Features

JOHN KERRY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

If Devaki Chandra (Letters, Daily Planet, March 23-24) wants to argue that John Kerry would be an improvement over George W. Bush, far be it from me to suggest otherwise. A kinder and gentler distortion of the historical record remains a distortion nonetheless. 

If John Kerry had really wanted, in October 2002, to authorize the use of force in Iraq “as a last resort and with international cooperation” as Chandra claims, he could have voted for the Levin amendment which would have authorized military action “pursuant to a new resolution of the United Nations Security Council,” rather than voting against that amendment and for the main resolution which instead granted one of the least qualified presidents of all time an unprecedented blank check. 

Any “voter who follows the news” and has access to the Internet can go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ to see the text and roll call votes of the 107th Congress, second session recorded in cyberspace for posterity. (The Levin amendment, S4862, was voted down on Oct. 10, the main resolution, HJ114, passed on Oct. 11.) 

The sooner Senator Kerry owns up to his complicity in the Bush-Cheney administration’s botched invasion and occupation of Iraq, the better off he, and America (including Berkeley), will be. 

Drew Keeling 

• 

POLICE DOGS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

What makes a police dog a unique and valuable resource for the community is the fact that a dog is an intelligent tool. Unlike a weapon, a police dog can protect an officer one day and greet school children the next. Anyone doubting the value of German shepherds as dependable working partners ought to visit the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in San Rafael. A Berkeley canine unit would be no nearer Bull Connor’s version of crowd control, than the fire department’s fire hoses are.  

As a veterinary nurse, I have drawn blood samples from police dogs and cleaned their wounds. I’ve found them to be well-behaved patients in the exam room and the subject of eager curiosity in the waiting room.  

Jane Townley 

• 

PEACEMAKER 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Mike Vukelich’s tongue-in-cheek letter praising Bush as a peacemaker and “great leader” was hilarious (Daily Planet, March. 23). In these trying times as we watch in horror as the soulless, heartless demons in charge rape the planet, distribute our hard-earned dollars to their cronies, and fatten on the blood and hope of struggling people all over the world, it’s important to pause now and then for a chuckle. Thanks Mike. 

Pamela Satterwhite 

• 

PLACEMENT TESTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to respond to Ms. Toni Martin, who wrote an editorial on the “bias in math placement tests” at Berkeley High School (“Private School Students Face Bias in Math Placement Test,” Daily Planet, March 23-25). You are sadly making a big deal about nothing. First off, honors geometry is not for just anybody. Having taken the course, I can assure you that the jump between honors algebra and geometry is biggest conceptual leap that a student will ever make at BHS. The math department is certainly justified in making it hard to get into that class. Secondly, your comparison to the Spanish department is flawed. Foreign language has no honors program. No classes are taught at a faster pace than others, as is the difference between honors and regular math. Foreign language is based only on the amount of knowledge possessed by the student, not the student’s capacity to learn. 

As for the science department, their entrance tests were only in place as an exercise to weed out the students who weren’t committed to AP sciences by eliminating students who weren’t willing to commit the time to take the test. The pass rate was close to 100 percent. 

Honors Geometry has no obvious benefits. The math department head tells me that a full 70 percent of the regular geometry students who take the placement test for Honors Algebra II pass. During my college application process, I learned that you get no grade boost from Honors Geometry. All I got from Honors Geometry was more homework and a useless tutoring requirement. 

Is the test itself fair to private school students? Probably not. Will failing to take Honors Geometry ruin your child’s chances of getting into a top rate college? Definitely not. Judging by your parting allusion to racism in the system, I am betting that you are just bitter that your child will have to be exposed to regular BHS students instead of the bleached environment of an honors-track classroom. 

Alex Weissman 

Senior, Berkeley High 

• 

MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Many of our nation’s newspapers have been kind enough to sum up in one sentence the true purposes of Hamas. “Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic one” (Palo Alto Daily, March 23). Bingo! Hamas simply wants to obliterate Israel and genocide its 5.6 million Jews. Sound familiar? It’s what the Sudanese Arabs have been doing to black African Christian and Animist Sudanese for 20 years. 

In the stirring words of Hussein Massawi (former leader of Hezbollah) “We are not fighting you (Israel) because we want something from you. We are fighting you because we want to destroy you” (quoted in Fouad Ajami, Dream Palaces of the Arabs). 

Abdul-Azziz Rantisi (number two Hamas leader) said something similar: “There is no room for a Jewish State in Palestine”. And just in case there was any doubt as to intentions, the deceased Sheikh himself prophesied: “We will destroy Israel...even if we must do it one Jew at a time”. 

Yet critics suggest that Yassin’s execution postpones negotiations. Where do they think negotiations can begin? Should Israel offer that the Arab terrorists kill only half the Jews? 

Some commentators say that the execution will generate further hatred? Hamas already wants every Jew dead. What would “further hatred” look like? Killing them twice? 

Others assert that it will do “...nothing to advance the cause of...peace”? There is no “cause of peace” when all Hamas wants is Israel’s total destruction. 

Some “senior law enforcement agents” think that Hamas has never before targeted the USA. False. Remember the three CIA agents killed when their car hit a mine while on their way to give Fulbright scholarships to Gaza teens? Remember the dozens of Americans, tourists and students and residents of Israel, killed along with Israelis in the 18,000 terror attacks since Sept. 13, 1993? Remember Yassin’s fiery rhetoric from his quadriplegic’s wheel chair as early as 1996: “When we are done with Israel, we start on the U.S.A.!” 

Some think that world leaders are right in condemning Israel for executing the number two Palestinian terrorist with the blood of hundreds on his hands? Every other nation, including the U.S.A .and U.K., does the same thing to those designated as enemies of the State, in time of war. The British assassinated Nazis after World War II, and eliminated IRA operatives in Northern Ireland. The U.S.A. used a drone to assassinate six al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen in November of 2002. When the complicity of Libya in the Lockerbie attack was confirmed, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Gaddafi’s palace in April of ‘86, missing him but killing his infant daughter. Regarding that bombing, President Reagan said: “As a matter of self-defense, any nation victimized by terrorism has an inherent right to respond with force to deter new acts of terror...(and show)...that there was a price to pay for that kind of behavior” (Washington Post, April, 1986). 

Or, to put it more succinctly: appeasement emboldens the aggressor. Hypocritical and shortsighted Israel-bashing appeases the aggressor, condemns the victim, and gives succor and support to those who seek to finish what Hitler started. 

David Meir-Levi 

Menlo Park 

• 

DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Gray Panthers of the East Bay believe, as does the average American, that the best way to hear the voice of the people is through democratic elections.  

The recent election in Spain was a democratic process and the people there rejected the government that had supported President Bush.  

Now we find people here challenging the validity of the vote. It is maintained by many of them that the Spanish were frightened into voting as they did by the terrorist attack.  

This may be so. However, there were massive protests by Spaniards against war in Iraq, surveys indicated the Spanish people were overwhelmingly against the war, and the Spanish government ignored those who protested. So, one can also conclude the voters were angry at the government.  

But, let’s put all that aside and consider this question. Shouldn’t we honor a democratic process in another nation even if we don’t like the outcome?  

Joel Brooks  

Margot Smith, Co Convener,  

Gray Panthers of the East Bay  

• 

IDENTITY AND ETHNIC STUDIES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

As a former Berkeley High School Identity and Ethnic Studies teacher, I write this letter in response to the article “Identity and Ethnic Studies Survives School Board Vote” (Daily Planet, March 12-15). I have always hoped to raise my children in Berkeley and send them to Berkeley public schools. But what I read in this article was frightening, to say the least. And your coverage of it, quoting only the opponents of the course, seemed extremely biased. 

The ignorance expressed in your article was laughable. I wonder how many of the opponents have actually read the curriculum in its most recent—now three year old—iteration. The funny thing about Bradley Johnson is that he never even took IES—he took the old ethnic studies/social living course, which was revised for a reason. Has he taken the time to research what the class really is, or has he been too busy crafting his argument/proposals? It seems he has become quite the conservative prodigy, following in the footsteps of political figures such as Ward Connerly, Arnold Schwarzenegger and George W. Bush, who use fear-mongering tactics to push their respective agendas. In this day and age, I wouldn’t be surprised—if Bradley were a student school board member in Fresno, that is. Something else strikes me as odd: Just who is this student who has talked to Johnson about “violent actions” he is contemplating from sitting in an IES class? Is this student a friend of Johnson’s? Did Johnson report this student who was contemplating these violent actions? Especially in his position, doesn’t he have the ethical responsibility to do so? No, I doubt this conversation (at least in the serious context Johnson implied) really took place, for this would imply that the student school board member would be putting his fellow students’ safety at risk. More likely, Johnson is taking a page from the book of right-wing rhetoric that is becoming increasingly dog-eared in our political climate.  

But let’s say this exchange really did happen. I wonder what Johnson would say to a student who contemplated violent acts after reading Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl? Or if a student who believed in creationism contemplated violent acts after learning about evolution? Would he propose eliminating English? Or science? Maybe he would introduce a compromise to make these subjects elective, so that there would be more room for students to learn and teachers to teach what they like. 

I call on Berkeley students, parents, teachers and board members: Don’t let the conservative element continue to dominate this dialogue with its uninformed and irresponsible diatribe. Instead, let us have a meaningful discussion about the value of this important course.  

Wayne Au 

Madison, WI  

• 

SIERRA CLUB ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

If you’re a Sierra Club member living in Berkeley, you should have received your national ballot for the Sierra Club Board of Directors. Most years voting can be a ho-hum affair if you don’t know the candidates or issues involved. This year, however, a lot is at stake. As an active Sierra Club volunteer, I am very concerned about efforts to take over the board by an anti-immigration slate.  

The background: Annually 750,000 Sierra Club members vote for five candidates for the 15-member national board of directors. This year a slate of five candidates wants to take over the board to re-direct traditional club priorities of clean air, clean water and parks, open space protection and energy conservation into anti-immigration issues. (For information, go to www.groundswellsierra.org.)  

I and other mainstream Sierra Club members are supporting five experienced and diverse activists who will put their loyalty to the club above personal agendas and who support the club’s traditional values. They include: Nick Aumen, Everglades restoration scientist and former club treasurer; Dave Karpf, recent director of the club’s student coalition; Jan O’Connell, club treasurer and fundraiser in our beat-Bush effort; Sanjay Ranchod, delegate to the Kyoto global warming negotiations; Lisa Renstrom, former foundation trustee, and former chair of the club’s fundraising efforts. 

I urge all club member to vote in the Sierra Club election for the above five candidates. 

Helen Burke 

• 

HYPOCRITES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Once again, the international community is applying the double standard to judge an action taken by the Israel Defense Forces against a terror organization whose explicitly stated goal is to obliterate the Jewish state.  

Since September, 2000, Hamas has been the leading Palestinian terrorist organization taking responsibility for more than 50 suicide attacks, all under the “spiritual guidance” of Sheikh Yassin. 

We in the United States cannot afford to participate in this double standard while we hunt down the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Is it not one of the primary responsibilities of a sovereign nation to protect its citizens? How can we be such hypocrites? 

Lorri Arazi 

Oakland 

• 

GLAD FOR THE BIG BANG 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Your article on creationism (“Local Activists Face Off in Creationism Debate,” Daily Planet, March 23-25) reminded me of a conversation I had with my 7-year-old grandson the other day. 

He asked me if I believed in God. I said no but I could be wrong, that many people did believe. His other grandparents certainly did. He thought for a moment, then said, “I guess I don’t believe in God but I’m sure glad we had the Big Bang.” 

Nancy Ward 

• 

MAKING PEACE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Today, the Associated Press reported that Palestinian terrorists gave a boy $22 to blow himself up. The boy, described by his own family as “slow” was caught after crossing over into Israel. Where is the outrage? 

The world’s leaders challenged Israel when the leader of Hamas was killed this week. However, Hamas is a group that is on nearly every nation’s list of terror organizations.  

Will these leaders also call for Palestinian terror groups to stop exploiting children for their cause? 

Let’s face it. Courage isn’t found in those who exploit kids in the name of the Palestinian cause. Courage comes when two parties sit down at the table, like previous leaders in Egypt and Jordan did, and try to make peace with Israel. 

Dan Cohen 

ˇ