LETTERS

LETTERS

Dear Creem:

The Emancipation show at Cobo Hall, July 12th was no ordinary soul show but a killer jam session in which recording artists came to do their thing and the audience grooved right along with them. I was happy to see that a lot of our white brothers and sisters came to dig the show. It was groovy to see a long haired freak play drums on stage with the band , and I even noticed that the Rationals came to see the show. Soul disc jockeys Bill Williams, A1 Perkins, and Frantic Ernie Durham even recieved a reward during the show. The Capitols came out in the first part of .the show and really knocked us out with' their great dancing and singing. The Fantastic Four, Dee Dee Warwick, the Intruders and the Apollos really put the audience in a groove! The Parliaments and their band, the Funkadelics were the highlight of the evening. They came out and blew everyone’s mind with their fab hippie threads. The excitement they generate to the audience is unbelievable! The lead singer took off his pants, jumped off stage and made the sign of peace to the audience. This really freaked out the kids there who rushed the stage and made the sign of peace back >but, of course, it shocked the over thirty bunch in the audience. The police just stood uy helplessly during the hassle, trying to keep the crowd down as the Parliaments stole some of the show away from Chuck Jackson and the Impressions. After the

Parliaments went off. Chuck Jackson came on and really socked. it to us. He sang his famous hits along with his latest recording. He' ended his set with the great gospel tune, “Oh Happy Day”. The Impressions had time for only one song and the one they chose was just as great as if they had song a whole set. They sang their latest recording, “Choice of Colors”, a song of love and peace between the races, It was a beautiful way to close the great Emancipation show and as the people left, you could tell that everyone felt groovy.

Cont. on Page 21

John Sinclair has been tound guilty of possession of two joints of marijuana. The travesty of American justice presented at Sinclair’s trial brought home once again the political nature of drug charges.

Although, because of Sinclair’s notoriety as the Minister of Information of the White Panther party and as manager of guerrilla rock-and-roll criminals the MC-5, a fair and impartial trial could hardly have been expected, the jury’s swift return of the guilty verdict managed to shock those who had been through the trial since its inception. The twelve members deliberated only an hour and five minutes before returning the unanimous verdict, guilty as charged.

Friday’s proceedings began on an unusually bizarre level as Prosecutor Gerald Celesky managed to convert his supposed closing statement into an indictment of John’s lawyer, Justin C’. Ravitz. Ravitz emphasized the fact that the prosecution had not even come close to establishing the facts within a reasonable doubt, that in fact they had not been able to even establish that the substance was marijuana because of the outmoded testing methods used. Further, due to the fact that over one month elapsed between the time of the alleged crime and Sinclair’s arrest, there was a very real chance of a frame-up. But the jury chose to ignore these elements and, as usual, take the word of the cop against those of the people.

The witnesses had been nearly totally discredited during cross-examination. Secret narcotics “spy” Vaghan “Louie” Kapegian testified that he believed his memory to be better now than it was two years ago, that he had not recorded the conversation he allegedly had with John on December 22, 1966 and that he had willfully destroyed his log-book sheets even though he realized that they might have been helpful to the defense. Celesky, in his closing argument, stated that the police have no obligation to a person charged with a crime.

The second major prosecution witness, chemist Martin Gorman, was forced to admit on the stand that his testing methods were outmoded and not sufficient to prove that the substance was marijuana beyond a “reasonable doubt”. He even gave Ravitz a pair of pamphlets which tended to discredit color change tests for marijuana, which is the method he employed. Celesky again used the ruse that this was not legally entered as evidence in his attempt to convict John Sinclair.

Ravits presented no defense witnesses for, as John said, “They can’t even prove it was marijuana. We don’t need to.” Ravitz did however, present an incredibly together defense of John raking each and every witness over the coals in his attempt to show the jury the extent of the pig plot to “get” John Sinclair, by any means necessary.

Sentencing is set for Monday, July 28th. Sinclair faces a ten-year sentence for parole violation in addition to his sentence of mandatory twenty to life on his third marijuana offense.

So the Detroit community loses one of the prime movers in the emergent new culture we represent. And what has been gained? Nothing, the streets are no safer.

The human being lawnmower. Chop chop chop.

Cont. from Page 2

Patricia Foote

Lil Johnny’s Action Line

Now, when I say action you may be wondering what kinda action or what is this here action I'm talking about. Well, when I say action you’d best believe I mean action and there is basically only one kind of action only people get it mixed up some and when they do that everything starts going wrong and when that happens you end up with what is in this world today and that is a “sly action” society. Which is exactly as it reads, sly and tricky. Now, there’s nothin’ wrong with sly action but when it comes down to where all that is happening is lies, and the people know it’s all lies then it ain’t too sly it’s just bullshit and there’s just too much of this sly bullshit been happenin’. It’s turning out everywhere a man looks he just be seeing somebody trying to out-fox the other fox, who is gonna be more sly than the other.

Now for an example I’ll tell you about this here cleverness at the Crow’s NestEast. Well, a few weeks ago myself and my “Gold Bros.” had the opportunity to give these people some of our action music, ’cos we still believe there are quite a few action people around and we want to give you people some good action. So, we be up there kickin' and yellin’ and screamin’ and failin’ all over the place and people just be standin’ and lookin' around like they should be dead or somethin’ That ain’t no way to be! Like my friend. Rockin’ Reginald says.

“This is 1969, Lil Johnny and it’s about time people started realizing it and it’s about time these people started doin’ something about, not just standin’ around cryin’ about it.” And he’s right ‘cos, people, can stand up there and scream and holler and sing a dance and carry on til I’m blue but if you ain’t there right along side of me there ain’t no sense in me or you being there. ‘Cos you are either gonna be with me or against me and if you gonna be against me 1 wanna know why! ‘Cos if you think I’m into something you can’t be into or if what you’re into is something I can’t dig—tell me about it. Tell the club owners, tell everybody you see everywhere, every single minute of every day ’cos you are the only action that’s ever gonna happen anywhere and if you don’t make your own self happen, there ain’t gonna be nothin’ happening.

I’m jr.st realizing some ot these things myself I’ve been goin’ round to all these people who are talkin', and jii^i standing' around bein’ there and there just isn't any sense to talk to these people ’cos they ain’t gonna tell me nothin’ and if you got nothin' to say or nothin' to do then you better find out why ’cos if there’s nothin’ to do, you may as well be dead and dead people ain’t no kind of action.

WASHINGTON (LNS) The Army may have given John Wayne as much as Si million worth of free help in filming his war movie, “The Green Berets,” Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D-N.Y.) has charged.

The Army received S 18,623.64 from Wayne’s B a t j a c Productions for blank ammunition and flares -but Rosenthal noted that much of the help was free, including 3800 man days, air craft and other equipment.

Wayne parried the criticism, attacking Rosenthal for “belittling one of the only films 1 know about that’s' expressly making Americans appear heroes around the world.”