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Ann Arbor Sun

Ann Arbor Sun image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
September
Year
1972
OCR Text

The Ann Arbor SUN is a bi-monthly community newspaper published by the Rainbow People's Party serving the Ann Arbor rainbow community now for over a year, 39 issues. The first issue of the SUN in its present form came out May 1, 1971, announcing the beginning of the Rainbow People's Party. It started out a weekly 16 page paper sold for 15 cents. It was a lot of work for the few people who were then working on the paper to gather information, write, type, and lay out the paper in one week. In addition, the paper had to be taken to Chicago to get printed because no printer around here who was capable would do it. The weekly grind made it almost impossible for the members of the SUN staff to help with other work that was necessary in building our new rainbow community, particularly, it didn't leave time to carry on our fight to change the unconstitutional anti-marijuana laws and Free John Sinclair, who was sentenced to 91/2-10 years for possession of two joints. So, starting issue, number 11, the SUN went bi-monthly.

The paper had to reach a lot more people than it was reaching if we were to build the  massive campaign around John's case that we were talking about. The distribution system and the charging of 15 cents kept the SUN from reaching a lot of people, so we decided to increase the number of papers printed and to give them away free, because the main thing at that time was to get information out into the community. It was issue number 19 that first came out free and our strategy worked as masses of people united in their demand to Free John Now and John was released from Jackson Penitentiary Dec. 13. A few months later John won his case, with the Michigan supreme Court saying what we had been saying all along, that the Michigan marijuana laws were unconstitutional.

With John back on the streets, the SUN could now devote a lot more time and energy to strengthening our community by helping to build the Tribal Council and the People's Committees as a whole alternative way of dealing with people and problems. We knew that we had to get more people involved with the paper and to generally make it more of a community paper. We saw the possibility of moving the editorial, production, and distribution facilities to the Community Center as one way of doing that and an agreement was made to move to the basement of the Community Center. Efforts were also made to increase community involvement in the SUN by adding additional community people to the SUN Editorial Board. It was projected that as soon as the SUN became an independent and viable economic entity, that the Rainbow People's Party would turn over publishing rights and responsibilities to the Tribal Council Communications Committee. We haven't been organized enough yet to make the move to the Community Center, but we hope to in the next couple of months.

One problem that we had in getting the SUN out to the people, was that not enough people were out on the streets handing it out. A lot of people don't have time to put a lot of work into community programs because they have to hassle to get money to survive. We saw in the SUN a great way for people to make some money without having to get some honky job or some other madness just to survive. So starting with issue number 33, the SUN again went on sale, this time for 10cents, with Street distributors getting the whole dime. In the stores, the store keeps a nickel and returns the other 5 cents to the SUN.

The SUN still needs a lot more help and support from the community if it is to become a real community newspaper. We need people who are into writing, artwork, typing, layout, and especially distribution. We need people to set up distribution in dorms, houses, public buildings, and on the streets. It's a great way to make some spare cash and serve the community at the same time. If you want to help on the SUN, cali 761-1709 and leave a message or stop by at 1520 Hill Street. Only with the help and support of the entire community can we make the SUN into the real community newspaper it needs to be.