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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-06-26 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 7
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I was in a prison for little..... girls. I was new and was just...... getting acquainted. There was one.. little girl, around ten years old,.. who the other girls shied away from. She was the essence of life and..... energy. She was so delightful and... joyful that I could not resist her.. We talked and played a little in.... the hall (the prison was patterned.. after a school) and when it was..... time to go back to our cells she.... asked me to come visit her. When we got to her cell, I realized that.... she was in maximum security. They.. were going to execute her. Two..... doors locked after us. One old man. guarded the outer cell and another.. stayed inside keeping the little.... girl in his sight all the time. The cell was old and bare and in complete contrast with the youth and beauty.. of the little girl. I stayed for... just a little while and then ner-... vously said I should go.....She..... pleaded that I stay and keep her.... company. I was going to ask when... she was going to be executed and.... assure her that we would see each... other before then, but I realized... you don't ask questions like that... So I just left. The next morning I. found out that she was to be killed. that day. I was hysterical to see.. her again before she died. I could. make her happy for a moment by my... visit and I could tell her I loved.. her. But what good is happiness.... and love I thought, when you are to. die. There was nothing I could give. her; nothing I could do to help her. We were on our way to the gym.... for a recreation period when I...... looked down the corridor and saw.... them leading the little girl out.... [photo] I had behind the gym door as if to.. shield myself form the pain of...... watching, but I had to look. I..... pounded the door in pain and frus-.. tration and knocked one of the...... panes out. I quick walked away..... whistling as if I hadn't done it, but a lady at the authoritarian .... desk across the gym summoned me over. At this point there was a scene of comic relief that I don't understand. In light of the terror of the rest of the dream. As I walked across the... floor, I figured it was all over and. I would have to confess, but the..... woman at the desk tried to make me... say that I did not do it. I was very confused because the prison wasn't... usually run this way, but she ex-.... plained that she didn't know how to.. fill out forms for admitting some-... thing, only forms for denying some-.. things. As she was copying information from my record onto the form, I no-.. ticed a mistake on my record. They.. had me down as editor of the Black... Panther Paper but I told her I was... white and couldn't be. She gave me.. my record and told me to sit down... and correct it. The recreation per-. iod which was an icecapades like..... thing, was about to begin so I sat... down in the first row next to my..... grandmother. All of a sudden I remembered the.. little girl and my eyes saw through.. everything like superman's do. I saw the little girl seated in the prison. yard with a black bag over her head.. and flanked by two men. She had just been shot by a many twenty-five feet.. behind her. One of the two men lifted the bag from her head so she could... run off the last bit of her life much like we let a chicken with its head.. cut off. She rose and ran to a group. of girls playing nearby, who were.... put there for all executions. It was as if they could afford to let her... play after they were sure that this personification of freedom was safely dead. Each bunch of playing girls dis-.. persed in fear as she ran toward..... them, crushing the little girl who... didn't understand why the wouldn't.. play with her anymore. Finally,..... death overcame her and she fell down. still. Dale's Dream Pterodactyl, the Grinnell College underground, finally won a long, drawnout and crippling court struggle, May 22nd, when a Waterloo, Iowa (Blackhawk County) district court judge, dismissing the case against four of us Pterodactyl vendors, declared Iowa’s obscenity the law unconstitutional! Last November, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, home of the University of Northern Iowa, the four of us were charged with a felony for selling an issue of Ptero which contained, among other things, a page mocking Playboy magazine. Ptero’s mock “Playboy ad” showed a photograph of a naked young man with an erect penis masturbating in front of Playboy “fold-out” nudes. The ad copy actually originated from an ad Playboy ran in the New York Times: “What sort of man reads Playboy? He’s young, active, affluent. A hard man to get through to. To sell him you’ve got to reach him. With a medium that really involves him. Only one medium does it. PLAYBOY.” The Iowa law banned importation, production, possession and distribution, of printed materials “containing obscene language or obscene print, pictures or descriptions manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth.” The law allowed for absolute arbitrary pig power over free publications; not even obscenity hearing was needed before a bus! Any simple-minded pig could declare an underground obscene. And this law could be used to suppress any Iowa paper which threatened the system in any way. Pterodctyl and its lawyer, Clark Holmes of the ACLU, set about to abolish this law. A precedent for the case was found in a Supreme Court decision to strike down a Michigan statute similar to Iowa’s. Said Iowa Judge Blair Wood: “The Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion by Justice Frankfurter, finds that the Michigan statute ‘by quaranting the general public against books not too rugged for grown men and women in order to shield juvenile innocence’ is, in effect, ‘to burn down the house to roast the pig’ …” The four Pterodactyl vendors were Grinnell student Jake Margolin; Antioch student Bob Honig; Pterodactyl staffers Kit Leder and myself. (Kit is now part of Vocations for Social Change in California.) Unfortunately, our arrest forced Pterodactyl onto the road to ruin…. and we can only begin to pick up the pieces now. When we were busted, many of our papers, our money and some film were seized. Iowa newsstands were afraid to continue caring Pteros, and some other staff members refused to put out another issue unless they could censor material beforehand (to prevent further tie-ups in court.) This faction then split to join a new paper, the High and Mighty. But the rest of us wanted a free Pterodactyl! We were put out of commission for 6 months as we struggled it out in court. But we won, at least the first round. There are other Iowa laws that still threaten our existence; in fact, the four of us may still be tried under other sections of the Iowa Code. But we hope we can get these, too, struck down. CENSORSHIP SUCKS SHIT! Not only does it result in the suppression of controversial political views and, thus, in the repression of minorities but, very simply, any attempt to hide reality makes for ignorance, stagnancy, prejudice, perversion and fear….it makes for Amerikan pig society! The struggle against censorship is also being fought by the NOLA Express in New Orleans as a result of reprinting the Ptero Playboy ad. They were busted by the feds for sending “obscene material” thru the mails. The Nola’s Darlene Fife and Robert Head will prove the bullshit of charging that mockery of Playboy is obscene. Support the NOLA and Power to the people’s Press! Off the Pig! Krys Neuman A Woman? [image of an arm] Vol 1 No 1
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I was in a prison for little..... girls. I was new and was just...... getting acquainted. There was one.. little girl, around ten years old,.. who the other girls shied away from. She was the essence of life and..... energy. She was so delightful and... joyful that I could not resist her.. We talked and played a little in.... the hall (the prison was patterned.. after a school) and when it was..... time to go back to our cells she.... asked me to come visit her. When we got to her cell, I realized that.... she was in maximum security. They.. were going to execute her. Two..... doors locked after us. One old man. guarded the outer cell and another.. stayed inside keeping the little.... girl in his sight all the time. The cell was old and bare and in complete contrast with the youth and beauty.. of the little girl. I stayed for... just a little while and then ner-... vously said I should go.....She..... pleaded that I stay and keep her.... company. I was going to ask when... she was going to be executed and.... assure her that we would see each... other before then, but I realized... you don't ask questions like that... So I just left. The next morning I. found out that she was to be killed. that day. I was hysterical to see.. her again before she died. I could. make her happy for a moment by my... visit and I could tell her I loved.. her. But what good is happiness.... and love I thought, when you are to. die. There was nothing I could give. her; nothing I could do to help her. We were on our way to the gym.... for a recreation period when I...... looked down the corridor and saw.... them leading the little girl out.... [photo] I had behind the gym door as if to.. shield myself form the pain of...... watching, but I had to look. I..... pounded the door in pain and frus-.. tration and knocked one of the...... panes out. I quick walked away..... whistling as if I hadn't done it, but a lady at the authoritarian .... desk across the gym summoned me over. At this point there was a scene of comic relief that I don't understand. In light of the terror of the rest of the dream. As I walked across the... floor, I figured it was all over and. I would have to confess, but the..... woman at the desk tried to make me... say that I did not do it. I was very confused because the prison wasn't... usually run this way, but she ex-.... plained that she didn't know how to.. fill out forms for admitting some-... thing, only forms for denying some-.. things. As she was copying information from my record onto the form, I no-.. ticed a mistake on my record. They.. had me down as editor of the Black... Panther Paper but I told her I was... white and couldn't be. She gave me.. my record and told me to sit down... and correct it. The recreation per-. iod which was an icecapades like..... thing, was about to begin so I sat... down in the first row next to my..... grandmother. All of a sudden I remembered the.. little girl and my eyes saw through.. everything like superman's do. I saw the little girl seated in the prison. yard with a black bag over her head.. and flanked by two men. She had just been shot by a many twenty-five feet.. behind her. One of the two men lifted the bag from her head so she could... run off the last bit of her life much like we let a chicken with its head.. cut off. She rose and ran to a group. of girls playing nearby, who were.... put there for all executions. It was as if they could afford to let her... play after they were sure that this personification of freedom was safely dead. Each bunch of playing girls dis-.. persed in fear as she ran toward..... them, crushing the little girl who... didn't understand why the wouldn't.. play with her anymore. Finally,..... death overcame her and she fell down. still. Dale's Dream Pterodactyl, the Grinnell College underground, finally won a long, drawnout and crippling court struggle, May 22nd, when a Waterloo, Iowa (Blackhawk County) district court judge, dismissing the case against four of us Pterodactyl vendors, declared Iowa’s obscenity the law unconstitutional! Last November, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, home of the University of Northern Iowa, the four of us were charged with a felony for selling an issue of Ptero which contained, among other things, a page mocking Playboy magazine. Ptero’s mock “Playboy ad” showed a photograph of a naked young man with an erect penis masturbating in front of Playboy “fold-out” nudes. The ad copy actually originated from an ad Playboy ran in the New York Times: “What sort of man reads Playboy? He’s young, active, affluent. A hard man to get through to. To sell him you’ve got to reach him. With a medium that really involves him. Only one medium does it. PLAYBOY.” The Iowa law banned importation, production, possession and distribution, of printed materials “containing obscene language or obscene print, pictures or descriptions manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth.” The law allowed for absolute arbitrary pig power over free publications; not even obscenity hearing was needed before a bus! Any simple-minded pig could declare an underground obscene. And this law could be used to suppress any Iowa paper which threatened the system in any way. Pterodctyl and its lawyer, Clark Holmes of the ACLU, set about to abolish this law. A precedent for the case was found in a Supreme Court decision to strike down a Michigan statute similar to Iowa’s. Said Iowa Judge Blair Wood: “The Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion by Justice Frankfurter, finds that the Michigan statute ‘by quaranting the general public against books not too rugged for grown men and women in order to shield juvenile innocence’ is, in effect, ‘to burn down the house to roast the pig’ …” The four Pterodactyl vendors were Grinnell student Jake Margolin; Antioch student Bob Honig; Pterodactyl staffers Kit Leder and myself. (Kit is now part of Vocations for Social Change in California.) Unfortunately, our arrest forced Pterodactyl onto the road to ruin…. and we can only begin to pick up the pieces now. When we were busted, many of our papers, our money and some film were seized. Iowa newsstands were afraid to continue caring Pteros, and some other staff members refused to put out another issue unless they could censor material beforehand (to prevent further tie-ups in court.) This faction then split to join a new paper, the High and Mighty. But the rest of us wanted a free Pterodactyl! We were put out of commission for 6 months as we struggled it out in court. But we won, at least the first round. There are other Iowa laws that still threaten our existence; in fact, the four of us may still be tried under other sections of the Iowa Code. But we hope we can get these, too, struck down. CENSORSHIP SUCKS SHIT! Not only does it result in the suppression of controversial political views and, thus, in the repression of minorities but, very simply, any attempt to hide reality makes for ignorance, stagnancy, prejudice, perversion and fear….it makes for Amerikan pig society! The struggle against censorship is also being fought by the NOLA Express in New Orleans as a result of reprinting the Ptero Playboy ad. They were busted by the feds for sending “obscene material” thru the mails. The Nola’s Darlene Fife and Robert Head will prove the bullshit of charging that mockery of Playboy is obscene. Support the NOLA and Power to the people’s Press! Off the Pig! Krys Neuman A Woman? [image of an arm] Vol 1 No 1
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