| UPDATED: photo corrected. Within hours of shutting down a fundamental free speech & National Security expression, the Administration of the Tulsa State Fair reversed the ruling of a booth sales staffer, and told the Tulsa County GOP Chairman; "Let's build that wall", today. There was never a paper trail left by the fair management. But Tulsa GOP Chair, David McLain said; "A staffer named Marilyn came to our booth on Monday and said; "That wall violates the "offensive" clause in your contract and needs to be immediately removed.". Tulsa GOP Central Committee member, Donny Tieman advised McLain, and the two decided to take up the matter in the morning with the administration of the fair. But at the peak of evening traffic, a crew of the fair staff came to the booth and attempted to begin taking down the $2000+/yr. booth which the Tulsa GOP had been operating for decades. This happened while a few booths away a Homosexual activist booth was fully functioning and not at all sanctioned for their multiple exhibit items. Tieman was on the phone with Administration immediately and succeeded in getting the Fair Administration to allow the display to be left up until closing Monday night. Here's how Fox23 covered the story this morning. |  |
| This morning the Tulsa GOP booth was not allowed to open with the National Security Wall exhibit, so it was moved behind a curtain while an appeal went before the Fair Administrators. Around the noon hour, the Administrators came to the booth and went behind the curtain to see this "Build the Wall" display. It is a poster board and paper exhibit with various colored paper bricks with glitter coatings. Donors had signed some of the bricks, indicating their purchases of the $5 - $75 donations. After leaving for a brief meeting of the Administration, A member returned to say; "Let's build that wall!" It was immediately brought out from behind the curtain and prominently positioned as a centerpiece of the Tulsa GOP fair booth. It appears that this censorship effort was done by low level staffers lead by a woman known as Marilyn, who handles commercial booth sales. the Tulsa Expo website lists a top staffer in Commercial sales named Marilyn Herman. |  Tulsa media coverage started adding pressure to the Fair Administration. Further research added some interesting info which gives potential insight into the motivation. Marilyn Herman Commercial Space Sales Supervisor [o] (918) 744-1113, ext. 2100 [e] mherman@exposquare.com We checked some voter records research and found this info on a Marilyn Herman of Tulsa. [We corrected the photo. Apologies for the inaccuracy of social media sources.]  |
