93 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: SHO ME UFO CONFERENCE FILE: UFO2028
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The No-Show - "Sho Me" Conference
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The first "Sho Me" UFO Conference was held on October 21, 1989 at the
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Harley Hotel, Earth City, Missouri. It was sponsored by the UFO Study Group
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of Greater St. Louis and the Missouri Chapter of the Texas based Mutual UFO
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Network. The "Sho Me" Conference should have been called the "No-Show" con-
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ference.
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For months, Bruce Widaman, MUFON State Director for Missouri, had been
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teasing the people who attend the monthly meeting with the conference schedule.
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He kept saying that there would be two "Mystery Guests", in addition to the
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already known, publicized, speakers; one would remain un-named, the other
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would be called "Snowbird". During this period he also stated that there
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would be "new information never before released" disclosed at this conference.
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I didn't really give any of this much thought at the time, one gets used to
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games in Ufology, but in retrospect I see this as more than a little "idio-
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syncrasy" on Widaman's part.
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The first session was to begin at 8:45 AM with a little intro and then
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go right into the "Mystery Guest Speaker". Well, the first "Mystery Speaker"
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turned out to be Bill Moore of "maybe I am a disinformation agent or maybe I'm
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not" fame; who also couldn't decide if he was coming or not...and didn't.
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Seems his "car broke down" in Salt Lake City, Utah. But the word in the "inner
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circle" is that he is angry with certain people in St. Louis regarding an
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imagined insult published in the UFOSG newsletter, The Enigma (Oct. 89).
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(Personally, I think the only mystery here is why anyone would ever invite
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him to speak!) Luckily, Friedman stepped in and saved the morning; un-
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fortunately he was unable to present his slides.
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The afternoon session was a cliffhanger too. The first speaker was to
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be Ted Phillips followed by Bob Oeschler. It became obvious there was a prob-
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lem when Oeschler took Phillips' time slot. Oeschler's presentation was excel-
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lent. He was enthusiastic and well prepared. He discussed the recent Russian
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sighting, subliminal messages regarding ETs in the media and of course, Gulf
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Breeze. He spoke for about two hours until abruptly booted from the stage at
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4:35P to accomodate the now, 2 1/2 hour late, Ted Phillips. Phillips spent the
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first five minutes apologizing and the remaining 20 (till the 5PM dinner break),
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nostalgically reliving the early days of Ufology. He did manage to mention
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that he now has a catalog of 4127 physical trace cases - not one of which did
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he discuss - nor did he present one single slide. Not very impressive coming
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from a man who deals in "hard" evidence and just happens to be a professional
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photographer. Mercifully, his lack-luster, unprepared, uninformative talk
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was short.
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In keeping with the rest of the day, the evening session started late.
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The audience was becoming more and more restless, anticipating the arrival of
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"Snowbird" the second "mystery speaker". Widaman stepped to the podium, greeted
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the audience (apologetically thanking them for attending yet another session of
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the conference) and introduced the next speaker, John Schuessler. "But that
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can't be `Snowbird'!", I heard a woman sitting in front of me say, "Who's this
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guy?". There was absolutely no association made between Schuessler and Snow-
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bird for the audience. Many came thinking that "Snowbird" was one of the no-
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torious informant "birdmen" of UFO-LIVE fame...and I can't help but think that
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that is exactly what the promoters of this conference wanted. There was con-
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fusion in the audience and I sensed displeasure at what appeared to be another
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switch in the program. But as Mr. Schuessler began his talk the audience
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settled down and listened intently. Those of us who have been in the UFO
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field for years are familiar with the Cash/Landrum case but to the new people
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this was an aspect of UFOlogy they had never been exposed to. As he spoke and
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showed slides of the victims the true horror of the case became evident. There
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seemed to be a sadness in his voice as he spoke of the family and I thought
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how lucky they were to have him on their side. Friedman finished up the
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evening with essentially the same talk he gave in the morning...and on a local
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radio program on Friday...and at the 1985 MUFON Symposium...and...and...
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So we were again subjected to another MJ-12 rehash, but it was lively.
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The evening ended with a panel discussion. Walt Andrus and all speakers
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were present. Two non-speaker/attendees were included as well: Larry Bryant
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and Len Stringfield.
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Accolades should go to the members of the UFOSG, John and Peggy Ropollo,
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Ken and Helen Hanke, Walter and Myrtle Palmer and Spenser Wolling who diligent-
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ly staffed the sale and registration tables throughout the entire day. It was
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through their efforts that the registration went smoothly and visitors had
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books and other memorabilia to take home.
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Hand slaps should go to MUFON State Director, Bruce Widaman and his PR
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man Alex Horvat, (a.k.a. Alex "Bond"...that's right, as in "James") for the
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misleading advertising used to promote this conference and to MUFON's Interna-
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tional Director, Walt Andrus for sanctioning the charade.
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To my knowledge, there was no "new" material presented as promised. This
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conference was rehash, pure and simple. It would have been fine for people
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who have NEVER been exposed to the subject before, but to deliberately mis-
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lead seasoned Ufologists with the promise of "new information"; knowing who
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your speakers are and what they will be speaking about borders on fraud. Per-
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sonally, had I known the first speaker was to have been Moore, had I known
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Phillips was going to be late, basically not there, had I known "Snowbird"
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was Schuessler, I would not have gone and wasted my money. A little honesty
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would have gone a LONG way. Maybe its time to start treating Ufology and
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these conferences like the business they have become. If you don't get what
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you pay for...demand your money back.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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