Why This New Sign? I’m For Free Speech
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Eileen Kelley, Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 17, 2005
SPRINGDALE—The hand-lettered sign says “For Service Speak English,” but bar owner Don Buechner said those words aren’t intended for his patrons.
Buechner, co-owner of Snookers on Princeton Pike, said he is sending a message to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which this week ruled that a Mason bar with a similar sign in its window is practicing discrimination.
“They have overstepped their bounds,” Buechner said Friday, hours after putting up the sign in solidarity with Pleasure Inn owner Tom Ullum. “I just don’t know what’s happened to this country when you don’t have the right to express yourself.”
Ullum faces fines for refusing to take down his sign.
A judge will now get the case.
None of that matters to Buechner.
In fact, on Friday he called the commission in Columbus and informed them about the sign in his window.
The way Buechner sees it, “It’s really not much of a protest if nobody knows about it.”
(Posted on December 19, 2005)