Page One

ADULT SCHOOL MOVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has callously decided to ram through their move of the Berkeley Adult School (BAS) to the Franklin Elementary School Site. They have unilaterally decided to pave over the existing green playing Field in a primitive sacrifice to the God of automobiles; to add 1,700 students, with cars, to the quiet surrounding neighborhoods; to remove this campus as an elementary school forever.  

So to the BUSD I say: Keep your BAS off my Grass! 

Saul Grabia 

Member, Friends of Franklin 

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ANNUAL WHINING  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your recent front page story, “Stadium Neighbors Oppose TV Lighting” and the inside story, “Memorial Stadium Controversial From the Start” (Daily Planet, Sept. 2-4) were both very interesting.  

It seems to be part and parcel of the fall UC Football season in Berkeley: the annual autumn whining about traffic, noise and light by a few local residents living near the Memorial Stadium on the UC campus, which hosts several home college football games. 

The UC Memorial Stadium was completed in 1923, some eighty years ago. Any local neighborhood bitching about traffic and congestion on Fall Football Saturday from anyone younger than 105 years of age is ridiculous: Foot traffic and car traffic were there long before any of the current local residents were even born, let alone old enough to bitch about it.  

It would seem that some of the hillside neighbors living above Memorial Stadium want to have fantastic views of the Bay Area, which is home to several million people, without having any local lights visible in the dusk or evening hours. We all have our selfish demented dreams, I suppose. However, many thousands of Cal football fans across the country will enjoy lighted night games broadcast from UC Memorial Stadium. If you don’t want to live next to a vibrant college campus, perhaps you should consider moving a few miles north to quieter digs in Albany, El Cerrito or El Sobrante. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

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STUPID AND IMMORAL  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is there no prominent Democrat or responsible media commentator who condemns the monumental hypocrisy of ultraconservative Republicans like David Dreier? 

Dreier is the strongest advocate of Arnold Schwarznegger for governor of California—a former muscle man and second rate actor, who had volunteered such disgusting aspects of his past as gang-banging a woman! Aside from the moral aspect of his voluntary disclosure, it reveals that Arnold is as stupid as the night for revealing this matter during an interview with a friendly reporter. He may be financially Reganesque (for which Mr. Dreier values him) but he has a bird brain that makes him unsuitable for the position to which he aspires. Democrats should not let this matter go by without taking a stand on it! 

Max Alfert 

Albany 

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A LETTER TO BUSH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I received a “Tax Relief For America” check in the mail a few weeks ago. Like many working people in this country, I am not thrilled about paying taxes. I am especially not thrilled when my hard-earned tax dollars fund war, prisons and repression of people in the U.S. and around the globe. What would bring “relief” is if our taxes funded domestic programs that would help alleviate the many social problems that plague our country. Relief would be to see tax dollars spent on finding solutions and prevention for poverty, substance abuse, violence and acts of hate, fear and ignorance. I, like many others, could find countless ways to spend the unplanned cash that came in the mail from the U.S. government. 

But I want you to know that I have found a way to bring some actual relief. I am turning over my child tax credit to Berkeley Schools Now! Berkeley Schools Now! is an organization that was founded this spring. We are parents of current Berkeley public school students and alumni as well as concerned citizens who are committed to raising money to support our school district in a time of budget cuts and funding shortfalls. We want to raise money as a community for all our schools and allocate funds based on student enrollment to ensure a more equitable distribution. Our goal is to support the many wonderful programs and teachers in our district and ensure their survival and growth. Each school site will determine how to best use the money they receive. Berkeley has a history of supporting schools, public libraries and many other such programs that can benefit everyone who lives here. 

I am urging people in Berkeley to donate their tax rebate to Berkeley Schools Now! so the money goes where it should have been directed in the first place: to our schools. I believe that people in this country want to see positive social programs funded by our tax dollars. As our top national leadership clearly cannot prioritize appropriately and direct resources where they are most needed, we are taking it up on ourselves to do a piece of that work. I am asking everyone who receives a “Tax Relief for America” check to share the relief with Berkeley public schools and donate their rebate to Berkeley Schools Now! We are fortunate to have the technical expertise and fiscal sponsorship of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation which has been supporting our local schools for several decades. For those not receiving a rebate, I’m urging that they donate whatever they can. Our children deserve better. 

Rebecca Herman 

Berkeley Public School parent