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City Council Wrap Up

City Council Wrap Up image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
May
Year
1972
OCR Text

ships here in Ann Arbor.

      "In the future, we must get council to take strong stands on the war, to end discrimination due to sexual preference, to fight for labor and tenants rights and to provide better services for all people."

"BOMBS - PERFECT CONSUMER PRODUCTS"

     City council will have a chance soon to vote on a law that would make Ann Arbor corporations that produce war materials for Southeast Asia liable to criminal prosecution. If the law s approved, the warmongers could go to jail for 30 days.

     An investigation into possible city action to halt the war was the subject of a public hearing before council on May 17.

     "Standing by in silence every day cripples our souls charged Richard Bergman, who grew up in Nazi Germany.

     Because the war is a moral outrage, HRP member David Cahill argued, anyone who directly contributes to the war is violating the public "good"and should be declared a "public nuisance."

     Cahill proposed a law that would read: "No person shall produce, manufacture, fabrícate, offer for sale or sell any goods within the city ... to destroy or impair human or animal life or property in Southeast Asia."

     Steve Nissen, another HRP member, suggested that Ann Arbor be declared a refuge for draft resistors where they would be protected from federal agents.

     Other people were upset that the city's pension fund is invested in war bonds ($2.5 million) and in public utility bonds like AT&T ($10 million). Mike Dover told the council it should sell the war bonds because they are not making money anyway and "the government doesn't look too good, so we should sell before it collapses." Doug Wilder also suggested the city get rid of its other bonds. "Industry goes where the money is -- the Pentagon," he said. "Bombs are perfect consumer products. Use them once and they need a replacement;

OUT OF CLOSETS, INTO STREETS

    In another public hearing, city council heard the Vietnam struggle compared to the gay liberation struggle.

    "I think it is the same male chauvinism and machismo that caused the Vietnam War that causes the oppression of homosexuals," stated Richard Kurnis, a physican and psychiatrist.

     Other people related how homosexuals are discriminated against.

     Jeff Stewart said that when he was teaching he was asked not to teil his students he was a homosexual. Others told how sodomy laws are still used to put gays in prison.

     A homosexual's experience is profound suffering, said Jim Toy of Ann Arbor Gay Liberation. "There is no legal or economie recognition of our legitímate existence,"he said. "You heterosexuals deny your bisexuality." Jim added: "Helping us to achieve our liberation will in some small way help you to achieve your own."

     Republican Councilman McCormick seewed to think he was being personally threatened. "Does accost ' mean a homo can grab me on the street?" he asked.

     HRPer DeGrieck retorted, "Men have been grabbing women on the streets for years and no one's been too concerned about that."

     HRP members have already drawn up a resolution to knock down all penalties for homosexuality and to give civil rights to homosexuals.

     LINDA ROSS