A SOLIAH SUPPORTER'S BRUSH WITH ARSON

POSTED JANUARY 21, 2000

There is nothing even remotely close to this one the far right end of the political spectrum. On the official Saraolsondefense.com website there is a letter from "Kelly" describing how her roommates discussed firebombing South Minneapolis Adult Bookstores in the mid-1980's. With classic SLA style ineptness they forgot about an approved and labeled gasoline can so the mission was called off. Done on impulse, they apparently didn't care about the pensioners living in "Single Room Only" (SRO cost around a $100 a month in the mid 1980's) on the second floor of these buildings. If there had been prostitution, cruising or drugs on the floor above the adult bookstore this would constitute a "nuciance" allowing the adult bookstore to be closed. Pensioners, many eeking by on the Social Security minimum liked the very cheap rent and the beefy caretakers who would take care of riff-raff in the adult boostores and the SRO's above made for a haven from crime for the pensioners. Fortunately these anti-porn activists didn't have the resourcefulness to do the "my car ran out of gas" thing at an all night gas station so there never was arson, murder or attempted murder.

Had you roommates gotten a gas can, Kelly, you would legitimately have been a party to the crime. You were aware and permitted an "ongoing criminal activity" just as if you would have said, "use my gun". Had it have been a "right wing whacko" like me I would have strongly advised against the action and not aided and abetted by allowing weaponry materials to be taken from the house. I would have advised them not to do it and stated that I would "roll" if they did. I realize that my concern for safety of innocent people and for laws contradicts your "peace and justice" ethics but if that is "peace and justice" I want nothing to do about it. Your flippancy about this is appalling. There is no mindset even remotely like this on the other end of the political spectrum.

BELOW IS THE MOST RELAVENT PARAGRAPH OF THE KELLY'S LETTER

It was the 1980s. I was living in a big house in South Minneapolis with a couple of roommates. One year the roommates at that time became involved in a very strong anti-pornography group. Perhaps you remember their tactics. They would spray paint on billboards along the freeway in places that made you wonder just how they got up there. Though I supported my roommates’ cause, I myself was not involved in the group. One particular night, as we sat around the kitchen table talking, a couple of women from the group decided to try making some Molotov cocktails. They thought they might try to throw them at the front of some porn shops in our neighborhood. Being a few years older than these women I told them about the incident at the University of Wisconsin where a campus building was blown up in protest over the Vietnam War and unfortunately the students did not anticipate someone being inside the building. They faced charges of murder. These particular women were much younger than myself and had no first-hand knowledge of Vietnam War protests nor for that matter did they have much interest. They listened politely enough then grabbed a handful of my discarded soda bottles, some rags from under the sink and left the house to buy some gasoline. I went to work. When I saw my roommates the next day I asked what had happened the night before. They told me that nothing had happened. They were not able to get the gasoline without the proper container and quickly gave up the idea. End of story.