Page One

Free speech means hearing from all sides 

Editor, 

A common response from the powerful elite to vocal protest of their policies is a variation on the blame-the-victim theme: they complain about violations to their right of free speech.  

This has happened a number of times recently: in Seattle and Washington, D.C., during the anti-globalization demonstrations; at Cal for Madeline Albright’s commencement speech; during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions; and now with the forced cancellation of Benjamin Natanyahu’s speech.  

But, I believe that those of us who sympathize with the protests and the protesters have neglected to defend their actions as thoroughly as possible.  

Namely, that our right to speak freely is meaningless without the accompanying right to access speech or information freely.  

While it might be true that disrupting meetings and speeches such as Ms. Albright’s and Mr. Netanyahu’s limits, to a degree, the ability of those individuals to speak freely at that time, it does nothing to change the fact that they have almost exclusive access to the freedom of speech during all other times (especially outside the city limits of this town).  

Mr. (Robbie) Osman alluded to this in his editorial when he discussed the role U.S. media play in limiting our access to speech. I believe, however, that he did not go quite far enough in emphasizing that the First Amendment applies both to giving and receiving speech freely.  

Until all of us have the ability to easily access a broad and diverse range of opinions, including highly critical ones æ in other words, until the opinions of people like Ms. Albright and Mr. Netanyahu are tempered in an equitable way by those of people like Ms. Lubin are, none of us possess the right of free speech.  

For now, we must demand that right at every opportunity æ loudly, vocally and publicly.  

Joshua Miner 

Oakland 

Demonstrators were peaceful 

Editor:  

I was one of the demonstrators at the Netanyahoo event. One of your letter writers called us “goons.”  

My understanding of the word “goon” is a person who threatens people with violence or physically attacks people. 

The purpose of our demonstration was to demonstrate and publicize our disagreement with Netanyahoo and the illegal and immoral Israeli policies and actions that he represents.  

It was not our intention to prevent him from speaking or prevent audience members from entering the theater. 

We believe passionately in nonviolence. None of us would have stopped audience members from entering the theater. Audience members could have walked through our demonstration and no one would have threatened or attacked them. 

The event organizers cancelled the event, claiming that it was a dangerous situation for Mr. Netanyahoo.  

Either they said that to make us look bad, or, in a process of”transference,” accused us of being violent because they themselves believe in violence. 

Netanyahoo’s purpose was PR for Israel, at a time when Israel’s actions are looking reprehensible to many of us. We suspect that he decided to do his PR in other communities that are less informed than we are here of what is going on. 

When we heard the event was cancelled, our emotions made us shout with joy.  

To us it meant that Berkeley would not honor a man who is a perpetrator and representative of policies of ethnic cleansing by deprivation,destruction, exploitation, confiscation, torture and murder, a destroyer of lives. 

Myrna Sokolinsky 

Berkeley 

Tool library needs more tools not more bureaucrats 

Editor: 

Reader Allen Dull has brought up a major problem with bureaucrats who think that tax dollars are just play dough for their buddies.  

When the Berkeley Public Library bureaucrats seek to impose a tool library manager instead of spending the money on tools or on an on-site employee, they are like my former school district which forced us to get an over-paid non-teaching departmental coordinator that we did not want and did not need.  

We did need more books and more classroom teachers. 

It does not matter if a governing board is liberal or conservative, it develops an incestuous love affair with Administration and generally follows the policy that the further a person is from the work site, the higher they should be paid.  

The only problem then is finding something useful for them to do. 

Armand Boulay 

Berkeley