whole blame on a graphic. I changed the
graphic and Dan allowed the posted link to remain.
So, after deleting it without
comment he then dishonestly blamed a graphic of the ILPG logo instead of
admitting that he simply disapproved of what I was saying. That was
disingenuous and arbitrary. I was a member in good standing commenting on
a matter that had been broached by several others and relating nothing new
except my empathy for a different perspective. That was legitimate debate
on my part. Dan’s action was not open-minded, tolerant nor good
leadership.
At that time a law was waiting for
Governor Quinn’s signature that would increase the Westboro
buffer from 200 feet to 300 feet. Three days after Dan’s censorship of my
comment and two days before the governor signed the bill into law, the
board’s Secretary/Treasurer Veronica Storck was quoted in a newspaper saying
that the legislation was welcome. “I think it’s fantastic. We don’t
see near as much protesters as we used to. Anything that can
keep them back from that family, we are absolutely 100 percent for.”
http://www.kcchronicle.com/2011/08/11/bill-would-allow-more-protection-at-military-funerals-aclu-says-its-unconstitutional/a4k41d2/
When Ronni said “we are absolutely 100 percent for” she was
speaking for the organization. I objected in a FB posting saying that
legislative advocacy is not our mission (“We don’t care what you ride or if you
ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a hawk or a dove.”). that there are reasons why the legislation runs counter to
our mission (the exercise of our freedom of assembly and speech), and in any
case there was significant membership opinion on the opposite side. Isn’t
the ILPGR FB group exactly the right place to raise such an objection?
And then on Sunday, the day of the signing, after I cautioned him against
making such a statement, constitutional scholar Dan Hough opines:
|
The
heightened level of protection in "To
add another hundred feet, yes, that will help put that buffer between
(them)," said Hough, a fourth-generation funeral director from Raymond.
Given the extremism of the church's statements, he said, the protesters have
been given more than enough leeway to exercise their First Amendment right of
making "disrespectful and vulgar" comments. |
At the
very most generous interpretation that was reckless, childish and
cavalier. That too is not lack of leadership – it is abuse of
leadership. And then on August
13th he wrote to me:
|
For members to publicly keep track
of how many missions they have personally handled and how important their
part was in said missions is just as dis-hearting, so i present the question
to those who keep score.... Why are "you" here? Are "you"
here for your own comfort or are "you" here for someone-else's
comfort? |
Naturally I immediately responded:
|
You say the pxxq
website “disheartens” you. Do you really think it is a bad thing? You say
I am “keeping score”. Exactly what is it that you think my purpose would be
in doing that? And that “comfort” business. Are you really questioning
my motives? I’ll appreciate gaining a better understanding of what the
Assistant State Captain thinks of me. –Don |
The next day he claimed to be
speaking of someone else and then said to me: “PS thank you for showing
me what kind of people belong to this organization and
what they think of the rest of us”
Now, in that postscript, he must
have been speaking about me so I ask you: How is it ever right for the
Assistant Sate Captain to make a disparaging and sarcastic remark about a
member to that member?
The only role of the Board is to set
policy. I had confined myself to policy and Dan had repeated twisted the
issues into something personal. I get a sense that he does not understand
the nature of policy. I had openly asked the board through the FB group
if there were even one single instance when Fred or Eric failed in our mission
to show respect toward the fallen heroes. That is different from
disrespecting the leadership.
I suppose that depends on how you define ‘showing
respect toward the fallen heroes”, and your understanding of what is involved
in accomplishing that.
I wonder what your Board, executive, or
organizational leadership experience has been.
Criticizing is not disrespecting,
but even if it were it is still a member’s right. There is absolutely no
proper role for the leadership to disrespect a member.
Responding to Dan’s public posting I
said that I would attend the
Certainly we don’t want to define
ourselves in terms of hatred (e.g. we are the people who hate the people from Westboro) but when Dan contradicted me in FB using the
credibility of his office to mislead the membership about Westboro,
he defined the ILPGR in terms of Westboro. And
that is not leadership either.
Perhaps Dan and Mark are confused
because the essence of the PGR has always been a website that allows the
necessary quick reaction for funerals. I too have a website and a portion
of it is allocated to my PGR participation. That does not give them
authority over my website, however. Nor does it make me a hypocrite for
expecting them to conduct the business of the ILPGR differently from the way I
do my own. But they don’t get that.
I have an opinion about the evolution of your
website, even though it ebbs and flows sometimes in terms of its content, and
that is why I have chosen to disassociate myself from it. I have repeatedly
told you that I respect your right to do whatever you want to with or on your
website, and that I also have the right to decide whether or not I want to
be associated with it.
The ILPGR and the national PGR
websites function within the context of the PGR mission to publically organize
membership participation in funeral and other events. My website is the
private, after-the-fact thoughts of a single individual. Indeed, at the
top of my mission list ever since the Spring of 2006 I
have displayed the words, “The experiences of one Patriot Guard Rider:”
I have never solicited money or other
support for my website which I alone have funded, created and maintained.
(Do people contributing to the ILPGR know that it will be used to fund a
lawsuit against it own former SRC and ASRC?) A
year ago when I attended a Warriors Watch KIA mission, Mark demanded that I
neither mention Warriors Watch nor link to them – to which I agreed in exchange
for nothing. I remember that he was ungrateful and I now understand in
retrospect why: He didn’t see himself as asking and being granted a favor,
but rather he thought of himself as the only authority on the matter and it was
his proper place to discipline a wayward charge.
I have never demanded anything of you or your
website. I have objected to some of the content that you have posted on your
website on two occasions, and both times told you that because of my objection
I no longer wanted to be associated with it. You, Don, once came to my house
wanting to “negotiate” with me concerning your website content. I repeatedly
told you that I was not asking you to “negotiate” anything, and that I
respected your right to continue posting whatever you wanted to. I didn’t have
a reporter present for that conversation but I had a witness to it. Maybe I
should seek your permission to record any future conversations that we may have
absent a witness, so that when they get repeated there is no question about
what was said.
If I had understood then how he saw
our relationship I would have disabused him. In the wake of the ILPG
conflict he said to me that he didn’t care about the Warriors Watch anymore and
I told him that I considered myself discharged from the concession I never
should have made.
What I told you is that the early issues with the
Warriors Watch Riders seemed to have mostly resolved themselves. I also reminded
you of a fairly recent and positive mission experience that I had with that
organization, and drew a clear distinction between them and the deceptive and
confusingly similar organizational name chosen by Vukadinovic and Kuhn to (in
my opinion) settle old scores and pursue their own agenda.
Consequently it was entirely correct
for my posting to my website for the Bulger &
Scott Welcome Home
|
To all the Illinois Patriot Guard
Rider members who participated in Owen's funeral in one way or another, we
Thank You. It was such a great tribute to Owen. Thank you to
Mike, Judy, and Dave for organizing a very honorable service for our Husband
and Father. To everyone that stood at the
coffin and to all who stood outside with the American Flag; we Thank You. To Don Russ for taking all of the
wonderful pictures and his grandson Kevin for standing on the Illinois River
Bridge at Morris waving the American Flag; we Thank You. It was such a
great tribute to Owen. To the pallbearers; it was such a
great honor to have you all stand up for Owen. We Thank You. For the beautiful flowers and
plant; we Thank You. Owen loved the Illinois Patriot
Guard Riders, and was always there for a Veteran or a family in need.
God Bless all of you and we Thank You everyday for
what you do! God Bless In great appreciation, Gail, Marcus, and Michelle Stuckey |
I fail to see any connection (or “validation”)
between your and Kevin’s service to the Stuckey family and your aforementioned
website content or conduct. see footnote
I have been a participating member
of the Illinois Patriot Guard Riders (ILPGR) since its founding two years
ago. I have been a participating member of several predecessor
organizations of the same mission before that. This includes several
organizations under the national Patriot Guard Riders (PGR) umbrella (such as
the Wisconsin state group) and several organizations not affiliated with that
national PGR organization, including the Kansas Patriot Guard, which is the
banner I have had on the windshield of my bike since June, 2007 and is the only
organization represented on my bike.
I was an early member of Families For Forgotten Heroes (FFFH) founded by
I have never belonged to a
“motorcycle club” or any organization that demands exclusivity of membership
and none of these organizations has ever demanded that I renounce loyalty to
any other organization as a condition of membership.
Neither have I. Folks are free to organize and/or
join any organization of their choosing. There are legal and ethical parameters
around what folks can call themselves when they do organize, however, when it
comes to public confusion; common law and other rights associated with first commercial
use; deception; and misrepresentation. I choose not to join or otherwise
associate myself with those who operate outside of those parameters. Since your
website at various times has become (in my opinion) a billboard for those
folks, I have also chosen to disassociate myself from that as well.
Fred Vukadinovic and
Neither Rob nor Judy nor Mark told
me of any wrongdoing in the conduct of any mission. The only objection I
heard was about name-calling unrelated to any fallen hero.
The fact that you may not have been told certain
details does not mean that they don’t exist.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 was an
interesting day. Shortly after midnight I posted to the Illinois Patriot
Guard FaceBook group (which had at the time 724
members) about the personal struggle of a friend and fellow patriot,
I recognized the possibility that
Dan Hough, Assistant State Captain (who administers the FB group) might have
deleted my comment. However, sometimes FB seems not to post correctly –
probably because I didn’t do something the right way. So I tried again.
At 5:38pm I posted:
|
Two years ago when One guy confessed and got 46
years. Trial for the other guy began today. Former Assistant Senior Ride
Captain Kuhn will testify. Because he is an articulate and intelligent guy,
he will probably be helpful in sending his father's killer to hell. Eric is also the founder of
Families For Forgotten Heroes. |
Within ten minutes it drew two
“likes” and an endorsing comment.
At 6:15pm I received an email from
Deputy Assistant State Captain Mark Pleasant:
|
Don, I am asking you...please stop
pushing the envelope. There are many things that you don't know, and can't
possibly know because you have not been inside to see and experience them.
Whatever your reasons may be, if one of them is some desire to be helpful it
is not working. Mark E. Pleasant |
Mark has been a friend for years,
but this did not seem to be written as a friend. Regardless, there are
reasons why a friend should not send a message like that just as there are
reasons why an official should not send a message like that.
That was intended to make a friendly point, and to
make a friendly request. I stand by it.
I did not want to invite an
email exchange discussing those reasons but I wanted to react so that he would
not take my silence as acquiescence. At 6:30pm I wrote simply:
|
Mark, You should not have sent me this
email. -Don |
Ten words.
Then three things happened.
First, at 7:06pm Mark wrote:
|
Do not threaten me, Don, either implicity or explicitly. Your response is not what I
expected from you but, then again, I am learning more about you as time
passes. You would do well to remember that you are not the only one entitled
to an opinion or a position. Mark E. Pleasant |
I stand by that.
Second, at 7:16pm Mark wrote:
|
Neither Cyndi nor I want you to
take any photographs of us moving forward, nor do we wish to be associated
with your website in any way. Accordingly, please remove any photographs of
us that are there. Your wesbite
is no longer about the mission of the Patriot Guard Riders and those for whom
we stand. It has morphed into something about you and the World According to
Don Russ. I am through with it. Mark E. Pleasant |
I stand by that.
Third, at 8:25pm I discovered that I
had been dropped from that FB group. I wrote to Assistant State Captain
Dan Hough immediately:
|
Dan, it seems I have been dropped
from the ILPGR FB group. Please reinstate me or explain why I was
dropped. –Don |
At 9:45pm I posted to a comment
thread on Ed Mueller’s wall. Ed had 121 friends at the time.
|
Disapprove, sure, but this can go
too far. I made a sympathetic post to the
ILPGR FB group about one of the principles of the "group that broke
off" (as Ed describes them) that had nothing to do with the dispute,
only his personal tragedy. His father was murdered and trial
of the murderer started today. So the state leadership deleted my
comment and dropped me from the group. Apparently I don't hate the break-away
group enough. This is how wars start. |
Ian Chafee was the person who made
the endorsing comment to the posting I made about Eric’s father. About
the same time that I was posting to Ed’s wall, Ian sent me a message:
|
please
tell me that they didn't take your post about Eric's dad down off the ILPGR
page. Please tell me you took it down, or that I hallucinated that it was
there in the 1st place. |
I responded:
|
They deleted it and they dropped
me from the group. At 8:25 I wrote to Dan Hough: "Dan, it seems I have
been dropped from the ILPGR FB group. Please reinstate me or explain why I
was dropped. –Don" |
And then, at 10:06pm Ed responded to
me:
|
I saw your post and I agree with
you, I saw no reason why it should have been removed. Based on your loyalty
to the PGR Mission, I wonder why they dropped you from the group, other than
someone is trying to prove that they have implied power, which we both know,
is far from the truth. |
Having received no response from Dan
(or anyone) about the ILPGR decision to expel me from the group, I called the
Hough Funeral Home the next morning, Wednesday, at 11:05. There was no
answer and I left no message. I called again at 11:30am and had a
conversation with Dan Hough for a half-hour. He had kind things to say
about Families For Forgotten Heroes (FFFH), founded by
Eric and represented as both a FB group and a website. He said that I was
a “challenge” for him without seeming to realize that that comment was the
essence of condescension. He told me that he had discussed the matter with
others before he dropped me. He said he spoke for the ILPGR Board.
And over the course of the half-hour I gleaned three reasons for this action:
1 My
posting to the ILPGR FB group was not “appropriate”.
2 I
was posting about someone with who the ILPGR has “on-going litigation”.
3 Gold
Star families could be offended.
Finally Dan asked me why I did not
post a comment on FFFH about his father’s suicide years before. I was
willing to have a discussion about First Amendment application to the ILPGR FB
group but I was not willing to have a discussion about whose feelings were hurt
more. Naturally, that ended our conversation. Dan invited me to
write this letter as a final appeal of the ILPGR decision.
Point One: “Appropriate”? That
is an entirely subjective standard. There was no threat or vulgarity or
obscenity or personal attack that could garner a consensus that my comment about the traumatic events currently unfolding in a former
ILPGR ASRC’s life were inappropriate. Indeed, the ILPGR FB group
had routinely been used for just that sort of comment about those among us who
deserve our compassion and our prayers. The extension of charity and
understanding to a good patriot who has contributed much to the ILPGR and who
has invented ways to be of service to veterans (FFFH) and who has sought to
continue the ILPGR mission even after being excluded (ILPG) is the very most
appropriate use there could possibly be.
Point Two: “On-going
litigation”? I am not a party to that litigation. (Dan seemed not
to understand this. If the ILPGR takes an action, that does not make Don
Russ a plaintiff. In fact, the membership has not even been made privy to
the Board’s deliberations on this matter. And since there is no
opportunity for democratic feedback, the board can disregard me with
impunity.
A statewide email that you received and posted on
your website informed the membership that a law firm was consulted, and that
through our attorney(s) we were responding to the situation. I wonder what your
past experience concerning the degree of consumption associated with Board
discussions, or “deliberations”, and matters of litigation has been. Even
organizational Boards subject to the requirements of the Illinois Open Meetings
Act are appropriately given latitude to discuss matters of litigation (and
certain matters of personnel) privately. The reasons for that latitude are
obvious to most folks.
Therefore I am not bound by their
litigation initiative.) Nothing I write on FB proves or disproves
anything related to any ILPGR/ILPG conflict. Nor would it have any more
or less weight posted to any other forum. And in any case, my post did
not bear on the ILPG, not even the FFFH – it related only to the unfolding
murder trial of Eric’s father. Turning our backs on Eric at a time like
this is simply cruel.
Point Three: “Gold Star
families”? I don’t think that we should hold the doors of funeral homes
with one hand while holding an American flag with the other hand. As a
matter of military etiquette, it is wrong. I think it is offensive and
that it is inconsistent with our mission. But does that mean we should
not discuss it because some Gold Star family member who explores a FB group
discussing the matter might be offended? Or wouldn’t that family member
be heartened to know that we are thoughtful people who pay attention to such
matters? How in the world would such a family member be offended by an
expression of solidarity with a good patriot who is suffering personal
tragedy? After all, isn’t that exactly what a Gold Star family member is?
That is my response to the three
reasons as I understand them. Note that I was dropped without
explanation, that my inquiry for an explanation was ignored, that
I spoke to one member of the board only by initiating a phone call to his work
number and that he asked me to enumerate his reasons in this letter. If
my understanding of your objection is incomplete, it is only because you have
acted without communicating any justification.
Further, it is useful for me to
respond to the demands of the Deputy Assistant State Captain at this point:
|
Neither Cyndi nor I want you to
take any photographs of us moving forward, nor do we wish to be associated
with your website in any way. Accordingly, please remove any photographs of
us that are there. Your wesbite
is no longer about the mission of the Patriot Guard Riders and those for whom
we stand. It has morphed into something about you and the World According to
Don Russ. I am through with it. Mark E. Pleasant |
I stand by that. I suppose that you can reasonably
call the fact that you no longer have my permission (or that of my wife) to
take any pictures of us moving forward a “demand”, but I don’t know how you can
call my request that you “please remove any photographs of us that are there”
that. I understand that when you took and posted the ones that are there you
had my/our permission. If you choose not to respect my/our wishes insofar as
those are concerned, then so be it. I told you that.
His two paragraphs make two
points: First he says he doesn’t want his picture taken and that I should
remove all photos of him (and his wife) from my website. Second, he says
that it has “morphed” into “the World According to Don Russ.”
Mark is only the second person to
make such a request. Joe Alger was the first and has since
rescinded. We are all there to honor the fallen hero in our various ways
and that will remain my first priority. An official of an organization
who used his authority for personal reasons at the expense of the
organizational mission abuses his authority and I hope Mark did not intend
that. His absurd presumption that I should scrub my website of his image
comes close.
Should we have any future conversations, I will
preface them accordingly by letting you know whether or not I am speaking to
you as an individual, a member of the PGR, a member of the IL PGR, the Deputy
Assistant State Captain of the IL PGR, or (I suppose) some other role to avoid
any similar confusion.
Secondly, it has always been about
the world according to me. It is about my mission participation: My
travels, my photos, my words all posted to my website within a domain that is
exclusively mine, pxxq.com.
Of course it is my perspective. From the beginning, the pgr.pxxq.com
page has always had at the top of the mission list the words, “The experiences
of one Patriot Guard Rider:”.
To both his points I would ask if I
am entitled to dictate editorial policy markpleasant.com
when I think that it seems to have too much markpleasant
in it.
I have every right to visit (or not), contribute to
(or not), associate with (or not), link to (or not), or otherwise promote (or
not) any website that I have an objection to insofar as its content is
concerned. I have never “dictated” anything to you insofar as the content of
your website is concerned, nor would I. You are confusing the two.
I did not wish to exaggerate the
significance of his seemingly thoughtless words, but I know him to be a
thoughtful person and take these words as those of the Deputy Assistant State
Captain and not as a friend. A friend would not say those things nor
would he say them in that way. And since Mark has been a friend for
years, I must conclude he was writing in his official capacity.
Once again, I will be sure to make that distinction
clear should we speak again. It sure seems to have created some confusion.
Indeed, three months earlier Mark
invited me to be involved in the Manis mission with
which he was connected through the Lake County Sheriff’s office. He asked
for a CD of my photos which I provided.
Because George Manis’
father had mentioned to me that he was trying to print them from your website,
I asked you if you would be willing to provide the images on a CD. Thank you
for providing them to him.
Last October, he and his wife
(and Rob and his wife) attended Kevin’s Cub Scout pack meeting to award patches
to cub scouts who had participated in PGR missions. And there were
similar interactions before that.
I have fond memories of them.
Most recently, I received two emails
from the SRC of SE Wisconsin about a remnant from the
Thank you.
The day after I received Mark’s
email twice reproduced above, I received this from the museum director and
initiative prime mover addressing me:
|
Brother Don and All our Great
Patriots. What an honor it is to have you
and your Brothers & Sisters Patriot Guard Riders, American Legion Riders,
Axmen, Wind Warriors and other Great Supporters escort and lead the way and
watch over the Sacred WTC 9-11 Steel through
Illinois, (my home State) then meet the Wisconsin Patriot Guard Riders and
Partners at the Wisconsin boarder and then be escorted by the Best Men &
Women I know to the Milwaukee War Memorial Center. Mark Fox and I were in tears of
deep gratitude and thanksgiving to all of you, along with the State, County
and local Police and Thank You and God Bless You and
the Your Friends & Brothers Joe Campbell & Mark Fox |
This is significant because he was
writing only about my
I am not sure what to make of this, but it concerns
me just the same.
In the afternoon of September 27th
I made a phone call to Mark similar in length and content to the one to
Dan. Mark said he consulted with Dan about expelling me from the ILPGR FB
group. He made the same three points as Dan about the reason for my
expulsion. Similar to Dan’s father, Mark told me about his brother in
another apparent claim of hurt feelings.
My feelings were not and are not “hurt”. I pointed
out the difference between Eric Kuhn and I insofar as
whether or not the personal losses that both of us experienced (coincidental
with the same mission) should be turned into a public statement about relative
personal sacrifice and dedication to the ILPGR. Personally, I don’t think that
they should be. We have countless members standing in flag lines at any given point
in time bearing a variety of personal burdens. Most folks don’t use, or allow
others to use, them as measures of sacrifice and dedication. see footnote
Like Dan, he faulted me for not
attending the Gathering of the (Illinois) Guard but claimed he spoke for me
when a SRC inquired, though he wouldn’t tell me what he said or who the SRC
was. And, even after three weeks, he maintained his demands of my
website.
I have addressed your website issue more than I
care to. I did not “fault” you for not attending the Gathering of the Guard. I
reminded you that there was an open membership meeting at the Gathering of the
Guard that you were welcome to attend.
Kevin Loecher
is the Fred Vukadinovic of
You have failed to help me connect the dots between
four individuals in two states who are no longer members for varied and
individual reasons, a mission in Wisconsin that Gary had nothing to do with,
and Gary. I do clearly understand your opinion, however, of those of us
who have been mentioned in your narrative.
I have never been a Ride Captain but
I have been a participating member who has always contributed in the fullest
way I have been able to do.I now find myself targeted
by state leadership for inadequate personal deference to them. Like any
good PGRider, my loyalty has always been only to the
mission of the Patriot Guard which has never changed in any material way and is
currently published as:
|
Patriot Guard Riders The Patriot Guard Riders is a
diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in
common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk
their very lives for We don’t care what you ride or if
you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a hawk or a dove.
It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where you’re
from or what your income is; you don’t even have to ride. The only
prerequisite is Respect. Our main mission is to attend the
funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family.
Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives: (1) Show our sincere respect for
our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities. (2) Shield the mourning family and
their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of
protestors. We accomplish the latter through
strictly legal and non-violent means. To those of you who are currently
serving and fighting for the freedoms of others, at home and abroad, please
know that we are backing you. We honor and support you with every mission
we carry out, and we are praying for a safe return home for all. |
You have not been “targeted”, and your
contributions are and have been appreciated.
I feel no obligation of loyalty to
the personalities currently in charge of the national or any state
organization. Conversely, I believe that the national and state
leadership does has an affirmative obligation to the
membership to be faithful to our mission. From everything I know, Fred
and Eric have been faithful to the PGR mission but Dan and Mark have not.
I disagree with you concerning, among other things,
your analysis and what you know.
I have seen Dan and Mark and you,
Gary, on the flagline many times and admire you for
that. But this is about policy.
If this is about policy, I have missed the boat.
This seems to be mostly about your opinions and personal analysis of people and
situations. Just the same, however, you are entitled to them.
If I am to be expelled from the
ILPGR, let this email be the reason.
Your membership status in the IL PGR has not even
been discussed, but to refer you to your opening statement…
“I understand that the Illinois Patriot Guard
Riders is not a secret organization that blackballs members for unstated
reasons.”
I am glad that you understand that, Don.
-Don Russ
FOOTNOTE: One correction
to Mark’s comments – I did not contaminate the “Owen Stuckey leading the Mike
Coveny funeral procession” page with ILPGR policy matters. Mark is objecting to the “Welcome Home PFC Bulger & PFC Scott” page which was not a funeral
mission (and was conducted by the ILPG, not the ILPGR) and this document is linked
from (and to) that page.
Just as Mark has condemned my use of my website, so also on the
phone did he condemn any conversation I had with Gary, even though Mark wasn’t
t the Stuckey funeral. I don’t remember
who approached who or who initiated what topic but all was routine and low-key;
nothing disrespectful to Owen’s memory.
Indeed, it would honor his memory and would have been wholly correct for
the State Captain to approach a flagline volunteer
with good cheer.
The
State Captain gets the LAST, last word:
From:
cowboy@ilpatriotguard.com
Sent:
Friday, October 07, 2011 11:13 PM
To:
Don Russ
Cc:
dozer1966@consolidated.net; Mark Pleasant; ronni_stk@hotmail.com; Cowboy
Subject:
REPLY
Well
Don I walked toward Fred several times and he avoided me like the plaque. [At
Owen's mission]
"You
are saying that by Kicking Eric out for his Sexually
harassing comments, and Fred resigning [No we never voted on his removal] has
caused a KIA mission in Wisconsin to go badly. That makes all this my fault,
How? I have no control over anything in Wisconsin.
I
guess maybe us not airing everything we see and do in public forum is bad. If
you had 1/2 the stuff to read those 2 wrote, or heard my voice mails from Fred,
You might think differently. But that was never my intention to make that stuff
public knowledge. I am talking only about stuff while they were still both
members.
As
for National I guess you feel I have a lot more power than anyone else, All I did was send the e-mails I received while they were
still members in Illinois to National. Then Fred's insistent calling to them
when he showed his true colors of cussing at them got him removed from
National. He wanted a meeting with me but didn't have the guts to ask me so was calling them to have
them set a meeting. All it took was a phone call to talk from him and we
talked.
I
explained us talking would not do any good as Eric makes no bones about the
fact he owns everything they have.
Fred
is nothing but a yes man. One vote on a BOD of 3. I on the other hand am also 1 vote on a BOD
of 13.
I
am sorry you feel the need to place blame in places you have no knowledge of
the underlying pieces of that puzzle but that is your right to express that.
I
am just sorry you feel the need to push the envelope.
back to Welcome
Home PFC Bulger & PFC Scott