Summer In The City

FREE JOHN NOW!
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the costs of the on-going legal battles to FREE JOHN NOW! He stayed overnight at RPP headquarters in AA and visited John himself in Jackson Prison Saturday morning.

"John Sinclair is an exceptional man," the awestruck Kunstler remarked before returning to his offices in New York. "I'll have to take off a week to visit him once we bring him home where he belongs!"

On Sunday, June 6, John's wife, Leni Sinclair, was interviewed about John's case on the half-hour "Spotlight" television show on Channel 7. That same day, just before the Up set at the AA Tribal Council free concert, John's brother and RPP Chief of Staff Dave Sinclair read the special message from John to the people that was printed in the last issue of the SUN.

As the people's hearty acclamation dedicated to the first free park concert to John, FREE JOHN NOW! workers rushed to Detroit's Grande Ballroom where yet another great benefit for John Sinclair Freedom Fund was about to take place. The Grande benefit (check out page 6) featured San Francisco's Flamin' Groovies and raised over $700, the greatest single contribution to the Freedom Fund yet.

Another high energy benefit is planned for the Grande Ballroom this Sunday, June 13, and it won't be the last. The struggle to force the government and courts to give up John Sinclair will not end until he is a free man. John Sinclair will not end until he is a free man. John has already served SEVEN TIMES the maximum penalty for possession proposed in the new marijuana bill passed by the Michigan House of Representatives last week, and FREE JOHN NOW! activities of every sort involving more individuals, more rock and roll bands, and more organizations--will keep happening up to the time when the government, courts, and prison system have no choice but to let John come on home.

At FREE JOHN NOW! activities over the past two weeks, 20,000 pre-addressed postcards to Governor Milliken urging him to commute John's sentence have been distributed. Thousands have already arrived at Milliken's office, and another 20,000 are currently being printed by the committee to Free John Sinclair and will be available at the RPP house on Hill Street and the Fifth Estate office at 4403 Second in Detroit. 

While attornies Buck Davis and Chuck Ravitz continue their work on John's appeal, disk jockies Dan Carlisle of WRIF, Dennis Frawley of WABX, and Bob Rudnick have been hard at work on a monster radio special that will be played at the same time on WDET, RIF, and ABX some time in the next two weeks. The special includes the music and poetry John had helped make, and will be a stomp down testimonial to his selfless work with the people of the Ann Arbor/Detroit area.

FREE JOHN NOW!

Summer in the City

The Summer City people's Program is rapidly becoming an alternative life style in itself . Or at least a beginning in the rediscovery of our natural selves and surroundings. Already The Blue Goose (our bus) and its driver Crazy Al have made it possible for us to "get back to where we once belonged. " We have hiked, swam, ridden horseback, and farmed. At the community organic garden we worked with the soil and planted the first crop of squash and watermellon. We are going camping, canoeing, dancing and anywhere else people want to go exploring. All that we need now is YOU; the Collective Energies of all of us: our bodies, our spirits and our will to learn and discover an alternative means of existence to the Amerikan Way of Death.

To effect these changes we want to spend as much time as possible out in the country, getting back to the land that modern industrial earth-rape civilization has taken us away f rom. The Blue Goose leaves from the corner of North University and State Street every Monday and Friday at noon and every Wednesday at 1:00 (Tuesdays and Thurdsays in case of rain on the other days. ) We're looking for your ! ideas about where you want to go and what you want to do. Let us know your ideas by visiting Ozone House or by calling Denise, Richard or Mirtha there at 769-6540.

Summer City is also trying to help people exchange resources, skills, and energy. We have workshops, jams, and rap sessions at Ozone every Tuesday and Thursday. We've already had workshops in leather-craft, candle making, macrame, and a guitar and drum workshop and jam. This coming week there's an astrology session. Check out the calendar on page 15 for all the events.

Summer City is also trying to find employment for people who need it, bringing the jobs and the people together. If you need a job (anything from painting to baby sitting to distributing organic products) come into Ozone House and fill out an application or call Erica Raine at 769-6540 and she will help you out. 

Last but always there'll be Rock and Roll every Wednesday at the People's Plaza from Noon to One, featuring local bands. Rock On ! FREE JOHN!

Community Center in Works

At a Tribal Council meeting last spring, Genie Plamondon of the Rainbow People's Party asked Matt Lampe of Drug Help to prepare a report on the effects of heroin on our community for the next meeting. Matt realized that heroin was only one of the drugs that was sucking away the people's creative energy, so he focused his report on all "hard drugs." He defined as hard drugs all opiates, such as heroin and morphine, and all barbituates and speeds. LSD and marijuana were not included for obvious reasons, being heavy but not hard and harmful. This definition of hard drugs was accepted by the T.C.

The report prompted the formation of a committee to seek the means and methods needed to deal with this devastating problem. The Hard Drug Committee was formed, and met at Marshall's bookstore throughout the summer and in the Lincoln Street Drug Help house towards the summer's end. At these meetings an analysis of the problem was made and a plan was formed. A formal proposal was submitted to the Federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for funding for a community center and other necessary tools for the eradication of these drugs. Much of that proposal has been granted.

All during this time we were watching our friends getting grabbed by these drugs. WE watched some die. We watched some steal from each other, and learn how to hate separate and divide, fight each other instead of the real enemy who lets these drugs spread relatively unchecked and concentrate instead on stamping out the killer weed.

We put together a theory which said we had to treat the real problem; cultural oppression, along with its manifestations; hard drugs. These hard drug users need a place in our community where they can work feeling good and together with people. This means we have to do alot more for them than find them a job selling poisonous hamburgers, or get them hooked on another "less harmful" hard drug such as methadone. Methadone is a much utilized method of "combatting" heroin addiction by addicting the addict to something else that is somewhat less harmful. Of course the only way really all this addiction is to eliminate the social inequalities and the oppressive conditions in America that alienate