Page One

Don’t drive out another good institution 

Editor: 

So now Congregation Beth is being compared to the South African government under apartheid. (Ted Vincent's letter of July 3.)  

Has Berkeley no shame? 

Ten years ago we drove the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival out of Berkeley so a few residents could live in their yuppie enclaves unmolested by sounds of urban life.  

Now we are working toward driving out Beth El, a synagogue that has been part of Berkeley's spiritual life for over half a century.  

The organizations we are suppressing are not oil refineries, but the cultural and spiritual institutions that form the very fabric of life in an urban community.  

Let us remember: we all chose to live in an urban environment, not in a suburb. 

Codornices Creek runs through my backyard, and I have probably looked into the creek three or four times a day for over 30 years.  

I have never seen a steelhead trout – or any other trout – in the creek. I am not saying that the steelheads that were observed came from a local fish store, but I am saying that steelhead trout are not part of the environment of Codornices Creek. 

I would like those neighbors of Beth El who are suddenly so involved in creek politics to ask themselves honestly how interested they were in creek restoration before Beth El planned to expand.  

Isn't this just ordinary NIMBYism wrapping itself in a self-righteous environmentalist cloak? 

Gail Todd 

Berkeley 

Beth El should be encouraged at its new site 

Editor: 

We write this in support of Congregation Beth-El.  

The congregation is a Berkeley institution with a long history of service to the community.  

It has outgrown the current location on Arch Street and could better serve, not only its membership, but the Berkeley community at large, on the new site.  

Its plan for the new building should be encouraged.  

Instead it is meeting opposition. 

We question the motives of the people who protest for the sake of Codornices Creek.  

How many of the home owners whose property borders the creek are willing to sacrifice their homes for the good of the creek?  

It seems to us that daylighting the creek should also require the loss of some property in addition to the proposed Beth-El structure. This is never mentioned. 

Let the congregation build! 

Hilda Amdur 

Berkeley 

Why advertise Reddy’s restaurant 

Editor: 

Why is it that – despite your excellent coverage of the case of the Reddy father and sons accused of immigration and tax fraud – you continue to feature in your newspaper a large advertisement for their Pasand restaurant? 

Marinella Manzano 

Berkeley 

Because there’s a solid wall between our advertising department and our editorial department – and we’re proud of it. 

– Judith Scherr, editor 

Eliot Abrams unfit for post 

Editor: 

The appointment by “President” George W. Bush of Eliot Abrams to be senior director of the National Security Council’s office for democracy, human rights, and international operations, which position does not require congressional confirmation, should alert the congress to the immediate need for legislation to disqualify for public employment of any kind all persons who have accepted presidential pardons. 

At the time of Ford’s presidential pardon of Nixon it was publicly affirmed that under the Constitution acceptance of presidential pardon is an admission of culpability. 

A few days before he left the Oval Office to Clinton, our current “President”’s father, George Bush Sr., gave Abrams a presidential pardon on Christmas Eve, 1992.  

Abrams had withheld Iran-Contra information from Congress, tantamount to lying under oath, or, in plain English, perjury, grounds for disbarment and even imprisonment. 

Abrams’ recent appointment waited to be announced to the press only on a Thursday, three days after Abrams assumed the job – no doubt so the story would appear in Saturday editions where it would have light circulation and be least likely to be noticed!  

Congress should certainly take notice and immediately make all those who have received a presidential pardon ineligible for government employment.  

Concurrently, Congress should as well seek a way immediately to remove Abrams from the post Dubya has misguidedly given him. 

Judith Segard Hunt 

Berkeley 

Bad practices in raising calves for slaughter 

Editor: 

Because most people now know the horrendous cruelty involved in raising calves for veal, the market for it has dropped.  

So the beef industry has decided to push a new “casual” form of veal: veal burgers.  

Promotions of the baby-animal-flesh-in-a-bun will begin soon. 

Veal is sickeningly tender-mushlike because baby calves are stolen from their mothers the day they are born and chained by their necks, each alone in a veal crate, for their short miserable lives.  

Rather than frolicking a their mothers’ sides as nature intended, they are immobilized so they can’t move backwards, forwards or sideways.  

They can’t even wash themselves or bite at flies on their rumps.  

They are unable to see, to eat grass, to feel the comfort of their mothers’ love.  

All to keep their flesh non-muscular, so people don’t have to exert their jaws chewing it. 

The little calves’ legs become so weak that many of them soon are unable to stand.  

They lie on the slatted stall floor in their own waste, their necks still chained.  

When the slaughterhouse truck comes, these beautiful babies have to be carried out and thrown onto it, just as they will next be thrown onto the bloody slaughterhouse ramp. 

Since cows must bear calves repeatedly in order to keep lactating, the dairy industry spawns the veal industry. 

Carla Bennett 

Senior Writer for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 

Norfolk, Virginia