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Letters to the Editor
RACHEL CORRIE
Editors, Daily Planet:
I wish to commend the Berkeley City Council for the action it took to press for an independent investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, run over by an Israeli military-operated Caterpillar bulldozer while protecting a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza on March 16. The City Council added its voice to nearly 50 congress members in asking that this be done, as was promised to the Corrie family by our government, but as yet unfulfilled.
I wish to respond to those who asked that all deaths be investigated. Why is Rachel’s case special? Regarding Rachel, the U.S Department of State has stated that “the case is not closed” and have raised a series of questions about the report completed by the Israeli authorities. In contrast, in the case of others, our opponents presented no evidence that they have not been sufficiently investigated already. Certainly their family members were not forced to be content with an incomplete report from those who are accused of causing the death of a loved one.
It has nothing to do with valuing one life over another, we most emphatically do not. It has to do with keeping the promises made by our government to all our citizens to protect us in other lands, and in the event of our death, to seek answers.
September 16 is the six month anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. We will commemorate that sad anniversary by thanking the City Council for their support of a fair investigation, and holding a brief vigil outside City Hall. Rachel’s parents will spend that time in Rafah, Gaza, still seeking answers.
Jim Harris
Volunteer with International Solidarity Movement
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NICE PLANET
Editors, Daily Planet:
I just moved back to Berkeley, and discovered your wonderful revised Berkeley Daily Planet. I do have one problem with the paper, however: Somehow, each compact publication contains so many excellent articles, on subjects vital to Berkeley and beyond, I can’t throw the issues away!
Thank you!
Gerta Farber
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TYRANNY
This letter was addressed to Berkeley City Council.
It is time to put an end to the environmental tyranny put forth by Norman LaForce and others. The request for sixteen acres of playing fields in a 270 acre, built on landfill, Eastshore State Park were met with cries of environmental disaster and outright lies published in the Sierra Club Newsletter. The BHS rowing team wants to row boats in aquatic park. Again, according to the environmental community, allowing this to happen is nothing short of ecological catastrophe. You see the birds would have to fly to another spot, perhaps the same Eastshore State Park, now a nature preserve, that is on the other side of the freeway from Aquatic Park.
And where is our city council on all of this? Do they as a body stand up to this bullying and point out that they just supported the creation of one of the largest nature preserves in Northern California across the street from Aquatic Park? No, they look toward “other locations” outside the City of Berkeley, delaying the BHS use even longer and making volunteers work even harder. So what if these other locations have pollution spewing vehicles taking children to other cities, no harm in that.
I may be wrong but it is my understanding that I and my friends can take the same boats used by BHS, put them in the water at Aquatic Park, and row to our hearts content. So why is the Berkeley City Council persecuting BHS rowers, who unlike me, are willing to do some environmental remediation? Why?
Doug Fielding
Chairperson,
Association of Sports Field Users
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OASIS CREATION
Editors, Daily Planet:
I am a south Berkeley resident who participated with others in the creation of a small peace garden in the aftermath of the bombing in Iraq. Time has passed since this event, but its spirit forges on.
On May 1, 2003 a small group of neighbors and friends gathered to celebrate spring and International Labor Day. They gathered on the grass of a vacant median strip on Stanford Avenue in Berkeley. A widely unused space, without a park bench or inviting atmosphere.
The celebration unfolded into the creation of a small garden. People began by laying down recent war story newspapers with messages of hope and release they had written on them. Then a layer of local compost was added to create a garden bed, and thus the peace garden was born.
The small, circular garden enclosed with wooden logs was home to sunflowers sprouts, purple beans from Chiapas Mexico, and a scattering of herbs and flowers.
It was a humble offering for peace, a food source for those with only a liquor store near by, and a civic improvement adding beauty to a median strip framed by traffic. The peace garden grew steadily for about three weeks, and was watered by locals who did so of their own accord. Sunflowers leaves grew hearty and small bean tendrils reached for light. Then, the peace garden was torn down in the course of a day. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, a routine reaction to an ‘unpermitted’ garden, or perhaps to someone, sunflowers are perceived as a danger to our neighborhoods?
As time has passed, the peace gardeners have regrouped and we have been putting our heads together about how to streamline the creation of “beautiful space” in our vacant lots, median strips.
A simple plan between neighbors and city officials would allow careful and thoughtful civic improvement projects to flourish without costly permits or threat of destruction.
Amidst traffic, freeway noise and cement there can exist marvelous “place making” that invites the community to come out of their houses, cars, and into a new notion of public spaces.
Indeed, we need more of these random acts of oasis creation!
Jennifer Miller
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BAD PLANET
Editors, Daily Planet:
I’m writing to urge the editors and staff of the new Berkeley Daily Planet to maintain the more open, balanced attitude a community newspaper for a town like Berkeley needs and deserves, especially when covering decisions made by the administrators of our public schools.
Today was to be the Berkeley/Oakland Tech football game. It was canceled. Instead of the fairly matter-of-fact headline in today’s Berkeley Voice, “Berkeley-Oakland Tech Canceled” our Daily Planet announces, “District Thwarts New Game Plan” with the article lead-in “The Berkeley Unified School District has killed plans to reschedule today’s beleaguered Berkeley High-Oakland Tech football game amid continuing questions as to why the game was put off in the first place.” In contrast, the Voice’s lead, “The football game between Berkeley and Oakland Tech high schools scheduled for tonight has been canceled because of talk of potential violence from people who could show up at the game” was simple and to the point.
The Planet’s coverage was unprofessional, unbalanced, and seems intended to make a difficult situation even harder. Principal Jim Slemp made a decision based on information from the Police and the School Community. To officially second-guess our new principal, on his first public “judgment call” is to explain, in part, why no self-respecting, competent administrator has been willing to take this job on—permanently—until now. I hope you will support those who make tough decisions in our community, in the future, unless you actually have reasons not to, and a lot of information to back up your reasons.
Heather Jacobsen
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MIDEAST COMMENTS
Editors, Daily Planet:
With respect to Paul Kilduff’s comment stating that sf.indymedia.org “is dedicated to free speech and does not edit the content provided by contributors” (“Google Site Bans Slurs Against Israelis, Not Arabs,” Daily Planet, Sept. 12-15): This is simply untrue.
I have personally posted approximately three dozen comments, 75 percent of which have disappeared from their site within less than two hours from posting. The overwhelming majority of these comments have been pro-Israel—they are wiped off the site. As are any anti-Palestine comments. But an anti-Israel comment—that will stay up forever.
Joe Francisco
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REPORT CARD
Editors, Daily Planet:
There is simply no justification for the number of failing grades received by the BUSD from FCMAT (“Many Failings in BUSD Report Card,” Daily Planet Sept. 12-15). It’s time for the School Board to shut up and start performing. And if they can’t, they should turn the job over to someone who can. In the world of business, where people are actually held responsible for the quality of their work (what a refreshing idea!), these people would have been fired years ago. If students are increasingly held accountable for their achievements, it seems only fair that those who “administer” our schools be also. Since good old-fashioned pride in a job well-done seems unable to motivate these folks, perhaps external standards are the only alternative. It does seem, though, that a good motto for the school board, which, if followed, would make external monitoring a moot point, would be “just shut up and do your job!”
James Ward
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XXXXXXXX
Editors, Daily Planet:
I am wiring in support of the Berkeley High School Women’s’ Crew Team’s wish to utilize Aquatic Park for rowing, as the team had been doing until quite recently. I am the hard-working single mother of the disabled single mother of the rower. Obviously trips to and from Aquatic Park, as opposed to Lake Merritt, would be much easier for the three of us.
Crew has played an invaluable role in my granddaughter’s high school experience with its team work, responsibility, discipline and healthy dose of the right kind of competition.
Our family is very sensitive to environmental issues and carefully assesses the pros and cons of our lifestyle activities. In this case, since we are talking about only two hours a day and since the birds in question would be able to find suitable resting spots nearby, we feel the advantages to the girls definitely outweigh the ecological consideration.
Name witheld
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XXXXXXXX
Editors, Daily Planet:
I’ve shopped at Bolfing Elmwood Hardware for many years because there the clerks look you in the eye, smile and actually show you what you’re looking for. This is so unlike most of the chains where a clerk will point a languid finger and say, “It’s on the back wall, if we have it.” At Bolfing I’ve had a clerk spend five minutes looking for the kind of nails I wanted. Total sale: $.10.
Nancy Ward
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XXXXXXXX
Editors, Daily Planet:
Regarding the $89 BILLION Bush has requested:
Population of US = 292,032,144 (approx)
Population of the World= 6,316,680,114
That 89 billion (89,000,000,000) represents $14 per person IN THE WORLD or $304 from EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the United States.
Blood from a turnip!! Where is all that money going to come FROM? And why should I send $304 to Iraq when I can barely pay my rent?
He said “sacrifices”. You know WHO is going to have to make the SACRIFICES -- me, that’s who. And you too.
Sincerely, Paulina Miner
Impeach Bush
Jeff and Paulina Miner
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XXXXXXXX
Editors, Daily Planet:
I marvel at the skill of high ranking military men (!) in using the Pollyanna mode to answer the questions of journalists. Here is an accurate but not literal exchange between CBS’s on-the-spot Dan Rather and Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, chief of operations in Iraq.
Dan: What’s wrong, General, in your view?
Ricardo: What’s wrong is the way our successful operations are reported by the press.
Dan: Can you give me one example?
Ricardo (smiling): I can give you a hundred.
Dan: One will do.
Ricarco: All right. The bombing last week of the mosque in Najaf….
Whoa, Nelly!
To be fair, the good general went on to praise his troops for voluntarily assisting with the wounded (which the press reported). I marvel that he actually said and presumably believes the mass murder of over one hundred worshipers at a religious shrine was the occasion for a successful military operation.
Marvin Chachere
San Pablo
