Letters

Letters

Last night I called the Rainbow House to see if the UP were playing anywhere soon. when someone this sister said that they were more or less dissolved. That you didn't feel you were progressing enough vocally and something about Scott having political differences. Both of these were evident in the past, but I never thought it'd come to this. In an interview with the UP in the old White Panther Party "SUNDANCE" news service, Scott says, "Yeah. reading is cool, but all you really got to do is look out the window." This showed a difference, but really it was just a view from a different but equally receptive angle. And about you not being vocally progressive wasn't a shock either, but more like a disappointment. You know there was something about you fuckers that made you come across more together than the "5" and I was sure you guys above any and ALL bullshit petty problems of today's commercial bullshit. And though you didn't sing like Mike Pinder, you were still fuckin KILLER! In fact you were exceptional because you had a voice I could relate to because you had a voice that came from your mind and energy, not just from any fucking school.

Man, the UP were a fucking killer band, but more they were a force that broke down all of the pig ruse barriers of stage performers and they were up there for our fucking good. The UP have always symbolized the vanguard of the true spirit of the Woodstock Nation and the youth movement. Their songs were jammed with meaning and energy, far surpassing the MC5 and all the big time corporate musicians. Their audience followed them, like I did, out of respect and appreciation for the no hype bullshit style of the show. JUST PLAIN GETTING EDUCATED AND GETTING IT ON!

The reason why they didn't catch on nationwide is the same reason I like them - they refused to knuckle under to the recording companies and their bullshit. They kept their shit above all else and the result was a hard core grass roots type of support which the Stones can't produce. The UP typified what a true people's band should really be!

I hope that you people keep it together and don't let a few creeps get you down when we need you the most.

"GOT TO LET THEM KNOW, PILLAGE OF OUR NATION'S THROUGH!"

A Supporter always,   Steve K. from Detroit

TO THE EDITOR:

The commentary of the kids who were questioned in the Sun's Dec. 15-29 Voice of a People, issue demonstrated, aside from the obvious fact that it is not currently fashionable to enjoy the typical public school experience, the additional fact that there might actually be something gained by attempting to improve our educational system. If I had my way, A.S. Neill's Summerhill would become a bible for educators on every level, the familiar grading system would be liquidated, and every student would be forthwith assigned to a competent tutor, instead of being run through the shitty-assed assembly-line-excuse for education that we all know and have all suffered from.

Our society now has a grand case of educational hemorrhoids; we are presently reaping the rewards for a system based on institutionalized intellectual buggery, with the result everyone has wound up getting royally screwed right up the old generation gap. . . with no regard for anyone's generation. A worthy alternative to this sorry state of affairs might be, as I have already suggested, the tutelage system, under which not only would each individual student be appropriately encouraged to proceed at his own pace, in phase with his particular personality and abilities, but under such a system - in which class attendance would not necessarily be mandatory - the educators would find themselves back on the employment rolls en masse, and not only that, but they would find their status thereby transformed to that of real teachers, relating to each pupil on a one-to-one basis, and not as plainclothes cops forcibly assigned to patrol classrooms a la Archie Bunker.

The sooner the old system is changed, all the more heartache will be avoided for everyone concerned - including those of us who are pros. Let's take hold of these ideas and persistently demand the change - until the change occurs.

A brother,  Arthur M. Maday  EMU Grad student