Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 48

DETROIT FREE PRESSFRIDAY, JAN. 13, 1984 Jim Fitzgerald yJ erf vi tfl -I Those crazy peace gamers are loose, for Christ sake In recent weeks, several convicted peace-game players have been released from jail and now are back on the streets, wantonly kneeling and praying and otherwise threatening the community with dangerous ideas. So watch your step. Everyone knows what war games are. Members of the military get together to fire weapons and practice killing people and destroying cities.

No one is ever jailed for doing that. War games are better known and more popularly accepted than peace games. People arrested for playing peace games are never specifically charged with that offense, because most police and prosecutors don't recognize a peace game when they see it. Instead, they usually are charged with trespassing or violating a court injunction. That's what happened to dozens of peace-game players jailed in Oakland County during the last few QJailhouse preacher change: "If you can get your heart and mind right with God it will help you get your mind right with your fellow man This is not the kind of life God intended man for, but when you hear the law God has ordained that you pay your debt to society Free Press Photos by DAVID C.

TURNLEY The Rev. Nathan Hendrix, 74, has been prison chaplain at the Detroit House of Correction near Northville since 1977. He counsels inmates and conducts prayer meetings at the jail. He tells the prisoners there is still time to months of 1983. Their i irv i NX lit iW ifflf H'll if ') rT lit --j si Wff I f- It' Ti A 7 Lookout fijfcs, for hP blcep'n self-confessed crime was pleading for peace outside a factory that manufactures war weapons.

But they received 30-day sentences for stepping over forbidden boundaries or for disobeying a judge's order to stop expressing peaceful ideas in public. t. A I Inmates and Mr. Hendrix join hands in a prayer circle. Mr.

Hendrix exchanges parting words with a few prisoners. ft. SSP iiillM'llll I The Rev. Melvin Hall was one of those jailed peace-game players. My function today, in the spirit of public service, is to warn you about what he's been up to since serving his time and being set loose on society.

MR. HALL IS associate pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church in Detroit's ragged Cass, Corridor. Shortly after he got out of the slammer, there was a terrible fire in an apartment building four doors from his church. According to news reports, Mr. Hall was seen arriving at the burning building on a dead run, still getting dressed, within minutes of the first alarm at 5:14 a.m.

Six people were killed, and he helped identify the bodies. He opened the church to survivors, giving them food, clothing and comfort. According to neighbors, Mr. Hall is always doing stuff like that. Each week he distributes food, clothing, blankets and other things to as many as 200 people who are merely needy and haven't even been burned out.

"This is where I see the church alive, not talking about it on Sunday but living it through the week," Mr. Hall told a reporter. That's probably the same sort of troublemaking thing he was saying when arrested for playing peace games outside that weapon factory. SO WATCH OUT for Melvin Hall. He's out of jail and obviously dangerous.

You may wonder how peace-game players such as Mr. Hall behaved while in jail. An answer was provided in the Sunday Bulletin of St. Gerard's Catholic Church in Detroit. The Rev.

Lawrence Kaiser, the pastor, quoted a letter received from a parishoner who's been teaching at the Oakland County Jail for 10 years. The teacher pointed out that some of the jailed peace gamers were ministers, priests, nuns, lawyers and educators. She said they were continually talking kindly to shoplifters, or counseling prostitutes, or helping young prisoners learn to read. The transformation since the peace-game players arrived "is obvious. There is singing instead of fighting and swearing.

What a blessing for our inmates, and what a Christmas bonus for me!" she wrote. "Of course, my bubble breaks when I walk by a group of guards and hear these beautiful people called commies." Of course. Your beautiful people may be someone else's commies. Some folks like to play war games, and some prefer peace games. You know where you stand.

And if you're standing in the street, keep a lookout. Those peace-game players are out of jail and on the loose. Be careful, or you might stumble over a praying kneeler or bump against some nut giving away food and clothing. You might hear singing, or even a peaceful idea, for Christ's sake. 1 I i "1' A '11 i Comforting an inmate: "You don't appreciably do anything by just locking people up and forgetting them," Mr.

Hendrix says. 1 names faces briefly: Hearns sued FILED: A paternity suit against boxer Thomas Hearns, by Felicia Dodson of Detroit. Dodson says Hearns is the father of her 5-year-old son, Ronald Sonny will still talk about the movies Lanquell Dodson. NAMED: Free Press columnist Mike Downey, as Michigan's top sports writer for 1983 by the National Sportscasters and Sports Writers Association. Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell was named the state's top 0 Downey LJLJ sportscaster.

National awards this year go to Al Michaels of ABC and Will Grlmsley of the Associated Press. ELECTED: James Aliber, as chairman-elect of New Detroit Inc. Aliber is chairman and chief executive officer of First Federal of Michigan. Edited by CATHY COLLISON SMI and wires contributed SONNY ELIOT, veteran Detroit TV personality, is in the forecast for another year at Channel 50 (WKBD-TV), putting to rest rumors of his television demise. "Boy, they (the rumors) don't help," said a happy Sonny on Thursday.

But there will be some changes for the former weatherman. For starters, as of Jan. 23, Sonny won't be giving away money anymore on TV50's "One O'clock Movie." The show also will be host-less; Eliot will read off-camera program notes. Eliot, who is profiled in Sunday's Detroit Free Press magazine, will take on some public relations duties for the station. Said Channel 50 vice-president George Williams, "We think people tune in to watch the movie, not to watch the host or win money." Sorry, money buffs.

FRANK SINATRA has again postponed his concert here this time pushing back the Jan. 28 and 29 engagement at the Premier Center to March 23 and 24. A spokeswoman told Free Press columnist Shirley Eder the crooner recalled last year's concert problems and cited this year's "unpredictable and extremely severe weather conditions." Aljtickets will be honored croaking across the country in the name of conversation. The fuzzy green Muppet leader was named honorary chairman Thursday of 1984 National Wildlife Week and will be promoting this year's theme: "Water we can't live without it." Said federation vice-president Jay Hair, who knows more about the importance of clean water than a frog?" TED NUGENT, the Motor City Madman, is searching for mass market appeal with his new rock album, "Pen-etrator." The first single, "Tied Up in Love," will be released Monday, and i the album will follow later in the week. Look for a European tour during February, followed by a U.S.

tour with a Detroit stop in March. FRANK CHURCH, former U.S. senator, has a tumor of the pancreas, according to surgeons at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after a two-hour operation. The doctors did not remove it and did not know immediately if the tumor were cancerous, a hospital spokeswoman said. Church was reported in satisfactory condition and resting after a biopsy of the tumor.

(4 Lockhorns Eliot: Nugent: Sunny Rave reviews for the new dates. MIKE ROYKO can ruffle feathers from his perch at the Chicago Tribune with ease now, as Cook County Circuit Judge Anthony Scotillo ruled Thursday that Royko was protected by the Newspaper Guild's contract at the Chicago Sun-Times permitting employes to resign and collect dismissal pay if the paper were sold. Don Reuben, attorney for the Tribune, said the decision sent a message to new Sun-Times owner Rupert Murdoch that reporters "are not chattels, not assets." The Sun-Times has made no decision on whether it will appeal about this, er, chattel. KERMIT THE FROG will be AP Photo Pie-eyed Detroit fans of Soupy Sales should love it when the famous pie-thrower gets a taste of his own medicine on NBC's "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" Monday. Sales appeared during taping of the episode to illustrate the techniques of, pie-throwing on Ed McMahon, left.

But Dick Clark managed to: fumble one rioht into tha SAnn's farn I le SAu H3 floEST "HE JU6T 6AY9 WHATEVER COME TO W5 MINC. HOVT i Sometime hb goes pays -m.