Actually, I thought Joe Glisson should have been president of RACE. I thought he would be a better president of a larger organization like RACE, but he preferred to not have that position. He was very gracious and supportive of me, and I was honored. I didn't have the charisma or ability to charm people that is often helpful when you are a leader, but I had a good political intuition and understanding of government in general, and the history of having been through the last several years, including the settlement negotiations. But I relied on Joe, and many others, for courage and dedication. Of course, Kristi remained my number one advisor, and her insight was different from mine, but very sharp. Between all of us, we covered a lot of ground.

In the meantime, Kristi and I had received, on behalf of ACE, a form from the Sierra Club saying we agreed with the settlement agreement and giving them the authority to sign for us. The Sierra Club never saw that form again from us. I did hear at one time that there was an attempt to fabricate one of those forms as supposedly coming from ACE. Apparently, it didn't get very far. I've never seen it myself, but I wouldn't doubt it. I think Ned Fritz's advice for us to file a Notice of Separation saved us.

There were other groups that had signed onto the appeal with Sierra Club and ACE. I can't remember them all, but I know that the Illinois Audubon Society and McHenry County Defenders were two of them. They didn't participate much in the negotiations - they left it up to Sierra Club to represent them.

We planned a rally at John A. Logan college at the same time as the signing ceremony for the "settlement agreement" was planned. The Forest Service really played it up, as did the other participants, which included not just the Sierra Club, but Illinois Audubon, the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, and the others. All of the participants were invited to make a statement. I was really surprised when they agreed to give me 5 minutes to address the group of settlers, but I took it. There was lots of press there, and even the regional forester, Floyd Marita, was in attendance. That was the first time I had met Marita, or any regional forester. A regional forester is a very powerful man - one of 11 in the U.S. It was at that first meeting when we had a very blunt conversation which ended in him saying "go ahead and sue me." I just bet he came to regret giving us that advice!

It was a brutally hot August day. My recollection is that it was over 100 degrees. There were dozens of RACE supporters, but all except Kristi and I were kept out of the settlement signing ceremony. In retrospect, I'm sure that was illegal. In fact, my recollection is that security kept the RACE rally out of the building entirely. Dick and Jean Graber had come in support. These were retired folks, and Dick wasn't in that good of health. It was truly torture to make them stand out in 100 degree weather on a paved parking lot. But that's what they did to us.

I went in and gave my statement. I said that "business as usual" on the Shawnee National Forest was over, and that a new era was going to happen in which the environment would matter and that the public would have a strong voice. I then left the room and went back outside to join my friends from RACE. Soon, the press started trickling outside. One interesting thing happened to me that I remember - Paul Donahue, who at that time was a reporter for WPSD-TV, the NBC affiliate out of Paducah, KY, interviewed me. I was giving these long detailed, explanations about what had occurred and why we were out there. He smiled and advised me to just give a short, overall explanation - that long, detailed explanations didn't work on TV news. I guess he could tell that I was quite inexperienced at this, although it wasn't the first time I was on TV over the Shawnee - that was on KFVS, the CBS affiliate out of Cape Girardeau, Mo. Mike Shue saw a letter to the editor I had written to the Southern Illinoisan newspaper about the gridball spraying, and was curious about what was going on. He actually came to our house and interviewed Kristi and I. The Donahue interview was the second. Donahue's advice was advice that I have remembered thoughout the many times that I have been on TV over the Shawnee issue.
To be continued