The following quotes underneath the pictures below were all taken from a speech Gamm gave in either October or November of 1973. It was sometime time after the summit in Macomb, but before the movement began to slow down as November went on. They excerpts speak to the spirit of the movement. Although humorous in many ways, Forgotonia was principled on legitimate feelings of neglect and frustration, the likes of which were not comical in the slightest. Gamm himself was an excellent speaker and writer, and his speeches captured the sentiments of a region which was marginalized and forgotten.
“Why have we decided to launch this rather bizarre and undeniably irregular campaign? Perhaps the simplest and most succinct answer is: frustration.” Image from Western Illinois University Archives, “Neal Gamm Collection.”“The question is, what do you do when you’ve gone through all the ‘regular channels’ and have been consistently rebuffed? What do you do when your state and federal legislators have fought indefatigably to solve Forgotonia’s neglected problems, and yet all their best efforts have been in vain? What do you do when you’re desperate?” Image from Western Illinois University Archives, “Neal Gamm Collection.”“Some of us in Western Illinois decided that, since nothing else had worked, perhaps if we gave them a circus, our state federal governments would find it more difficult to ignore us.” Image from Western Illinois University Archives, “Neal Gamm Collection.”“Their strength of purpose and their fighting spirit will determine whether Forgotonia was a transitory fad or whether it was a vehicle to launch a successful effort to see that our region’s needs are met.” Image from Western Illinois University Archives, “Neal Gamm Collection.”“I believe that the spirit which spearheaded the formation of the Forgotonia movement must grow and flourish, and that our efforts not cease until the name that we chose for our little land becomes completely inappropriate– that is, we must push on, until Forgotonia is at last remembered.” Image from Western Illinois University Archives, “Neal Gamm Collection.”
