Dear Reader,

We need your help.

Publishing The Sun has always been a challenge. We started with an investment of $50, and have always worked on a shoestring budget, cutting every corner (we even collate, staple, and trim the magazines ourselves), putting in long hours for pay that makes the minimum wage seem extravagant.

We’re not complaining. We believe in what we’re doing. But we also believe in paying the bills. If we’re not to suffer the fate of too many other small, independent journals, we need more support.

Subscribe. If you’re already a subscriber, give a gift subscription. The relationship between subscriptions and the survival of the magazine can’t be over-emphasized. Even if you buy the magazine regularly, we urge you to subscribe. Because of the percentage we pay our distributors, it means more to us to have your subscription. You save money, too.

Fill out the enclosed card or, if there’s no card in your magazine, send a check to The Sun, Box 732, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. These are our rates:

Half-year (6 issues), $5 (a $1 savings)
One Year (11 issues), $9 (a $2 savings)
Two years, $17 (a $5 savings)
Three Years, $25 (an $8 savings)
Five Years, $45 (a $10 savings)
Sustaining Subscriber (Lifetime), $100

If you order gift subscriptions, acknowledgements will be sent to your friends. If you prefer to phone in your subscription, and be billed later, call us at 942-5282 or 942-7918.

We’ve opened a new office, at 412 West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill. You’re welcome to stop by with ideas, criticisms, manuscripts, or just to say hello. By the way, we can use desks, file cabinets, and a wood stove, if anyone would like to donate them. We also need a tape recorder and a typewriter.

The 1977 Sun Calendar, planned for this issue, will appear next month. The January issue will also include a special section on Atlantis; a community access guide to health care; some thoughts on the conglomerate takeover of the New York publishing houses; all our regular features and much more.

In the holiday spirit, we wish you the peace that is within you, the divinity that is your birthright, and the love that is everywhere.

— Sy Safransky