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EDITORIAL
Mark of the Devil
Round up as scruffy a bunch of actors and ac-
tresses as ever graced a stag flick, hire the world’s
worst scenario writer, stuff the plot chock full of
medieval tortures, rate it all “GP’’—and presto!
You've got Mark of the Devil.
Now, according to Hollywood’s much-vaunted
film rating code, “GP” means “entertainment
suitable for the entire family.” Maybe it is family
entertainment—for families descended from Count
Dracula.
In Mark, which played last week at Wilkes-
Barre’s Comerford Theatre, there were no fewer
than 20 atrocities painstakingly portrayed in livid
color: A young woman's finger is squeezed between
iron pincers until it spurts blood clear across the
room; several young ladies are burned alive,
screams intact; another woman’s tongue is
plucked from her mouth and waved in front of her
while blood gushes through her teeth, Etc., etc.
etc., ad nauseum. Literally!
The producers knew what they were doing,
though. When D.A. Patrick Toole insisted that
Comerford change the. movie’s rating to “R’”
Friday afternoon, flocks of angry kids demanded
that the theatre’s manager let them in. “My friends
saw it yesterday,” one 10-year old boy shouted, “‘so
how come I can’t see it today?’’ We’d bet that his
parents wouldn’t have permitted him to see the
show,‘ “GP’’ or no‘‘GP,”’ had they known what it
was like.
Part of the movie’s come-on included
“stomach distress” bags handed out to movie-
goers. We can think of no more suitable “‘torture’’
for Mark of the Devil’s producers than getting all
those bags back—filled.
Reverse Economics
The old business theory that the more people
there are, the better business will be is economics
in reverse according to economist John R. Meyer.
Rather, he suggests that because of a slow-down in
the nation’s birth rate, business will improve.
Mr. Meyer, president of the National Bureau or
Economic Research and professor of economics at
Yale University, told a group of newspaper
executives in Florida recently that in his view the
| decline last year in the birth rate in this country
was the ‘““most important long-range U.S. economic
event,” even surpassing the enactment of wage and
price controls, the devaluation of the dollar, and the
flareup of consumerism.
| ; “This event,” he said, “is significant mainly
because it simply goes against basic demographic
expectations. In particular, a decline in births
| occurred in 1971 in spite of the fact that the age
| distributions of the U.S. population is at the
moment such that total births should be in-
creasing.”
What Mr. Meyer's report boils down to is that
perhaps groups such as Planned Parenthood and
Zero Population Growth will be helping the
business community more than most people ex-
pected.
The professor reasons, correctly it would seem
that with a slower growing population, people of
working age will constitute a larger fraction of the
population.
: Likewise, with fewer children, more women
will participate in the labor force. Accordingly, a
larger fraction of those of working age may be
working and those of working age will certainly
make up a larger fraction of total population. “That
is almost certainly a formula that should increase
While a slower growth will adversely effect
some industries, a higher per capita income would
~ tend to stimulate the buying of the kinds of things
sumer durables, travel, higher education, and
g By Eric Mayer
The couch that Donald’s wife had picked
out for their living room was altogether hor-
rible. It was a long, low affair, starklymodern,
covered with bright green vinyl that made a
half hearted and wholly unsuccessful attempt
to resemble alligator skin. This oblong mon-
strosity squatted absurdly on four tiny
wooden legs which were carved, at their
bottoms, into rudimentary paws. Cynthia had
bought the couch because she had seen one
like it in Better Homes and Gardens. It had
cost $349.98, on sale, and Donald, who was still
several payments shy of owning the thing,
hated it. Sometimes he even complained
about it, which was totally out of character.
But then, he had been as his Aunt Olivia put it,
“acting queerly” in recent weeks.
Donald held a good, if not prominent,
position in the sales division of a large paper
products firm. He had been in the habit of
considering himself a success. After all he
was happily enough married, had two fine
children who were excelling in grade school,
owned a modest, comfortable home in a new
housing development, drove a late model car
that looked more expensive than it was, and,
being both bright and young, had numerous
“good prospects’ to look forward to. No
wonder it came as a surprise to family and
friends when he began to grow visibly dissat-
isfied with his career; began to talk vaguely
about quitting his secure job for some new
venture.
In the evenings he would slump down on
the hated couch and groan about his job. ‘Its
getting me down. All I do is run from one
meeting to another. I have callouses on my
hands from filling out sales forms. It seems so
useless.”
Cynthia was frightened by such talk.
“But Darling,” she would say (she called him
darling instead of Donald or Mr. Miller) “It
isn’t useless. How can you say that? Why just
look at everything we have—a nice home in a
nice neighborhood. A nice car . . . And think of
the children. The first payment on their
college insurance program is due this mon-
th.”
Cynthia was a few years younger than
Donald, attractive in a banal, detergent com-
mercial way. When Donald met her, during
his senior year of business administration,
she had been 19 going on 40. Now she was 28
going on 40. She was active in the PTA and
several church groups, a good mother, and
understood Donald no better. than she had
nine years before.
‘You have a banal mind” he ‘thought,
then reproached himself. The couch’s syn-
thetic hide, pressing clammily and coldly
against his back must have irritated him into
thinking something so unfair. Guilt reddened
momentarily in his cheeks. Nevertheless his
wife’s practical and noble arguments made
no impression on him.
His job, his life, seemed pointless and
stupid. But hadn’t he chosen them? He had
always considered himself a free man but, re-
flecting on his past, he wondered if the feeling
of freedom he had wasn’t just an illusion. How
many of the crucial choices had been his to
make?
Could he have refused to major in busi-
ness administration when his father, who was
paying his tuition, had lectured him so often
on the financial potential of the business
career? Donald had understood that he was
being put through college so that he could get
a “well paying job’. During his early child-
hood hadn’t his parents selected his interests
for him? Hadn’t they bought him monopoly
games and fussed every week over the proper
management of his allowance. He had chosen
his career, but hadn’t his parents made his
choice? Now he had his own family and was
ruled by them.
He felt that he had been born into a vast,
complex trap. He despised his sales job but
how could he escape it? There were his chil-
dren to think about, and his wife, who was a
child herself, fit to dust the house and hold
card parties, but hardly fit for anything else.
YE Hye 2 SL 7 7
/
Insights
by Bruce Hopkins
“Power Comrade Bruce, I greet you my
beautiful brother with an enclenched fist of
power and solidarity to all oppress people!
You who have dedicated your time to serve
the people. Yes, serve the people because
when serve an oppress Brother or Sister
you’re serving to. promote the welfare of the
people for a better tomorrow . . . Palante!
(Right on)”
The Attica Communications Project has
been terminated. It has come as a severe
blow to me personally, to the others involved
in the project, and certainly to the inmates at
prisons who may never fully understand why
they no longer hear from us. Shortly after the
uprising at Attica, a group of people with
whom I am associated, managed, through
various channels, to establish privileged
correspondence with prisoners inside three
maximum security prisons. As ‘‘privileged
correspondents’ our mail was received by
the inmate uncensored. Our purpose was
merely to offer the inmate an opportunity to
communicate freely with someone on the
outside. To give the inmates a chance to learn
from us, and us from them, and of course we
hoped that we might be able to protect them
in some ways from further abuse if such sould
arise. Thus I began a brief but
beautiful correspondence with Roderigo.
His name is not really Roderigo—but lest
there be any repurcussions, I will call him
that for his safety. His name is not nearly as
important as who he is. Born in a section of
New York City called “El Barrio” (the
Spanish ghetto), Roderigo dropped out of high
school at age 16. He was arrested several
times as a juvenile for possession of a
dangerous weapon. In July, 1969, he was
arrested and convicted of ‘‘alleged robbery’
by J.R. Freeman
This week the U.S. House of Represen-
tatives is expected to consider adoption of a
water pollution control measure that
would have far reaching effects. In its
Senate-passed version the proposed
legislation would go a long way toward
cleaning up the nation’s waterways by the
mid-1980’s, under a system that would cost
industry only a ‘reasonable’ amount.
The problem is that the House has
amended the Senate passed bill, which was
carried through the upper chamber by the
valiant efforts of Sen. Edmund Muskie, Sen.
William Proxmire, and Sen. Lee Metcalf,
after years of painstaking effort, hampered
along the way by the effective lobbying ef-
forts of such giants of industry as Standard
Oil of New Jersey, GM, U.S. Steel, and others.
In the House, representatives have the
opportunity to show their environmental
respect to constitutents by adopting two
important amendments introduced by Cong.
John Dingel (D-Mich.) and Cong. Henry
Reuss (D-Wis.), both leading conserva-
tionists. These two House members have
already lined up the support of Pennsylvania
Congressmen John Dent of Jeanette, and
John Saylor of Johnstown. But neither Cong.
Joseph McDade of Scranton nor Daniel Flood
and due to his previous arrests, he received a
sentence of 4 to 12 years. I cannot defend,
(and would not attempt to because it really
isn’t the point) his alleged robbery arrest for I
don’t know the details. I will say that
possession of a dangerous weapon seems
Spanish ghetto. Neverthelesss; he is in jail.
From the sounds of his letter, he has:become
something of a leader among men. He has
also become a student of political philosophy:
“...whenl arrive in jail I was more active in
political education and did and still doing
extensive studying i.e. political and social
sciences, philosophy such as literature from
Marx, Engels, Hegel, Mao, Che, Castro, and I
could goon... really I did studying on many
books even about Plato, Aristotle, Stalin etc.
For comparison reasons, one must look at
both sides and the inchoate stages of
capitalism and socialism . .. ”
When I first wrote to Roderigo, I asked to
be re-educated. I explained that I felt I
wanted to better understand the prisoners’
cause—that I was concerned and yet con-
fused. In reply, he burst forth with six pages
of suggestions of what I could do to help, not
just him, but society in general. He spoke
almost as a doctor discussing a patient when
he talked of society, and his viewpoint made
me smile with its innocence. He explained his
views on revolution (and they are not so
violent as you might guess) and he even in-
cluded a reading list to help me understand
what he meant. The opportunity to talk,
discuss, argue with someone on the outside,
freely and intelligently, seemed exhilarating
to him. The Attica Communications Project
has been terminated. I may never get in touch
with Roderigo again.
“To be successful in solidarity we must
abolish: (a) class distinctions, (b) racial and
religious biases . . . What I’m saying is the
difference between a traditional war and a
revolution is that: a traditional war sends
mercenaries to fight for political and
territorial. domination; and a revelutionary’s
key:prize isito control or have the support of
the masses. That is why the U.S. militia fails
to see its erroneous strategic tactics which is
committing in South East Asia. U.S. lost the
war in Vietnam a long time ago.”
The Attica Communications Project has
been terminated. For various reasons, we
have found it necessary to close our channels
of communication in order to preserve and
is overwhelmingly depressing to know that I
cannot continue my dialogue with Roderigo.
We both might have learned so much from
each other. Inmates are permitted to have
their immediate familes and one or two male
correspondents on their official mailing list.
Females not a part of their immediate
familes may not write to them. Letters
received on their mailing list are read by
prison officials, and of course outgoing mail is
read and censored lest the prisoner comment
unfavorably on conditions inside.
Despite the overwhelming feeling of
emptiness inside us, we shall continue to do
what we can to aid and support prisoners
within these institutions. It is not so much a
revolutionary act as it is one of basic
humanity. We feel that even those who have
been deemed ‘‘anti-social,” have the right to
be understood. Not too long ago, a person very
close to me made the remark that if a man is
in prison he is getting just what he deserves. I
cannot bring myself to look on it with that
She had been reared on soap operas and soap
commericals. She wasn’t even capable of
picking out a decent piece of furniture. And
besides that, there are the payments-pay-
ments on the car, on the housegn the in-
surance, on the ugly couch. No, th'e payments
would never set him free.
Donald grew bitter. He continued to
grumble about quitting his job but what else
could he do? Questions chased their tails
around and around inside his head, keeping
him awake far into the night.
His dislike for the couch grew into a
loathing. Some nights, when he entered the
living room, the couch, lurking immensely in
the shadows, took on an alien and terrible
aspect like some grotesque beast ready to
spring at him. At other times he imagined
that it regarded him with patient malignancy.
In a very real sense the couch-thing was be-
yond his control; he hadn’t finished paying for
it. 2
One day, while engaged in anol eritioss
argument with his wife, Donald, usually fas-
tidious, spilled his coffee all over the couch.
Normally he would have raced into the kit-
chen for paper towels, trailing apologies over
his shoulder. But this time he simply stood up
slowly and watched the spreading pool of
coffee seeping into the wrinkles in the bright
green vinyl. His wife was frantic.
The slight stain left by the coffee filled
him with elation. He started to spill things
more frequently, took to leaving cigarettes
burning accidentally on the arms of the
couch. He bought Cynthia a catgith very
sharp claws that insisted, for some¥#ason, on
sharpening them still further. As the couch
deteriorated, Donald’s spirits rose.
So it was that Donald passed through his
time of trial and did not fall into error but pro-
ceeded strongly forward in the correct
manner. Once more he was contented with his
lot and his wife and his friends were happy for
him. Several months afterward, he was
promoted and purchased a new couch, which
he chose himself.
lack of human compassion. Many things
contribute to a man’s being Jed to prison.
Often, it is because he was nt given the
opportunity to act asa man. When put inside a
prison, too often that opportunity is again
denied. Prisoners simply have no rights.
comforts and certainly they lose jhe right to
simple man-to-man respect.
I have been told that I can’t fully un-
derstand the problem because I'm not there. I
have been told that I do not know the prison
animal. In Al Carmines’ musical, The
Journey of Snow White, the Dwarfs, upon
[discovering Snow White, begin pushing,
pulling, tugging, and hitting her until one of
them demands that they wait a minute. She
then reminds them that, There is a law in our
land that when you do not know what
something is—you love it.” Would that the
laws of our land were so simple.
“I would go on and write endlessly; never-
theless, I must give you the truth a little-at-a-
time so that you can evaluate it yourself and
accept or reject that which you feel . . . in that
anything that may not seem lucid we can
discuss it for a clearer understanding.
Palante! Well, I end this first of many more
letters to come, with an enclenched fist of
solidarity from all of us, write back, forward
with struggle...”
Forward with struggle, my RN The
Attica Communications Project has been
terminated: Forward with struggle. At the
end of a paragraph in his letter in which he
mentioned some of the basic rights he as a
prisoner was denied, Roderigo, in paren-
thesis, wrote the word “smile.” If we could
only learn to be kind to one another. ‘Corward
with struggle. Smile. ”
\
of Wilkes-Barre have indicated their support
for this important measure known as H.R.
11896.
The two major weaknesses of H.R. 11896
would be strengthened by the Dingell-Reuss
amendments. These include a stipulation in
the House version that eliminates the
Senate's requirement that industry and
municipalities cease polluting rivers and
waterways by 1981 if that can be done at
‘reasonable cost.” The House bill as it stands
sets strict limits on industry polluters as a
goal, but it omits the Senate’s timetable ior
reaching that goal. Rather, it asks that a two-
year study be done by the National Academy
of Science before a timetable is set by a future
Congress.
It's obvious that a timetable is needed
now so that industry, knowing what is ex-
pected of it, can achieve pollution abatement
through effective methods of recycling
polluted water. 3
The most glaring weakness in the House bill
is its restrictions on citizen lawsuits.
Under the provisions of the proposed House
legislation, only citizens who have a direct
interest in a pollution case and who have
taken part in administrative proceedings
leading up to the court test may bring suit.
This would obviously act to deter the actions
of environmental groups who seek to take an
active legal role against polluters.
Environmentalists regionally should thus
be alerted to the fact not only is the Senate
passed version of H.R. 11896 in serious
jeopardy in the House, but there remains no
incentive or even opportunity for the citizen to
take an obvious polluter to task through legal
water pollution abatement efforts.
Even back in 1899 during passage of the
Refuse Act, the nation’s first clean water law,
Congress acted more in response to efforts to
clean up the nation’s waterways than the
House might appear ready to do today. Thus
despite all the talk in Congress about en-
vironmental quality, whether or not this
measure passes in a way to { rmit
meaningful pollution control for the n#%h’s
waterways through the 1980s will probably be
known in a matter of days.
Editor emeritus: Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks
Editor: Doris R. Mallin
News editor: Shawn Murphy
Advertising: Carolyn Gass