LETTERS part one: Free Clinic criticisms

LETTERS

To the Ann Arbor SUN:

The Free People's Clinic, as an active, politically committed, radical organization, sees a great and pressing need for an ongoing, self-sustaining community newspaper. The Ann Arbor News is worthless, the Michigan Daily is run by and for students, Herself focuses on a female constituency, and New Morning is more of a features magazine. We would like to see a locally produced and staffed newspaper, non-aligned with any political party or perspective, an independent paper, with a broad spectrum of radical analyses represented, that would provide local news, analysis of local events and issues, and articles by and about alternative community organizations.

So far, the Sun ain't it. Despite the much publicized "newness" of the paper, the last three so-called "new" issues have seemed painfully similar to the old Sun. True, rhetoric has been toned down, thank God, and the women's news page is a welcome innovation, and the articles about acupuncture, undercover police work, and the Lee Gill interview were good. However, too many articles still uncritically deify rock 'n roll, and its holy sacrament, marijuana. We smoke lots of dope, and we do enjoy and care about stomp down rock 'n roll; we do not think these topics deserve page after page, issue after issue.

Another thing we strongly object to is the contradiction in terms of your "Rainbow Community News Service." The RPP, through its real political control of Tribal Council neither represents our politics, nor, we feel, those of the vast majority of independent radicals in Ann Arbor. If RPP wants to publish its own party newspaper, like the old Sundance: fine. If they want to fill it with articles by a Rainbow News Service or Rainbow Multi-Media: fine. But we want and we feel the majority of other alternative community people want a community paper, independent of the RPP's rainbow influence, rainbow politics, and rainbow personalities. We want, and we demand, a truly independent community newspaper.

This brings us to the recent issue with its four-page interview with John Sinclair. For years now, this community has been inundated with the Thought of John Sinclair. If John is not the most talked about political force in town, he certainly is the most talkative. We already know, only too well, how he thinks, what he does and does not support, and now: who he hates. The only noteworthy things we found in the recent interview were John's totally offensive, uncontrolled viciousness, and his habit of labeling every political adversary an "agent provocateur," with no proof offered. A four-page interview with the leader of Ann Arbor's smallest political party is hardly what we, at the Free Clinic, would call serious coverage of events in this community.

Despite these criticisms, however, the Free People's Clinic strongly believes that the Sun can be a valuable tool for community organizing and radical consciousness building. For instance, some people at the Clinic are already organizing against the McDonald's and Burger King which the death culture plans to inflict on our community. We first read about these plans in the Sun. Too many individuals and organizations in Ann Arbor tend to react to media coverage which offends them, or with which they disagree by wringing their hands and withdrawing deeper and deeper into whatever ideological cocoon they already inhabit. The Free People's Clinic condemns such withdrawal as indicative of a non-struggle attitude. We experience our disagreements with the Sun as "contradictions among the people," and we hope that through continuing discussion some resolution can be eventually worked out.

Our disagreements are significant, but so are our areas of agreement. Therefore, starting with this issue, the Free People's Clinic will be submitting a regular feature article on the politics of health care for every issue of the Sun. There is a tremendous amount to communicate. It is a matter literally of life and death to explain to the community who controls the health care system, how they continue to do it, and how we, as organized patients, can bring the fuckers down. We also encourage other community organizations to submit regular features, and to take a more active part in determining editorial policy.

We at the Clinic really hope that the paper will evolve toward what we would consider to be a politically broad-based, non-sectarian community newspaper. Through our regular articles and our critical support, we intend to push such a program.

-- In struggle, the Free People's Clinic

SUN's response

The Sun is answering this letter from the Free People's Clinic because we consider it to be particularly illustrative of the misinformation and rumors about the Rainbow People's Party and John Sinclair that are being spread in this community.

Misconceptions like these are the very reason we published those interviews with John Sinclair in the first place. They only indicate a lack of investigation on the part of those writing the letter. If anyone examined the actual content of the John Sinclair interview in even a cursory way or the actual content of the Ann Arbor Sun they would be hard-pressed to charge that a narrow perspective was being promoted or that too many articles deified rock & roll and dope.

We know that many people in the community do not have the correct information about the work of the RPP. We consider the RPP to be a longstanding, committed organization of people who have contributed greatly to the growth of Ann Arbor's alternative community. John Sinclair himself has