Letters

Dear Sun: First, I would like to compliment you on the scope and quality of the cultural reviews and community-oriented articles that seem to have become major emphases and direction of the SUN. Ann Arbor as well as every other community needs to have a local and honestly concerned newspaper to describe to the community the many cultural and civic events available.

However I feel that the SUN also has developed a tendency towards sensationalism in its major, cover news features. And this tendency is at least as alarming as your community concern is reassuring. I understand that sensationalism, especially as it revolves around your cover article, will help sell newspapers, but is this the kind of journalism of which yon can be most proud? I think not.

"We laughed at the 1960's paranoia of 'keeping the yellow peril off the streets of San Francisco' by killing in Vietnam. And yet you are currently mouthing the same type of fear."

Ours is a culture steeped in paranoia. And our responsibility is to de-emphasize this paranoia, not to feed and encourage it. We laughed at the 1960's paranoia of "keeping the yellow (COMMUNIST) peril off the streets of San Francisco by killing in Vietnam. And yet you are currently mouthing the same type of "fear" although it may be about Ford's administration or the fate of the old "underground." An excellent example of this direction is your recent article about Jean Alpert, the fugitive Weathersister. Why do you only discuss Jean's being "hounded" into giving herself up when in actuality (and quite humorously - and ironically, I think) she actually grew tired of the bourgoise bullshit of the underground lifestyle. As she has been quoted, "The left as I knew it had been destructive to women;" that she had been leading "a rather unadventurous and secluded existence."

Come on SUN! Here is the meat of a real story, timely and fascinating to everyone who reads the paper. A fully devoted member of the New Left comes back from purgatory to announce the failures of her radical environment; and you lay out some bullshit about surrendering only to avoid being a fugitive. The whole story is at once ten times more interesting and more enlightening than anything you cared to report. Leave biased reporting to the "illustrious" dailies, leave sensationalism and "yellow press" to the scandal sheets. Give Ann Arbor and all of Michigan an incisive and honest newspaper and you will have done us all a great service. But traffic in slanted reporting and you will have hurt everyone. "Let the Sun shine in."

Mary Hoadley 
Ann Arbor 

Dear Friends,

Although I don't subscribe to the Ann Arbor SUN, I live I with a Danish journalist who does, so I get a chance to read it whenever it comes. I've been reading now for about a month, and let me say I think it's the best "underground" newspaper I've ever read. I love it! I look forward to seeing it in our mailbox. The fact that a paper published in Ann Arbor for Ann Arbor residents is exciting and interesting to an American in Denmark really says something about the SUN. The blending of news, reviews and information makes the SUN educational and entertaining. I read every bit of print.

Most important of all, I feel you people really care about people and support social change on all levels, inside and outside our heads. The SUN seems to be free of that undercurrent hatred and pettiness that one finds in most left-oriented publications, because they are busy protecting their own particular ideology. It makes me very happy and encouraged to know there is a constructive, vigorous alternative movement in America.

I am personally involved in the free school movement here and in America. With the help of such fine publications as the New Schools Exchange and your SUN we have a chance of making this god-damn, fucking crazy world a decent place to live in. Keep publishing and good luck.

Steve Rosenthal 
Denmark 

Dear SUN:

As an avid reader of the SUN, I join the staff in regretting the move back to bi-weekly publication. But I am a journalist who has worked on several newspapers and I know the tremendous amount of resources it takes for a good journal to be successful. The SUN has been around for quite awhile though, and it's been through many difficulties. Somehow, it has always managed to come back bigger and better.

I can't contribute dollars to help sustain the paper but I can offer my thanks to the SUN staffers for providing a much-needed service to their community. And perhaps in the future, I may be able to contribute some energy toward putting out the SUN. Until then brothers and sisters, just remember there are many of us out here in the Ozone who support what you're doing and wish you the very best in your efforts.

Doug Cunningham
Mt. Morris, Michigan

Dear Editor:

On November 8, the 8 national guardsmen who killed 4 students and wounded 9 others on May 4, 1970, were acquitted. The grounds were that there was not enough evidence upon which to try them for the "violation of the civil rights" of the students. This cynical conclusion is supposed to leave the people satisfied that "justice" has been done.

It is sickening that even the men who pulled the trigger to murder 4 students in cold blood have been let off by the courts, but it should come as no surprise. The acquittal comes in the wake of similar incidents. William Calley has just been released from prison. And Nixon, number one spokesman for U.S. imperialism during the height of the war and the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State, is nursing his phlebitis on a pension worth thousands of dollars a year, and a total pardon to boot.

When the case of the Kent State shootings was taken into court, many people sincerely hoped that justice would be done. But the courts have proven to be a weapon against the people just as the national guard was. Following the murders, 25 Kent students were indicted. This slanderous attempt to blame the shootings upon its victims was met by such opposition across the country that the case had to be thrown out. Then, last year, 8 guardsmen were indicted. The guardsmen must be held accountable for their actions.

"When the case of the Kent State shootings was taken into court, many people sincerely hoped that justice would be done. But the courts have proved to be a weapon used against the people just as the national guard was."

Now that even the guardsmen have been let off the hook it has become clearer than ever that in this society, "justice" means pardons, dismissals, and acquittals for those who serve the system and its rulers well. But for the students who protested the brutal war in Indochina, and repression against the Black Panther Party in May 1970, it meant tear gas, police brutality and even murder. For the draft resistors it means Ford's phoney "amnesty" plan. And of course the war waged in Indochina by the U.S., and the fascist regimes of Lon Nol and Thieu, have nothing to do with justice for the people over there! And at home. "justice" continues to mean frameups, police attacks, jailing and murder at the hands of the protectors of "law and order."" Increasingly, black and other third world people have borne the brunt of violent repression, while for working people as a whole, "justice" has come to mean unemployment, inflation, and attacks on the basic right to strike. And students aren't immune either - tuition hikes, financial aid cuts, and rising food and gas prices have hit us too.

Supposedly the case of Kent State is now closed. But for us it is not and neither are the cases of Jackson State and Southern U. We students are not weak. The power of the anti-war movement was an aid to the struggle of the Indochinese against imperialism; and it shook up this country's ruling class, while spreading anti-war sentiment to millions of Americans. The force of this and other movements which have recently shaken this country is exactly the reason why the ruling class has gone to such lengths - from the use of arms to the use of the courts - to squelch them and make us feel afraid to stand up!

Our answer to this must be to continue and build the fight against all oppression and exploitation. The continued whitewash of the murder of the Kent State students, including the recent acquittals, must be answered by a powerful protest and the demand that the real criminals be indicted! Rhodes' inauguration will be a great place to protest the whitewash and at the same time point out the real criminals responsible for the murders. Rhodes was the man who ordered the Guard onto the Kent campus while yelling about the students being "worse than Nazi brown shirts." And during his campaign this past fall Rhodes promised he "would not hesitate to bring the guard back onto campus again." As closely tied as he is to the whole brutal May 4th incident, he has gone scott free.

We hope that students and other people and groups in this area will answer the call to demonstrate in Columbus on January 13th and show that the Kent State incident is not closed. For more information, including ride info, call 763-6563. 

Revolutionary Student Brigade 
Ann Arbor