A prisoner
Lisbon, Ohio

Rally in Israel
Buried among the news briefs in the February 10 Haaretz was the following item: "About 10,000 demonstrators rallied for a pro-peace protest last night in Tel Aviv. The protesters marched under the slogan, 'The occupation is killing us.' They included veteran Jewish and Arab activists, writers, academics, and artists. Also present were members for the group of Israeli Defense Forces reservists who refuse to serve in the territories. Protesters carried signs saying: 'The occupation is terror,' 'We don't want to die in the next war,' and 'Enough of this government of occupation and killing.'"

Kathleen Denny
San Francisco, California

Robert F. Williams
Radio Free Dixie--Robert F. Williams & The Roots of Black Power, by Timothy B. Tyson, is a book well worth reading. Williams was born in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1925 and witnessed the systematic and brutal discrimination which took place throughout his life.

Williams used the skills he learned in the military to organize defense of the African American community against Ku Klux Klan attacks in Monroe. Although the Black community had used arms to defend itself since the Civil War, Monroe became the most famous place where the Klan became afraid of carrying out their nightly terrorist raids.

Williams was the president of the Monroe chapter of the NAACP, but his advocacy for armed self defense put him at odds with the officials of that organization. Although Williams was suspended by the NAACP, his tactics had a clear effect on the African American community in Monroe.

Robert F. Williams was one of the first African Americans to visit Cuba and went on a national tour for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. After he was framed up on charges of kidnapping, Williams lived in Cuba and broadcast his program Radio Free Dixie which reached an audience spreading throughout North America. Williams also spoke to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and lived in China.

Steven Halpern
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Abortion rights action
Some 400 spirited supporters of women's right to choose abortion demonstrated in front of the Supreme Court January 22, the 29th anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision decriminalizing abortion.

Earlier in the day, opponents of women's right to abortion held their annual rally and march to protest the Roe v. Wade decision. The tens of thousands, including many students bused in by their private religious schools and churches, were encouraged by President Bush, who addressed them from West Virginia by a live telephone hookup.

On January 19, supporters of abortion rights defending several Washington-area clinics far outnumbered rightists who did not even get close to shutting the clinics down as they hoped.

Lea Sherman
Washington, D.C.

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