The Sun Is Moving!

For the past few months we have been talking about the SUN moving to the community center on Washington St. and a lot of people have not understood why we want to move and how we are going to go about it.

In understanding why we want to move to the community center, it is first important to understand why the SUN should not continue to be produced from the Rainbow House- the responsibility for the SUN has been on the Rainbow People's Party for the editing, production, and publishing. The reason for this responsibility being that we saw (see) the need for a community newspaper that Ann Arbor didn't have, and to fulfill the need at that point meant that we had to put our energy into this task- energy that wasn't coming from the community.

Because of the work we were engaged in to free brother John Sinclair from the confines of the penitentiary, work that took 100% of our time and energy, we had to utilize the SUN to its fullest extent which greatly limited the coverage of community news, programs and ideas. We did not have the energy to do both as separated things and definitely didn't have the time to make an organized attempt to obtain the energy from elsewhere. This same principle holds true for all the work that the RPP is engaged in- due to limited amounts of energy and space everything that we do from 1520 Hill Street has to be directly related to other community work. This is very limiting on what the paper is able to print, and at the same time the paper doesn't have a chance to be in contact with all that is happening-a lot of important things have been bypassed in the past due to this.

In order to overcome these limitations it is necessary for the isolation that being produced from the Rainbow House basement supports to be removed and replaced with a production location in a center of community activity that will afford everyone the opportunity to utilize the paper. Of course, the community center is the ideal location because of the already large number of community services that have been Consolidated in that building- the ballroom, the Free People's Clinic, the Community Center Project, Drug Help, Ozone House, Matrix Library, the creative arts workshop. Tribal Network, and the Tribal Council meetings are held there. This is all good because it begins to unify the community by building close working relationships which in turn is conducive to creating a unified community ideology. The best way for the SUN to help build this unified community struggle with a unified ideology is to be part of that unification- just as the best way Tor the Rainbow People's Party (or any person or organization) to be able to help build this same community ideology is to be part of that community struggle by concrete participation, and work by an ideology reflective of those conditions in our community that force us to struggle. But the physical capacity of the building is limited thus limiting the number of organizations and persons that can be there. However, with the SUN being a part of that physical form the number of people that can get that information about the different areas of need and struggle and that sense of unified ideology becomes a whole lot more (15,000 SUNs per issue). I guess we all know all this already but I just wanted to get it down on paper to make sure that we all understand it together, you know what I mean? We can't make significant changes working as separate entities, as isolated struggles, because when we bring it right back down to the basic things that are being struggled against and for we see they are the same in all areas of our lives.

Again, the RPP has had the responsibility for the SUN, and we want to share that responsibility with other people- the community should be and feel responsible for the paper. To begin preparing the paper for this shared responsibility we have transferred the responsibility of editing the paper from the Central Committee of the Rainbow People's Party to the Editorial Committee of the paper itself. This new committee is made up of party members and community members that have been committing their time and energy to the paper and have shown a responsibility in seeing that the paper gets out on the streets. And we want to get more people to have this same sense of responsibility for the paper. At least every six months we are going to rotate two members of the Editorial Committee by selecting two members of the SUN staff that have demonstrated their commitment and responsibility to the paper. The reason for this type of self-selection from the staff is to ensure that the people that are doing this task have the training, commitment, and responsibility necessary to do the job correctly. Another thing that we are going to begin doing is te have community meetings the Wednesday after the issue comes out at 1:00 pm (at the SUN, 1520 Hill Street) to discuss and criticize the paper as to what is presented, how it was presented, etc. At this time people should bring forth articles, news, and ideas that they want to see n the SUN, or changes that they want to see the SUN go through.

One of the main problems the SUN is still plagued with is the economic situation of the paper- we are just barely reaching some of the cost of the paper with the RPP having to pay the rest. A new production room in the community center will cost money, around $500 to take care of buying all the materials that are needed to build the layout and light tables, storage space, etc. Next week, May 30, June 1, and June 3 we are having benefits at Mr. Flood's Party, the Odyssey, and the Blind Pig respectfully from which all the cover charge will go to the SUN for its move to the community center (see back cover for info!). Everyone should come check out the music that will be happening even if you don't indulge in alcoholic beverages, and if you can think of any other ways that the SUN can get money (we still owe the printer in Chicago $1200) let us know at the meetings on Wednesday. As you can see in this issue we don't have as many ads, which is our main source of income (the other is through our limited subscriptions) which again limits the number of pages in the paper. But we be working on that front on all levels, all the time, because there is a whole lot more that is going on that needs to be in the paper, and the things that are already in the paper have to be able to be explained and discussed a whole lot more in a deeper context.

Another economic change in the SUN is that next issue we finally are going to go back to selling the paper, this time for 10¢! All the money that the street seller gets they keep, for each paper sold from a store the SUN will get a nickel, and the store will get a nickel. So if you want to sell the SUN and cop some bread for the summer drought then see Craig Blazier at 1520 Hill Street or call 761-1709. In Detroit and the rest of the state. Big Rapids Trucking Company was delivering the papers to all the stores, but now because of the SUN's support of McGovern they refuse to distribute the paper. We're sorry that the SUN hasn't been getting to all the people that used to get it and the people who haven't had the chance to get t. We want to set up a distribution network for the SUN in Detroit-people to come to Ann Arbor and get mass quantities of the paper and take them back to the stores in Detroit and to sell on the streets if they want. The easiest way to sell the SUN on the street though is to do it here in Ann Arbor. Well, there is a whole lot more that we have to discuss about the SUN but again there isn't enough room so I got to stop for now so if you have things that you want to talk about come to the SUN community meeting Wednesday, 1:00 pm at the SUN 1520 Hill Street. ORGANIZE AND CONSOLÍDATE! UNIFY AND EDÚCATE!