FIFTH ESTATE, Sept 1 - 14 1973

LETTERS

Comic Book Action

Dear Editors,

As a reader of the Fifth Estate, I've been happy with your progress over the years to become one of the best news features and news analysis publications in the nation. I especially enjoyed the !`Signals" article in the August 4-17 edition in 'which your paper berated WABX's disc jockeys Mark Parenteau and Dan Carlyle for their puerile behavior toward that young girl during the Frut fifties concert.

However, during Wednesday, August 8, a few days after that edition was released, Pat. Halley of your staff slaps a cream pie at Guru Maharaj Ji during a public press conference. I too believe that this guru is a fake, but that violent action will grossly hurt your case against this Child God's eminence.

Put it another way: if those Pulitzer Prize reporters from the Washington Post would have slapped Nixon with a pie, public outcry would be against the press and Watergate would have remained "covered up."

Don't lower FE to the level of a comic book. If you are opposed to boorish acts, like that of the two disc jockeys, practice what you preach. Or else, paraphrasing from the same "Signals" article - "(you) should apologize or get out of Detroit."

Tony Giambruno

 

Bummed Me Out

Fifth Estate,

I was on my way to work a little while ago, and on WCARnews I heard that Guru Maharaj Ji got a pie in the face. At that time, to the best of my recollection, I said to myself, "That motherfucker Lobsinger, did it."

When I heard it was my favorite writer for The Fifth Estate, it bummed me out really bad.

I think he's an asshole too. But why didn't you just prove it in your paper, like you've exposed so many other motherfuckers?

I didn't dig the way you handied it at all, but I do dig your paper.

Jack Kantz

Exemplary Act

Dear Pat Halley,

Our warmest congratulations on your examplary action! To see in the papers the cream-splattered visage of the 15-year-old Perfect Toad was a moment of profound beauty for all of us-one of the most lyrical bits of blasphemy we have ever heard of. We hope you are recovering rapidly from the injuries inflicted by the mystical -fascist goons who attacked you.

To explain ourselves-we are an organization of revolutionaries based in the San Francisco Bay Area, but with comrades in several other parts of the country & the world. The enclosed poster's and other texts will make our position clearer to you. In particular, we draw your attention to the "Mayday to Prayday" leaflet, a near replica of one of the Toad's publications which we distributed on the occasion of Rennie Davis' return to Berkeley as a convert to the Perfect Millionaire. We succeeded, by means of the leaflet & by heckling & tossing tomatoes and other projectiles at Preacher Davis & his greasy entourage, in reducing the sermon to a complete shambles, of which you may have read something. But your solitary, simple gesture tops anything we did for style and effect.

It seems to us profoundly significant that you should have done what you did within a week of the occupation of the Jefferson Avenue Chrysler plant, another action in which we see ourselves, & in which we hope is the' seed of a new wave of proletarian rebellion in the United States, one which doesn't stop until we've rid ourselves of all bosses, including union bureaucrats & "revolutionary" parties - until, in fact, we achieve complete workers' management, generalized self-management. Then we can begin to create a life for ourselves which is worthy of our imagination and creativity.

Some of us will be in Detroit in October, & we would love to meet with you if you're at all interested. Incidentally, should you ever want to revenge yourself on the creeps who worked you over, we would be more than happy to assist you. As for the Globular Guru's pious "forgiveness" of your act, let me quote Rene Crevel, an early surrealist: "The forgiveness of God - a pretty turn of phrase to disturb us. But what can this hypocrisy do against free insolence fully developed?"

DEATH TO ALL MASTERS!

Fraternally,

Cuervo Giordano Bruno Untitled A. Bremer

for NEGATION

 

Hypocrisy

Dear Fifth Estate,

On a recent newscast, I saw the 15-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji get hit in. the face with a pie while receiving some sort of award in Michigan. The "assailant" was identified as a FE reporter (I can't recall his name) who said he did it because the Guru was a fraud. I have been reading the FE for a long time and I am surprised that you would try such a stupid-ass stunt.

You, of all people, who are constantly pushing for people's rights and freedoms to do what they wish. I have learned from your paper to be open to people's ideas and demands, and then,.because you can't accept this religion, you denounce it as phony. I do not follow this religion, but I respect their particular right to believe in what they think is right, and I admire their loyalty to it. Just because I don't happen to believe in it, I don't consider it wrong. I do believe, however, that ANYTHING that in some way is giving someone the fulfillment that they need in life, is worth having around; and that is what the Guru is doing … so whether it is right or wrong, as long as it is spreading some happiness-isn't that all that really matters? What gives YOU the right to tell people what is wrong (especially when over 5 million people happen to be following the Guru?) C'mon, FE, wise up; and start practicing what you preach.

A Disillusioned Reader

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