Eastern Illinois University The Keep

The Post Amerikan (1972-2004) The Post Amerikan Project

6-1992

Volume 21, Number 2

Post Amerikan

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Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, Publishing Commons, and the Social Influence and oliticalP Communication Commons MS. HIPPIE ON ... STATE FARM AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

BLOOl\IINGTON/NORl\IAL

ZOlIIJ 'NOJ.�)NIWOO'HI 'II ZOlllJ '1';0.l.�)Nll\IOO'IH "ON .Ul\lll'.>fd '11 891 \OH '.>Ul:HO :.J�)V,1,S(ltFS"fl Z�tf .1.so.1 mv.1 :\lV'lnl'.U\IV .1.so.1 Vll )l'lflU NOl.U:-UlllO.l SS'.HlU. BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL VOLUME 21 NUMBER 2 JUNE/JULY 1992

. In. this i ssue:

Cover 10-11 from Voice forChoin� 2 Page Two Stuff News

i Community Planned Parenthood 12-13 A.J. r m nd us that there·-, <.,tonedand 3 New: e s there's packages parenting; ISU Galleries .\Wllt.'d recently C'.ollects Vernacular Objects from the Place of Wonder 14-15 Jo� Reed marche$ through

...On hi� way t ugh Costa Rica 4-5 Rodney King beating verdict shames us all; 16-17 hro as performance Post Amerikan art 18-19 Lambda verdict: Wins protests king ca<;e second 6-7 Trench Rat sends us notes of a liberal humanist for HIV+ phramcist, a jury trial gin t discriminating a s shcrrif and-Pruitt vs. Chaney 8-9 Letters: Of condom shops, investigateive o Lighting up the thanks reporting, and finally, me Ms. 20 Normal Theater to s LIP; Bent Production� Hippie Good numbers

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The Post Amerikan is an independent community . Bloomington Local ...... 009\ 827--AIDS newspaper providing information and analysis Alcoholics Anonymous ...... 828-5049 that is screened out of or down played by estab­ The Back Porch, 402 N. Main Bloomington Housing Authority ...... 829-3360 lishment news sources. We are a non-profit, Bakery Banc, 901 N. Main Childbirth.and Parenting Information Exchange worker-run collective that exists as an alternative Biasi' s DrugStore, Main St. (CAPIE) ...... 827-6672 to the corporate media. Bloomington Public Library (front) Clare House (Catholic workers) ...... 452-0310

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· Inner Connection, .802 Grove ing, graphics, photography, pasteup, and distribu­ E. St. Dept.'of Children/Family Services ...... 828-0022 tion are done on a volunteer basis. You are invited and Justice Center, W. Front Draft Counselling ...... 452-5046 to volunteer your talents. Main and Miller Streets Gay & Lesbian Resource Phoneline ...... 438-2429 Medusa's, 420 N. Madison HELP (transportation for senior citizens, Most of our material and inspiration for material Mike's Market, 1013 N. Park handicapped) ...... 828-8301 comes from the community. The Post Amerikan Pantagraph, 301 W. Washington Ill. Dept. of Public Aid ...... 827-4621 welcomes stories, graphics, photos, letters, and The ParkStore, Wood and Allin Ill. Lawyer Referral ...... 1-800-252-8916 new tips from our readers. Ifyou'd like to join us, Reliable Drugs, Oakland and Morrisey Kaleidoscope ...... 828-7346 call 828-7232 and leave a message on our answer­ Red Fox, 918 W. Market McLean Co. Center for Human Services ... 827-5351 ing machine. We will get back to you as soon as Stars &Stripes Video, MainSt. McLean Co. Health Dept...... 4 54-1161 we can. Don't worry if it takes a while-we don't Susie's Cafe, 602 N. Main Mid Central Community Action ...... 829-0691 meet every week. U.S. Post Office, 1511 E. Empire Mobile Meals ...... 828-8301

U.S. Post Office, Center and Monroe Narcotics Annonymous ...... 827-3898 Analternative newspaper depends directlyon a Upper Cut, 409 N. Main National Health CareServices- community of concerned people for existence. We Wash House, 609 N. Clinton assistance ...... 1-800-322-1622 : believe it isvery important to keep a newspaperlike Nuclear Freeze Coalition ...... 828-4195 this around. Ifyou think so too, then please support Normal Occupational Development Center ...... 4 52-7324 by telling your friendsabout the.paper, donating us AmtrakStation Operation Recycle ...... 829-0691 money to the printing of the paper, and telling our Parents Anonymous ...... : ...... 827-4005 Avanti's, 407 S. Main advertisers you saw their ad in Post Amerikan. Babbitts Book Store, NorthSt. PATH: Personal Assistance Telephone Help ..... 827-4005 The Coffeehouse, 114 E. Beaufort ...... or 800-322-5015 Hovey Hall, ISU (Front) Phone Friends ...... 827-4008 Manchester Hall, IS U Planned Parenthood (medical) ...... 827-4014 What's your . Mother Murphy's, 111 North (bus/ couns/ educ) ...... 827-4368 Post Amerikan . •North and Broadway ...... ; ...... 828-7232 new · PrairieState LegalService ...... 827-5021 address? White Hen, 207 Broadway Prairie Alliance ...... 828-8249 Subway, 115 E. Beaufort Project Oz ...... 827-0377 When you move, be sure to send us Zorba' s, Main St. your new address so your subscription Rape Crisis Center ...... 827-4005 gets to you. Your Post Amerikan will not Sunnyside Neighborhood Center ...... 827-5428 be forwarded (it's like junk mail-no TeleCare (senior citizens) ...... 828-8301 kidding!). Fill out this handy form with Unemployment comp/job service ...... 827-6237 your new address and return it to us, P. This issue of Post Amerikan United Farmworkers support ...... 4 52-5046 0. Box 3452, Bloomington, IL 61702. UPIC ...... 827-4026 ..i"'- is brought to you by ...

Street: ______Deborah and Angela (coordinators); John Nancy, Deadline C., John Tracv, Monica, Bumper, Sue, Ralph, Bruce City /State/ Zip: ------G. and OUR MANY LOY SUPPORTERS Or THE Thenext deadline for submitting Pmr material is AL JlJL 27. 1992 ·.�.<.• >'. ANQTHER 20 ) Y EAST2.0iYEA:RSJ FO� (.Uil"'S�Q Material submitted after the deadline will probably not get printed in the next issue.

ge Pa 2 Community News Planned parenthood Michael Sarver: Religious Artifacts Brian Simpson: Neckties Bob Steinman offers "parent packages" & Anne Scott: Bakelite and Lucite Objects As parents, we know it's hard to discuss the Pat Stevens: Religious Artifacts and Lodge Items Tim Van Laar: "tough topics" with our children, but there is Original Paintings based on . collections help for us. As of April 27, Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois offers its newest sexuality Summer-Hours: Tuesdays, 12:00-7:00 p.m.", education resource for parents. ''Parent Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00-4:�m-''" For more information contact Peter Spoonq at Packages" are kits which include everything 309/438-5487 parents will need to talk with their children about topics such as babies, puberty, The place of wonder: selections and sexually transmitted diseases, relationships. from local circus collections and parent-teen communication. The kits are age-appropriate and include a video, books and In the days of traveling circuses when the names pamphlets. There is a $5 deposit for renting Barnum, Bailey and Ringling were as common these kits. as today's Cosby, Redford or Streisand, Also featured in the exkibition are 8mm movies Bloomington-Normal was the winter home to transferred to video. The movies were originally For more information, call Planned Parenthood 90% of this country's top circus aerialists. shot by another circus devotee, Harold T. at827-4368 These days the Illinois State University library is Ramage during the '30's, '40's. and '50's. Many of full-time home to one of the world's finest and the films show aerialists from Bloomington­ ISU's University Galleries most complete collection of circus memorabilia. Normal practicing their routines. Recent interviews with Dorothy Durban, Walt During their off-season, the flying acts stayed in Graybeal, and Miki King, all former aerialists, mounts three new shows shape and worked on new routines in the Flying will also be shown. Wards' barn, the old Bloomington YMCA and Works from The Collection Steven Gossard, local circus historian, served in backyards throughout the community. As as consultant, interviewer and general collaborator television and other post World War II · and Recent Acquistions on the project with Risberg. Gossard has been innovations hastened the end of many traveling researching these collections over eight years Along with two other exhibitions featuring local circuses, circus stars started sending their and is recognized as one of the area's primary collections, University Galleries will present an Milner · mementos to Illinois State University's historians. ibition of works from its permanent Library, at the request of the library's director, exh Summer Hours: Tuesday, 12:00-7:00p.m. collection from June 2 throu&h July 28. Eleanor Welch. Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00-4:00 p.m. As time went on, other circus figures, from For more information call Peter Spooner at 309/438- Selected from its permanent collection of 2200 Buffalo Bill to Mrs. Tom Thumb and from 5487 contemporary artworks, the show will present circus band directors to business agents to circus works by Frank Stella, Mark Tobey, Max Klinger, devotees, continued to send items of historic Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Georges Rouault, Buzz interest to the growing Illinois State collection. Sook Kim, among others. ·posters, programs, buttons, Spector and Won Rare circus books, · medallions, unpublished photos, films, The exhibition will also feature many of the newspaper clippings, letters, business ledgers, work� acquired during the past year. Among sheet music, more letters and photos, paintings those recent acquisitions are works by Nicholas and other works of art related to the circus, all Africano, Alan Cohe:Q, Richard Cramer, John came Milner Library's way. The collection has Himmelfarb, Thorsen Kursel, Donald Lipski, more than 100,00 items. There are 10,000 photo David Moreno, Deni lis Oppenheim, and Kiki negatives and about 1,500 posters. Mclean County Health Smith. On June 2, a major public showing of selected Summer Hours: Tuesdays 12:00-7:00 p.m., items from Milner Library's immense circus Department offers summer Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00-4:00 p.m. collection and items dona_ted by Stephen more information contact Peter For Spooner at Gossard, local circus historian, and Cheri ents 309/438-5487 immunization appointm Valentine of the former Flying Valentines, a In order to assist families in McLean County, th well-known trapeze act, will be opening at the e Collections: the vernacular object McLean County Health Department will offer University Galleries of Illinois State University. immunizations by appointment for the first Collections: The vernacular object is an exhibition time this summer. The curator of the exhibition, Debra Risberg, has featuring selected collections of common and sought to create a broad, representative view of not so common objects owned by central Illinois Appointments for immunization services the larger body of local materials. She framed residents. Curated by University Galleries' provided in June through September are lithographed posters that advertised the Assistant Director Peter Spooner, the exhibition large available by contacting the Immunization spectacular, the daring, and the exotic, and begins on June 2 and continues through July 28. Appointment Secretary at 888-5450. Please plan enl�rged old unpublished photographs of the ahead to avoid scheduling problems during the performers behind the scenes in the circus Most people collect some type of object--a fact summer months. Parents must accompany backyards. The photographs were taken by avid that has been elaborated on by observers of the their children to their appointments and bring a Wisconsin human animal as diverse as Sigmund Freud circus collector Sverre Braathen, previous immunization records. were from Braathen's and Erma Bambeck. This exhibition presents a lawyer. The posters that he donated to the University variety of "non-art'' collections of objects which collection Don't delay-call the McLean County Health · have been lovingly amassed by thirteen before he died in 1974 .. Department Today! individuals. Presented in an "art context," the hundreds of items in these collections seem to take on the qualities of an aesthetic appearance, presents... design and meaning normally associated with Bent Productions what we call "art." In other ways, the objects and collections in the exhibition can also be appreciated for their historical and social significance.

Collections and lenders to the exhibition include: Leslie Allen: Salt and Pepper Shakers Rodney Carswell: Pencils Glen Davies: Religious Artifacts, Pillow Slips, Lodge Items Dolls: The collection of the former University Museum, ISU Evan Evans: Mousetraps (pre-Civil War- present) , Mark Genrich: Religious Artifacts and Lodge Items f! ••• and a couple we're not quite sure o Gerry Guthrie: Religious Artifacts and Lodge Lovely ladles••. handsome gentlemen Items James Huddleston: Picture Frames .m. · Saturday, August 8, 8:00 p Adrien Marek: Purses UnitarianChurch, E, Emerson, Bent Productions is a non-profit Bllomington. 1613 Craig McMonigal: Religious Artifacts, Christmas Tickets $5. For more organization dedicated to raising informationcall (309) Items and Photographs 827·7289 funds to support other local leabl�n/gay/blsexual theatre activities. Ardie Nowers: Wooden Moulds for Picture Frames

Page3 ~ Rodney King and Power

But we're afraid of what we've never known. So When I first heard of the Rodney King beating, So we do not use our power. It is, after all our we sit in the stone caverns of our own hearts when I first saw the videotape, I was horrified. I choice. And in not using our power, we are and we betray ourselves. We enslave ourselves had an idea that people in power often abuse forced to question the necessity of power, ever. , to what we imagine sets us free. that power. In fact, that idea was axiomatic with me. Power always goes hand in hand with Power means the license to beat a defenseless want to know what a world in which everyone man, to rape a woman, to abuse a child. Power � . abuse. is granted full humanity is like. I don't want to is genocide. I do not think it possible that power ca�ry that around in my heart anY. more. So I Power=abuse. That's an ugly equation. But it can be redeemed. As long as a power structure agi a e. Where efore I sat back and did my exists, one over the other and damn those � � ? never really hit me where I live. Sure, I could activist work with removed cynicism, fight below, there is no hope. . I argue a good game, and from personal back with rage and passion. . experience know something about abuses of power. But until I saw the videotape of Rodney So what do we do? I keep asking that question. King being mercilessly bludgeoned did I realize Well, we work for a day in which power is the full extent of power and abuse. unnecessary. We work for a time that counts power as an evil, as a virus. It was painful to watch. Those men, white males like myself, cops, unlike myself, were We do this by not exercising the power that we doubly empowered by their society. To begin already have. By making our power invisible, with, they are representatives of the most so that our sons will not be raised with the favored class in our society--white, presumably notion that they control the destiny of any heterosexual, men. And they had been given person or thing. the power of the badge.

They reminded me of some warrior elite, We do not give up. We are courageous. We are pummelling the defenseless to test the efficacy disciplined. We use guilt. of their truncheons. Guilt The second beating Guilt can be a great teacher. Guilt can let us When the Simi County jury returned a not­ know that we are acting contrary to what we guilty verdict, I recoiled. I heard it first on NPR. know is right. When we begin to feel guilty, it is Numbness stole over me. Up until that time, I because we have acted in direct contrast to had considered myself unshockable. I thought everything we understand to be true. nothing could get to me, and in my arrogance, believed that this was a strength in my activism. Guilt can cripple and deceive. But if we do not I was wrong. let it, it can't. We can listen to it and understand the lessons that it is teaching us. We can live by those lessons. We can move from the infancy that we've inherited into a new adulthood, in which we, as the powerful, understand our responsibility to all persons, and act by that responsibility.

And in doing so, relinquish our power.

No one is free...

Until all are free. It's hackneyed, I know. It's an old model, I know. But it is true. Until what We need to use what we've been given as the happened to Rodney King never happens again, powerful in our society to change society. That we are a world of slaves. The holder of power is third limb can be used to create rather than to as much. a slave as the powerless. destroy. It can be used to raise up rather than to lay low. And it can be used to embrace rather We are forced to grasp, to struggle continually to than beat. hold on the what we already have. We are forced to commit atrocities in the name of our in my lifetime, or my privilege. And I cannot believe that this is what Whether it will happen I knew, then, the full c;!Xtent of my obligation to i� up right we really want. d1ildren'�, ,>r their chikJrcn·,. toll� begun be outraged. It is not just desirable, it is now. To continue the work that has been necessary, that every person in this country We don't know what an egalitarian world has to is up to us all. think very clearly about what happened to that . offer us. I imagine that one of those things is an man. We are responsible. • end to war. Another, an end to abuse of women Thanks. and people of color. And gays. And animals. Particularly my tribe. White males. Whether And our world. --J. Guzzo we like to admit it or not, we are at the top of the heap. We own this world. Any jackass can babble about women pampered in gilded cages. Or welfare parents. Or "foreigners". And they can try to dent the fact that they and their sons control this Earth. They may even convince some. But they are lying.

White males hold the power in this world. We

abuse the power in this world. That fact is ineluctable. We cannot escape it.

We have grown so accustomed to our power. For me, my strength, my seeming ..a� invulnerability, is like a third limb. I can wield it when I choose. I, like all with this power, can choose never to wield it. But there it is.

What do we do? We choose not to wield our power. We choose not to hurt. Our power does not go away. It is as built into us as the color of our skin, the fact of our penises. It was decided before we were born.

Page4 Post Amerikan serves as source for local performance·piece

As an audience member/participant, I couldn't The man wears a pair of black sweatpants, no Abraham's deep-toned, cle�, indeed seductive help but focus on the flag and its inherent shirt. no shoes. Four United States flags sewn voice. in the conventional role of narrator, together drape around him as a cape. He crouches wonderfully supplements Kirby's interpretive, paradoxes. At the risk of being rubber-stamped I wanted, unapologetically, more included on the ground, completely covering himself with representative movement. "PC," in the pieces text about women, about people of the flag. After a moment, his head begins to slowly peer out from under the flag. ""AND NOW, JUST OVER 200 YEARS LATER ..." color, about issues of sexual orientation. I wanted highlighted the restrictions and limits placed by "authorities" on creative thought and expression. ""DJSCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD. BIRTH OF Kirby throws himself backwards landing in a I A NATION." A deep voice from behind the freshly turned, but unplanted University flower wanted foregrounded the contradictions of what it audience echoes between the walls of ISU's Center hed. He furiously jerks himself around, covering means to live in a "free" country. And in Abraham's own words, how we are being led by forVisual Arts and Centennial West. his body and the flag with dirt. greed and hate.

""U-nighted States" is part of a one-person show, a collection of pieces, that Abraham has been working on for a year. He will continue to develop the piece that now runs just under ten minutes.

·Abraham plans to perform the collection next fall. The collection includes a piece about a street person rambling about genesis, light/dark, reason/instinct, conscious/subconscious. Another piece is about toxic elements and chemicals in our evervday life (lead in paint, mercury in water, of Amerikan alu�inum). Watch future issues Post specific dates and times of performances. for

--S. Lloyd DeWitt ;

"A COUNTRY THAT LEADS THE WORLD IN THE PERCENT AGE OF CHILDREN LIVING This was the beginning of "l !-nighted States: BELOW THE POVERTY LINE. THAT LEADS IN THE PERCENTAGE OF THE OVERALL A M O\ement Piece," written and directed by Clark Abraham, featuring the acting of Randy POPULATION INCARCERATED. THAT Kirby. and based on an article published in a past LEADS IN OF MALES 15-24 issue of Post Amerikan. YEARS OLD, AND BY HANDGUNS OF ALL AGES. A COUNTRY WHERE WE I originally heard of Abraham's plans to write this ALLOW OUR POLICE TO BATI ER OUR CIVILIANS." perfonnance piece when he inquired about a Post "American article written by Sue Kuykendall. Nightmare: What the Mainstream Media Don't The piece's significance is clear on the evening of o 20. No. 2, 1991) the acquittal of the L.A. police officers who beat Say," (V l. August/September a compilation of statistics she obtained from mostly Rodney King. alternative new sources. ln her political ·commentary, Kuykendall asks, �General Kirby lies in the dirt, disgustingly gasping for air. Schwartzkopf has proclaimed the U.S.to be the world's superpower--but in what areas. besides the At this point. Abraham .. physically" enters the ability to destroy life in military action, are we scene, from behind the audience. to join Kirby­ #!?'' with pail and brush in hand. Determined, he begins roughly to scrub the country clean, quoting Jim Morrison's, "American Prayer." The performance of ""U-nighted States" that I saw was for an ISU Theater Department course, "WE USED TO BELIEVE IN THE GOOD OLD ""Movement for Actors," and everyone in the DAYS. WE STILL RECEIVE IN LITTLE audience that evening was a member of the WAYS. WE ARE TRYING FOR SOMETHING Department. Abraham is a first-year graduate THAT'S ALREADY FOUND US. student, and Kirby will be a senior. Both are • • studying acting at ISU.

"In philosophy 3nd theory, I think we are a great coqntry--one of opportunity," Abraham said after Kirby slowly creeps out of the womb made of tlf*rformance. "But we· are being led by greed flag. It's Abraham who, again, speaks from and hate, and corporations, and inhumane behind the audience: standards. Corporate America stains the flag."

The piece's writing was strong, the issues poignant and hard-hitting. But it is within the writing that "IN LESS THAN 100 YEARS, WEBECAME A the piece needs to be expanded. Clearly, the PURE DEMOCRACY. TRUER TIIAN EVEN United States flag is a controlling visual element of THEGREEKS COULD SALVAGE." the piece. So, however cliche, deconstructing "what the flag stands for" could follow. Again Kirby, now standing, throws a discus. He smiles 'cliche, I think that the Pledge's," ...with liberty as it sails over the field where the audience sits. and justice for all ... "could provide the Poised Greek olympiad. All-American boy. direction.

Page5 S!J much time, so little space view from the trenches A view from the Right A But the hardcore instigators who got it all started were I've worked forthree years as a paralegal for a law office the street gangsters. In particular, the four blacks who So much to write about, so little space that seems to get involved in a lot of cases with civil pulled a white trucker, Reginald Denny, from his cab Somuch to write about, so little space. Between the rights overtones. A full-blown civil rights lawsuit is and beat him into critical.condition have been linked to Rodney King verdict, the rioting afterward, and the where the battles qvet'tivll'rights are most frequently these gangs. They've been arrested and I hope they go to victoryof Carol Moseley Braun in the Democratic fought. This is where the fighting is at its most bitter and prison for a long, long time. primary, the subject of civil rights has made a lot of most costly. Meanwhile, Sgt. Stacey Koon has wasted absolutely no headlines. But there are a lot of other newsworthy Working in a law office is a personal emotional roller time trying to get rich from his own infamy. He has things that don't make the mainstream media. coaster for anyone who has a scrap of conscience about drafted a 275-page memoir entitled The Ides Of March, has been so much going on lately in the civil rights civil rights. The victories are really tremendous and the portions of which were published in the L.A. .Times. He There arena that the should probably be defeats can be really crushing. As one writer (Balrog) described King with a racial slur and joked about using Post Amerikan published moreoften, just to keep up with it all. After observed in the last issue of the Post Amerikan, one of excessive fore� against minority suspects. it's going to be a really wild election year and a lot of the best things about writing for an underground all, "The guy is beneath contempt," said Joe Hicks, head of newspaper is getting to choose my own sexy pen name. the power in this country appears to be up for grabs. the Los Angeles office of the Southern Christian Since my job involves fighting in the trenches of the civil Anti-incumbent fever is sweeping the nation and this is Leadership Conference. "It's obvious we're not dealing rights war, it'll have to be Trench Rat. Not very sexy, definitely the year of the outsider.Register now to vote. • with a genius here." Other minority leaders also were but it fits. A true Trench Rat knows all the tricks to stay Strangers in a strange land quick to denounce Sgt. Koon's literary venture, wherein alive and unharmed, in spite of all the cheap shots flying he recounts, among his other memorable achievements, At first glance, H. Ross Perot could be very appealing, around. Knowing exactly what your civil rights are is a shooting a black suspect and later joking with his fellow simply because he's corning into the Presidential race big first step toward effectively defending them. I have officers that the man wouldn't die because blacks "are from outside the Establishment. He is independent from my share of war stories to tell. too dumb to go into shock." Sgt. Koon is looking for a the established parties and the of the smoke filled It is a war of attrition. Legal fees can run into the publisher; the truly sad.part is that he might find one. rooms. He's a rich man, but he started out from scratch. thousands of dollars very quickly and the defendants, And he doesn't owe favors to any special interests as a Bush did the r ight thing who are usually private companies or government My God, result. In the credit-where-it's-due department, must give agencies, can afford to outspend the average civil rights I At least that 's what he's saying . It's toobad that he some hesitant, reluctant, guarded praise to Mr. Bush. plaintiff. All too often a lawsuit is won by the side that is hasn't taken a stand on any substantial issues yet. As of Within an hour after the verdict in the King criminal trial able to pay its lawyers the longest. Delaying tactics are today, the best promise to the left is Bill Clinton, due to was announced, he put two Federal prosecutors on a very common. It's especially ironic when pan of the the untimely death of Jerry brown's campaign. plane and flew them to Los Angeles to look into filing money to defend these cre�ps comes out of the plaintiffs November is still in the fairly different future and Perot Federal charges against these officers. We can all still own pocket. When Rodney King sued the four police will have to start taking some stands if he is serious hope that they go to prison for a long, long time as well. officers who beat him, the cops got a free lawyer from about w.il!ning. the Attorney General's office. King's own tax dollars are Fortunately,the candidates of the radical right have ·It's called "the doctrine of dual sovereignty." It's one of being spent to help beat him in court. slithered back under their rocks. That would be more the funny little quirks of our legal system that, even Not having beeninvolved at all in the Rodney King case, · encouraging news if the guy who ste llered them though we claim to hate the "double jeopardy" of two amro I think I can still make two pretty safe observations about trials for the same offense, the Feds can step in to try and wasn't named George Bush. it was truly gratifying to the criminal trial of the four pigs who beat him, and the get a conviction if the state boys fail. always used to watch David duke get flattened so fast. Maybethe aftennath. Observation Number One: Guilty, guilty, I hate that c;oncept because our law office has usually been conservatives of the world are human beings after all. guilty. The jury system clearly has its limitations because on the side of the defendant. But in this case it suddenly PatBuchanan stayed on his feet entirely too long, this jury was out to lunch. however. We haven't heard the last of him, and he may seems kind of neat, don't you think? In law schools they use videotape as the textbook succeedin pushing B��h even farther to the right at the I must also give some golf-claps for California Superior example of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Watching _convention. Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, who presided over the fourcops deliver over fifty kicks and nightstick blows to the Senate, the primary victory of Carol Moseley trial on the state charges. Although he wasn't able to set In , one helpless black man who obviously was not resisting Braun is the most earth-shaking event in Illinois politics asid the criminally stupid jury verdict, he didn't waste . should have been enough to convict. It fills anyone who e since Lincoln went to the White House. Braun is on any time in declaring that Laurence Powell, the most ]has any faith in the legal system with a sense of rage. track to become the first black woman Senator in history. blatant abuser on the video, will be retried on the one Sgt. Stacey Koon and Officers Timothy Wind and Again,she is a political outsider. Like I said, register state charge that resulted in a split jury. Judge Weisberg Theodore Briseno were cleared of all charges, but they now to vote. also ruled that the trial will be held in Los Angeles remain suspended without pay. Officer Laurence Powell, She was an underdog who managed to beat two-term County, but the decision is being appealed. who can be clearly seen in the video delivering the Senator Al Dixon, the Establishment candidate, and majority of the beating, had an 8-4 jury split in favor of Chicago millionaire-attorneyAl Hofeld in a three-way The courts decided that due to pre-trial publicity (and acquittal. race. Dixon and Hofeld were the big campaign spenders, unrest), the first trial could not be held in L.A. This He has been fired. but they spent toomuch effort attacking each other. But the firing and the suspensions came, not after the wasn't such a bad decision, but it should have been held Like Perot, if this outsider is serious about winning there first broadcast of the video, but only after the massive in San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, or another city aresome moves that have to be made. With the moderate with a diverse population. public outcry that followed. Pan of the problem in L.A. Dixon gone, there is no incumbent for the Republicans to is Police Chief Daryl Gates. For years, as evidence of beat, so their odds are better. And with the liberal Braun The really stupid move by the Californiacourts was racism and abuse in his department continued to mount, threatening to win, the stakes are higher. The moving the trial to Simi Valley in Ventura County. This he denied the seriousness of these problems. Republicans will undoubtedly pour their resources into is a "bedroom town" for L.A. cops and other municipal The report of the Christopher Commission was Illinois behind Rich Williamson. workers, and there are very few blacks. The jury ended revealing. The LAPD clearly has more in common with a Underestimating an opponent is pretty stupid, but up with ten whites, one Hispanic, and one Asian­ redneck frat house than a professional, cosmopolitan Williamson is no Chuck Percy. In fact, he seems like American. Some critics claim that moving the trial to police department. Transcripts of police radio messages some kind of wimp. His campaign ads are the usual all­ Simi Valley virtually guaranteed an acquittal, but Judge have been loaded with racial slurs of every kind. Police white, flag-waving, family-values pablum that Weisberg is doing what he can to repair' the damage. even indulged in their own version of the helicopter Republicans have been routinely dishing up ever since it assault from Apocalypse Now, playing Wagner's "Ride worked so well in 1980. Naturally, he said the wrong thing of the Valkyries" on their squad car loudspeakers while In other words, Williamson is beatable. He's making ch!l.Tginginto a housing project on a drug raid. I'm neither hesitant nor reluctant about chastising Mr. absolutely no effort to build the kind of multi-racial As we all know, racism and brutality are not limited to Bush severely for blaming "the liberal welfare programs coalition that is Braun's opportunity to win. Braun must L.A. police officers. Just about every police department of the '60s" for the riots in L.A. Fifty-two deaths and make every effort to create sue h a coalition for herself by in the country has at least one or two people who truly $750 million in property damage (not counting the appealing to modemtt:s ·--·· . ·"'m-and-suburb pe_ople the deserve to be called "pigs." For example, we've got a damage done when the rioting spread to Atlanta, San who voted forDixon. In the primary she had the support client named Robert Mazzanti who was booked into the Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle and even Peoria), and the of blacks and hard-core feminists, but that is just not Peoria County Jail. Mindful of the King video, the jailers first thing he does is _ enough to win a general election. took Mazzanti to one of the few spots in the jail that blame it all on the liberals. Let's face it: those middle-of-the-road folk have had weren't overed by security cameras. Then they beat him images of Willie Horton and Cadillac-driving welfare c Granted, the way that these programs have been .;a--i; to a bloody pulp. queens programmed into their brains all too well by administered is really stupid: creating a cycle of - Observation Number Two: There are a lot of people in Republican admeisters. The image of a black female dependence, destroying ambition and self-esteem. But if lot of other cities) who were just L.A. (and, no doubt, a �:.enator who proudly hails fromthe left scares them a handled astutely, these programs are the solution, not the looking for an excuse to start looting and burning. Once problem. Perhaps this is what Mr. Bush intended to say the poor dears. If Braun can appeal to their sense of ·"'ii, these instigators got started, thousands more got swept fairness, she will win. If she doesn't, they'll "play it all along, but he has at his disposal an entire coven of up in thetum of events and took part. The ones who just safe" and vote for Williamson. Some really strong leftist professional wordsrniths to avoid a gaffe like that. went along with the flow, I believe, are the ones who are rhetoric in this campaign would feel good, but this Besides, he has had plenty of time to clarify his hauling in their loot to police stations and churches. This ��portunity for the left is just too good to waste. statements. He really did mean to just blame it all on the is the same sort of mass display of guilt that happened liberals. after the Watts riots three decades ago.

Page6 Unfortunately, while Rodney King had charges of If he had been black, there might have been another A white supremacist from East Peoria named Matt Hale assault and resisting arrest dismissed, Robert Mazzanti massive public outcry. Shadid and Lyons probably could was, for a very brief and distasteful moment, a client of was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law on similar not have avoided dropping the charges against him and ours two years ago. (Oops, excuuuuuse me --- he now charges. Fortunately, the jury took only 20 minutes to prosecuting the pigs who beat him, if only for political calls himself a "white civil rights activist.") The acquit him, and the jury fo reman wrote a scathing guest reasons. And the Justice Department might not have _ attorneys who run the office observed that people like editorial in the denouncing "the Peoria JournalStar, declined to press Federal charges against them. Hale have a right to legal representation as much as cynical prosecution of an innocent man." anyone (and probably need it more than anyone). At the The jury foreman also observed that the jailers were This guy was really fired because he's black time Hale was a freshman at Bradley University and the never charged for their . It prompted letters to the This hasn't been the only incident of prisoner abuse at Bradley administration was coming down hard and fast editor on both sides. Sheriff George Shadid and State's the Peoria County Jail. One of the jailers rnvolvetl- in the for his very first act of rabble-rousing. He came to us Attorney Kevin Lyons wrote that they "have long been beatings was black, and has been fired (although first, asking for help, so we took care of him until he committed to the stiff prosecution of criminals through Shadid's boys claim that the firing is unrelated to the could make other arrangements. fair play. Persons within the system enjoy no immunity beatings). This jailer has had the nerve to claim that the nor privilege whatsoever in the event they engage in firing was racially motivated! Ever since, Hale has been persecuted by every law criminal, or civilly abusive, conduct." If the civil rights movement can show enough wisdom enforcement agency that has had half an excuse to mess As Sheriff Shadid know:, he and all his deputie� .:::1joy and maturity to stop defining itself along racial lines, and with him. He held a rally in Pekin and burned an Israeli qualified immunity if their actions are not" willful, if it can enlist the Robert Mazzantis and the other millions ·flag; the Pekin police, perhaps attempting to rid Pekin of wanton, dishonest or reckless." A� Kevin Lyons of working-class white voters with whom it shares so its racist image, cited Hale for violating a city ordinance knows, he and all his prosecutors enjoy absolute much, then great gains can be made this year. prohibiting open burning. This was first passed into law to stop the burning of leaves and garbage and it normally immunity, which means that they can be "willful, Remember those middle-of-the-road folk from the farms involves just a notice to appear, like a speeding ticket. wanton, dishonest or reckless" any time they feel like it, and suburbs? The video of Reginald Denny being But they arrested him and hauled him away. and still be completely immune from a lawsuit.These two dragged out of his truck and clobbered scares them ten

professional politicians wrote a persuasive speech. They needed · times as much as Willie Horton ever did. (Denny Hale and his brother were later involved in an armed skillfullydeflected attention away from the case in 3-1/2 hours of surgery to remove two blood clots from confrontation of some sort with three black youths, and question, to troublemaking jail inmates who are "drunk, his brain.) That footage makes a very damning the two brothers were arrested for a variety of bogus loud and combative, spitting and urinating and shouting can point to counterpoint to the King video. Daryl Gates charges. They were all dropped, but a new one was filed obscenities." Mazzanti did none of those things, yet he cops too much, it and whine, "See there? If we punish against Matt Hale: obstruction of justice, for lying to the was taken to a remote part of the jail with no video streetcorner in America." . that could happen on every police about his brother's handgun. Since it was his first cameras to be savagely beaten. so stupid as handing ammunition There's nothing quite offense, he managed to get probation. This has been the I've had a lot of encounters with cops over the past 16 to. your enemies. only time that the criminal justicesystem declined to givt years. Most of them seem very professional. These are Every court case has civil rights implications. The civil him the maximum penalty under law. guys who wouldn't even think about violating rights of both defendant and victim are on tht; line in a someone's civil rights. They realize that if the suspect rape trial. Drug-related cases often involve right-to­ While on probation, Hale and one of his little buddies knows he's been busted fair and square, the whole questions. But a civil rights lawsuit punishes the were out distributing Duke leaflets at Northwocxls Mall procedure goes a lot more smoothly and they can at least offender directly for the civil rights violation, regardless and were ordered to leave by a security guard. Hale was look each other in the eye when it's over. They know of whether any other law was broken. At the law office within his rights; the guard had absolutely no legal that when one suspect takes a beating, so does the where I work, our most important civil rights case authority to order him to leave. But Hale told off the· reputation of the whole police department. involves the firing of O'Neal Jones, a black male, from guard a little too forcefully: he poked the guard on the But all too often these cops look the other way when his job at the Commonwealth Edison plant in Pekin. It all chin with his finger during the argument. Bingo, their buddies get a little berserk. There were only four started when he tried to get medical benefits from aggravated battery. cops on trial in the King case, but there were about 12 in ComEd to pay for his daughter's medical care. the video. The other eight looked the other way. The O'Neal was turned down when ComEd learned that this After the guilty verdict Judge John Barra, a former cops who are clean need to be more willing to do was an out-of-wedlock child. He fi led a complaint with Peoria County state's attorney, revoked his bond and as something about the ones who aren't. Otherwise, they the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and ComEd of this writing, Hale is spending four weeks behind bars become just as dirty.We must get tough with those who suddenly reversed gears: yes, illegitimate children do awaiting Barra's sentence on this nickel-and-dime power and with the instigators of the riots, but we abuse qualify. But O'Neal's life at work suddenly took a tum misdemeanor. Since he was still on probation, he can must also look to the causes of the riots. This was a b for the worse. His supervisors started writing him up for also e resentenced on, the obstruction charge. massive cry of rage and frustration. That's why nickel-and-dime infractions that they used to ignore --­ thousands of otherwise law-abiding poor people were and still do, claims O'Neal, when the offender is white. This is all very entertaining, but Hale's punishments swept up in the looting. clearly do not fit the he's committed. Everything Why can't we just live together? He has some convincing evidence. The work records of except the obstructioncharge has been exactly the kind at least four white employees at the Pekin ComEd plant Although there has been a lot of effort to poru-ay this of trumped-up bullshit that police and the courts have showed much more lateness and absenteeism than chain of events as race-motivated, race is only one of traditionally used to oppress people they don't like. we O'Neal's. When he was· fired, the excuse for firing him If many factors in what happened. Mainly, this was a case allow this bum's civil rights to be trampled on, the next • was eventually changed to "overall attendance record. " of the rich and powerful getting over on the poor and bum whose rights get trampled could be you. But these four white guys stayed. Perhaps O'Neal was powerless once again. And let us savor the exquisite the way to fired to retaliate for his Human Rights complaint but, to funny thing happened on irony of this: those people out on the street arc the ones A make a long story short, he was really fired because he's who are supposed to have the power. The cops, Bloomington ..· black. Blacks are more likely to have children out of prosecutors and all the rest are only supposed to be the Our law office has been pretty prosperous and we just wedlock; therefore ComEd's original policy was a subtle custodians of that power. That's all the more reason to rented a new officein another city. I was assigned the form of racial discrimination. throw the book at them when they abuse the power task of setting up the new office. It's a long d1ive and it they've been entrusted with.We must listen to the words O'Neal has filed a new Human Rights complaint and the had to be set up and ready to go by 8:00 a.m. Also, I had never been there and I wanted to allow a little extra time of Martin Luther King --- and of Rodney King, who evidence is compelling. Illinois law provides that any emerged from months of seclusion to videotape the employer found guilty of such a violation loses all of its to find the place, so I had to get started really early. I had to pick up some furniture at another of our offices in rioting and ask, "Why can't we just live together?" We government contracts for three years. ComEd is the main must remind our conservative friends that the utility earner for the Chicago area. Its fanatically pro­ Pekin. This was the very day that the rioting in L.A. had spread to other cities and every police department in the government's role in L.A. today should be more than nuclear policies have resulted in a long string of nuclear just cracking down on rioters. plants being built like a hangman's noose around the country was on the lookout for looters. Pekin has a The cities need jobs. Not just burger-slapping, toilet­ city. It's kind of amusing that after all those protests at reputation as a racist community, so the cops were scrubbing, minimum-wage jobs, but the kind of jobs that the nuke plants didn't close them, O'Neal Jones might especially worriedabou t a Peoria street gang coming pay for houses and college educations. The rebuilding of get the job done.all by himself. over and starting something.

the local economy after the Watts riots had tcx> much of So there I was with a couple of buddies at 4:30 a.m., the "hock shop" mentality about it. The businesses that Do white supremacists have civil rights? · looting an office right across Court Streetfrom the appeared could only recycle the pitiful resources that Tazewell County Jail. At least it looked that way. We were already there, rather than bringing in new resources were kind of in a hurry. Just as I was locking up and You bet they do. There's a story which, I believe, was and making a real difference. This time, we don't need a getting ready to leave, six squad cars converged on us first told by a survivor of the Nazi death camps: "First new row of hock shops in L.A. We need some genuine from all directions. The cops came flying out of their the Nazis came after the Jews, and I didn't object investment in the cities. It is far cheaper to schoola cars at us and I jingled my keys at them. It was like a because I never did like theJews. Then they came after young black man than it is to iail him. . medieval druid shaking mistletoe at a bunch of As a working-class white man, I have more m common the lallPtunionists, and I didn't object because I always barbarians: it stopped them in their tracks. h with Rodney King than with Daryl Gates. And he has thought the unions were greedy. T en they came after "''WI) more in common with me than with Clarence Thomas. the Catholics, and I didn't object because I don't like Then I started teasing them a little bit about calling out all Working-class white people are the greatest untapped Catholics. Then they knocked on my door and there was the Mounties on little old me. I asked them whether they resource of the civil rights movement. Although their no one left to object but me." If we allow the civil rights had reasonable suspicion, or probable cause, and I misery and humiliation has generally been less severe, of one class of people (no matter how much we might started listing Supreme Court cases which said that what there are white people who are just as miserable, dislike them) to be violated, it becomes that much easier they were doing was kind of questionable. Most of them humiliated and downright pissed off as anyone else. for the government to violate the civil rights of every one took it in the spirit it was intended: just teasing. But one People of color do not have a monopoly on these of us. little cop developed an attitude. experiences; for example, Robert Mazzanti is white. (But • I saw pictures of him a day after the beating and he Continued on page looked pretty black to me. Not to mention blue.) 8

Page7 ~ Letters

Another view on the condom shop protesters Outliving Post Amerikan

Dear Post Amerikan, Dear Editor, Then you have to move your inconspicuous car or van and park it at a discrete distance from the How do we chase away the protesters at the Congratulations to the Post on its twentieth Pussycat Theatre and Adult Bookstore so you Protection Connection? We don't! How do we �nniversary! can snap more incriminating photos of local, stop the Camera Man? We don't do that either! hypocritical politicos as they enter and then exit I have not been reading this paper quite that hours later, preferably with a glazed look in For one, we must condemn the pathetic attempt long, but nearly. Frankly, when I bought a their eyes and bags full of sex toys in their arms. at trying to make these teenagers feel guilty and lifetime subscription some hack, I thought dirty, trying to bust them on film and show timP surely my life would outlast the Post 's Now I Most of us currently working on the Post don't Mom and Dad how sick and unholy their little am not so sure. (Should have bought a lifetime have that kind of time anymore. We all have daughters and sons have become thanks to subscription to Mother Earth News, too!) very demanding jobs (many of us go to school Planned Parenthood (a belief that could only be full time, too) and volunteer our meager spare held in an ill-informed mind). But we should Back in the olden days, the Post had a lQt of local time to get the paper out. also take advantage of this white, upper-middle news, like scandals with the police, and class, totalitarian group of anti-freedom fighting, · We do not mean to disparage the investigative interesting local pictures, like Sherriff Tohn King George Bush ass sucking bunch of fascist pigs journalism that distinguished the Post picking his nose. Assistant State·s Attorney Brad [and show people] how maniacally twisted Amerikan in its early years. The Post collective's Muphy giving the finger to the Post [their] tactics [are] ! members who engaged in that investigative photographer, and so forth. reporting--of Sherriff King and MEG, for How do we do this? Simple! Counter­ example--bequeathed to their successors a most There is still a lot of local scandal that is not demonstrate! Get on that prick's filmage! Show honorable legacy, one that we are very proud adequately covered Pantagraph, 'em what we just bought and tell his viewers by the and one indeed to claim. how a group of right-wing scum are trashing would think that is grist for the mill of an Amerika's freedom. Tell them how [prohibiting] underground--or at least alternative-­ But you're right, Mr. Evans, the Post Amerikan newspaper. What did the Post do to cover Judge sex before marriage is a conspiracy manifested in hasn't had enough coverage of local issues and · the heart of a fascist country (Amerika) and its Dalton's drug case? Isn't there a lot more to the scandals for far too long. And you're certainly racist, sexist, homophobic, --Christianity­ story yet to come out? not the first reader in recent months to point -[conspires] to control Amerikan youth by [trying that out to us. to persuade] us that we [should not] love our I myself would much rather read more of what bodies or our sexuality. So if you'd be interested in doing some local is going on here than what the gay activists are investigative journalism, we'd be most happy to doing on the West Coast. Screw marriage. it's designed for males only. talk to you. More on that later... Hope you have another good 20 years! R�aders interested in writing for or working on B. A. the Post Amerikan in other capacities, please Sincerely, contact us at P. S. Havf? your readers write to me at my new Ethan Evans, fanzine: SubNormal, P.O. Box 602, Normal, IL The Post Amerikan Bloomington 61761 P.O. Box 3452 Bloomington, 61702 The Post Amerikan replies: IL L . (309) 828-7232 20 years of IP, too Dear Mr. Evans,

Back in the olden days, the Post Amerikan's Dear Post Amerikan, collective members lived in communes. Their A view from the Right rent ran about $20 per person, per month, so it Congratulations on 20 provocative and was not too hard for them to get by on low­ challenging years. What do I like about the Post payil\g and/ or part-time jobs that allowed them Continued from page 7 Amerikan? Knowing that there is another gritty plenty of time to devote to investigative ) group of people, in another conservative town, reporting. who know it's great fun to publish a newspaper. Well, our IDschecked out and we had no outstanding Investigative reporting can be a very time­ warrants, so they let us driveaway. One block later, six Best of luck. consuming proposition. In order to do squad cars pulled me over. seems that they had run It a investigative reporting, you have to find the check on my license and it suspended. All of the was Your comrades in print@, time to park inconspicuous cars and vans in cops had this "We've got your ass now, hippie" front of sleazy motels. Then you have to hide attitude.When I had my ha� on the tailgate of the L(ancaster) l(ndependent) P(ress l. out in them for hours on end so that you can pickup truck, about to be f#'sked, I did my very best snap incriminating pictures of self-appointed impression of a professor e police academy: P.S. Take it from us--it joesn't get any easier guardians of Traditional Family Values as they a{ih "Gentlemen, you may ha 't,ad reasonable suspicion to after 20 years. take leave of the bimbo du jour. � check us out back on the sidewalk for burglary, because it is 4:30 in the morning. But.you didn't have reasonable suspicion to check my drivirtg record or suspect me of any traffic offense. This bad bust." is a

Just like jingling the keys, worked like magic. The it attitude melted right off thelittle cop's face. One of his DIESEL buddies, a sergeant with a Smokey-the-Bear hat and I quarter-inch-long hair, just looked away and shook his head. Then I did a big no-no. While under arre st, without being told to, I t my hands off the tailgate, DICK'S ook turned around and said, "Now why don't you guys take we specialize in it on down the highway?" (Kids, don't try this at GM diesel repair home!)

I guess I had successfully de-arrested myself, because .« ..· complete automotive the little cop just told me to "let one of the little guys drive." Smoke was coming out of his ears. I suppose and truck service he had to say something to make himself feel like he was still in charge. All this extra entertainment value with 508 N. Madison 9 am - 5:30 pm your Post Amerikan, at no additional charge. 828-1 714 foreign and domestic --- Trench Rat Ms. Hippie

Dear Ms. Hippie, Remember, George Bush appropriated Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" hit song I have a slight problem. Well, actually, it's not for his 1988 presidential campaign, effectively slight at all. God just visited our neighborhood gutting that little ditty of all irony and wit. And that and totalled my car. I know that sounds crazy look where ·got us. but it's the truth. You see recently a 74 year old man "blacked ou,t" and rammed his car into While George and His Suits fiddled away, the several--four to be exact--cars which were parked urban poor exploded in quite understandable at the time (9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning) rage when the Rodney King verdict came down. outside my house, which isn't even a church. � Now Bill Clinton has started playing that same His insurance company (a HUGE corporation · if' tune on his saxophone for people whose lives based right here in Bloomington) is now �· are so terrible that they're forced to watch him claiming that this event was in fact an Act of play solo on "Late Night With David God. Wild, huh? You see, because this old man .,.. . ,. Letterman." ,._...... ,... has no prior medical history, because he wasn' t taking any form of medication, because he had And our spy close to Ross Perot reports that the no prior knowledge that he was going to "black Texas Terror is already ordering that his White out," this complete obliteration of four cars House stationary (should he have need of it) be wasn't really negligence on the driver's part, but embossed with smiley faces. Rumor has it he'll rather--according to Illinois State law--it was an then use that stationary to notify both Houses of "Act of God." Congress that he's setting aside the Constitution and suspending the Bill of Rights in order to

I'm very confused. I don't believe in God. So make Amerika truly corporate. first off, I don' t know whether I'm supposed to be grateful or what. And second, why should But perhaps, dear Camper, things aren't that

God choose a 74 year old white man as his dire. representative on earth? Wasn't his troop all made up of young, handsome dark men? And Ms. Hippie advises you to have your drinking third, why would God tell him to recklessly water checked and to ay·:iid RPpublican fund­ smash the shit out of four parked cars? Surely, raisers. Perhaps subscribing to Utne �eader and God would have better things to do with his Mother Jones, in addition to the Post Amerikan, time on Sunday morning? would help. Ms. Hippie suspects that neither State Farm nor God will be replacing your car. For your I feel kind of pissed off really as I was asleep in convenience, you may do so. bed and missed it. I mean, this could be one of those occasions that they'll write about when Dear Ms. Hippie, they put out The Holy Bible, vol. II in 6,000 years LOBOTOMIES . time. Should I just pray for a repeat next week, At the age of 31 I am suddenly compelled to put FOR REPUBLICANS 1 or does God only hit a time like Bloomington happy faces at the end of my letters, etc. Is this a just the one time? Also, I feel ingrateful because sign of complete mental debility? Any given the choice, I'd rather have my car back suggestions? than witness God striking twice. Should I try praying for the return of my car as was? If so, for --A Happy Camper how long would be an appropriate length of time to set aside? Forty days and forty nights Dear Camper, seem to ring a bell. I've never been in this Above all else, stop drawing those smiley faces! situation before, so I'm in need of guidance Complete mental debility? Very likely not. If You can get over it! And once you do, if you're you live in Bloomington-Normal, then your inclined to turning a profit to donate to some --Yours Waiting for A Sign signature happy faces could be an unconscious worthy leftie cause, you can write a book about compensatory gesture on your part. You could your recovery, tell viewers of Oprah and Phil to be trying to convince yourself that every day buy our book, and maybe run weekend Dear Wailing, spent here is a day spent in paradise. y workshops for compulsive smiley face doodlers, Or perhaps you're unconsciously trying to and charge them outrageous registration fees. One must understand, living here in convince your friends of that in an effort to get Bloomington-Normal, that anything that is not them to return your visits? an act of State Farm is an act of God. After all, 1 That way you'll not only underwrite a worthy every fifth building around here houses either a However, you may indeed have cause to worry. cause, but you might also put in end to the more State Farm branch or a place of worship. Let's It's possible that you've become brainwashed by absurd forms of the "recovery movement" and · look at some other basic facts that you seem to watching too much television coverage of the thereby perform public service of infinite value. misunderstand. three current frontrunners in the presidential race. Like the nature of insurance: an insurance .J. policy is only good for events that the insurer expects to happen. Unexpected events are never covered. These are acts of God. These acts seem to be negative--things like billboards falling down on people's houses. Ms. Hippie has never heard this phrase officially used in the context of pleasa nt unexpected events--like finding a hundred dollar bill on the parkway or having a second orgasm. In fact, these would ordinarily be labeled as acts of the devil.

Next, let's look at the nature of institutional language. At its best, it has a rather elegant indirectness. Consider, for example, all the signs you see that ask you to do something completely against human nature "for your convenience." Thus, we can assume that an "act of god" has nothing to do with the deity or religion. It is merely the insurance company's nice way to say "a nasty, messy event that we want nothing to do with." With this translation, you will see that your theological questions are useless. Most, are.

Page 9 · ~

News from Voice • • •

Vo ice fo r Ch oice is looking for a pro-choice poster Marie your calendars now, the Second Annual The entire NAMES Project AIDS Memorial person. We are offering a free pro-choice t-shirt to Lefty Follies Variety Show and Harvest Moon Quilt will · be unfolded the first person to send us a good photo of one of Dance will be held October 24th, 1992. in Washington D.C. from October 9- 1 1, 1992. the anti-choicers pieketing outside of Planned The.focus of the event will be to draw attention to Parenthood. Taking the photo is perfectly legal so Look for More information in the next Post the need for an immediate, continuing and long as the individual is participating in a public Amerikan. compassionate response to AIDS. Call l-800-22 1- demonstration. Picketing is a public demonstration. NAMES for more information. Because we will want to enlarge the photo, (life size • • • if possible) we will also probably need the negative . • • • We hope to have a life size cut out available. As a fundraiser people can pose with the cut out and have On April 30, l 992, the U.S. House of their picture taken with an infamous anti-choicer. Representatives, for the second time in six months. The Supreme Court will likely announce their voted overwhelmingly to stop the implementation decision in the Casey case this summer. This is the Mail your photo entry to: of President Bush's Title X gag Pennsylvania law that, if upheld, will virtually gut Voice fo r Choice, P. O. Box 905. Bloomington. IL 61 702-0905. Be rule. Roe vs Wade. Vo ice fo r Ch oice is working on planning some events once that happens. The sure to enclose your name, address and home phone number. The House voted 268-150 to pass H.R. 3090, problem of course is that we won't know when it's which extends the Title X program for five years going to happen until it happens. If you would • • • and writes the old standard for like to be on otir list to contact regarding this counseling - non-directive counseling on all · event please call 828-3 108, leave your name, options - into law. address and phone number and reason for your On April 23, New York City's condom call. We will add you to our phone tree and distribution program for city schools survived its Last November the House vote(! 272-156 for the contact you. to notify you of the date, place and first legal challenge. Labor - HHS appropriati ons bill that contained a time of the action. rider stopping the gag rule. President Bush vetoed The lawsuit filed against New York City Schools • • the bill, and the House fai led by only 12 votes to • Chancellor and the New York City Board of muster the two-thirds majority needed to override Education was dismissed. The lawsuit, filed by a the veto. board member four parents of students, claimed that the schools' condom distribution program v Thenewly passed bill now goes to a House-Senate iolates the plaintiffs' religious freedom. The suit conference that will craft a compromise for also claimed that the program is a health service n action by both houses. that should require parental conse t.

Contact Representative Tom Ewing, let him know The judge ruled that the school program does not where you stand on this issue and remind him that violate reli_gious freedom because no student is you'll be voting in November. forced to participate. He also ruled that the program cannot be defined as a "health service" Source: Insider under state law and therefore does not require parental consent. • • • Sourt"e: Insider •

• • • Voice fo r Choice is asking for your help. As you recall, we are less than pleased with College Hills Mall because of their discriminatory Sociologist Maria Osmond of Florida State treatme t of Planned Parenthood. We are asking � \Jniversity s�udied condom use among 620 high pro-choice people to save their receipts from any nsk women m Dade and Broward Counties. She stores in College Hills Mall that they shop at and found that "women generally would not negotiate mail Voice for Choice a copy of the receipts. Voice fo r Choice is looking for volunteers to condom use with someone with whom they have Please block out your credit card number if you march with us in the annual Labor Day Parade. an emotional investment...For many. this person charged your purchase. We have contacted the Last year we were verbally assaulted by a number may be her only emotional support and her only stores in the mall to ask them to put pressure on of anti-chokers in a number of locations. We economic support. Often, he represents her only the mall administration. If Planned Parenthood is would like to make a statement of strength home." denied booth space next April for "Start Talking regarding the pro-choice movement in this Week" we will declare a boycott of the mall. The community through the parade. Did we mention Ms. Osmond found that when prostitutes made the receipts will be useful in letting merchants know that last year the Christian Action Council also condom-use decision with clients. 92 percent used how much shopping pro-choice people do in their . marched? Women, men and children are all condoms m half or more of their sexual stores each year. invited. We hope to have a float to go along with encounters. When women made the deci sion with the Supreme Court Potato Heads we had last year. primary partners, however, only 49 percent used Send your receipts to: Voice fo r Choice fou can call us at 828-3 108for more information condoms more than half the time. Condom use Box 905 Bloomington, IL 61702-0905 P. O. or just meet us on September 7, 1992, at 9:00 a.m. dropped further when men, especially husbands in.front of the Planned Parenrhood offi ce at 318 and lovers, made the decision or it was not • • • W. Wa shington St. , Bloomington. We will /lave discussed. Ms. Osmond says, "These women know someone escortyou to our place in the parade th� risks but can't plug their knowledge into action lineup. with men they are dependent on or in love with." "I'm not registered to • • • Source: United Press International , Ma rch vote because voting 18, 1992 is a waste of time." For those of you who were wondering, Planned • • • Yes, it's to vote politicianswho hard for Parenthood has appealed the decision of the United lessthan Yes, there are are Ideal. a lot W.ay of McLean County to withdraw $20,000 of politicians who up saleto of are for the $26,000 it usually awards to Planned Pro-choice Republicans are criticizing the highest you and bidder. But if don't Parentho�. Vo ice fo r Choice offered the United threatening party leaders. saying they should vote, someoneelse wUI. "someone ls the rich Way an opportunity to fully explain the rationale reverse the GOP's long-held opposition And else" and to legal powerful profitthe most from the ll� abor who behind this decision (what you may have read in tion. Reagan/Bush administrations. They're all the Pantagraph, according to United Way insiders, registered, they and will vote. was not the whole truth). We also asked the The party's platform now calls for a constitutional WhDe most the working is catching of class hell trying to put on our families United Way to share with us the criteria they use amendment banning abortion. food ' tables, the rich in evaluating prevention programs. The United and powerful are finding to screw newways us. Way declined both requests. The United Way will Ab ortion rights supporters vowed to take the fight Protesting against unfair. corruptpolitics announce their decision regarding the appeal on to August's GOP convention, warning of · bynot voting Is like protesting against June 12, 1992. We will keep you informed as to November defections. unfairjob conditions bystaying You only hurt yourseff. what is happening. home. "Pro-choice voters are becoming single-issue Register. And vote. • • • voters .. .It should alarm you," said Ann Stone. leader of Republicans for Choice.

page 10 11

for Choice

But Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Republican National Coalition for Life, said, "the American people ... respect public officials who have strong convictions and stick to them." Gosh you're right Phyllis, that must be why we respect George Bush so gosh darned much.

The exact wording of the Republican party's 1988 party platform is "The unhorn child has a fundamental individual which cannot W be infringed. c therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment."

You'll not ice that this wording implies that the would take precedence over the mother's life under all circumstances.

The Democratic party platfonn states "The fundamental right of reproductive choice should be guaranteed regardless of ab ility to pay." '"BE.SIDEA� qR)' LETTfRS Dff1/WPIAlq A PAR EWt\l L.E,\VE LA�.·

• • • I5 Tt/ fRE AWT'FllN'4 ELSE YO U REALLY NE. U>?"

A new test cuts to two days, from four weeks, the time needed to diagnose contagious tuberculosis. Anyone interested in serving as a clinic escort can The U.S. House recently voted in favor of call Vo ice fo r Choice for more information. legislation removing the restrictions on fetal tissue It could help contain·the devastating lung disease, research. Unfortunately they probably don't have staging a strong comeback in cities and among • • • enough votes to over ride a promised veto . those with weakened immune systems.

• • • Among the causes: new Mrainf) resistant to the An internal memo released by an official with the dmgs that helped reduce TB cases to a low of dept. of Health and Human Services has advised 22,000 in 1985. the Bush administration that special funding to For those of you who were wondering, according research women's health issues is not necessary. If to Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, he "hates The rnrrent test involves culturing bacteria, which the Bush administration heeds this memo look for the renaissance." takes up to a month. Meanwhile, the bacteria is them to cut funding for research into breast • spread by coughing or sneezing. cancer, ovarian cancer, endometriosis. and a host • • of other issues specific to women. The underlying The new method detects the TB genetic material in message seems to be that if wealthy white men Dr. Sharon Weaver, prominent anti-choice olJiDD cough secretions. says Dr. Kathleen Eisenach, can't get it it's not important enough to study. is apparently angry with the Women's Studies University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dept. at I.S.U. As part of the W�men's History · Little Rock. • • • Month celebration t1ie Women's Studies Dept. held a panel discussion, the topic, child birth opti�.

She reports today to the American Society for · May 13th was declared lobby day in Springfield. Represented on the panel were a physician, a ·· Microbiology in New Orleans. The focus of the day was a General Assembly nurse, anti-choice midwife, a consumer and a resolution supporting the import of RU486 into health educator. Weaver was apparently upset that given information about options to Using the new test: the U.S. for testing. Local Planned Parenthood women were *84 of 85 infected patients tested positive Board members and supporters attended the event. traditional childbirthing. *62 of 64 not infected tested negative. Senator Maitland was unsure of his vote on this i)..

• • •

The Bush administration recently announced its Vo ice fo r Choice coula still use donations More than l 00 abortion protesters converged on a plans to establish fetal tissue banks for the purpose (surprisingly enough we don't get any money Champaign clinic on April 17. Many of the of research . The banks would collect the tissue from anyone but our supporters). All donations from miscarriages and spontaneous . are app reciated, they may be sent to McLean protesters entered the building and blocked : hallways. Even Bush administration officials admit that the County Voice fo r Choice, P. O. Box 905, plan is ·worthless, there are two probl ems: I. Bloomington, IL 61 702-0905. The protesters chained themselves together with there won't be enough tissue to carry out the kind · bicycle locks. Two locksmiths were called to the of research needed; and, 2. the tissue from • • • clinic to cut through the chains. Other protesters miscarried will likely be damaged,

taped metal rods around their forearms, making deformed or diseased thereby rendering it useless. • -.:i. • their arrests more difficult. The remaining protesters were outside of the clinic blocking Suppbrters of the Busti plan state that more doors, singing, praying and reading from the abortions would be performed annually if the CAROL�:: Bible. The idiots also tried to rush the clinic tissue of aborted fetuses were made available. doors. Apparently they believe that more women would MOSELEY . feel that abortion was okay as long as the fetus The protest was organized by Collegians Activated could be used for medical research. Absurd. to Liberate Life . Peter Heers of Concord, BRAUN :': California, a spokesman for that groups said the A REAL·DEllOCRAT· ···.: protest - "a regional rescue" was the year-old · ;·· ' The use of fetal tissue research and implantation is FOR CH.ANGE-' .. groups first such effort . Heers admitted that the vital to the study of many diseases, including protesters were largely from out-of-town and leukemia and AIDS. Those who oppose the use of We can �Ip Makehist �: .: :r consisted of students from eight states and 25 caro1 Moseley Braun trying · fetal tissue for such purposes are costing is tobecon\e· th.w �:;� Afrlcan-Amerlcon colleges. . woman to.ever serve Inttie:U nlttilf individuals their lives each day that research States �te. o candidate ·� ts CEJrol ls. $fl0ng wifh'C> delayed. record of suppor11ng. -orid t8c:: . · 1 -:-.progreuMt."' The group vowed to be back the next day but only causes. nota '. She Is typlcQl:�'·'i; she·l8P.... you and me t a handful of protesters showed up. Unfortunately The really ironic part is that this is some of the aodthe thloglh� we�'· for the patients of the clinic (the clinic provides she needs are same technology that the right to lifers hold up as And ourhEJIP. If� Wllllngto dc;i at1' your time. your full medical services for women including fertility mone'f,oryQt,tr.IeS OUllCeS�j reason why deformed fetuses should not be computer. etc.). please col MCtBon�0Uh�' 44i4:-. treatment and exams) the protesters screamed aborted. Go figure. for Carol Moseley Br_ un � at��3108 or8� 1�!':�� things like "It's never alright to kill your baby."

_,.,.,,... � ' c .

Page1 Some intoxicating

• facts • •

Eric also discussed the psychological addiction The earlier letter that he was responding to was Dear Post Amerikan Readers: that was described at the World Health written by my friend, Eric Vaughn, and Organization Conference. However, he was published in the "Forum" on April 14. I saw the Although the Bloomington Pantagraph has rig�t to say that pot is not physically addictive, letter before it was sent in. Eric never claimed always been a little too conservative for our unlike alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, aspirin and that smoking pot was entirely risk-free. The leftie blood, the Peoria Journal Star has shown most prescription drugs. editors of the Journal Star edited out the some refreshing diversity as of late. In their following: "In all fairness I must observe that "Forum" for reader mail, several letters on both Also, Eric was right to claim that pot can't kill riving a car, or operating anv other machinery, sides of the marijuana issue have been printed. � Jangerou�, you're intoXil·atcd the user through "medical effects." Alcohol, But the following letter, written by a certain I� very Whetht.'r aspirin and prescription drugs can kill by on alcohol or pot." hippie we know, was just a little too close to the overdose; also, the deadly long-term effects of truth for even the Journal Star to print. Of alcohol and tobacco addiction are well-known. In fact, the National Traffic Safety Board spent a course we're printing it, and it contains enough Marijuana does none of these things. Dr. few hundred thousand tax dollars in 1970 to find references to the other letters to be self­ out that stoned drivers aren't as dangerous as Horndasch knows all this, yet he chose to divert explanatory. We hope you appreciate the brutal drunk drivers. Both are dangerous because the attention to trauma patients with traces of pot in truth. motor skills (such as depth perception and eye­ their blood. hand coordination) were equally impaired. But I read with interest Dr. Richard Horndasch's the psychological effects of the two drugs were April 20 response to an earlier letter to the editor very different. Drunk drivers became Above the doctor's letter on April 20. the in the Peoria Journal Star "Forum" regarding nh overconfident and reckless, while stoned drivers , marijuana. Dr. Horndasch has been provided Journnl S;n r ,:·d it,1r\ ,: :11k ri�'.htl) lh'\l ;11.· more often became overcautious. with the tools of knowledge but, like so many others, he wields them as weapons to help the government wage its "war on drugs" which, in the case of marijuana, has been a war of disinformation. Dr. Horndasch is in distinguished company. The The Po letter st last person to criticize a "Forum" that Resource advocated legalization, Michael Banks, currently under Federal indictment for embezzling money from the Community AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power/ McLean County Human Rights Coalition Action Agency, where Banks is the executive Central Illinois (ACT UP/Cl) c/o Voice for Choice director. Banks has already offered a guilty plea, PO Box 3452 proving that those who try to attack marijuana PO Box 905 Bloomington, 61702 IL Bloomington, IL 61702 use on moral grounds all too often have little to 827-6841 brag about when it comes to . [Editor's 828-3 108, ask for Linda Note: The guilty plea was rejected by the judge Meetings: Alternating Thursdays, and a new trial has been set. 7 p.m. at Up Front Gallery, McLean County Voice fo r Choice 102 N. Center, 2nd floor, Bloomington. PO Box 905 Bloomington, IL 61702 Amnestey International/ISU 828-3108, ask for Linda Dr. Homdasch mentioned a study at the Shock 146 Braden Meetings: Alternating Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. Trauma Center in Baltimore, stating that Illinois State University Call for meeting info. marijuana traces were more common than Normal, 61761 IL Newsletter subscription: $4.00donation re­ alcohol in the blood samples from trauma 454-2902, ask for Scott quested patients. The doctor chose not to mention that a ·Meetings: Alternating Sundays, patient could take one toke from a joint, inhale 8 p.m., 112 Fairchild, ISU. Post Amerikan Newspaper d�ply, and not be substantially impaired, yet the PO Box 3452 evidence will still show up in his blood 30 days Bloomington/Normal Anti-War Coalition Bloomington, IL 61702 later. 829-3701 828-7232, leave a message 827-6841, ask forScott Even if the patient smoked a whole joint and Gay And Lesbian Alliance (GALA) Meetings: Call for information stayed stoned for two hours, that gives 360-to-1 146 Braden, ISU Subscriptions: $4.00 for one year (six issues) odds that this patient with traces of pot in his Normal, 61761 blood was actually stoned at the time the trauma IL 438-2GAY (0429) Progressive Student Union (PSU) occurred.Compare this to the drunken killers Meetings: Wednesdays, 8 p.m. 146 Braden, ISU on our highways, who can be completely ISU campus Normal, 61761 alcohol-free hours later. IL Fairchild Hall 112 452-3781, Angie 452-7955, Michelle Naturally most pot smokers (and most drinkers) ISU Feminist Alliance Meetings: Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m., DeGarmo 55 1, are intoxicated more than two hours per month, 146 Braden, ISU so the odds are a little better than that. I've just ISU. Normal, 61761 tried to show that by introducing the 30-day IL timespan required by the medical facts, it's 436-0383, ask for Kate Eisenhour Rape Crisis Center unfair to blame all these trauma incidents on 436-0134, ask for Jenny Melnick Use PA TH phoneline pot, or to leap to the conclusion that it's more Meetings: Check ISU Vidette 827-4005 dangerous than alcohol. There are just too many for meeting time and location variables. Men Against Rape Student Environmental Action Coaltion (SEAC) I've also tried to show how isolating one 146 Braden, ISU 146 Braden, ISU , Normal, 61761 Normal, 61761 variable can distort the whole picture by .,. IL IL showing only a small part of it. It is profoundly Meetings: Mondays, 7:30 p.m., Stevenson 352, Meetings: Alternating Wednesdays, irresponsible to suggest, as Dr. Horndasch did ISU 7 p.m., Schroeder 415, ISU. with his selective use of the facts, that alcohol is safer than pot. In any direct comparison, pot is McLean County AIDS Task Force Students for Choice far safer than alcohol, tobacco, and many of the Phoneline: 827-2437 (827-AIDS) 146 Braden, ISU Monday-Thursday, 7-10 p.m. Normal, 61761 drugs that doctors prescribe. IL Inforecor ding at other times. , 454-8587, ask forLainie Emergency/crisis: PATH, 827-4005 Meetings: Thursday evenings, Meetings: First Thursday of every month. Call 8:30 p.m., Schroeder 114, ISU for information.

Page 12 ·ie. Human Rig hts Coalition . collecting evidence of An open letter • sexual orientation • • government tor its two-year entrapment discrimination While defendants risk lengthy prison sentences, campaign against a Nebraska farmer. In that case asset forfeiture goes on at the same time in civil the crime alleged was child pornography, but the court, where the government doesn't have to tactics used in the "war on drugs" are no less prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, in appalling and far more common. They include asset forfeiture a defendant is guilty until he both entrapment and invasion of privacy, and proves himself innocent, just like the old The McLean County Human Rights Coalition _t hey're being used right here in central Illinois. witchcraft trials. And the judge, almost always, would like to know if you have ever been is an ex-prosecutor. discriminated against based on sexual orientation. Believe it or not, obedience to the Bill of Rights We believe that it is time Bloomington/Normal can result in effective police work. It just means had a human rights ordinance that protected the that the police have to work. But the lawyers, It's impossible to prove a negative. After the rights of gays and lesbians. judges, and even a few doctors are getting rich inevitable verdict, like church and king, the law fighting the war on drugs, just based on their enforcement agencies divide the spoils of war. We have been told by some city government salaries. As if that weren't enough, Operation There is no limit to this government witch insiders that it would be helpful if we could point Graylord showed that some of the judges, cops hunt. It's more and more stylish for our courts to some actual cases of discrimination, then we and prosecutors take bribes. and our legislators to support the war on drugs, could prove the need for the ordinance. by relaxing the rules that govern police and by Apparently thus far they have not acted on such an providing them with more money and more ordinance stating that no one is de manding one and power. that there is no proof of need.

There's the law, and then there's justice; when it comes to marijuana, they are definitely not one and the same. Treating harmless pot smokers with the same harshness (and the same disregard for civil rights) as the heavily-armed crack dealers is an outrage. The government's war on marijuana exemplifies everything that is wrong with our government.

Yes, Dr. Horndasch, it would be smart to get the facts. But let's get all the facts, shall we? I believe that continuing this public dialogue is very important. Once the public is fully informed, the · hypocrisy of the war on marijuana and the And some of these guardians of truth, justice Byzantine mercenaries who are getting rich If you have been discriminated against please and the Amerikan way are the worst junkies of fighting it will be fully revealed. contact us c/o P.O. Box 905, Bloomington. If you all. Power is a very addictive drug and it's an do not wish the information to be used publicly. · incredible high. As Henry Kissinger observed, please let us know. power is also the ultimate aphrodisiac. A.J. Whenever the cops break down a door, slap the handcuffs on or abuse a prisoner --- whenever prosecutors ask for harsh sentences and judges oblige them --- the power junkies among them are getting a fix. Any junkie who needs a fix will break a few rules.

The editors asserted that "there is a limit to government witch hunts." In the Middle Ages, church and king allied themselves to prey upon anyone who was a little different, or .who lived alone. When the poor victim was burned at the stake, church and king divided her property equally among themselves. Widows and other single women who owned land were most frequently targeted, because the authorities had something to gain and because theSe victims couldn't fight back effectively.

In the modern witch hunt, the goverfrr.ent preys on minorities and hippies because they're a little different, and because they can't fight back effectively. Although the "grunts" of the war on drugs may actually believe they are doing it for the good of society, the "generals" have their own motives. They have a socio­ political agenda that the drug war is only a small part of.

In the opinion of the social engineers of the right, the hippies and minorities who are a little different have to be beaten into submission and conformity. Pot symbolizes the defiance of the left against the orthodoxy of the right; therefore, the drug war is the perfect weapon to beat them down with. It has been carefully custom­ designed to bash.hippies and minorities.

Page 13 Guatemala 1992 Peace and social justice nowhere in sight

An eight-year old boy, Israel, temporarily resting Guatemala 1992: Peace and social justice nowhere in sight with some of the other children, admits to being "very tired," but he says he has to "help his Our man in Central America, ]on Reed, reminds father." Since Israel's father lost his job (like 535 Post Amerikan readers that the strugg le for a decent others on the march--because of trade union life for all is not limited to the United States. activity) their family has been eating only what they can find, "wild herbs and grasses and a few Marching with the army of the disenfranchised fish from the river."

In the mid-day heat, 2,000 Guatemalan The Mayan Gulag campesinos and workers are marching silently h nort along the Pacific Coast highway. After The mountains and volcanos in the distance are hiking five days and 125 miles, after spirited majestic, but unfortunately peace and social Among this week's notable and grisly events in rallies of plantation field workers and trade justice are nowhere in sight. Listening to the the southern region are the discovery of a unionists in the conflictive zones of Coatepeque, stories of these embattled campesinos, I see that clandestine mass grave in San Marcos Tealhuleu, Mazatenango, Patulul, Santa Lucia, economic deprivation and injustice have cnntainmg a half thv.:-n 1·prp�.:-� ot v. nni.:-n \'v fl•' and Escuintla, these apparently tireless reached new levels of barbarity. previously had "disappeared"; a "kangaroo campaigners--members of the UASP (the Union court" judicial hearing in Coatepeque of Trade Unionists and Popular Movements)-­ While the newspapers and television are filled investigating the case of a Mexican journalist are a mere 12 miles from their final protest site, with reports orr p i n and bribery of c u t o (whom the Army claims was killed in combat, Guatemala City. while banks, military officials, and right-wing fighting alongside URNG), who actually had . businessmen are awash in narco-dollars; while been kidnapped, tortured and killed by counter­ The hand-lettered sandwich-board style signs new exclusive housing developments are insurgency officers; a 19-year old man robbed draped over the shoulders of the Mayan­ mushrooming in Zone 15 of the capital; 85% of and murdered by the assistant chief of police in featured men walking next to me explain what's the population, according to the latest statistics, Coatepeque; a small-businessman from happening: "Farmworker families are dying of are living in poverty. As President Serrano and Escuintla, robbed and shot to death by the hunger"; ''The minimum wage (supposedly $2 a his U.S. and other international creditors herald National Police; a schoolteacher who worked on day) is a wage of starvation, and the patrones (the successful "economic adjustment," and the a plantation near Mazatenango "mysteriously" land and factory owners) are not even paying government prepares to levy new taxes on the assassinated; a campesino in Santa Rosa that"; "While corruption and impunity persist, poor (while reducing taxes for the wealthy), the murdered, death-squad style, by a group of there can be no peace"; ''The only peace that so-called "Program of Tax Modernization," armed men, in the presence of his family; exists is the peace of the cemeteries." prices are rising for life-and-death necessities, another Santa Rosa farmer, dragged out of his . and wages--for those "fortunate" enough to house and machine-gunned by a squad of A straw-hatted, barefooted compa smiles as he have a job--are falling. heavily-armed assassins; and finally, hands me a leaflet for the CUC (the United indiscriminate attacks by Guatemalan Air Force Campesino Committee). It reads: "For Life, Meanwhile, behind the facade of this tourist and jet fighters and and helicopters on civilian­ Land, Employment, and Peace." On the other foreign investor's paradise, savage repression populated zones near Nuevo San Carlos, side it says that Guatemalans have a right to continues. Activist maquiladora workers and Retalhuleu and Rio Bravo, Suchitepequez. struggle for a small piece of land, for human plantation field hands, like many of those here rights, for a just salary, for humane working on the march, who .are caught trying to organize Peace talks at an impass--armed resistance ' conditions, for the right to organize unions, and unions or fight government austerity measures, continues for a just and negotiated peace. are routinely fired, threatened, and/ or killed by Near Villa Buevo, the march passes the remains death-squads. of a downed and twisted 30 kilovolt electrical As a human rights lawyer recently reminded transmission tower. The tower was blown up by me, among the most often over-looked and URNG guerillas on March 26 as part of their oppressed victims in this "Mayan Gulag" are the ongoing economic sabotage campaign. Although indigenous women (80% illiterate, highest the URNG has been negotiating with the unemployment, lowest earnings, longest Guatemalan government for the last two years, working hours, lowest nutritional intake) and both the URNG and the above ground popular their children, 40,000 of whom die annually movement have recently criticized President from easily preventable, medically curable Serrano and the military high command for diseases, starvation, or chronic malnutrition. their intransigence. As the URNG put it in a communique released this morning [Aprill, Murder, Inc., still in business 1992], "the peace negotiations are not advancing, and in fact they are at an impasse ..." Specifically, According to reports in the .national press, there the government, even in its own words, is have been 150 political assassinations and refusing to negotiate the dissolution of the Civil disappearances in the last four months [dating Patrols; the military draft; a reduction in army backward from April 1, 1992]. The organizers of forces (currently 43,000 troops) or military the march UASP, have denounced the death spending ($322 million--a 64% increase since threats., which have been made this month 1985); the formation of a "truth commission" to [March, 1992] against all of their leaders. investigate human rights abuses (over 150,000 assassinations and disappearances) or to discuss While a military-connected commando set off a the "humanization" of the war in regard to the bomb on a University building in Guatemala wounded, the captured, the displaced, and the City a few days ago, (a sequel to the bombing of civilian population in general. the Vniversity Students' Association (AEU) headquarters in February, 1992), this week's In response, 3,500 guerillas of the URNG have terror has been especially concentrated in the stepped up their attacks, carrying out takeovers Pacific Coast agro-export zone, where left-wing of numerous fincas, roadways, and villages in URNG guerilla activity and grassroots the southern plantation zone as wells as in the organizing have been advancing steadily. The departments of Quiche, El Petem, Alta Verapaz, Costa Sur is the agricultural heart of the country, Huehuetenango, and the capital area itself. Over and its land monopolies and slave-labor the last month, the URNG has inflicted over conditions are the key to the continued forty casualties on government troops, and has dominance of the oligarchy and the military. caused significant material damage in sabotage attacks. In turn, the government has returned to its old rhetoric, calling the URNG "delinquents and terrorists." Government and military �pokespersons bcl.'n '>O this WCC'k who have yon.:- iar as to claim that guerillas are linked to the drug cartels, a charge highly ironic given the frequent and undeniable links (cited even by the United States' own Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala) between Guatemalan military officials, the police, government bureaucrats, businessmen, and cocaine traffickers.

Page 14 And in regard to to the counb /s increasing As we arrive chanting in the industrial outskirts crime wave, which has led to a "tourist travel In March 1992 alone, over 50,000 campesinos of the capital, the column gradually swells to advisory" on the part of the U.s. State have taken over garbage dumps, vacant 5,000. Squads of spraypainters, with red as · Department, recent statistics indicate that farmland, or literally any space they can find for bandanas over their faces, remain active. They many as 80% of all violent crimes in Guatemala shelter. According to the government planning have literally left a trail of educational messages are committed by active-duty or "ex-" military or office, Guatemala needs at least 800,000 more behinds us that stretches all the way to Coatepeque. police officers. dwellings--i it V'!!r,r.t;•. to house adequately its f,, , burgeoning population of nine million people. Fearing anarchy, and citing the need to A wall of sympathetic bystanders, coming out In this period of economic austerity, the death "develop" some day Villa Lobos III, the from dusty and grimy factories, shops, and stores squads and and the security forces are apparently government sent in 400 armed riot police on take leaflets and voice their verbal or express branching out from murder and kidnapping March 26, 1992 to evict the squatters and tear silently their support. In front of the Coca-Cola factory, union members hand out free cokes and into bank robberies, car thefts, extortion, and down their shacks. · cocaine smuggling. Fantas to the thirsty crowd ..

At the Trebol Park, we are joined by hundreds of trade unionists and indigenous women in their traditional clothing--representing GAM (families of the disappeared) and CONAVIGUA (war widows)--as well as by a contingent of hooded and robed students from the AEU, who are brandishing wooden clubs and steel pipes, to defend us no doubt, should the march be attacked. The black and white hoods and robes

· are the traditional garb for a forthcoming student anti-government, anti-military protest

march, La Huelga de los Dolores, [which took place around April 11, 1992).

The end of the road, but not the end of the struggle

After a lively march through the crowded rush­ hour streets of downtown, Guatemala City, we arrive at nightfall at the Plaza Mayor, in front of the National Palace. Although a rainstorm drenched us a half-hour ago, we are now_at least 10,000 strong, and a palpable sense of

accomplishment and confidence· seems to animate the crowd.

Byron Morales from the UASP is cheered as he denounces the' the government for the illegal firing of workers, the continued impunity of human rights violators, the lack of social, labor, and economic justice, and the impasse in the ...... "�rr's ulf W•a, surwtfER� oo Wf sueP ?" peace negotiations. Pointing at the National Palace, Morales says it all: "This is a government of the rich." evictions have been taking place all Villa Lobos 111--life in a garbage dump Similar over the country. But some of the evicted After the rally ends, the 2,000 marchers from the After several more hours, we come upon an families here have already returned, rebuilding Southern Coast make the decision to camp out enormous barranca or street hillside, a favored their flimsy dwellings. With a backdrop of in front of the National Palace until spot for the military and police to dump bodies, buzzards and young children scavenging in the President Serrano agrees to meet their demands. as well as the site of a large garbage dump, where mounds of garbage, a group of pregnant women Overhead the sky has cleared. Many of the over the past few weeks, 18,000 homeless rather uncomfortably pose for a news exhausted marchers are already sprawled out on squatters built an entire village of cardboard and photographer. Asked why they had returned, the stone plaza, sleeping. A few stars are visible. plastic shacks, called Villa Lobos III. one young mother, holding a child in her arms, But an end. to this struggle seems nowhere in says simply, ''We had no choice." sight.

--Jon Reed

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Page 15 ~ ic Police Terror Hig hlights Social Decay in Costa Rica

Over a fiveday rampage the drug warriors Action: Behind closed doors, both Calderori and Once again, the Post Amerikan 's man in Central handcuffand threaten a five year old Indian girl Arias admit that, yes, they and their respective America, this time reportingfrom Costa Rica, . whose mother has been "uncooperative": set fire political parties did accept "questionable" funds

notes that things are no better there than they are . to Indian huts; rob, assault, and intimidate from CIA fronts. money launderers. and in Guatemala. ·villagers; spray-paint houses with death threats; representatives of cocaine traffickers in the beat and starve their hostages; and rape two 1990's. But, they both maintain, they weren't ..The Security forces of Costa Rica have ceased to indigenous women, one aged 15, the other 24. aware that this money. these personal gifts and

be agents of peace, and instead have become · Informed on Feb 22 that his men had killed two campaign contributions, were "tainted" at the time converted into agents of , repressing the suspects, the Guardia commander, Col. Carlos that they received them. And yet many informed

population which they are supposed to be serving. · Poveda, for the Limon zone does nothing. On Feb sources, as well as ordinary citizens, seem to find 24, fearing public outcry, Poveda orders that the the "plausible deniability" of Arias and Calderon -- Dr. Hugo Alfonso Munoz . 12 police marauders be taken into custody and rather hard to believe. National Assembly Deputy charged. At the moment of their arrest the Cobra Commanders are enjoying themselves in a bar in Puerto Moin, just north of Limon.

Right-wing Costa Rican President, Rafael Calderon. reacts to this reign of terror by declari ng in San Jose that he sees no reason to discipline or fire Col Poveda, despite the fact that the Colonel inexplicably waited almost three days before detaining the members of the "Cobra Commando."

Calderon and his Minister of Security, Luis Fishman. do their best to play down the incident. emphasizing that these rural marijuana farmers are "armed and dangerous" (in their week if terror the Commandos encountered no one with '

According to reports in national press. Arias the No,this is a resorted to serious arm-twisting in an attempt to not Guatemal , avoid testifying before the Commission. In one of C f Arias' more blatant collaborations with the anti­ this is osta Rica Sandanista drug traffickers during the Iran-contra era. it was revealed that Arias deposited a $20.000 check from the Ocean Hunter Corporation {a front for the Reagan/Ollie North/Nicaraguan Contra SceneI: Febntary 21, 1992. network) in his own personal bank account; while Calderon and his cronies. for theirpart. accepted a Cunabre, Limon, a remote, impoverished, mostly $I 00, 000 campaign contribution from notorious indigenous-populated area in the mountainous US money-launderer Lloyd Rubin. rainforest and banana plantation region of eastern Costa Rica. Other cocaine traffickers such as .John Hull, Fernando Duran Ayanegui, James Casey, Sheik Action: a dozen heavily-armed, camouflaged-clad, Kadir Sahib Tajudeen, Ricardo Alem. Lazaro specially trained rural Guardia, led by Rambo­ Abel, Caro Quintero, and Manuel Elizalde were style alumni of US Chilean and Israeli counter apparently bi-partisan--preferring to give money insurgency schools have apprehended a to both the National Liberation Party (Arias' "dangerous suspect," Rolando Watson Suarez. party) and to the United Social Christian Party found to be in possession of a bag of marijuana. (Calderon's party). But of course nothing is expected to happen to either Arias or Caderon for In the presence of a group of terrified indigenous this hanky-panky. and campesino "detainees," kidnapped two days earlier and forced to accompany the drug warriors . as hostages and guides through the jungle, the As the respected weekly newspaper Semanario police tie Watson to a tree and proceed to torture Universidad put it in their Feb 7 edition: "it is laim. Warning Watson that they have "a license to doubtful that any if these revelations about kill," the soldiers demand to know where the No, this is not Columbia or Miami. narcotrafficking will hear fruit, given that this marijuana fields of local Indians and small farmers This is Costa Rica Commission itself is made up of representatives of located. After Watson refuses to answer, two these very same political parties: and given the . are of the Guardia shoot him, at point blank range, in Scene II (A .flashback): January 20-30, 1992. San world-wide nature [of drug trafficking] as well as the chest. Later the rural guards murder d'ather Jose, the capital. the involvement of current government officials, suspectedmarihuani sta, Julio Trejos, as he security and espionage agencies, and . attempts to flee from them. Costa Rican Special Legislative Commission on the ambassadors." After Watergate and Iran-Contra Drug Trafficking. Witnesses are being called (don't forget the BCCI), this all sounds rather before the Commission to testify about their familiar, doesn't it? · Throughout their ordeal the hostages of the drug police warned to "watch their step" by the knowledge and/or involvement with Contra/ are patrol commander, Lieut. Minor Masis, who, in Noriega/ CIA/Medellin Cartel cocaine trafficking: his own words "loves to kill." Over the next three money laundering; and accepting donations. days the ..Cobra Commandos," as they are called, Among the more illustrious Costa Ricans brought Continued on page 17 continue their "anti-narco" operations, terrorizing in to testify are former President ( 1986-90), Oscar indigenous residents unfortunate enough to live in Arias and current President, Rafael Calderon the area. (1990-94).

'Page 16 Continued from 16 page A recent study found that 20% of the countries richest families receive 50% of the national income, while the poorest 20% obtain barely 5%. Yes. This is Costa Rica. Nearly one-quarter of the Costa Rica national Sounds familiar'? budget now goes to pay the interest on the country's (unpayable) four billion dollar foreign Scene Ill: The streets of downtown San Jose. debt, making it impossible to maintain the Ma rch 1992. necessary social safety net. Although the country has received much publicity for its environmental Action: Most capital residents this week say that programs. Costa Rica's timber industry (and they are appalled by the action of the Guardia in desperate campesinos) are deforesting the country Limon province, but will admit to being even at the world's fastest rate (5.9% per year). more preoccupied by their own financial problems; by the increase in crime all around For the moment there appears to be only one them (up to 50%, according to some sources); and really "promising" economic growth industry in by the dramatic escalation in governmental and Costa Rica--cocaine transshipping and money police arbitrariness and corruption--chorizo laundering--which of course has its ..down side." (literally "'sausage" or bribery) as it is called here. The US Embassy and local DEA operatives, taking note of this phenomena. emphasize that the Tico Today's newspapers routinely report yet two more police must be militarized and thoroughly trai ned police atrocities (a "specially trained" Tico in counter-insurgency techniques. And yet recent policeman shoots an unarmed 18 yr old prisoner events seem to have frightened and disillusioned locked in his cell in Tres Rios; narco police even the most rabid law n' order advocates. One terrorize Pacific Coast fishermen as they search can only hope for the best. But, for the moment, for a supposedly " giant" hidden cache of things are not looking that good here in the Colombian cocaine), but even ordinary folks are "Switzerland of Central America." · complaining about the fallout of social But what are the structural causes of this social' decomposition. ;--JonReed malaise and militarization? What's happening to San Jose, Costa Rica what was once the most peaceful and tranquil . Accordi ng to tourists, whenever you take a rental March, 1992 nation in the Americas? Most people on the street car out on the highway these days you are running here will tell you straight out that it's the the risk of being shaken down for a bribe by the economy. The "Economic Adjustment Pac kage" highway patrol. Street vendors in the capital also mandated by the Bush administration and the IMF complain about harassment and police shakedowns. are destabilizing Costa Rica, just as they are (The police,I am reminded, earn- less than $150 a destabilizing the other countries in Latin America month in salary). On the Avenida Central, nearly and the developing world. everyone. foreigne� and Tico alike, seems to be clutching their hand bags or back packs today as if they expect to be mugged at any minute. While wages and social welfare programs are being reduced. prices are rising. unemployment is There are steel bars on literally every window and increasing. and more and more people on the door in the metropolitan area. The radio. TV. and bottom of the economic ladder are fe eling newspapers publicize a steady stream of robberies, desperate. While there are certainly more new rapes, assaults, and homicides. The once mostly Mercedes Benz and BMW autos on the streets (a unarmed Tico police now brandish sidearms. and manifestation of drug money accordi ng to many even M-16s and Uzis. Gun shops report a brisk Ticos) there are more beggars and derelicts as business. Special "tourist police" are on duty in well. While t0tirism and banana exports have downtown areas. Welcome to the New World expanded. so has the misery and poverty index. (dis)Order.

"Tellthe people we're r-etumi119-t:o ci"ilia11rul e­ � suit'sback. from the cle aners.n

Page 17 News from Lambda

Lambda condemns police brutality and racist oppression in King beating verdict

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund joins Condemning those responsible We can begin doing this by forging bonds of in the national cry of outrage over the acquittal coalition and support that are not willfully blind of four white police officers who assaulted The acquittal of Rodney King's attackers and its to the long-standing and systematically­ Rodney King, and expresses grief for the aftermath have shown us plainly that our entrenched problems of racism and classism that violence that has torn apart our cities and society must be transformed if it is to survive, our different commu_nities face. As communities across the nation. and that those currently in positions of power lesbian/ gay /bisexual people, we must be as must be held responsible for their construction committed to ending racism, sexism, and The tragic and devastating events that occurred and support of a system that is inaccessible and economic oppression as we are to ending in Los Angeles and other cities across the hostile to so many voices. homophobia. As citizens of different and reflect the racism so deeply entrenched country overlapping communities we must call upon all in nation's legal system, law enforcement our of our brothers and sisters to meet us where we agencies, and economic structures. The riots live and to recognize how our issues are horrible because they destroyed lives, The cause of the violence and the rage that were connected. businesses and homes. But now we must followed the verdict was not only the failure of rebuild our communities--whether they twelve jurors to see Rodney King as a human smoulder in the fires of rioting or the fires of being. The violence and rage result from In ad�i �ion, we can begin changing this country frustration-- and forge a society that is mindful decades of fragmentation and marginalization of by vo1cmg our rage through voting. When we of the disastrous effects of racism and economic people of color from and by the larger society. look at a Senate Judiciary Committee which is oppression and that is committed to eliminating composed of twelve white men, we can go to the these and other scourges rooted in prejudice. polls and vote our rage. When we examine the policies of twelve years of Reagan/Bush What the events reveal Given this larger perspective, we must condemn administrations and the decimation they have those responsible -on a systemic level: Los levied on social services in general and on our Many of our communities are oppressed and Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates; and Presidents cities in particular, we can go to the polls and then pitted against each other. Exclusion and Ronald Reagan and George Bush. The Reagan vote our rage. Everywhere--from our local alienation from the political. legal and economic and Bush administrations--and their school boards to our national presidential systems lead to violence. A country where conservative counterparts on the state and elections--we can register ourselves and our police feel they can target the people they are municipal levels--have systematically communities, we can march to the voting supposed to protect is a country where abuse of dismantled civil rights , purposely pitted booths in peaceful, angry crowds, and- this power has gone unremedied too long. We must disenfranchised groups against each other, and Nov�mber and every November after, we can have responsible law enforcement--that is, eroded basic human respect for nearly all . vote our rage. enforcement which is not infected with racist or Americans except the powerful privileged few. other dehumanizing stereotypes.

Throughout the history of this country, the assaults on vulnerable groups--native people, Taking back the system, making it our own people of color, women, gay,lesbian and bisexual people, people with HIV I AIDS, religious When systems of justice and law enforcement minorities an d others--has proliferated fail us, our response must be to take back the uninterrupted. In the last twelve years of the system. We must continue to challenge the Reagan/Bush administrations, these attacks racism, classism, sexism and homophobia that For our part, Lambda will continue to wage the have only accelerated. The events in Los prevent justice from being served. In this battle fot human dignity and human rights in Angeles and other cities have shown that there context, the work of lesbian, gay, and AIDS the courts and challenge the legal system to see is widespread police abuse of minorities--from advocates, in alliance with other civil rights all of us as full human beings with full human, refusing to protect women from abusive organizations, is more critical than ever. The civil, and legal rights. We will continue partners to entrapping gay men on "lewdness" survival of each of us depends on the survival working to change the legal system to accept gay charges to beating African-American men in the of us all. A true civil rights movement men, lesbians, and people with HIV/ AIDS as harsh light of a video witness. Clearly, racial, combines inextricably the issues of people of full citizens of this country, and will continue to gender, and anti-gay stereotypes are incredibly color, women, gay people, people with stand in solidarity with other civil rights groups potent and have the ability to turn human AIDS/HIV, econQmically oppressed people, and and activists so that all members of our beings into non-human caricatures. We ignore people with disabilities. As Rodney King said, communities can be treated with the dignity and this dehumanization at our imminent peril. "We must all pull together." respect they deserve.

Hospital ordered to hire HIV+ pharmacist

or lose federal funds The decision by Administrative Law Judge Steven T. Kessel in the federal government's April 20-In the first federal civil rights Department of Health and Human Services followed a week of testimony from public health enforcement action based on HIV discrimination, a federal administrative judge experts, including doctors from the Centers for ruled that a major medical center in New York Disease Control and National Institutes of discriminated against an HIV-infected Health. Based on this expert testimony, Kessel pharmacist when it refused �o hire him without ruled that the discriminatory policy of WCMC of restrictions on his duties. The decision, which placing limits on the pharmacist's performance of duties, such as the preparation of IV products, ordered a cut-off of all federal assistance to the hospital until it ceases its discrimination, sent a violated 'he federal Rehabilitation Act. Kessel strong message that health care workers with ordered that all federal financial assistance to mv who use universal precautions pose WCMC, as much as $107 million, be terminated virtually no risk to patients. until the hospital rehires the pharmacist without restrictions or penalty.

Lambda Staff Attorney Evan Wolfson said, The case first arose in 1986 when the pharmacist "Today's ruling restates the overwhelming was hired by the Westchester County Medical expert evidenc:e that, with proper infection Center (WCMC) and came in for a routine o,ntrol practices, health _care providers present physical. an admitted. breach of state _s In viftually no risk to patients. The key to confidentiality rules, a nurse from another protecting against HIV transmission is to clean section of the hospital informed the hiring up the workplace, not clean out the workers." physician of the pharmacist's lilV status. The Medical Center then refused to give the - In parallel litigation, also brought by Lambda, pharmacist his job. the New York State Division of Human Rights held on December 12, 1990 that WCMC's policy violated the New York State Human Rights Law, which prohibits HIV discrimination.

Page 18 Lambda news continued -

Lambd_a wins second jury Ninth district court re jects trial; sheriff discriminated army in Pruitt v. Cheney

April 21--A federal jury in Denver has May 8--The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the sheriff of Weld County, · rejected the petition of the United States Army Colorado intentionally discriminated against a for rehearing in the landmark decision of Pruitt reserve deputy sheriff solely because the deputy v. Cheney. In that case the same court ruled last was HIV positive. The jury found that the August that plaintiff Dusty Pruitt, a former sheriff violated section 504 of the federal Army Reserve Captain, must be allowed to Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits disability­ continue her lawsuit, which challenges the based discrimination by any program receiving policy banning gays and lesbians from the federal financial assistance. The case is believed military. The court also rejected the Army''S to be the first HIV-related jury trial under the request that the entire Ninth Circuit rehear the Rehabilitation Act and the first such case case, noting in its order that no judge on the involving an HIV-infected law enforcement .court had requested a vote to rehear the case. officer. Concurrent with its order rejecting the petitibn The verdict represents Lambda's second victory for rehearing, the court issued a modestly in a jury trial in a six week period. In March, a amended opinion that clarifies its earlier jury in Florida found that the Orange County holding that the Army must show a rational sheriff had fired a deputy for being gay. basis for its policy that is not based on the prejudice of others towards lesbians and gay In the Colorado case, the Weld County sheriff' s men. The amended decision states plainly that office declared in a letter terminating the tension based on prejudice against homosexuals plaintiff, Bret Tanberg, that Tanberg's fellow is not a legitimate basis for the policy, and that, officers no longer wanted to work with him instead, such disapproval is justified only when because he was rumored to be HIV positive. In linked to specific acts of criminal conduct. reaching its verdict, the jury rejected the notion Lambda Staff Attorney Mary Newcombe said, that Tanberg posed a direct threat to others by "Being gay is not a criminal offense in any working as a law enforcement officer. jurisdiction of this country, including the military. This decision squarely places the "The jury's verdict demonstrates that the burden on the Army of showing that its prejudice of co-workers cannot justify irrational discriminatory policy is not based on prejudicial discrimination against people with HIV," said attitudes about gay people and assumptions Lambda Cooperating Attorney Lynn Palma. about how they conduct themselves." "The jury's decision shows that federal laws against HIV-related discrimination not only Pruitt' was discharged from the Army Reserve in . 1983, protect HIV positive people in large following publication of an interview metropolitan areas, but also prohibit about her ministry with the Metropolitan discrimination in rural communities like Weld Community Church. The decision of the Ninth · Circuit County." is now final and the case will be re n:�nded to t11e district court, unless the Army The court gave the parties ten days to file petitions the U.S. Supreme Court for review. proposals related to equitable remedies. Tanberg KILL':> will ask the court to order Weld County to provide comprehensive AIDS awareness training to its employees. LESE>\� DEAD Lambda Legal Defense ~ andEducation Fund. Inc.

Secretary of Army discharges lesbian colonel despite objection by N ational Guard The order to discharge Cammermeyer..ames just days after Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) and 33 co-sponsors introduced legistlatio!l that May 29--In the midst of renewed opposition to the would direct the President to overturn the ban military 's 40 year-old ban on lesbians and gay men against gay m�n and lesbians in the military. in the armed forces, the Secretary of the Army has Lambda Staff Attorney Mary Newcombe ordered the discharge of a lesbian colonel in the observed, "This ill-formed decision to discharge a National Guard with a stellar 26-year career. remarkable servicemember--against the desires of Colonel Margarethe Cammermayer--Chief Nurse her fellow colonels and immediate supervisors-­ of the Washington State National Guard, who was represents the senseless destruction of a long, awarded the Bronze Star for her service in Virt committed and spectacular career. Clearly, Greta Nam and was selected V.A. Nurse of the year in Cammerme)'er is of the caliber and the quality of 1985--now faces discharge, effective June 11, the kind of person we need and deserve to following the procedings on an administrative serve our country. We will fight this injustice, hearing board which stated that it was their "sad and are planning a lawsuit stop this irrational duty" to recommend the discharge, despite to bigotry, this waste of human resources and Cammermeyer's outstanding record of service and taxpayer's interests." leadership, merely because she is lesbian.

Lambda Executive Director Kevin Cathcart noted, Discharge procedings were initiated against "As the stakes keep getting higher, and the FINEST GA Y ENTER TAINMENT IN C ermayer after she acknowledged her sexual amm mi�ry has to go greater stretches to justify its CENTRA L ILLINOIS orientation a Defense Department investigator to to senseless policy to an increasingly disbelieving 733 S. W. Adams, Peoria, IL, during a review of her security clearance. The public, the pressure mounts for the anti-gay ban to (309)676-9030 investigation was precipitated by Cammermayer's go the way of racial and sexual segregation in the application the Army War College, where she to military." NEWHOURS : hoped to obtain credentials to support her bid to Sunday thru Thursday 10:00 AM · 4:00 AM Lambda Legal Defense andEducation Fund is a become Chief Nurse of the National Guard. Friday thru Saturday 9:00 AM · 4:00 AM national advocacy organization with offices in Present this C ermayer stated, "I am being discharged for New York and Los Angeles. Lambda is dedicated ad at the bar tor a drink. amm ' One per customer per night my honesty and integrity." to protecting the legal and civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS, and to assuring sound public policy on AIDS and health care.

Page 19 10118£ £ s1R, r 'M A MEMB£� OF A SMALL 6R.OUP tJF CUNlE.RMEO CITIUNS [email protected].;n111r I� HoMosEtUAt(jOurOf 10w�,A>tD RIEMf N()foJHEAf, l-fot))W6 OUR. �NNUALrU tJORAIS�R. 10 14£LPPtAIG !

. No. rmal Theater to reopen 'o

Fund raising for the project is being done The lights turned on for the very first time at through several different venues. T-shirts, Drag show to the Normal theater in November of 1937. Since buttons and mugs are all being sold by local that time it as been a landmark, both in stores and businesses in conjunction with the downtown Normal and in many people's lives. "Light It Up, Turn It On" program. ,benefit local theater Now the Normal Theater will get another chance to do what it does best. The "Light It Up, Turn It On" program offers two options: interested individuals can donate - Les Follies Faux will be presented on Saturday, The Normal Theater closed in mid-1991 and sat $250 to turn on a letter in the word_ August 8, at 8:00 pm at the Unitarian / unused until November of the same year, when "Normal ' or donate $100 to turn on one of the Universalist Church at 1613 E. Emerson in · the city bought the building in hope of restoring marquees neon lights. Bloomington. The show, featuring �lowly laJie�. and reopening it. handsome genileman. and a.:ouple we're not quite People interested in making donations, -;ure of," i� the lir;,t pre�entation nf Bent Productions. The idea behind the restoration is to reopen the suggestions or volunteering their help in the : i · Bent Productions is a new non-profit organizatio)l theater as it original y appeared in 1937, but now restoration project should contact: dedicated to raising funds to support other local use it as an all around community center. The lesbian/ gay /bisexual oriented theatre activities. Normal Theater will be available for a number "Light It Up, Turn It On" of uses ranging from private birthday parties, to c/o Normal City Hall Tickets are $5 at the door. Call 827-7289 for more local bands, and music recitals. 100 E. Phoenix information on the show or on Bent Normal, IL 61761 Productions. In a survey conducted by the city, all of the 100 people responding said they :were enthused about the theater's reopening, and :would probably use the building. All inquiries and/ or correspondence are welcome. In addition to the public rentals, the theater :will also be used by the city for things like film --Alex Bennett festivals and library programs.

The restorations of the Normal Theater :will be

...... done in t:wo stages. In the first stage,the marquee ...... will be restored to its original appearance and the facade will be restored. The rest rooms will be made accessible and the second film screen will be removed. Every effort will be made to return the building to its original Art Deco style.

In the second stage, the ceiling, walls, lighting and seats will be restored. New location! Even though so much attention is focusing on returning the theater to its original style and appearance, some compromises must be made if the theater is to be used for things other than just showing films. • M ETAPHYSICAL:aooJ

Other compromises include basic lighting improvements for live performances and an ·:=rrn_:::--· : updated sound system. .·::-:-.:n · + · ·.. . Ecr ...� · NN 1·: N The architect who has been invited to supervise ·� 0:=::: the renovation is Gail White, of Carbondale, IL. mr. White is experienced in the area of theater restoration. and specializes in acoustics. He has ·�708;:�:�;; �:\,\1;%,, already started work, and has just recently "�""'�·W-'''''?4«::9-827-6257 submitted his preliminary plans to the city - council. These plans include projected timelines

...... and costs estimates......

Page 20