He grabbed the limelight where he could and took credit for whatever he could make up. He was a masterful manipulator.
To whom it may concern:
We are former members of the original 1970 Earth Week Committee of Philadelphia. Our group, which was made up of 33 members and 92 sponsors, organized the first Earth Day and Earth Week in Philadelphia. We were inspired to undertake this activity because of a speech that was given in 1969 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day. His idea was implemented not only in Philadelphia, but also in thousands of communities across America in 1970. This was an event designed to publicize the environmental problems that our society was facing as well as the means to address those problems. Philadelphia’s Earth Week in 1970 is widely viewed as having been the most successful such event in the country, having involved world famous scientists, educators, business people, political leaders, and most importantly, thousands and thousands of ordinary people. We are proud to say that Earth Day in Philadelphia effectively focused attention on environmental problems in a very positive way and contributed to the groundswell of public concern that led to the passage of the landmark environmental legislation of the 1970’s.
Much to our dismay, we now find that the self-styled hippie guru and alleged murderer of Holly Maddux, Ira Einhorn, has been taking credit for initiating and/or organizing Earth Day. He is not telling the truth. A group of very dedicated young people worked very hard to organize Earth Day, but Einhorn was not one of them. In fact, Einhorn was asked to leave several meetings of the organizing committee which he attempted to disrupt. He was not welcome there, nor did he contribute in any material way to the committee’s activities. Einhorn, given a small role on the stage at Earth Day, grabbed the microphone and refused to give up the podium for thirty minutes, thinking he would get some free television publicity. We just waited until he had completed his "act" and then got on to the serious business at hand, the keynote speech of U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, author of the landmark U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970.
Again, Ira Einhorn’s claims that he was a founder or organizer of Earth Day are false. He is a fraud. His lies do a real disservice to those of us who were and are deeply concerned about our planet’s environmental problems and who have worked hard to solve them.
Yours truly,
(signatures at link)
http://www.amgot.org/einhorn/eday.htm
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