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To the Editor: 

Wow. G. Schlappich is frightened of music and morality in politics (Forum, Nov. 12). He equates the statement by Tom Bates campaign co-chair Russ Ellis that “we are going to make moral music” with the terrorists crashing into the World Trade Center.  

Tom pledged to make the administrative process of government more open and citizen-responsive; to make the arts more welcome throughout Berkeley (and not just downtown). He promised to bring back civility and to reach across party lines on the City Council. He has already started to do so. 

Our campaign pleads guilty to liking and using poetry and music (and the arts generally). We believe in morality in government: saying what you mean and meaning what you say.  

So, if that makes us terrorists, I guess we will just have to learn to live with the label. Nobody better go up in the Campanile or the Gaia building during the Bates administration, you just can't tell when we may decide to attack one of those tempting targets in the city's 747. 

Mal Burnstein 

Bates Campaign Treasurer