Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 01:33:56 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 495 ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode for the week of August 12, 1994. THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 495: Well, i couldn't stick it out in Times. I'm back to Palatino. It's just a nicer font. IN THE NEWS: As i write this, O. J. Simpson is riding the Freeway of Doom, reportedly with a gun to his head. Cliches like "how can this be?" and "but he was such a nice guy" are on everybody's lips, and only the astute reporters punctuate their commentary with the words "inno-cent until proven guilty." I have received three calls so far from people who want to know if O. J. will be featured in a series of "Killer Trading Cards." Will there be a comic book about him? Enquiring minds want to know. Legally, the issue of O. J. Simpson's pending arrest for two murders opens a very interesting can of worms. Remember that First Amendment case in Nassau County, New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the county's new law against distributing or selling any trading card "depicting a hein-ous criminal" to a person under 17 years of age? Sure you do-i mentioned it just a couple of weeks ago. Well, as you all know, O. J. Simpson's picture has appeared on trading cards in connection with his football career. If he is convicted of the murder of his wife and her friend, he will be a "heinous criminal" as defined in the Nassau County trading card law. From that point on, any child possessing a trading card with his picture on it could inform on the retailer who sold him or her the card and send said retailer up the river for one year. Do you know why? Because the law does not spell out whether the "heinous criminal" on the card had to be convicted before he was "depicted" or not! The way it is written, once a person is found guilty of murder, kidnapping, rape, arson, or robbery, he or she is a "heinous criminal" and any trading card bearing his or her likeness-no matter when it was pub-lished!-is off-limits for anyone under 17. Do i hear the bidding starting on those O. J. Simpson cards? WHAT HE DID: And what did O. J. do? Let's leave aside the question of the murder warrants right now. Let's look at his conviction record. He was a wife batterer. It has been hard for fans to understand that. He was such a gentle guy, so good looking, so talented both on the playing field and off. He had a charming smile, he gave to charities, he was a role model to millions of kids. And he beat his wife, regularly, frequently, severely. I used to live with a man who hit me and slapped and kicked me. Like O. J., he was an otherwise gentle guy. He had a charming smile, he gave to charities. O. J. left a note before taking off, in which he-the man who beat his wife-declared he was a "battered husband." The man who beat me also had that delusion. One time, after rushing across the room, throwing me to the floor, and kicking me in the ribs, he blurted out, "I'm going to call the police! You're battering me!" This has nothing to do with comic books. (Oh, i could stretch it and bring in Hank Pym of the Avengers, but why bother?) Yet the chances are that several readers of this paper are suffering spousal abuse right now. Some otherwise gentle person with a charming smile who gives to charities is about to assault some CBG reader or be assaulted by one. Don't think it's true? Well, after i was free of the man who beat me, i told my story to a friend. I expressed lingering disbelief that this guy-"a card-carrying member of the ACLU"-had abused me for so long. "That's nothing," she said, "I spent ten years being battered by a Pulitzer Prize winning poet." If there is anything to learn from the Simpson tragedy, it's that society must take a long, hard look at spousal abuse. If you who are reading this are being hurt at home, please call for help NOW. Take my word on this; it will not get better. You will be lonely and terrified without your abuser, but you deserve a life free from fear. Trust me. I know. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [andy.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Responses are welcome and should be directed to the address above. Fit to Print is Copyright 1994 Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.