Sun Retraction

TRIBAL FEAST AND COMMUNITY MEETING

SUN. MAY 7TH  5;00PM AT THE PEOPLE'S CENTER

502 E. WASHINGTON  BRING FOOD

Sun Retraction

In the Tribal Council meeting notes last ish we ran the following paragraph:

"The Free People's Clinic is still working on their next plan of action in relation to the Community Advisory Board of St. Joe's Hospital. They have discovered however that the city is legally responsible for the medical care of all the brothers and sisters being held in the city and county jails here in Ann Arbor and they plan to put pressure on the city to comply with the law. More on that as it develops. "

The above information is incorrect. The investigation into the St. Joe's Community Advisory Board is being done by the People's Health Committee and the Medical Committee for Human Rights. The thing with the city is that it hasn't been discovered that the city is legally responsible for the citizens' of Ann Arbor medical care- but then again who is responsible for the medical care of the people in the city and county jails, in fact, who is responsible for seeing to it that the health rights of every person in this city are met? Someone has to be.

I wrote a letter of explanation to the Free People's Clinic and it follows below, hoping that it will truly raise questions in people's minds as to what kind of health care they are receiving in the city that boasts one of the finest systems of medical facilities in the world.

Brothers and Sisters-

In issue No. 29, as you probably have well noted, there was gross error on the part of the Sun concerning the on going effort on the part of the People's Health Committee of the Tribal Council and the MCHR to expose the blatant neglect of the health needs of the community by the St. Joe's Administration and specifically the "Community Advisory Board" of said institution.

I am unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a RPP meeting that I must attend, therefore, an explanation to the Clinic is presented in the form of a letter which we would like posted on the Clinic bulletin board for those staff and patients that will not be able to hear of the error through any other means until the next Sun- in which there will be a full retraction of the mis-information.

Firstly, the association given between the Clinic and the investigation into St. Joe's was not a conscious attempt on the part of the Sun collective or any other set/singular person(s) to force the conjunction between the Free Clinic and the people's movement for self-determination, particularly in the area of health needs- it was the result of improper understanding of the present ideology and direction of the Clinic; especially in regards to wielding political power on behalf of the community to insure that the health complexes in the AA area become responsive to the health needs of the people. I want to make perfectly clear that the Sun Editorial staff is aware of the ideological struggle taking place within the clinic that is now bringing about a very touchy situation between the positions of most professional workers at the clinic versus their positions at other medical institutions- we want in no way to catalyze any detrimental decisions by these workers in terms of the Free People's Clinic by wrongly attributing the Clinic with the investigation into any health facilities that are not meeting the needs of the community. On the other hand the Sun Editorial staff sees that the setting up of the Free People's Clinic was forced upon the people because the health care that is being provided (?) at St. Joe's and U. Hospital is inadequate, or non-existent on a practical level to a large part of the community who are systematically denied their right to healthy bodies by these hospitals. From many years of practical experience in dealing with different establishment institutions we have found that before they become responsive to the needs of the community, that community and its alternative institutions have to demand that those rights are met. Even though this isn't the most secure and euphoric of positions, given the objective situation, any other position by the Sun collective would be hypocritical. Again, while it is ludicrous to believe that the Sun would not support such a position by the Clinic, the Sun was not conscious, maliciously or otherwise, of this gross error until after the printing of the paper.

In the same paragraph, incorrect information concerning the liability of the City of AA in regards to the people locked in the confines of the city and county jail was given, and again the Clinic's name was associated with this accounting of community action.

This neglect on the part of the editorial staff to insure truthful information for the people is a manifestation of the pressure we work under due to lack of people and equipment, not unlike yourselves. For this we strongly criticize ourselves for not performing our tasks without blunder and allowing the pressure of 5:00 am desk conscription to interfere with the editorial function we are responsible for.

To limit an already tautological letter, I am more than willing to discuss this mistake with anyone that would like to do so, as it is my responsibility for seeing that all things printed in the Sun are correct.

In the Spirit of Unity,

-John Collins, for the SUN Editorial Staff