As I begin this blog entry, I want to state that I have been a fan and supporter of the Maiden Alley Cinema in Paducah since it's beginning. I have some very close friends that are on the Maiden Alley board, although some of the members I do not know at all or very well.

However, I do not know Ms. Ryan, the former Executive Director, and have never met her to the best of my knowledge. I have never served (never been asked to serve) on the board of Maiden Alley although I have been very involved in the arts in Paducah for over 25 years. Kristi and I also have been subject to prejudice and retaliation by a few powerful people who are influential in the "arts" community in Paducah over the years because of our outspoken positions on political issues, mostly environmental. But we have survived in the community for 28 years and are now a stable part of the Paducah community fabric.

In that context I have thought about now for a week and feel the need to write about the incident in Paducah recently in which Ms. Heather Ryan, at the time Executive Director of the Maiden Alley Cinema, the "independent" theatre in downtown Paducah, was fired because of an encounter that she had with U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who was in Paducah last week.

There is a detailed explanation written by Ms. Ryan and the video of the incident she shot on www.DitchMitchky.com. Basically, Ryan went to the theatre when McConnell was there filming an ad, I suspect a campaign ad, because he is in the middle of a re-election campaign, in the theatre. She and her 12 year old daughter were attempting to get a face to face with McConnell so that they could question him about the Iraq war. There finally was some kind of encounter inside the theatre in which McConnell left, surrounded by his bodyguards, without directly addressing Ms. Ryan. The story goes around town that McConnell, that evening at a fundraiser, said that unless Ryan was fired, he was going to de-prioritize funding requests for some projects in Paducah. The Maiden Alley board met a couple days later and fired Ryan, after viewing the video and reading Ryan's written explanations, which had been posted on the Ditch Mitch blog. (although she claims she never authorized the posting which was lifted from a personal email.)

After Kristi and I read the written explanations from Ms. Ryan and viewing the video, we do not feel as we can give a blanket support to Ms. Ryan. We have some very serious concerns about how Ms. Ryan and her daughter handled themselves during the end of the encounter with McConnell. Because of those concerns, I am not going to substitute my judgment for the board of Maiden Alley in their decision to fire her. Personally, I think the decision was a little hasty, and that other, less severe sanctions may have been a more cautious route, but that is their decision. It was a lose/lose situation.

But I don't want to focus my thoughts on Ryan's behavior. It was what it was, and she has paid the price for it. What I want to focus on is two things: (1) McConnell's failure to ever meet with the public in town meetings, and (2) Maiden Alley's contradiction of allowing McConnell to use the theater facility for filming an ad while publicly stating that Maiden Alley is "apolitical."

When McConnell came to Paducah last week, he did not hold any kind of town meeting or have any kind of event where the general public was free to come hear him talk or even question him. When U.S. Senators Durbin and Obama, from my home state of Illinois, come to Metropolis, which they do at least once a year, they hold open, public town meetings, and publicize it. They make a short statement to the public and press, and then take questions. This gives everyone in the public, rich, poor, or otherwise, equal access and a chance to see and hear their elected officials. This should be doubly true for McConnell, because he, as one of the Senate leadership and main supporters of the Bush agenda, bears a lion's share of the responsibility for the failed policies that almost everyone in the country believes is taking us in the wrong direction. Why shouldn't he have to explain his policies and answer questions from the public that elected him?

McConnell never does. On his last Paducah trip, he slinked around town surrounded by 4 burly bodyguards, slipping into the Irvin Cobb hotel (met by protesters) to speak to the Lion's club, then slinking out surrounded by his body guards shielding him. He then reportedly went to a series of fundraisers with a bunch of the rich Republicans in town - events not open to the public. He also filmed his ad. I believe that an elected official, especially one with the power of McConnell, should have an event open to the public at least once a year in the major towns in his state - Paducah being one of them.

If McConnell is afraid of the public, which he must be the way he slinks around surrounded by bodyguards, how is he going to stand up to the terrorists? Yet, McConnell and the Republicans are always touting how strong they are in standing up to our enemies. He can't even face his own citizens that elected him!

McConnell also has no business using his power of appropriations to garner political retaliation. Either a project is worth funding or it isn't. If it is, then it should be funded on its merits. And, McConnell should not be put on any kind of pedestal just because he obtained funds for projects in his state. That is his job! If he didn't do it, that would be a issue. But if you are going to give him special credit for doing his job, then what about everyone else in our community that does their job? Do we all get special treatment, acclimation, statues, etc. just because we do our job?

Another disappointment is that the Maiden Alley was allowing Mitch McConnell to use their facility in the middle of a campaign. The Maiden Alley, and their associated organization, River Heritage museum and Seaman's Institute, are, to the best of my knowledge, either 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 tax exempt organizations. After having been employed by a 501(c)3 organization for well over a decade, I know about the rules that non-profits are under. The one big "no-no" for a 501(c)3 or 4 is to stay out of electoral politics. In my opinion, allowing McConnell to use the facility for political activities of any support, fundraiser to ad making, is very very questionable, and needlessly threatens these organizations non profit status.

But what adds insult to that injury, is that the president of the board of Maiden Alley, Jay Siska, who I know but not closely, was quoted in the Paducah Sun as having written an email to Ms. Ryan in which he tells her that they don't want her engaging in political activities while she is Director of the Maiden Alley, at the very same time that he, as chair of the board, is allowing McConnell to use the facility for what appears to be political purposes. This contradiction is deeply troubling to me.

An arts organization should take a very broad view toward freedom of speech. Ironically, McConnell's most admirable positions over the years have been regarding freedom of speech, once casting the deciding vote to defeat a flag burning ban on free speech grounds. McConnell should have been reminded of this, and the Maiden Alley board should have taken a deep breath, possibly suspended Ms. Ryan temporarily while they give this more thought, let things cool down, and make a decision under less pressure. Perhaps the same decision would have been made. But it wouldn't have given the impression that Maiden Alley cinema, which should be a center of freedom of thought and expression in Paducah, is under the influence and guidance of repressive political retaliation. This is going to hurt the organization in the long run. I'm not sure that the board's decision is based on a broad view of freedom of speech. It appears to be more a decision made under political pressure. I also believe that they are now vulnerable to a lawsuit by Ms. Ryan on a couple of counts. A lawsuit, even one defended successfully, would be very damaging to the organization.

Maiden Alley cinema has become too important to the Paducah area to risk losing. It is too important to Paducah area to allow it to be controlled in any way by politics. It is too important to the Paducah area to have its reputation seriously damaged. What's done is done. But I and many others that I know are very unhappy with the overall outcome of this. Hopefully this incident, like the incident 25 years ago when one of my paintings was taken down during a show at the Paducah Art Guild, by a couple influential females in Paducah, without any permission of the Art Guild board simply because it showed a folk painting of a nude male, will help to spur an honest airing of this whole incident. Hopefully this will bring the needed change to the situation. It will hurt Paducah's efforts to establish itself as a true arts community if it is seen as being a repressive environment in any way. True creative expression and repression are oxymorons, and the Paducah so-called "community leaders" best recognize this or their attempts to establish Paducah as an arts based community will fail.

Ryan didn't handle everything perfectly. The excitement of the moment got away from her - at least that what it seems to me. But, her mistakes, while unseemly, caused little harm in actuality. She, though, has paid the price by losing her job.

On the other hand, McConnell's behavior in this deserves very close scrutiny and discussion. His actions contributed in a very strong way to this whole incident, and he shouldn't get off scott free. Hopefully the mainstream media, like the Courier Journal or Herald will look at this closely. The citizens of Kentucky and the nation need to know exactly what happened.