Family members of a Berkeley man who mysteriously died in a California Youth Authority prison last weekend said Wednesday that they suspect foul-play and a cover up. 

“We need answers, we need to know why [he died],” said Twanisha Brewer, the sister of Dyron Brewer, 24, who was found dead, alone in his room, at the Chaderjian CYA facility in Stockton at 3:54 a.m. Sunday. 

Surrounded by several other members of Brewer’s family who held up pictures of the young man, Twanisha tried to hold back tears as she talked about her brother. 

“That was my heart, and that was ripped from me,” she said. Brewer’s mom, Constance, sat by but was too emotional to speak. 

In a preliminary inquiry the coroner found no signs of foul play and the autopsy results are pending. They will be released in three to four weeks when the toxicology tests are completed, said Nellie Stone, the public information officer for the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department. CYA officials said they have an inquiry underway, but the coroner’s office will handle the primary investigation. 

Brewer’s death is the fourth this year in CYA facilities. On Jan. 12 another ward—as CYA inmates are called—at Chaderjian died after ingesting toxic chemicals. Days later, on Jan. 19, two wards hung themselves at the Preston CYA prison in Ione. The facilities are designed to hold most offenders up to the age of 25. 

The Stockton facility also drew fire in April from critics pushing for reforms to the youth prisons after California State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) released a videotape that showed prison guards beating two wards at the site. 

Brewer’s family said Dyron had no previous signs of illness and no history of drug abuse. They were barred from seeing the body at the coroner’s office, and instead were shown a Polaroid picture of his face. They could hardly recognize Brewer in the photograph, they said, but they would not specify what he looked like other than to say his face was swollen. 

Stone, from the sheriff’s office, said it is standard procedure to keep families from viewing the body. 

Unable to get answers about what had happened, the family teamed up with Books Not Bars, a human rights advocacy organization that focuses on incarcerated youth. Together they are demanding that CYA release any information they have that would add to the coroner’s report. They said they are going to file a freedom of information request for all documents related to the death and the treatment of wards in the facilities. 

“Given the CYA’s horrible track record of neglect, abuse, and cover up, we need a full investigation of how Dyron lost his life,” said Lenore Anderson, the director of Books Not Bars. “The CYA should release its reports on this incident and let the family know what happened to their son.” 

Brewer, who grew up in South Berkeley, was originally placed in CYA in 1995 for robbery. He was released in April of 2002 and had been in Washington on an inter-state parole until he was picked up on a parole violation, according to Sarah Ludeman, a CYA spokesperson. He re-entered CYA on Aug. 3, one month before he died. 

Family and friends said they were unaware of how Brewer violated his parole. Ludeman said she did not have that information either. 

At the CYA in Stockton, Brewer’s family and friends said he complained during phone conversations about being picked on by guards. He told them the guards were trying to get him in trouble so they could add time to his sentence. They said he was also confused about why he was back in CYA and pleaded with them to contact his parole officer to find out. 

Ronnie Leggett said that in his last conversation with Dyron two weeks ago, his friend told him, “the cops are picking at me. Call my parole officer and find out what the hold up is.” 

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Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board members authorized a key document last week paving the way for the tallest structure to rise in downtown Berkeley in decades, the nine-story Seagate Building slated to replace four 1920’s era low-rise structures on Center Street. 

On an initial vote, ZAB members voted to deny the mitigated negative declaration, a document enabling the builder to bypass a lengthy environmental impact report. But minutes later they reversed themselves and voted 6-2 to approve the document. 

Approval came despite opposition testimony from eight Berkeley residents—including two former and one current city commissioner—and no favorable testimony save from the developer. Another former and one current planning commissioner signed a written protest. 

The board delayed action on a second key document, the use permit authorizing construction, pending the resolution of questions concerning the size and placement of units for low- and lower-income tenants. 

While Seagate Properties, a 17-year-old Marin County real estate, investment and management firm with major holdings in at least four Western states, had first told city officials they were building an apartment building, plans have now shifted toward condominiums. 

Their controversial giant—10 feet higher and nearly three times the mass of the nearby Gaia Building—rises four floors above the five-story limit for new buildings in the downtown plan. 

Two additional floors were allowed because Seagate is providing some apartments at rates affordable to low and lower-income tenants. The second extra two floors were granted for leasing ground floor space to Berkeley Repertory Theater. 

Zelda Bronstein, a former planning commissioner who resigned earlier this year, was actively involved in the formulation of the downtown plan. She read a prepared statement, cosigned by former planning commissioner Rob Wrenn and current member Gene Poschman, declaring that even with the bonus additions, the downtown plan barred buildings higher than seven stories. 

“[S]taff seems to have misinterpreted the plan so as to allow affordable housing stories to be piled above the explicit seven-story limit. . .ZAB has no legal obligation to agree to extra stories,” Bronstein said.  

“I am appalled that the board would approve such a colossal building without an environmental impact report,” said Clifford Fred, another former planning commissioner. “This Seagate high-rise would be the death-knell for Berkeley’s remaining small town character.” 

He then rattled off a list of smaller structures where the city had required EIRs. 

Fred also declared the application “in stark violation of the downtown plan,” citing the 14-year-old document’s strict height limit of seven stories and 87 feet in the downtown core. 

Wendy Markel, president of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), also called for an environment impact report.  

Richard Schwartz, a contractor and Berkeley historian, said he was outraged at the lack of an EIR. “There are hundreds of Native American burial sites in the area,” he said. “CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) does not allow an exemption (from an EIR) when there is reasonable expectation of cultural resources.” 

Schwartz called the ZAB meeting “a cynical game in which the public good is sacrificed.” 

Landmarks Preservation commissioner, BAHA member and MoveOn.org Chief Operating Officer Carrie Olson said the Seagate Building violates the plan’s requirement that new development in the city center must take a back step to the historic nature of the area. 

“I’m shocked it’s not having an environmental impact report,” Olson told the board. “You guys should be requiring it. I went to 53 meetings of the General Plan Committee and came out of it thinking we couldn’t have a building like this.” 

Aiming a jab at the roof line housing the top floor penthouses, Olson said “that Quonset hut on top is going to scream out. This building is going to be glitzy, and once they’re condominiums, they’re going to be really junky. You can’t stop that.” 

Each of the critics drew applause. 

“Obviously, everybody has a different opinion,” said Seagate developer Darrell DeTienne. “The (city) Design Review Committee spent a lot of time and effort to make this thing work.” 

Following the testimony, ZAB members took the first of two votes on the project, rejecting the mitigated negative declaration on a 5-3 vote, with only Robert Allen, Deborah Matthews and Christina Tiedemann voting in favor. 

Allen, who said he wrote Berkeley’s first EIR in 1972, voted in favor because “the EIR has no effect on the final outcome except to raise housing costs and delay construction for at least a year.” 

“I think this will be the most elegant building to be put in the downtown for at least 40 years. We should be lucky to have this quality,” he added. 

“If we did an EIR it wouldn’t address most of the questions we’ve heard tonight,” Tiedemann added. “I don’t see a reason to reject this project.” 

Debbie Sanderson of the city’s planning staff said only “a handful of questions” involved EIR issues, while most of the others didn’t. 

At that point, member Laurie Capitelli announced he was ready to change his vote. Chair Andy Katz and Jesse Anthony followed suit. 

Sanderson and Senior Planner Greg Powell then dismissed concerns that the foundation might intrude on the undergrounded Strawberry Creek—which Powell said was far enough distant not to be a concern—and assured the board that construction would halt immediately if water or burials were discovered, pending appropriate remediation. 

Then, without the normal parliamentary niceties of introducing and passing a motion to reconsider, the board reversed its vote, leaving only David Blake and Carrie Sprague in opposition. 

Groans erupted from the audience, and several opponents walked out. 

“This building is so beautiful that it detracts from other buildings downtown,” said Tiedemann after the vote 

That left the issue of the cultural and inclusionary density bonuses for extra floors and the placement of low-income housing units within the complex. 

Civic Arts Commission Chair David Snippen huddled with DeTienne briefly, then announced that differences over the handling of a public gallery corridor had been resolved, eliminating one potential roadblock. 

During the discussion, Senior Planner Powell explained that under city rules, a developer who committed 5,000 square feet to arts and cultural space received one additional floor, with 10,000 square feet earning two floors—regardless of the overall size of the building. 

When ZAB discussed the Seagate Building two weeks ago, member Blake had challenged plans to restrict the 20 percent of units reserved for low-income tenants to the intermediate floors, while excluding them from the top two floors. 

At that time Land Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades insisted that the upper two floors “are not subject to the inclusionary bonus.” 

When Blake asked, “So you’re going to make a class-based penthouse?” Rhoades answered, “No, the state law does that.” 

Sanderson told the board Thursday that inclusionary units had been kept off the upper floors because of a “request from the applicant. . .it is justified in this case, but we are not making a blanket recommendation for all projects.” 

It was that issue that kept the board from approving Seagate’s use permit. Instead, they continued a decision until their next meeting on Sept. 23.

Berkeley school officials believe that recently-reported “plummeting” state test scores at highly-rated John Muir Elementary School are incorrect and are seeking to have them revised by the state Department of Education. 

The accumulated summary of Muir’s fourth grade scores on the California Standards Test (CST)—taken last May but only released to the public this month—appeared to show that the students had dropped 30 percent in English Language Arts from last year to this. 

But Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) Director of Curriculum and Instruction Neil Smith says that the score summary by New Jersey-based Educational Testing Services (ETS) is “absolutely” wrong, and does not agree with a manual adding up of the students’ actual test scores in the same report. Smith offered no theory as to how the ETS summary might have occurred, but said that he had “never seen an error like this before.” 

John Muir principal Nancy D. Waters said she was “relieved” at the discovery of the possible discrepancy between the test summary and the actual student scores, and looks forward to getting the matter cleared up. 

“My heart sank when it looked like we had gone down so much,” Waters said. “I didn’t know how it could have happened. I knew our teachers had worked 200 percent last year.” 

Waters said that a number of concerned parents contacted her office in the few days after the scores were published in local newspapers and posted on the websites of both the California Department of Education and the non-profit GreatSchools.net organization. 

CST scores are reported by the State of California under the STAR (Standardized Testing And Reporting) program, and are listed in five performance level categories: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic. Students in second through fifth grade are tested. 

According to the STAR summary, 23 percent (10 out of 43) of Muir’s fourth grade students scored in the lowest category, Far Below Basic, in last May’s English portion of the CST. But both Waters and Smith said that after they did a manual count of the individual student scores on which the summary is supposed to be based, only two of the students actually scored that low. 

Waters and Smith said the summary totals for Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic scores were less than the actual count of Muir students who scored in those categories. 

California public schools suffer no state rewards or penalties for the information listed on the CST summaries. A spokesperson for the California Department of Education said that the state agency bases its overall school rankings on the data taken from the reported individual student test scores themselves. And, in fact, Muir’s score on the California Academic Performance Index (API) actually went up this year—from 815 to 821 out of a possible 1,000 total score—keeping the school in the top 20 percent of all state schools with a comparable grade range. API scores are based, in part, on the individual student score results of the CST tests. 

But in an era when testing has become the popular judgment criterion for schools, the CST summaries—whether good or bad—can have a profound effect on both the staff morale and the teaching strategies of the schools themselves, as well as on the judgment of individual schools by the public. 

Lisa Rosenthal, senior editor of GreatSchools.net, said that “a large percentage” of people who access her organization’s site “are looking at the test scores as a criteria in choosing a school. We always provide the caveat: don’t judge a school by the test scores alone. There are lots of other factors. But [test scores are] definitely a first stopping point [used by parents] to decide on schools.” 

Principal Waters said that after she got the initial report of the test score summary last month, she was already “brainstorming [with colleagues] over how to proceed” to make up for what she thought were the school’s newly-discovered deficiencies. 

“I was preparing for the first staff meeting of the year, and I was trying to figure out how to motivate the staff after hitting them with such bad news right off the bat,” Waters said. 

After reviewing the John Muir test data online, Bob Bernstein, a Department of Education administrator, speculated that Educational Testing Services may have used what he called “modifications” to alter the totals in the summary, while leaving the individual test scores untouched. He said he had not previously heard about the discrepancy in the John Muir scores. 

Bernstein said that might account for why a manual adding-up of the individual scores does not bring the same figures as reflected in the summary. Bernstein said he found, for example, that nine Muir fourth graders were listed in the CST data as having needed a teacher to read to them certain passages during the test, rather than reading the passages themselves. 

Educational Testing Services could not be contacted for this story. 

GreatSchools.net’s Rosenthal called the Muir test discrepancies “puzzling,” and did some speculating herself, reasoning that “it could be a problem with the scoring. It could be a problem with the reporting. A whole host of things could be going wrong.” And she said she’d seen such problems before. 

“I was on a school board in Burlingame several years ago, there was some test that seemed way out of whack with the test results, and they went back and found that the state had made a mistake on the scores,” Rosenthal said. “When school districts get these results, it’s a good thing they go through them with a fine-tooth comb and try to figure it out, because very often the scoring is in error. So people need to question that.” 

BUSD’s Smith said a representative in the district office is expected to contact the State Department of Education today (Friday) with a formal query on the Muir test score discrepancy. 

When Almateen Tweedie heard someone pounding on her front door the morning of Oct. 30, she assumed the guests were friends of her young sons.  

Instead it was the Berkeley Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit (SEU)—the force’s designated drug busters. Within seconds, Tweedie said, a team of five SEU officers had battered down her door, shoved her to the kitchen floor and pointed their M-40 carbine guns at her.  

“I felt so helpless,” said Tweedie, who was dressed only in a nightgown during the incident. “Guns were pointed to my head, all parts of my body. I told them I have diabetes and high blood pressure, but they just said, ‘shut up.’” 

Upstairs, officers, their guns drawn, ordered Tweedie’s husband, Jesse Burns and their two sons Jesse, 14, and James, 11, to the ground and handcuffed the father and elder son. 

“I was, like, ‘I’m only 14, don’t kill me,’” Jesse Jr. told investigators. 

Police herded the family into their living room, while officers rummaged through their apartment in search of drugs and James Coby, a convicted felon and known cocaine dealer. 

The police found Coby and a loaded .357 magnum revolver handgun next door at 1126 62nd St., Apt. 15 in Oakland. Tweedie, who has since moved, lived in apartment 16. Berkeley and Oakland have a mutual aid pact that allows Berkeley police to perform drug busts in Oakland. 

A Police Review Commission (PRC) hearing panel found that Tweedie and her family were victims of a faulty investigation and several PRC members said that the Tweedie case when coupled with a similar one involving many of the same officers indicated a possible pattern of abuses in SEU busts. 

“What made them bust into the home and terrorize a completely innocent family?” asked PRC Commissioner Jon Sternberg. “Either the confidential informant was lying or they made some other mistake.” 

Tweedie said SEU officers released her family after detaining them for about an hour, but not before they broke the family’s washing machine, dryer, stove and picture frames during their search and delivered one final indignity. Police, equipped with a video recorder, brought both Coby and Margaret Lott, a resident of apartment 15, who police arrested along with Coby, into the Tweedie home for questioning while Tweedie was still wearing only a gown.  

“I said, ‘how could you do this to me?’” she said. “You could see right through the gown. I felt like I was on display.” 

Then against Tweedie’s wishes, she said, a female officer took Lott upstairs into Tweedie’s bedroom and strip-searched her.  

In findings released last month, a PRC hearing panel sustained seven out of 22 allegations against Det. Jack Friedman and other officers involved, including failure to properly investigate, improper search, unnecessary display of weapons, failure to provide medical assistance, improper detention, abuse of discretion and damage to property. 

This week, in a separate case, a PRC hearing panel sustained three allegations against Det. Friedman and Sergeant David Reece, who also participated in the Tweedie raid, for their role in a sting operation against Roosevelt Oliver, a West Berkeley resident police suspect of dealing heroin. 

The officers were cited for using excessive force in apprehending Oliver, needlessly kicking down his front door which was already partly open and damaging his personal property during their search. Police found no evidence of drugs on Oliver or in his house and made no arrests in the bust. 

“We now have two cases of warrants being issued when nothing’s there and the information alleged is sketchy. It makes you wonder who the informants are,” said Commissioner David Ritchie at a PRC meeting Wednesday. “In [the Tweedie] case a warrant was issued for two apartments because they couldn’t tell which one had the drugs.”  

Berkeley Police Det. Friedman, however, insisted in an interview with a PRC investigator that he had good reason to seek a search warrant for both apartments 15 and 16. Friedman said a confidential informant alerted him that Coby was dealing drugs out of both homes and that during a surveillance operation he had seen Coby enter Tweedie’s home and then leave on his way to complete a drug deal.  

However when asked during the PRC hearing to pinpoint a location from which is was possible to distinguish between the two apartments, Det. Friedman refused to reveal the vantage point, claiming it would endanger his confidential informant. Police Chief Roy Meisner and City Manager Phil Kamlarz backed Det. Friedman’s position, PRC commissioners said.  

The PRC hearing panel toured the streets surrounding the apartment and determined it would have been impossible to identify either apartment unit. 

Ritchie also questioned SEU protocol in conducting the raids and searching homes. “One of their regulations is they’re not supposed to trash the place,” he said. “To a person who’s lying there with all of his belongings thrown in a pile, that’s what it looks like to them.” 

Berkeley officers defended their behavior in interviews with PRC investigator Dan Silva. Det. Friedman insisted the SEU unit announced themselves as police and waited 20 seconds before breaking down Tweedie’s door. Asked about entering with their guns drawn, he replied, “There is a very well known common correlation between narcotics dealing and violence. And Mr. Coby’s history is a violent one. 

Friedman also insisted that Tweedie had never alerted him that she had a medical condition and that she gave her permission to bring Coby and Lott into her house and strip search Lott in her bedroom. Asked why he made the request, Friedman said he didn’t have enough officers to detain people in two different homes. 

Sergeant Reece, the officer who kicked down Roosevelt Oliver’s open door explained it this way: “I saw the interior wood door was slightly ajar, but I had this thing in my hand (a pry metal/ring, used for prying open doors) so I just kicked the door open. When I did that, the door opened obviously but later on somebody found out that the top hinge came undone.” 

Beyond failing to compel Det. Friedman to testify to his surveillance location, the PRC reported other problems getting information from the police department. In both the Oliver and Tweedie cases the commission asked for copies of search warrant requests originally sent to a judge for approval. However, both warrant request copies the BPD delivered to the PRC had key sections of text erased. 

“The police department should never be able to redact information on a search warrant,” said PRC Commissioner and retired Alameda County prosecutor Jack Radisch. “The instant a search warrant is delivered it is a public document. The idea of it being redacted is a little humorous.” 

Yet on the Oliver case many of the redactions had nothing to do with protecting personal information about the defendant or the identity of the confidential informant. One sentence read: “On each occasion (the informant) returned directly to an SEU detective giving them an amount of narcotics, which had been purchased (redacted)...” The missing words included in the original request for a warrant, signed by a magistrate and obtained by the Planet, read that the narcotics had been purchased “by the SEU”. 

Jim Chanin, a Berkeley attorney representing both Oliver and Tweedie and a former PRC chairperson, said that in the past few years BPD redactions often have defied reason. “It all depends on who the censor is,” he said.  

Chanin connected what he perceived as Berkeley’s increasingly permissive attitude towards the police department with a surge in his caseload of police misconduct.  

“I’ve gotten more cases out of Berkeley in the last four years than I have in the previous two decades,” he said. “That’s a pretty good indicator that something is wrong.” 

Chanin has filed a complaint with the city in both cases, but said he hasn’t determined yet if he will file a lawsuit in superior court. 

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Without Sylvia McLaughlin and her fellow “tea ladies,” San Francisco Bay might’ve become just another example of urban sprawl—filled in, paved over and transformed into a flat urban plain. 

Back in 1961, Berkeley city officials had ambitious plans to double the size of the city by filling in 2,000 acres west of the shoreline, while the Army Corps of Engineers [ACE] was floating projections of the Bay in 2020 in which most of the bay would have been transformed into filled development. 

McLaughlin was the right person in the right place to foil their plans at the time. 

Her newest concern? 

“Casinos.” 

McLaughlin’s presence has been a given at the ever-growing number of meetings in recent months along the East Bay called in response to the growing number of casino developers targeting the area with plans for Las Vegas-style gambling palaces. 

“Point Molate is such a beautiful area. I was just appalled when I saw plans for such a huge development covering much of it.” she said. “I would hope that there are a lot of people who are opposed to gambling. But this is one of the challenges and opportunities we have—a big one.” 

Her battle to preserve the bay began in the 1960s, when she formed the Save San Francisco Bay Association with a few friends. 

Her spouse, Donald—then chairman of the board of Homestake Mining, America’s largest gold mining company—was a San Francisco native and UC Berkeley graduate who had served as the first dean of Berkeley’s College of Engineering and was then serving on the UC Board of Regents. 

One of McLaughlin’s closest friends was Kay Kerr, spouse of UC Chancellor Clark Kerr.  

“We were both concerned about the bay, and I told her I would rather work on this than anything else,” McLaughlin said. 

Kerr suggested a third member of the team, Esther Gulick, who was married to a Berkeley economics professor. 

“We held a meeting with all sorts of conservation organizations, and David Brower,” Berkeley’s most famous environmentalist, “said somebody ought to start a new organization” devoted to the issue. “So that’s what we did,” she said. 

Their first mass mailing featured an ACE diagram of a filled-in bay captioned “Bay or River?” and invited recipients to send a dollar to join the Save San Francisco Bay Association. The $1 membership was picked to draw the largest possible numbers—and it worked, drawing about a 90 percent response. 

“Kay had been a journalism major, so she did most of the writing. Esther had been an economist, so she kept the books and kept track of the major donors,” McLaughlin said. “I was the French major, so I became the one to go around to other organizations, where I learned about all these other issue and their interrelatedness.” 

With their connections and a growing membership base, the group was gaining clout, and drawing requests for help from other Bay Area communities. 

“We did manage to get the Berkeley City Council turned around on” the 200-acre bayfill proposal already cleared by the city planning commission, McLaughlin said. “They changed their policy.” 

As for the larger issues, “we felt the only way to stop the bay fill was through state legislation, so we talked to Bill McAteer and Nick Petris,” two powerful state legislators. 

McAteer, who owned a waterfront restaurant in Sausalito, was a natural choice since the Army’s map showed a future in which his pristine views were filled in by miles of development. Petris had already sponsored bay-saving measures which had failed. 

“McAteer got a study commission appointed in 1965, a very top-level group that recommended the creation of a regulatory agency, the Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC),” McLaughlin said. 

Created on a temporary basis in 1965, the agency became permanent two years later after a struggle in the Legislature in which McLaughlin’s group led a drive that flooded Sacramento with calls and cartons of letters. The measure won by a single vote in the Senate and was signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan. 

“It was the power of public opinion versus highly paid lobbyists,” she recalled. “I don’t know if we could’ve done it in today’s world, because so many of our volunteers were so-called homemakers with the leisure time to go to public meetings and write letters and so forth. Now many women’s organizations are having trouble attracting new members because so many women are now in the workforce.” 

Their opponents—including the railroads, Ideal Portland Cement, investment bankers Lazard Freres LLC and the Crocker Land Company—certainly mustered massive political clout. 

The “Save the Bay Bill” was the only piece of environmental legislation presented to the Legislature that year. In 1970, more than a thousand were submitted. Establishment of a permanent commission was a major step, but there have been plenty of other challenges along the way. 

When Westbay Community Associates presented a plan to chop off the top of San Bruno Mountain and dump it in the South Bay to make way for development, McLaughlin’s group joined the lawsuit that eventually blocked the grandiose plan. 

They also joined forces with the City of Berkeley when the Santa Fe Land Company and George Murphy sued the city for $12 million each after the planning commission blocked their bid to construct a regional waterfront shopping center. 

Though mining companies have been frequent targets of environmentalists, McLaughlin said her husband “greatly supported my efforts for the Bay.” She points to Homestake’s McLaughlin gold mine—named in his honor—at the confluence of Napa, Yolo and Lake counties, “which was held up as a model for handling environmental issues” and later turned over to the University of California for a preserve when the mine finally closed.  

With the passage of time, concerns shifted. 

“We recognized that wetlands are very important and needed attention, so we brought together 30 environmental organizations to save them,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve always been concerned with water quality and quantity, too—so there’s always been plenty to do. One of our major efforts has been watchdogging the BCDC to make sure they were doing what’s necessary.” 

McLaughlin said she has continually worked to save the BCDC from attempts to weaken the organization. 

“One of our chief concerns has always been public access to the waterfront,” she said. “In the beginning, it could be measured in feet. Now there are several hundred miles of access.” 

McLaughlin’s interest in waterfront access led in the early 1980s to the creation of Citizens for the Eastshore State Park, a group which now consumes much of her time. 

While the park itself has now been created, there’s an ongoing struggle to insure adequate funding, she said, although voters and municipal governments have been rising to the challenge. 

Though she stepped down from the Save the Bay board four years ago, she remains in frequent contact with Executive Director David Lewis. 

At 87, McLaughlin remains very active, serving on the boards of the Resource Renewal Institute and Eco-City Builders and deeply involved with the Public Trust Group, which is leading the fight to save the state Lands Commission from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s drive to eliminate state agencies. 

Then there are the meetings, which take up the largest part of her time, “public hearings, meetings, and sometimes meetings before meetings.”  

Her membership on the Friends of Bancroft Library Council has a more personal aspect. The library already houses the collected papers of her late husband, and she is currently assembling her own papers for their collection.

Commercial parking, landmarks and creeks consumed the lion’s share of the Berkeley Planning Commission’s Wednesday night session, producing lots of talk and no decisive action save for one member’s abrupt walkout. 

Three members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) were on hand for the discussion of technical changes to the zoning ordinance to support a proposed new ordinance that would govern their actions. 

The revised Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO), undertaken at the request of the City Council, has been four years in the making. Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan said part of what concerned the elected officials was the potential for legal liabilities posed by the current law. 

“Over the past four years, we went over the code issue by issue,” said Carrie Olson, LPC commissioner and former chair of the group. “Our goal was to ensure there was as little liability for the city as possible.” 

While the current statute limits the LPC’s review of the possibility of landmarking buildings proposed for demolition to consideration of non-residential structures older than 40 years, the revised draft would extend scrutiny to residential structures, but would apply only to buildings more than 50 years old. 

Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks said the process “takes a lot of time.” 

His staff estimated that under the proposed revisions, the commission would have looked at 122 more buildings over the past year. 

“What this seems to do is that any sort of change becomes reviewable” by the LPC, said Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman. 

“As it’s currently written, the landmarks commission has authority over alterations but not demolition. This would give them authority over demolitions,” Cowan said. 

LPC member Adam Weiss defended the new ordinance, saying it “would frontload everything, so everyone would know from the beginning what they have to do...following a more understandable set of rules for the entire city.” 

Planning Commission Chair Harry Pollack faulted the revisions for putting the LPC “in the position of determining whether an application is complete, which is normally a staff decision. 

“There has to be a better solution,” he said. 

Cowan countered that the revisions don’t endow the LPC with that power. He described two other inaccurate characterizations of the effect of revisions, which appeared in a detailed communication from “smart growth” advocacy group Livable Berkeley, as “howlers”. 

Olson acknowledged that under the present regime, non-residential projects do appear on the LPC agenda, but “nearly all are passed over. Only about a half-dozen people write (landmark) applications, and I’m one. We’re not trying to search out landmarks ourselves. We are trying to pick them up early in the process” of development. 

Commissioners ended the hearing with clear signals that they would try to amend the proposed zoning changes before passing them on to the City Council, which has the final say on both on the zoning ordinance and on the LPO. 

Another hot potato on the planner’s agenda was the subject of parking for commercial businesses, an issue arising from the December, 2003 report of the Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development, which identified parking issues as a barrier to new business. 

Because many commercial buildings have been restricted to single uses, any changes to new or multiple uses trigger a search for the new parking spaces mandated by the general standards for the district housing the building. 

The task force recommended changes in the zoning ordinance to waive the requirements when the new use fell under the same category as the old, and to grant discretionary powers to city staff and the Zoning Adjustments Board when changes involve new or multiple use categories. 

The staff proposal calls for a formal Commercial Parking Review involving a community stakeholder workshop and public hearings before submission of the proposed changes to the City Council. 

“Our view is that this is a very serious problem for us. In virtually all cases, providing parking on site is impossible. We’ve been asked to do this as a highest priority project,” said Planning Director Dan Marks. 

When Gene Poschman began questioning whether a proposed timeline for the process was realistic, commissioner Jerome Wiggins invoked the late and controversial New York City planning czar Robert Moses, drawing a barbed comment from Poschman.  

After commission Susan Wengraf accused Poschman of obstruction, Wiggins grabbed up his papers and stormed out of the meeting, declaring, “You micromanage the minutiae.” 

Poschman then moved to hold a workshop during the commission’s second October meeting, which immediately carried on a unanimous vote. 

The final incendiary on the agenda was the proposed revision to the city’s Creeks Ordinance, which governs property-owners’ responsibility for the city’s vast system of creeks buried in underground culverts. 

“What is going to be the responsibility of the Planning Commission?” mused Wengraf. “This is probably the most far-reaching land use issue for the city in a long time, and for the Planning Commission not to have a say” isn’t reasonable. 

Marks proposed a task force composed of stakeholders, including creek advocates and the property owners who would be forced to carry the heavy costs of repairing the crumbling concrete culverts buried deep beneath their homes and businesses. 

One of those who received a notice of a culvert beneath his home was Poschman, who regarded it as “as the kiss of death.” 

As a model, Marks held up the commission’s UC Hotel Task Force, which brought together a Planning Commission subcommittee and a collection of stakeholders to propose guidelines for the hotel, convention center and museums complex UC Berkeley has proposed for a two block area of downtown. 

The revisions will take at least two years to formulate, he said,. 

Pollack said he wanted the process to be handled by a subcommittee of planning commissioners, who would listen to the stakeholders as they appeared before them during a series of hearing. 

When Marks said it wasn’t clear who should have the leading role, commissioner David Tabb insisted that the planning board “should have more than an advisory role.” 

The commission then adjourned, leaving the matter for future meetings.?

Berkeley’s fourth murder victim of the year—all in the past two months—has been identified as John Hunt, 40, of Oakland. 

Hunt was gunned down on the 1700 block of Sixth Street at 12:23 a.m. Sunday morning, Police spokesperson Joe Okies wrote in a press release. 

Police know of no motive or suspects in the murder. The investigation is continuing. 

Witnesses indicated they heard gunfire and saw a car speed away with two to three occupants that may have been involved in the murder, according to police reports. The car was described as a newer, possible two-door American-made car, metallic champagne in color. 

Hunt was rushed to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center where he was pronounced dead a short time later. 

Hunt’s death comes nearly three weeks after Val Cooper, a 23-year-old from Tulsa, Okla. was gunned down in daylight at Adeline and Harmon Streets 

Two weeks prior Samuel Anderson, 64, was shot dead in his Alcatraz Avenue apartment and on July 18 Mario “Tip-Toe” Jackson died after a gunman opened fire as he stood in the driveway adjacent to his grandmother’s house on Ashby Avenue. 

The last three killings have all taken place within a one-mile area in South Berkeley. None of the murders have been solved and police do not know if there are any links in the killings. 

—

Is West Berkeley’s Nexus Gallery headed for the wrecking ball? Bob Brockl, a leading figure in the gallery and collective housed in a pair of buildings at 2701-2721 Eighth St., hopes it isn’t. 

As rumors circulated that his landlord intends to tear down the unreinforced masonry structure and accompanying steel workshop that have served as Nexus’ home for more than two decades, preservationists are filing an application to landmark the building. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission are scheduled to take a first look at the proposal when they meet Monday at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

But the rumors of the structures’ impending demise may be greatly exaggerated. Nexus isn’t faced with a deep-pocket developer eager to build high-rise apartments or condos, as is often the case. Nexus’s landlord is another venerable community institution, backed—like Nexus—by its own contingent of devoted supporters. 

The owner of the buildings is the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, which is looking to expand from its cramped quarters immediately to the east at 2700 Ninth St. 

“We just hired a structural engineering firm, which is creating a plan for a retrofit,” said Mim Carlson, the Humane Society’s executive director. 

Carlson said she couldn’t comment on the landmark application because she hadn’t seen a copy. “It’s interesting that you’ve seen a copy and the owner hasn’t,” she told a reporter. 

The society had explored a possible partnership with the city, which needs a new shelter and had $7.2 million in voter-authorized bonds to build one. 

“There had been high-level planning talks with the city about a joint shelter,” Carlson said, “but those are on hold, if not totally ended.” 

City officials have told Nexus they can’t occupy the site without a retrofit, but the gallery and collective had declined to lay out the six-figure costs with a long-term lease, Brockl said. The city had granted Nexus two extensions on their retrofit deadline, but can’t grant a third absent a building permit committing to the fixes. 

According to the landmark application, the main structure, a two-story red brick building, was built as a factory for Standard Die & Specialty in 1924 by the Austin Company of California—the same firm that built the landmarked H.J. Heinz Co. factory at San Pablo and Ashby avenues. 

The Humane Society began in a nearby building three years later, and over the years the Nexus building has been occupied by a variety of manufacturers until its acquisition along with the two adjoining metal buildings in 1969 by the Humane Society. 

The organizations and individuals who would eventualy comprise the Nexus Institute arrived in the early 1970s, and the institute itself was recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization in 1975. The gallery followed a few years later. 

Nexus emerged as a major force in the East Bay arts scene, winning recognition from academics and the arts community both for its collective presence and for the works of its members and the emerging artists showcased by the gallery.›

Scientists from the Berkeley-based California Department of Toxic Substances Control have discovered the world’s highest recorded levels of a recently banned class of fire retardants in the eggs of seabirds that nest along the shores of San Francisco Bay. 

The chemicals, frequently used to reduce the flammability of children’s sleepware, are PBDEs—polybrominated diphenyl ethers—banned from use or sale in California in August, 2003. 

The scientists also discovered that PBDE levels in breast milk samples from American women are 10 to 70 times higher than found in the breast milk of European and Japanese women. 

“Although the toxicity of PBDEs is not fully understood, the chemicals have been shown to harm neurological, hormonal and reproductive development and function in scientific animal studies,” said Angela Blanchette, spokesperson for the DTSC. 

DTSC scientist Jianwen She announced the findings of the three-year study during the International Dioxin Conference currently underway in Berlin. 

She told the conference that seabirds were selected for study because they “are useful for monitoring and assessing ecosystem health because they are high on the marine food web, are long-lived and are generally localized near their breeding sites”—making them “valuable tools in monitoring persistent organic pollutant in the environment.” 

—

Mekayla Blanck, 11 (right) and Celina Borucki-Gibson, 10, participate in an impromptu candle light vigil at the corner of Ashby Avenue and Adeline streets Thursday night where participants marked the death toll of more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The vigil at Ashby and Adeline, where a few dozen people gathered at 8 p.m., was one of several in the Bay Area, five of which were in Berkeley. The vigils were organized in part by MoveOn.org.

Seeking to undercut a ChevronTexaco legal action to block the sale of Point Molate, Richmond city councilmembers Tuesday reconfirmed in public their closed-door extension of exclusive negotiating rights with a would-be casino developer. 

The oil giant won a temporary restraining order that blocks the sale until after the outcome of a Sept. 20 hearing in Contra Costa County Superior Court, based in part on their contention that the city’s earlier closed-door vote to grant the extension violated the Brown Act. 

The move gives more time to Berkeley developer James D. Levine, who has teamed up with a Native American band and Harrah’s, the world’s largest gambling firm, to build a Las Vegas style waterfront gambling resort on the bay. 

With casino proposals in the works for San Pablo, Oakland, Richmond, North Richmond and, possibly, at Golden Gate Fields, word of yet another Richmond casino—this one at Hilltop Mall—was floated by San Francisco Chronicle columnists Matier and Ross.›

“I think we might have lost her.”  

With that heartbreaking statement, spoken by a North Carolina-based American Airlines employee, one of the greatest tragedies in U.S. history began.  

It was 7:59 on a radiant September morning when American Airlines Flight 11 lifted off from Boston’s Logan Airport, bound for L.A. On board were 81 passengers, two pilots and a cabin crew of nine. Sitting in Business Class were Mohammed Atta and four fellow terrorists. Less than an hour after take-off, Atta deliberately flew the Boeing 767 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower.  

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks killed 3,000 people in New York and Washington, D.C. It was the greatest American catastrophe of modern times.  

But for San Francisco’s Ong family the tragedy was dreadfully personal. The “her” referred to by American employee Nydia Gonzalez was Flight Attendant Betty Ann Ong—their beloved sister and daughter.  

Ong was a victim of the terrorists. She was also the first hero of that fateful day. Many people have heard of Todd Beamer’s courage (“Let’s roll”). But relatively few know about Betty Ong’s.  

Within minutes of the hijacking, and despite the murderous mayhem on board, Ong bravely grabbed a crew phone to call colleagues on the ground.  

For the next 23 minutes, she gave authorities a detailed account of what was happening. Ong calmly told ground staff there were possibly four hijackers of Middle Eastern extraction on board.  

Ong also reported on the carnage taking place—the First Class galley attendant, stabbed; the purser, stabbed. The terrorists also slashed the throat of a passenger, who was bleeding profusely. The hijackers locked themselves in the cockpit.  

Amid the mid-air horror, Ong remained cool. She identified the seats the terrorists had occupied, enabling the FBI to learn the hijackers’ passport details.  

Fifteen minutes after Ong first alerted the world to what was happening, the big Boeing suddenly lurched, tilting wildly. She said the pilots were probably no longer flying the airplane. The 767 approached Manhattan, flying ever lower.  

Still on the line, Ong said in a composed voice: “Pray for us. Pray for us.”  

Seconds later the line went dead.  

Her ground contact asked: “What’s going on, Betty? Betty, talk to me. Are you there? Betty?”  

Born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Betty Ong enjoyed an idyllic childhood. The youngest sibling, she was doted on by elder brother Harry and sisters Cathie and Gloria. Their parents, Harry Snr, now 84, and Yee-gum Oy, 78, owned a small grocery store where they worked long hours.  

As a teenager, Ong grew to be a tall, attractive girl. Though self-conscious about her willowy 5’ 9” height, it helped her excel in basketball and volleyball.  

“Everyone who knew Betty really loved her,” says Harry, a youthful-looking pharmacist in his early fifties.  

Sister Cathie agrees: “Bee made everybody feel like they knew her right away.”  

“When we spoke to colleagues who had flown with Betty, they told us that on late night cross-country flights many flight attendants relax after serving dinner,” Harry says. “But Betty always strolled the cabin, especially mindful of older passengers, and always checked to see if there was anything they needed, an extra blanket, a glass of water, a cup of tea.”  

Even on her last day, Betty Ong took time to look after an elderly person. In an e-mail to Ong’s family, Joyce Toto wrote: “I never knew Betty. However, my dad did. He works for American Airlines in Boston as a gate guard; a gate which Betty passed to go to work every day. On that awful day, Betty had kissed my 78-year-old dad on the cheek, said goodbye and asked him to wish her luck. I can’t tell you the joy she brought to this man’s life every day with her smile. You see, my mum had just passed away, and Betty cheered him up daily.”  

Ten days after the Sept. 11 attacks, 200 mourners gathered in a San Francisco park to honor Ong. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed Sept. 21 “Betty Ong Day,” saying, “When 180,000 San Franciscans say their prayers, they can say the angel, Betty Ong, by name.”  

Ong’s family always felt she was their hero. But it wasn’t till months after the attacks that they also found she was the nation’s. Last January, a tape of Ong’s urgent message was played before the 9/11 Commission. Hearing her poised voice relating vital information about the hijacking, commission chairman Thomas Kean declared: “Betty Ong is a true American hero.”  

Ong will again be honored on Sept. 22 in San Francisco, both as a city native and as an American hero, by the Chinese Community Center.  

For Ong’s parents, there is still immense pain. Harry recently found his father quietly weeping. At the thought of that, his voice, too, cracks. “It’s not easy.”  

The pain will always be there, but the Ong Family can be genuinely proud that their beloved daughter, and sister, was that rare person who embodied both exceptional courage and uncommon kindness. She literally made the world a better place simply by being in it.  

Steven Knipp is Washington, D.C. correspondent for the South China Morning Post.  

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For the next few weeks, the Berkeley Planet will publish lists of alleged violations of human rights by the Bush administration for readers to think about, and perhaps use, in their work on the November election. 

The reports are from a forthcoming book, Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11, prepared by Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute and edited by Ann Fagan Ginger (Prometheus Books March 2005). The book documents the effects of the earthquake in human rights since 9/11. One hundred and eighty-three reports spell out the 30 types of alleged violations, actions to stop them, the relevant laws, and the sources. 

The columns will quote from the book and will list the subjects of many reports, plus some sources. Readers can go to http://mcli.org for a complete listing of reports and sources, with web links. 

What is the Real Score in the “War on Terrorism?” 

As a result of the actions by the U.S. Government after 9/11, what is the reality in the “war against terrorism” three years later? 

On July 13, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a report: “The information-sharing and coordination made possible by section 218 [of the Patriot Act] assisted the prosecution in San Diego of several persons involved in an al Qaeda drugs-for-weapons plot, which culminated in several guilty pleas. They admitted that they conspired to receive, as partial payment for heroin and hashish, four ‘Stinger’ anti-aircraft missiles that they then intended to sell to the Taliban, an organization they knew at the time to be affiliated with al Qaeda.” (Attorney General John Ashcroft, “Report from the Field: The USA Patriot Act at Work,” U.S. Department of Justice, July 13, 2004)  

Ashcroft did not mention that the conspiracy was actually with U.S. undercover agents who offered them the weapons. 

This report from a government official charged with finding the terrorists leaves a series of questions: 

• How many alleged perpetrators of the acts of 9/11 have been charged and convicted of that crime? 

• Have the reasons behind these terrorist actions been clearly spelled out? 

• How many millions of people in the U.S. innocent of crimes were detained, lost their jobs, or had their lives disrupted? 

• Did the loss of 180,000 union jobs through the Homeland Security Department Act actually “ensure airport security?” Was security heightened as a result of repeated efforts to break militant labor unions and destroy the right to organize? 

• When the Department of Defense demanded, and got, massive increases in the military budget, including funding for new types of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, did this increase homeland security?  

• Did it increase homeland security when the DOD denied discharges to service members who discovered they were conscientious objectors to war after joining the service in order to get an education and “to be all you can be?”  

• Is the country more secure because the government has made major cuts in the budget for education, health and human services, medical care, battered women’s shelters, federal courts, and for rehabilitation of parolees and first offenders? 

• Is the United States more secure because 83,000 people were required to register with the Immigration Office once and 13,000 of these people were deported or face deportation? 

• When thousands of foreign scholars and students had their academic work interrupted, or put to an end, although they were not even charged with any wrongdoing, did that help the war against terrorism? 

• Did it help that the U.S. did not honor many of its treaty commitments to other nations? 

• Did people in the U.S. feel more secure when, in December, 2003, the DOD announced that contracts for reconstructing Iraq after the massive damage by U.S. and U.K. bombing would be made only with corporations in nations that supported the U.S. war in Iraq? Did everyone agree to thus eliminating all contracts to corporations in China, France and Germany, among others?  

In this column we will talk about three things: first, the basic background; second, the rights of the people; third, the duties of the U.S. Government. We will give examples of 30 types of rights and duties described in 183 reports in the Challenging book (with sources), to give a sense of the urgency to act against new and continuing violations of human rights since 9/11. 

1. Right of Every Human Being Not to be Killed or Disappeared 

Every human being has a right not to be killed or disappeared—by agents of the United States or state governments, or by individuals. This right is clearly stated in the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in the United Nations Charter, Article 55c, and in the three human rights treaties ratified by the U.S. by 1994. There are clear limits to killings even in wartime, defined in the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions, and in the customary international humanitarian laws of war cited in the 1996 opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Nuclear Weapons case. 

Report 1.1  

Asylum Applicant Deported, then Killed: Ahfaz Khan 

(Louis Salmoe, “Deportation Becomes ‘Death Sentence’,” Palm Beach Post, June 8, 2003, p. 1-A.; Victor M. Hwang and Ivy Lee, “Wen Ho Lee Next Time: Patriot Act Threatens Asian Americans,” Pacific News Service, Sept. 12, 2002.) 

Report 1.6  

County Sheriffs Investigate Deaths at Arizona Border 

(Bob Moser, “Open Season,” Intelligence Report, Spring 2003) 

Report 1.8  

Cluster Bombs Kill after Invasion of Afghanistan Ended 

(Marc W. Herold, “Data on 11 Weeks of U.S. Cluster Bombing of Afghanistan,” Cursor, Feb. 1, 2002; Reuters, “Red Cross Warns Afghan Children off Cluster Bombs,” June 29, 2002)  

To be continued… 

Berkeley resident Ann Fagan Ginger is a lawyer, teacher, activist and the author of 24 books. She won a civil liberties case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1959. She is the founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley-based center for human rights and peace law. 

Contents excerpted from Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11, by Ann Fagan Ginger (c. 2004 MCLI).?

Once back South, some years ago, I passed a half-hour or so that could have been used for good fishing time trying to convince an old segregationist about an instance of racial injustice. Afterwards, T.C. Brown, who used to keep me in line, led me out of the meeting by the arm with a quiet lecture on the theory of time-waste. “Boy,” she said, “don’t you know you can’t wake up somebody what ain’t ‘sleep?” 

Comes the waning days of the presidential election of 2004, and my good Democratic Party friends find themselves in similar circumstances. 

They stream out from the Michael Moore movie, convinced that in the president’s seven minutes following the second Twin Tower attack, they have found the secret of their electoral salvation. They wave those seven silent minutes as a banner to the as-yet-unswayed masses in Joplin and Massilon and Alaquippa, shouting, “Don’t you see? Don't you see? It shows that Bush is not a leader! It shows that he is not in charge!” 

I suspect that in answer, a good portion of the American electorate is saying, quietly, under their breaths, “And thank God for that. What’s your point?” The great demonstration of What George Did, after all, does not seem to have made much of a dent in the electoral math. 

And I suspect that is because you can’t wake up people who ain’t asleep. 

The war goes badly, for the American side. Seven U.S. soldiers die in a single act of ambush, the worst casualties since the dark days of bloody April. The cities of Najaf and Falujah are all aflame, and we are told by American commanders-somewhat sheepishly-that there are some portions of the country where U.S. forces will not even go. 

Democrats seem befuddled. Why has this not made a difference? 

Have not the various rationales for the Iraqi war long since vanished, like cold ice set upon desert sand? There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between al Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein. Far from arresting terrorism, our little tank-trot along the Tigris seems to be creating more terrorists in its terrible wake than we manage to kill. You would think that all would be disaster for the President’s prospects. And yet, as summer wanes, the polls begin to drift toward the red end of the spectrum, slightly but deliberately, like the temperature gauge of a car which cannot stop to replenish its water, but must barrel onward, towards its doom. 

Can't the people see?, my Democratic friends wail. 

In Iowa, Mr. Cheney twists the knife. “If we make the wrong choice [this November] then the danger is that we’ll get hit again,” he tells a Des Moines audience. “We’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint that the United States will fall back into the pre-9/11 mindset, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we’re not really at war.” For those who do not quite get the point given the Vice President’s convoluted syntax, the Des Moines Register straightens it out by headline: “Cheney: Terrorists will attack if Bush loses.” 

But why do not these Iowans not realize, the Democrats wonder, that the “pre-9/11 mindset” actually belonged to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney themselves, that the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks occurred on their watch, while their eyes were averted elsewhere? How can Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney dance around the edge of this precipice, like Smeagol madly waving the Ring of Power above Oridúin, and not themselves tumble over into the abyss? 

We turn, for answers, to another familiar English fable. 

Near the end of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows, the Rat tells the homecoming Toad of the fall of his beloved Toad Hall to the stoats and weasels in what would be described these days as a terrorist attack. 

“A band of weasels, armed to the teeth, crept silently up the carriage-drive to the front entrance,” the Rat says. “The Mole and the Badger were sitting by the fire in the smoking-room, telling stories and suspecting nothing, … when those bloodthirsty villains broke down the doors and rushed in upon them from every side. They made the best fight they could, but what was the good? They were unarmed, and taken by surprise, and what can two animals do against hundreds? They took and beat them severely with sticks, those two poor faithful creatures, and turned them out into the cold and the wet, with many insulting and uncalled-for remarks! … And the Wild Wooders have been living in Toad Hall ever since… Eating your grub, and drinking your drink, and making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs… And they’re telling the tradespeople and everybody that they’ve come to stay for good.” 

Toad is despondent and ready to give up his ancestral home, until the Badger outlines a plan to sneak into the Hall by a secret, underground passageway and retake the dwelling by force. Thence the celebration-of-anticipation begins. 

“‘We shall creep out quietly into the butler’s pantry-’ cried the Mole. 

‘-with our pistols and swords and sticks-’ shouted the Rat. 

‘-and rush in upon them,’ said the Badger. 

‘-and whack ‘em, and whack ‘em, and whack ‘em!’ cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jumping over the chairs.” 

We were badly bloodied on September 11th, we Americans. We took a great hit, not so much to our national security as to our national psyche. Some three thousand gone, and we cannot shake that day’s images from our minds. Struck, we want to strike back, with all the weapons of mass destruction in our great and terrible arsenal. What is the use of such an arsenal, after all, if not for times like these? But there are no stoats and weasels around us to kill, because all the September 11th terrorists died in the September 11th attacks themselves, casting themselves into the fires even at the very moment they drove the dagger into our collective heart. 

And so, we seek their kin. Or any who associated with them, or even resembled them. Afghanistan did not last long enough. It did not satisfy enough. We wanted to whack ‘em, and whack ‘em, and whack ‘em, until their blood washes away the images imprinted on our brains. And so, on to Iraq, at whatever cost, and damn the justification. 

Why are so many Americans unmoved by the argument that Iraq is a war without logic, that the Iraqis possess neither threat nor culpability? Because for so many Americans, the war in Iraq has nothing to do with logic. It has everything to do with vengeance. And so you cannot wake so many of them from their slumber, because they are not ‘sleep. I wish this were not true, my friends, but I have lived among Americans for many years, and long and bitter experience tells me that it is. 

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WINTER SWIM TRIUMPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to thank Matthew Artz for writing a well researched and balanced article about the continuing community drama around the Berkeley pools (“Swimmers Fight For Public Acess in Winter,” Daily Planet, Sept. 3-6). For three years, with the help of King Pool swimmers, Berkeley politicians and taxpayers, we have forestalled the closure of Willard and West Campus pools for the winter. We from South and West Berkeley would like to thank all of you for supporting public access to public recreation during these difficult financial times. The success of this citizen movement reminds me of why I live in Berkeley. 

We are again faced with the closure of Willard and possibly West Campus pools to the public this year. I must make some important observations. 

• Swimming has universal appeal for people of all ages and conditions. 

• Serious swimming is not seasonal. 

• Life guarding is a great entry level job for both sexes and people from all economic backgrounds. 

• Recreational opportunities must be extended to all citizens of all economic backgrounds, especially during difficult times. 

• BUSD must find a way to reestablish a meaningful aquatics program that promotes aquatic recreation, sportsmanship, and health and safety, for all students, not just the lucky few who can afford the expensive Bears program. Students, parents, and the public are natural allies when it comes to managing the public pools. We must demand that the city and BUSD find a way to work together. 

Why is it that we are all of a sudden requiring that city pools be self sufficient? Would it not be a better goal to require that city pools be managed well enough to provide maximum services to the most people in the city? This should be the long term goal that the City Council requests of Parks and Recreation. 

In the short run, the United Pool Council has scheduled a Swim-A-Thon on Oct. 2-3 at King Pool to raise enough money to keep West Campus pool open for all of us during this next winter. Please be part of this by swimming an hour or pledging some money for a swimmer. 

Bill Hamilton 

• 

SLOGAN SUGGESTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for the report on the candidates for the Board of AC Transit, especially H.E. Christian Peeples who is described as the “seven-ear incumbent.” I can imagine his campaign slogan: He may be a mutant, but he has the capacity to listen.  

Thomas Yamaguchli 

• 

MURPHY MEADOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Years ago (the early ‘90s), Berkeley’s waterfront sustained a concerted push for intensive development. To remove this threat, a deal was made with a powerful deity for a state park. Now the down-side of this bargain is apparent to me. The Murphy Meadow, that refuge from civilization just west of the freeway, and north of University Avenue, has been laid waste. 

For those of you who have walked on those time-worn trails with friends, dogs or alone, there were many surprises to be found; varieties of birds, interesting plants, mysterious areas, such as the gathering places of rabbits. It was nice that a bit of wilderness was allowed to evolve—a balance of competition of plants, animals (wild and domestic) and Man. A nice compromise. I was personally fond of the patches of seeded grasses which, wet with the morning’s dew, caught the sunlight, stirring in my buried instincts to pick up the camera again. Of course, the territorial red-winged blackbirds, puffing out their red feathers, were a special pleasure for me, as were the house finches reflecting the Sun’s colors off their crimson breast. The hawks, in their now looping, now cruising flight, roused my appreciation for the beauty of flight. In the spring, ducks rested in the seasonal ponds. 

What greets the eye now is a chain-link fence, yellow earth-movers and diggers, a broad stretch of denuded soil and a few odd bunches of bushes with orange tags tied to them—the lucky few “natives” chosen to remain. Down is the giant eucalyptus on the southeast corner of the meadow, down are the berry bushes and grasses which fed the birds. Destroyed are the rabbit burrows and the paths I used to follow. 

Inquiring among the now displaced former-strollers, the following picture emerges. On this land, the state park developers will not allow non-native species of plants. Being an old dump, capped in the 1970s, a joyous cacophony of native and non-native types prevailed. Animals came to populate the land; an ecology developed; a happy balance. But the ecological “aberrants” are being removed. 

Ecological purists—eco-nazis I am calling them this morning—through their persistence and dedication to an ideal, have risen to positions of power, and have imposed their will on this formerly happy place. 

Just so you know, somebody noticed, and I think it stinks. 

Curtis Manning 

• 

CONVENTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I found your editorial on the Republican National Convention very interesting (“Republicans Rant, Kerry Conciliates,” Daily Planet, Sept. 3-6). 

It’s funny how both sides sounded pretty much the same concerning the conventions. My observance is that whichever side your on the opinions are the same. And as a Republican I just wonder why the candidate from the Democratic side did not mention his years in the Senate, or explain why he suddenly became a dove when he was about to get run over in the primaries. I have a feeling that a vote for the Democratic candidate is really not a vote for him but rather a vote against the incumbent. I think that it would be detrimental to this country and the world if we change presidents, but in the same vein, since we do live in the greatest country in the world, we would come through. I noticed in your article all that was focused on was anger and not specifics; it makes it hard to take the article very seriously. 

Thank you for upholding freedom of speech. 

Stefan Nelson 

• 

GILBERT ON SEAGATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been following with dismay and some amusement the “affordable penthouse saga,” written by my District 5 Council race opponent, developer Laurie Capitelli, and some other affordable housing fanatics on our Zoning Adjustment Board. The story goes like this: While we ordinary middle-class folks pay through the nose to live in Berkeley, poor people are entitled to luxury ownership accommodations at the expense of taxpayers and a lower-density livable Berkeley. My opponent Capitelli and some other affordable housing fanatics on the Zoning Adjustment Board insist that some number of the “penthouse” condominium units in the unpopular and dense proposed nine-story new downtown Seagate project should be allocated to poor people, since to do otherwise would be to “segregate” them amongst the less-than-elite occupants of the downstairs units. 

I am not making this up! You read all about it recently right here in the Planet.  

The cost of buying a home in Berkeley is about $700,000 with a real property tax bill of at least $10,000. Middle-income incomes are down and employee confidence in the Bay Area is among the lowest of major metropolitan areas. Berkeley local taxes are the highest in California and yet our city political establishment is proposing unnecessary new taxes. Some of these new taxes, if passed, would probably help buy penthouses for poor people. Many ordinary Berkeley homeowners are having real problems paying their tax bills and meeting their family needs. In walking my District 5, I have seen evidence of homeowner inability to properly maintain their homes, and many persons have contacted me to complain about the city drain on their family coffers. Few residents are happy with the type of multi-unit construction appearing all over town , or with the way our downtown is, literally, shaping up. 

It is time for some common sense. If elected, I will pursue policies to help and expand Berkeley’s middle-class population. I will not support subsidized penthouses for anyone. 

Barbara Gilbert  

City Council candidate,  

District 5 

• 

CRITIQUING THE EDITOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding your recent editorial ( “Hostility and Ineffectiveness,” Daily Planet, Sept. 7-9): 

1. The Berkeley Daily Planet has always been prejudicial and bias in their perspectives and opinions. Printing whatever it is that catches your flavor. 

2. Becky O’Malley, the world does not stop and take notice just because you want to satisfy your curiosity. 

3. Becky O’Malley, you really must don’t have any other interesting story to write. 

4. Becky O’Malley, stop being a “hater” of anything apart from your world. 

5. Becky O’Malley, you are not “The People.” 

Peter Hong 

• 

POLICE AND THE PUBLIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Hostility and ineffectiveness” describes the editor’s attempt to communicate with one of our peace officers. Page Three featured a photo with what appears to be one of these fearless public servants shielding his face (preserving his anonymity, I’m guessing.) 

What gives? 

Do these officers have something to hide? 

Or is this fellow a private citizen dressed in storm trooper regalia? 

More than a year ago I approached University at Shattuck and saw what I surmised was a cataclysmic event: a tower fire engine, ambulance, three unmarked police cars, and four BPD squad cars.  

Bomb threat? 

Demonstration?? 

No. A fellow was passed out on the sidewalk. 

Padding the budget the old fashioned way. Is anyone accountable for this crap??? 

Neal Rockett 

• 

DEFENDING THE BPD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Becky O’Malley’s editorial depends on the reader’s acceptance of her dubious assertion that the police officers investigating a crime scene—a child on a bicycle had been hit by a car—had nothing better to do than to satisfy the curiosity of passing motorists. (If O’Malley thought that something serious was going on, how come she didn’t even bother getting out of her car? Must be a new trend: Drive-by journalism!) I don’t know O’Malley, but I’m very familiar with the officer she attacked. Jim Marangoni has been, yes, unfailingly courteous and effective as the beat cop in our troubled South Berkeley neighborhood. O’Malley’s peevish screed says far more about the arrogance of a small-town prima dona than it does about the state of the Berkeley Police Department.  

Paul Rauber  

• 

UNIVERSITY AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The new landscaping on the University Avenue median is very nice. However, the sprinklers are wasting water and can easily be changed. The sprinklers are using a “spray” nozzle. The wind causes “misting” and the water is lost. There is a frequent breeze coming up University Avenue. 

The small nozzles on top can be easily changed. There are nozzles called “stream” and “stream spray.” Also a “flat” or lower angle nozzle is available. These will help to avoid the fine drops being whipped up, around and away. 

Richard List 

• 

WILLARD GARDEN  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Michael Yovino-Young’s comments about the Willard garden as an “eyesore” is very grinch-like indeed. Some see the flowers, he sees only the garbage. 

Garbage and the homeless are not the responsibility of volunteers. Where has the school district been for 20 years? Why haven’t they at least picked up the garbage? And indeed, after this conspicuous absence, to plow over and destroy is entirely inappropriate. Parents and volunteers should be supported and thanked for their efforts. We all lead busy lives. I would wager that Yovino-Young, like the school district, had contributed neither money nor time towards this commendable volunteer effort. 

Ten years ago, prior to the Willard Greening Project, the front of Willard was barren, with cars parked on it. There was the misshapen eucalyptus on the corner, whose seeds plugged the storm drain and caused regular flooding. Friends of mine then opined that the Willard building was really a penal facility, especially viewed at night in the sulfur lights. 

Lately, as more and more street trees have been removed along that part of Telegraph, I appreciate the Willard garden even more. The trio of yellow flowered trees are spectacular. And I look forward to the tree with pendulous wisteria-like blossoms in the spring. Telegraph Avenue is a challenging place to garden. As a neighbor, thanks for your work. 

Michael Haven 

• 

THE PRESIDENT AND HIS MEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yesterday Vice President Cheney threatened the American people— saying if they voted the wrong way in November there were likely to be more and devastating terrorist attacks. Is he trying to scare us into voting for George Bush? 

Also yesterday—the same day that the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq reached 1,000—Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld talked about Iran. He said Iran was a threat and called Iran uncivilized. Now that scares me! Rumsfeld is making an argument for the expansion of American foreign aggression. 

The reckless, unilateral, violent foreign policy of President Bush and the men who surround him is leading us further and further down a path to war, bankruptcy and national disgrace. Four more years? No thank you! 

Carole Bennett-Simmons 

Piedmont 

• 

ABU GHRAIB 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’d like to add a domestic view to the excellent letter about the national and international damage to the U.S.A. caused by the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities: Blowback. The young men and women who should be considered sexual predators and punished as such will be returning to their spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and communities having imprinted and eroticized brutal, destructive, humiliating, and sometimes lethal acts. These newly created monsters will be among us for a long time.  

Idea for a horror film: Mommy Lindy. 

Ruth Bird?

Rubber Band Bandits 

A pedestrian standing at University Avenue and Sacramento Street Tuesday morning faced a barrage of oncoming rubber bands from passengers in a passing car, said Police Officer Spencer Fomby. The victim suffered blows to the ear and neck. 

Beatdown 

Police arrived to a call that five males had jumped another male Wednesday night at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way. The five assailants fled before police arrived, Officer Fomby said. The victim lost $6 in the attack, but didn’t have any serious injuries. 

Botched Robbery 

A motorist stopped in front of the Bank of America at Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way Wednesday afternoon was greeted by a gunman who opened the victim’s car door, Officer Fomby said. Somehow the gunman left empty-handed and raced into the passenger seat of a small black car that fled westbound on Center Street. 

Bad Man, Good Boyfriend 

A homeless man inexplicably punched a woman as she was walking along the intersection of Harmon and California streets Tuesday afternoon, Officer Fomby said. The woman called her boyfriend who quickly arrived on the scene. The two led police to the assailant, Tyrone Head, who was arrested. 

Southside Attempted Robbery 

A Berkeley man took a beating but kept his belongings during an attempted robbery Tuesday morning. The victim was walking at Ellsworth Street and Ashby Avenue when four juveniles ap-proached him demanding money, said Officer Fomby. One assailant punched the victim and another threw a bicycle at him, but in the end they ran away without his bag. 

Muslim extremists often cite the Quran, out-of-context and contrary to the Holy Book’s spirit of mercy and compassion, to justify their crimes. Thus, for instance, in the four-page document that investigators found in Muhammad Atta’s luggage in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist ringleader invoked no fewer than 18 verses from the Quran to exhort his band of brothers to commit violence that took nearly 3,000 lives.  

Since the September attacks three years ago, we American Muslims have observed with increasing alarm and frustration how a minority of Muslim fanatics continued to wage one brutal terrorist act after another around the world—Moscow, Bali, Karachi, Madrid—leading to hundreds of lost and shattered innocent lives, all in the name of Islam and the Quran.  

It became clear to us that we had a supremely important role to play in fighting these fanatics: We had to clearly and unequivocally condemn the killing of innocents, particularly when Muslims were the perpetrators.  

As the world recoils from the horrifying images of bloodied, lifeless children being carried away by shell-shocked parents and rescuers from a Russian school in which Muslim Chechen radicals killed more than 300 people, our role becomes that much more urgent.  

There are positive signs. Recently, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group released a “Not in the Name of Islam” petition on its website (www.cair-net.org) that states: “We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts. We refuse to allow our faith to be held hostage by the criminal behavior of a tiny minority acting outside the teachings of the both the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.”  

“As it states in the Quran: ‘O you who believe, stand up firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor; for God can best protect both. Do not follow any passion, lest you not be just. And if you distort or decline to do justice, surely God is well-acquainted with all that you do. (4:135)’”  

About 700,000 Muslims have already signed the petition—the essence of which is that it is preferable for Muslims to suffer injustice than to commit it—and the number increases everyday.  

Similar sentiments are also being expressed in many mosques throughout America and by Muslim freethinkers on such websites as www.MuslimWakeUp.com and www.naseeb.com/naseebvibes. Ordinary Muslims are reflecting on their faith and looking into their souls for a more inclusive view of Islam and its implications for humanity.  

American Muslim women, in particular, are asserting themselves with a fervor unthinkable in the pre-9/11 days. The blind acceptance of the teachings of misogynistic imams and scholars is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. They are discovering new and holistic readings of the Quran that do away with gender apartheid and that calls for social justice and greater participation of women in the management of mosques and Islamic schools.  

A group called “The Daughters of Hajar,” known as Hagar in the Bible and Jewish history, a national organization dedicated to empowering Muslim women actively challenges women to pray in the main hall and to boldly use the front door in mosques in which they were required to enter by a back door. Other groups warn Muslims of the danger of bloc-voting in national elections. Yet others decry the religious narcissism of the self-appointed guardians of the faith and exhort them to shun anti-Semitism and practice humility, kindness and intellectual honesty.  

Ours is a community in which ordinary Muslims are beginning to explore their own understanding of the Quran and their relationship with the Creator, as opposed to allowing others to do it for them. A thinking, expressive and active community is the best antidote to the poison of fanaticism and nihilism that plagues the Muslim body today.  

Words get around at lightning speed in the Internet age. When Muslim extremists realize that the Muslim Ummah (community of believers) will not stand by their criminal acts and, if called upon to do so, will also fight them, they may have second thoughts about embarking on suicidal missions in the name of Islam. The lives of civilians and school children may ultimately depend on it.  

Hasan Zillur Rahim writes on Islamic issues and has been a long time editor of Iqra, a national Islamic magazine. 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our current School Board election has brought to the surface an issue that, if not looked upon with clarity and a positive perspective, could make this race contentious.  

Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose have been characterized as “small schools advocates” by local press. Karen has not participated in any small schools effort but is fortunate to have her oldest son in a small school this year. Kalima has been very active in the Communication Arts and Sciences small school as well as an important member of the Superintendent’s Small Schools Advisory. Even with that, it is shortsighted to say that either of them are small schools advocates. It is more appropriate that they be identified as school reform advocates, as they both champion the kind of reform that will give all of our students the support they need to be successful.  

Supporting all students is a Berkeley value. Our community’s commitment to each and every student needs to be clear, decisive and demonstrated by our actions, not just our rhetoric.  

The question for Berkeley residents is how do “we” realize the vision of success for all students? Currently, the small schools reform movement at BHS is the only significant movement designed to realize this vision. These two candidates support this strategy.  

As I’ve considered this, I’ve come up with a list of what needs to be kept in mind as one reflects on small schools as a reform strategy.  

• Small schools are not the goal. School reform is the goal.  

• Our goal is to have schools that more successfully meet the needs of all students in our district.  

• Our goal is to implement schools that value all students and develop creative strategies to meet the needs of each student.  

• Small schools are a strategy to help us realize school reform – the kind of needed reforms that have been well documented by the Diversity Project and WASC and FCMAT and our standardized test results.  

• Small schools help us focus our intention on success for each student.  

• Small schools help us become more deliberate about the educational services that we offer our students.  

• Small schools help us put the “PUBLIC” back in public education by supporting collaboration amongst teachers, students, parents and other community members/organizations.  

• Small schools allow for strong relationships within the school community, reducing distress and conflict.  

• Small schools allow much greater potential for monitoring and evaluating student success.  

If there are other viable solutions for broad student success in our district, bring them forward so that our entire community will benefit. Regardless of whether we choose to use a “small schools” model or some other strategy, we Berkeley residents must use our collective energy and determination to make all students successful. They are our most valued communal asset.  

Michael D. Miller 

Berkeley High School parent

An article recently appeared in the Daily Planet regarding police rights to challenge Police Review Commission findings (“Court Ruling Hamstrings Police Review Commission,” Aug. 31-Sept. 2). The article was somewhat indignant at the idea that the burden of proof should be on the accuser (Police Review Commissions) and not the accused, (even though this is a fundamental principle of American justice). It is implied that the Berkeley Police Department is insensitive to the public because it challenged 32 of 52 “sustained” complaints filed against it at the PRC. It compares this to numbers from Riverside and San Diego. A closer look at the numbers reveals that the Berkeley Police are not insensitive but rather portions of the public are hypersensitive and distinctly anti-police. 

In Riverside, (a community of 235,000 people) there were 107 complaints filed against the police in 2004, (one for every 2,196 citizens). Twenty-two were sustained by the local Police review Commission. That’s less than 1 sustained complaint to every 10,000 people. The police challenged none of these. 

In San Diego (a community of 2,420,000 people) there were 99 complaints filed against the police in 2004, (one for every 24,444 citizens). Nine were sustained. That’s one sustained complaint to every 268,889 people. The police challenged five of these. 

In Berkeley, a city of 103,000, 154 complaints were filed (one for every 668 citizens). Fifty-two were sustained. That is one for every 1,980 people. The police challenged 32 of these.  

Extrapolating from the Riverside numbers there should be 46 complaints in Berkeley (not 154) with 12 being sustained, not 54. Extrapolating from the San Diego numbers one would expect four complaints annually (not 154) with one sustained every other year instead of 54 per year.  

These numbers mean one of two things. Either Berkeley has a police department that is wildly out of control or a part of its population is markedly anti-police and the PRC is out of control.  

In personal dealings with our police I have found them to be intelligent, thoughtful and responsive. I have seen them exhibit extraordinary patients in dealing with abusive and aggressive individuals. I have seen them give comfort to victims in traffic accidents and help clean up the mess left when a vehicle careened through a fence and garden and nearly struck my house.  

Remember, all this in the town where you can buy a “F_ _ _ the Police” t-shirts on Telegraph Avenue.  

In the Sept. 7 issue of the Daily Planet, Becky O’Malley editorializes that our police are “hostile” and “ineffective” and that the public wants to “…know what is going to be done about the police.”  

Becky had a bad experience with an impatient and impolite officer. Agreed, officers should talk nice to citizens. But citizens in Berkeley need to make our police feel like we are on their side and editors need to make sure there is meaningful and complete analysis of statistics in their newspapers so citizens can draw accurate conclusions form the facts and filter out the ideological slant of the writer. 

Sadly, the very night Ms O’Malley may have been scribing “…Berkeley Police manage to combine ineffectiveness with hostile and belligerent behavior towards innocent citizens…” the police were on Sixth Street (near Delaware Avenue), responding to another fatal shooting. 

Remember Becky: Your bad day is full of poorly written paragraphs and misspelled words. When “Officer Jim______, Badge 114” has a bad day, he may be taking gunfire or comforting the mother of a homicide victim.  

›

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In 1942, my Japanese grandparents and their five children were forced by the U.S. government to move from their home in California to an internment camp in Arkansas. This family history instilled in me a profound appreciation for the personal freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the responsibilities of the justice system. I recognize that our most fundamental Constitutional liberties are often most seriously challenged in times of crisis. It is in times like these that we are most obligated to remain true to our basic values of liberty and equality for all before the law. 

As a student at UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), I am deeply disappointed and offended that Michelle Malkin was invited to the UC Berkeley campus last night to distort the truth about the historical facts of the internment and to justify the decision to imprison Japanese Americans. As the Japanese American Citizens League has stated, “The facts speak for themselves, and President Ronald Reagan concurred when he signed a law in 1988 acknowledging the injustice of the internment.” 

I join the members of the Coalition for Diversity and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, in denouncing Michelle Malkin’s effort to justify the denial of civil liberties due to racism in time of war. The history of the Japanese internment teaches us that, particularly in wartime, the threat posed by national, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities may be exaggerated and distorted by the media, the government, and the public. Furthermore, the lessons of the internment teach us that all citizens have a responsibility to speak out against intolerance, racism, and bigotry. We concerned students will continue to be outspoken toward any policy that targets or profiles Arab and Muslim Americans or undermines the civil liberties of any American. 

Ms. Malkin’s book, In Defense of Internment, presents a distorted version of history that is contradicted by several decades of scholarly research, including works by the official historian of the United States Army and an official U.S. government commission. 

It is irresponsible for the student group sponsoring Ms. Malkin’s talk to permit her biased presentation of events to go unchallenged as a factual historical presentation. We urge the Berkeley College Republicans to invite a reputable historian or legal scholar to present a more even-handed and honest view of the evidence. 

Katie Oyama 

Second-Year Law Student 

Boalt Hall School of Law 

University of California, Berkeley 

• 

A NEO-NAZI IN BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is rare to see a true neo-nazi in Berkeley, but that is just what 250 people did yesterday. The term that I use is strong, but I believe it to be accurate in describing someone who supports the internment of racial minorities. On Sept. 8, Michelle Malkin, a right-wing commentator who advocates creation of internment camps for people of races and religions that she believes are a “danger to national security” spoke at UC Berkeley’s Dwinelle Hall. The event was entitled “In Defense of Internment and Racial Profiling.” Ms. Malkin was invited by the College Republicans to lead a rally for those in favor of racial profiling and internment of minorities. The event was protested by pro-democracy groups. 

More disturbing than this rally was the Daily Californian’s part in the matter. The Daily Californian has taken it upon itself to act as a cheerleader for the racist politics of internment profiling. The day before the event, the Daily Cal. ran an editorial by Ethan Lutske praising Ms. Malkin and racial profiling and, the day after, ran a front-page article that read more like an advertisement for Ms. Malkin’s event than like a journalistic piece. While the paper does have the right to air controversial opinions, the fact that it runs only pro-racism editorials with no counter-arguments shows that the paper’s intent was to promote Ms. Malkin’s views, not to promote an open discussion.  

Tom Smithh

You don’t need to be a newly arrived UC Berkeley freshman to be unclear on the concept of Economy Culture: in many years of regular attendance, I’ve been constantly surprised by those interested in opera, for example, but not bothering because “it’s so expensive.”  

Yes, orchestra seats in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House cost up to $180, box seats sell for $215, but standing room tickets—which I used happily many, many times—were $5 until recently, and currently are $10...compatible with the cost of a movie ticket, then as now. There are two distinct possibilities for standees: on the orchestra level, where the view is better, or on top of the top balcony, in nosebleed country, or the “gods,” where you will see ant-like figures on the far-away stage, but with the best sound in the cavernous, 3,000-seat house. Sound rises, don’t you know. 

Must have a seat? Student rush tickets cost $15, senior rush is $30. What is “rush?” It means “unsold tickets,” available on the day of the performance, from 11 a.m. to 30 minutes before curtain. Keep in mind that the earlier you buy, the better the seats are likely to be. 

Recommendations this year: Mozart’s charming and brilliant Cosi fan tutte, with an excellent cast, Sept. 11-Oct. 2; Donald Runnicles, a world-class Benjamin Britten specialist, conducting the gripping Billy Budd, Sept. 26-Oct. 17; perhaps the most accessible Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, Nov. 10-Dec. 12. See www.sfopera.com. 

And, just one final (and ultimate) opera bargain: Opera in the Park, at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 12, in Golden Gate Park’s Sharon Meadow, with Runnicles conducting the full San Francisco Opera Orchestra, guest stars and young artists singing arias and duets. Can’t afford opera? It’s free. (In a noisy embarrassment of riches, the park will also host, beginning at 1 p.m., another mass-attendance free concert, by the Dave Matthews Band. Expect a— ahem—“parking problem.”) 

Closer to home, a reminder for the obvious: schools are hotbeds of performing-arts opportunities, mostly inexpensive at that. At UC, there is Cal Performances, of course, at www.calperfs.berkeley. edu/; a portal for all the arts, at www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/bca/; information about the school’s famed Music Department, at http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/ music/; theater information at http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/theater/; and a student-run entertainment information hub, at www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~superb/, which can send you information weekly. 

There are other schools with busy arts programs—for music, take note of the following: the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (www.sfcm.edu) has a rich season of free or low-cost student and faculty concerts, and master classes with international stars—for example, baritone Nathan Gunn, Oct. 11; mezzo Susanne Mentzer, Oct. 14; the venerable pianist Menahem Pressler (a founder of the 50-year-old Beaux Arts Trio), Oct. 18; and more. You haven’t been to the guts of classical music until you attend a working class with a great musician. 

Keep an eye also on San Francisco State University ( www.sfsu. edu), which has varied music and theater events, very much in the low-to-none price range we’ve been discussing here. Go to “News & Events,” and then “Events Calendar.” Note especially SFSU’s renowned and free Morrison Artists’ Series (www. collegeofcreativearts.org). 

The next program, at 3 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 12, presents the Alexander String Quartet. On Oct. 24, the free concert in McKenna Theater will have the young and explosive PSB Trio of pianist Navah Perlman, violinist Giora Schmidt, and cellist Zuill Bailey, performing Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio and Brahms’ Trio No. 1. 

In the category of Unusual and Inexpensive Music: beginning next week and running through Oct. 3, the San Francisco World Music Festival (www.sfworldmusicfestival.org/index.htm). “World music,” a designation that originated in Berkeley 40 years ago (see a Daily Planet article at http://tinyurl.com/4zf9m), describes the crossover genre that encompasses ancient and contemporary music of East and West. This year’s festival will take place at a variety of venues throughout the city, no longer restricted to South of Market and Tenderloin locations that used to be home for such events.  

The festival-opening concert, Sept. 17, will be held in Grace Cathedral, featuring two acclaimed musicians from India: G.S. Sachdev (bansuri) and Zakir Hussain (tabla). On Sept. 19, the festival moves into the Asian Art Museum for the Youth World Music Showcase, presenting Bay Area student musicians, including the Alice Fong Yu School Chinese Orchestra. On Sept. 26, a rich program is offered in Herbst Theater, with the Kronos Quartet, Rahman Asadollahi (Azerbaijani garmon), Zhang Hai Yue (Chinese leaf), Zhao Gang Qin (Chinese gu zheng), and members of the Peking Opera.  

The Georges Lammam Ensemble performs Arabic music at two free events on Sept. 28, during the day and in the evening, in the Alice Fong Yu School, at 1541 12th Avenue, in San Francisco. From Macedonia, Esma Redzepova, “Queen of Romani music,” and Ensemble Teodoeosievki are featured in the ODC Theater on Oct. 3.  

Other items, randomly from a list that could run many pages: 

• Too late now for the summer’s free Stern Grove Festival concert series, but keep it in mind for next year: www.sterngrove.org. 

• San Francisco Performances, an outstanding organization presenting major recitals and chamber-music concerts, mostly in Herbst Theater, has a rather incredible deal for students: the Culture Card, advertised as “20 performances for $20.” Check with your school or www.performances.org. 

• The San Francisco Symphony has rush tickets for 50 percent, student rush tickets for $20, and there is a student rush hotline at (415) 503-5577, or go to www.sfsymphony.org. There are also special season subscription series available for students. Coming up Sept. 15-17: Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a progam of Steve Reich’s “For Strings,” Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, and the great German baritone Thomas Quasthoff in orchestral songs by Schubert—a concert not to miss.  

And, finally, there is the share-world classic Craigslist, which list Bay Area events at www.craigslist.org/cal. 

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Two of the area’s orchestras, the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Berkeley Symphony, will go into high gear unusually early this season. Regional orchestras, as a rule, start up a few weeks after the beginning of the season in San Francisco and nationally, but it’s different this time. 

Kent Nagano will conduct the Berkeley Symphony’s season-opening concert Monday night at 8 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall. The program will be even more contemporary and challenging than Berkeley audiences have come to expect from Nagano in the past quarter century of his pioneering music-making. Even a tried-and-true item on the program, a J.S. Bach chorale prelude, called “Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist,” will be performed in Arnold “12-tone” Schoenberg’s orchestration. Sophisticated Berkeley audiences know that just because Schoenberg produced some difficult works late in life, as an orchestrator he is nothing to fear. The other mainstream item is Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Students can buy tickets the night of the concert for $10. 

The rest of the program is new, in a hot-and-heavy way: George Benjamin, one of the new British wunderkind composers, is represented by “Viola Viola,” a concerto for two violists and orchestra, with two brilliant local musicians—Ellen Ruth Rose and Kurt Rohde—playing the solos. And then, the U.S. premiere of Korean-American composer Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto, with Viviane Hagner. See www.berkeleysymphony.org.  

Michael Morgan’s Oakland East Bay Symphony will not begin the official season until Nov. 19, but this Sunday, Sept. 12, it will play at a 9/11 memorial “Concert of Peace,” beginning at 4 p.m. in Berkeley’s St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Pianist William Corbett-Jones, the orchestra, and the Peace Chorus will perform music by Handel and Gordon Getty, who will attend the concert, and the world premiere of John W. Vitz’ “Mass for Peace in the Third Millennium.”  

Donations for the church are suggested at $30 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors. For information, call 843-2244, but be sure first to turn off your phone’s privacy block by dialing *82. This is the first time I came up against this, and thought I'd save you the time and trouble. Apparently, *82 turns off protection only for one number at a time, so your privacy will be protected automatically thereafter. 

à

FRIDAY, SEPT. 10 

THEATER 

Alameda Civic Light Opera, “Pippin,” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. Kofman Auditorium, 2220 Central Ave., Alameda. Tickets are $23-$25. 864-2256. www.aclo.com 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Persians” opens at 8 p.m. and runs through Oct. 10. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep, “The Secret in the Wings” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. until Oct. 17. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre, “Fluffy Bunnies in a Field of Daisies” at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid, and runs Thurs.-Sat. through Oct. 2. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “Flower Drum Song,” at 8 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd. Fri.- Sun. to Sept. 12. Tickets are $19-$31. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

Unscripted Theater Company, “The Short and the Long of It,” improv theater, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph, through Oct. 2. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

7th International Juried Enamel Exhibition at the ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Reception 6 to 8 p.m. Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 843-2527.  

www.accigallery.com 

“Blossoming” the floral works of Jane Magid, Chaya Spector and Karen Mills. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. www.wcrc.org 

“Times of India: The Woman and the Goddess” Reception at 7 p.m. at the Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 981-7546. 

Kei Mizuochi “Silkscreens” Reception for the artist at 6 p.m. at Schurman Fine Art Gallery, 1659 San Pablo Ave. 524-0623. 

FILM 

Maurice Pialat: “The Mouth Agape” at 7:30 p.m. “Police” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

International Literacy Day at 12:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Local authors and adult literacy students will read their poetry, short stories and other works. 981-6299. 

Colin Channer reads from his new collection of stories “Passing Through” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Gary Erickson, founder of Clif Bar, discusses “Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alfredo Muro, Peruvian guitar virtuoso, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Hogan, Emerge perform jazz, latin funk and eclectic in a free concert at 5 p.m. at Baltic Square, behind 121 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. 236-1401. www.pointrichmond.com/music 

Hitomi Oba Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Hot Buttered Rum String Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Vinyl, The People, funk, groove, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Larry Ochs with Fred Firth, Davon Hoff and Miya Masaoka at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Grapefruit Ed and David Gans at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Mimi Fox Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

DJ & Brook at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Mingus Amungus at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Toys That Kill, Rasputin, Bezerk, Rivithead, Stiletta at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 11 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Eyes Opened Wider” Recent panoramic landscapes by photographer Robert Reiter. Reception for the artist from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Oct. 16. 644-1400. 

“Bodyspeak” paintings by Debbie Moore. Reception at 8 p.m. at Loop Gallery, 6436 Telegraph Ave. 590-0040. 

FILM 

“The Battle of Chile” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donations. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Maurice Pialat: “Graduate First” at 7 p.m. and “French Chronicles,” “Early Shorts” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Larry Tye will read from his book “Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class” at 2 p.m. at West Oakland Library, 1801 Adeline St. 238-7352.  

Victor Villaseñor describes his memoir of life in Mexico, “Burro Genius” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque “Cupid’s Arrow” with music by Rameau at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62 available from 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Bobby McFerrin, solo performance at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Zydeco Flames at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Angel Magik at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Larry Ochs, with Fred Firth, Mark Dresser and Miya Masaoka at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Brown Baggin, Low Fat at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Leftover Dreams with Tony Marcus and Patrice Haan at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Brunos at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Frank Jackson Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Tangria at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Fleshies, The Frisk, Scattered Fall, Shadowboxer, in a benefit for Jesse at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

John Schott’s Typical Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Wallace Roney Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 12 

FILM 

Maurice Pilat: “The House in the Woods” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Fictitious Marriage” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $2. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Where Do We Go From Here?” a discussion of Southeast Asian cultural legacies in conjunction with the exhibit “California and the Vietnam Era” at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. www.museum.ca.org 

Poetry Flash with Forrest Hamer and Alice Jones at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

“Shoso-in Treasures: Reconstructing Musical Instruments,” a lecture and demonstration by Toshiro Kido at 1 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

East/West Canvas: “Questioning Beauty” Dance performance by Sue Li Jue at 3 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Concert of Peace with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Peace Chorus and William Corbett-Jones, piano, at 4 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Honoring Fr. Bill O’Donnell and St. Joseph the Worker’s 125th Anniversary. Tickets are $15-$30, reservations suggested. 843-2244. 

Philharmonia Baroque “Cupid’s Arrow” with music by Rameau at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

David Buice, organist, perfroms an all Bach program at 6:10 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. www.stmarksberkeley.org 

La Nina Flamenco with Carola Zertuche, guitarist Jose Valle “Chuscales” and dancer Antonio Granjero, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Music from Japan’s Reigaku and Gagaku: A Living Tradition at 3:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall. Tickets are $28. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Americana Unplugged with Pete Madson at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Deaf Electric, electronic experi- 

mental sounds, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Kenny Werner and Peter Barshay in a dinner concert fundraiser for the Jazzschool at 7 p.m. at Downtown. Cost is $60. 649-3810. 

John Stewart, singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, SEPT. 13 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Bella Feldman and Katherine Westerhout, sculpture and photography at the Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St. Exhibition runs until Oct. 29. 622-8190. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

FILM 

“The Motorcycle Diaries” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “The Unsuitable Object of Desire” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free.  

Stephen Ducat discusses “The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars & The Politics of Anxious Masculinity” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express featuring contributors to the “Berkeley Review of Poetry” from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony, featuring Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto, Viviane Hagner, violin, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$49. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Catie Curtis, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jackie King at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 14 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theatre Lab “The Faith Project” runs Tues. and Wed. at 8 p.m. to Sept. 15 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Free with suggested donation. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Mitchell Johnson, “Paintings and Works on Paper” opens at North Berkeley Frame and Gallery, 1744 Shattuck Ave. and runs through Nov. 6. 549-0428. 

FILM 

Loose Ends: “The Early Years” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Larry Tye will read from his book “Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class” at 11 a.m. at Merritt College, Newton-Seale Lounge, R Bldg., Campus Drive, Oakland. 531-4911. 

Joe Loya describes “The Man who Outgrew his Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Mildred S. Barish, longtime Berkeley resident introduces us to “Tamalpais Tales: A Berkeley Neighborhood Remembers” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series, with Michael Kelly and Edwin Massey at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

Jill Lubin discusses the importance of connections in “Networking Magic” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Peter Barshay Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jazz House Jam, hosted by Darrell Green and Geechy Taylor, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazz- 

house.com 

E.S.T. Esbjorn Svensson Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz- 

school at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

David Rovicks, songs of social significance, at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Threshold: Byron Kim 1990-2004” The first solo exhibition of Kim’s work opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. and runs through Dec. 12. 642-1295. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“De Colores,” the tropical fruit watercolor paintings of Margo Mercedes Rivera-Weiss. Reception for the artist from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the EBMUD Gallery, 2nd floor, 375 11th St, between Webster and Franklin, Oakland. Exhibition runs to Oct. 8. 

FILM 

Performance Anxiety: “John Baldessari” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Esmerelda Santiago reads from “When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Aimee Phan describes Operation Babylift before the fall of Saigon in “We Should Never Meet” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

Ellen Weiss and Kiran Singh introduce “Berkeley: The Life and Spirit of a Remarkable Town” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Zack Rogow will read from his new translation of Colette’s classic novel, “Green Wheat” at 12:10 p.m. in 2515 Tolman Hall, UC Campus. 642-0137. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik, featuring Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, Monica Chew, piano, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Jules Broussard, Ned Boynton and Bing Nathan at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Bluegrass Intentions and Evie Ladin, lecture and demonstration at 7 p.m. Concert at 9 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Soroa, salsa, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Taarka at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Paul Thorn, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Whiskey Brothers at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Acoustic Wednesday with Mikie Lee Prasad at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale.  

www.thejazzhouse.org 

Lee Sarah Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

There’s a lot to be said for hard-to-reach places. If Muir Woods had been more accessible to loggers, it wouldn’t be here today. There’s also a lot to be said for vision. If William Kent and his wife Elizabeth Thacher Kent hadn’t seen something worth preserving, Muir Woods National Monument wouldn’t be here today. 

William Kent’s vision went beyond the establishment of one park. He recognized the importance of wilderness and natural areas and wanted the land he had purchased to be named after America’s foremost conservationist, John Muir. Muir’s response, “This is the best tree-lovers’ monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world.” 

In 1905, the sum of $45,000 was sufficient for William Kent to secure 295 acres of the Bay Area’s last old-growth redwood forest. He believed that saving the trees was more important than saving his money, and donated the land to the federal government. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt established Muir Woods as America’s seventh National Monument, the first created from privately donated land. 

Today, entering Muir Woods is like entering a sacred habitat—a cathedral of majestic coastal redwoods, some as much as 250 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter. Sequoia sempervirens shares the cool moist forest and diffuse light with Douglas fir, big-leaf maple, tanbark oak, and bay laurel. Among the thick leaf litter on the forest floor, bracken and sword ferns, trillium, redwood sorrel, and ancient horsetails line the banks of Redwood Creek as it flows through the park and out to sea. 

Surrounded by pencil straight trunks shooting up toward the light, the eye is drawn by spotlights of sun highlighting the bright greens of needles and leaves. The breeze doesn’t reach the forest floor but its presence is still felt: you can hear it rustle branches high above, watch slender trunks sway to its gentle rhythm, and follow the path of needles floating to the ground like snowflakes. 

One hundred and forty million years ago coastal redwoods covered most of the Northern Hemisphere. The 560 acres of Muir Woods National Monument on the southwestern slopes of Mount Tamalpais symbolize a commensal relationship between man and nature. Redwoods require moisture for their survival and growth, both from rainfall and fog. In fact, the moisture from fog provides between a quarter and half of their total water needs. Man makes the commitment not only to the trees themselves, valued at around $100,000 each, but also to preserve the unique environment in which they thrive. 

Muir Woods National Monument is visitor friendly, from the helpful staff at the entrance Visitor Center to the numerous information kiosks along the paths. Some criticism has been levied at the park’s paved trails and strict restrictions concerning food, smoking, bikes, and pets, but there is more here than meets the eye. First, liken this monument to an outdoor museum, its collection nature’s works of art, accessible not only to the “fit,” but to everyone. Second, recognize that as with most things in life, a little effort to get off the beaten trail brings vast rewards. 

Within Redwood Canyon, there are six miles of loop trails between Bridge 1 and Bridge 4, crossing Redwood Creek. These paved trails lead you past well known landmarks: the Bohemian and Cathedral Groves, the Gift Shop and Café, Pinchot Tree where Ecology Talks are given four to five times a day, and several Family Circles. These circles consist of a ring of mature redwoods formed from burl sprouts off a central, often dead, original tree. Perhaps these are nature’s homage to the Neolithic standing stones of Great Britain, both preserving the past. A self-guided Nature Trail has ten stops introducing you to the unique features of a redwood environment. 

At intervals along the main path, kiosks with illustrations describe side trails leading into Redwood Creek Watershed, away from 90 percent of the park’s visitors and toward other scenic vistas. The Fern Creek Trail, between Bridges 3 and 4, follows Fern Creek past the, now fallen, Kent Tree, up to Camp Alice Eastwood, a picnic facility. Just a few minutes off the main path, the serenity of the forest settles like a cloak: the water over the creek’s rocks, the chirps and caws of birds and the rustle of the breeze overhead. Time for quiet reflection and enjoyment. Very little effort, much reward. 

After your visit, don’t cross Muir Woods off your list for a return visit. Each season here offers its own experience. In fall, enjoy the red of swarming ladybugs against the yellow carpet of big-leaf maple leaves on the forest floor. Winter brings water in swollen creeks and with it the migration of Coho salmon and steelhead trout. Spring is the season of new life in the park. The bright green of new growth and the colors of wildflowers: blue-eyed grass, Douglas iris, wood anemone, and redwood violet. In summer, the fog returns to nurture redwoods, western azaleas, aralias and California buckeye. 

From the cloisters of the redwood forest to the open expanse of the Pacific. Less than five miles from Muir Woods is the small community and sheltered cove of Muir Beach. Here, Redwood Creek flows down to the sea forming a lagoon and wetland area, crossed by a wooden boardwalk and bridge. Reminiscent of the scenic beauty of the northern coast and the town of Mendocino, Muir Beach consists of a small shaded picnic area, and two white sand beaches rimmed by headlands and rocky outcroppings. 

If your boots yearn for more hiking, from here you can access the Coastal Trail leading to Wolf Ridge and Coyote Ridge with their spectacular ocean views. If, like Steve Martin, you yearn for “Happy Feet”, take those boots off and partake of the sparkling, crisp water. Feet, legs, and, if you’re not watching, maybe more—cooled, refreshed. At low tide, walk on the sand north toward a second, smaller cove, below a hillside of attractive homes in varied architectural styles, from National Park “ranger” to San Francisco “cool modern.” 

John Muir said, “all life forms have inherent value and a right to exist.” A day spent among nature’s offspring from forest to ocean is a day given to wonder and peace. Go early to avoid the crowds at Muir Woods; stay late to enjoy the sunset at Muir Beach. You can’t ask for much more than that. 

Ñ

From the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge take Hwy 1 south and exit at Hwy 1/Stinson Beach. Follow signs to Muir Woods/Mount Tamalpais. Approx. 25 miles, 45 min.-1hour. Parking limited.  

Park open from 8 a.m. to dusk year round. Adults $3, children 16 and under free. Ranger-led programs monthly.  

Muir Beach: return to Panoramic Hwy, turn right and drive 1 mile to Hwy 1. Go north 3 miles to Muir Beach. Free parking, chemical toilets, no water. (415) 388 2595. www.nps.gov/muwo.

This Sunday, Sept. 12, Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany hosts the Annual Solano Stroll, a day-long fun and food festival. 

The high point is the traditional parade at 11 a.m. This year’s theme, “A Pearl of a Stroll,” celebrates the stroll’s 30th anniversary. And if your name is Pearl, you still have a chance to be one of the parade’s Grand Marshals. Bring a photo I.D. to the registration table at Solano and the Alameda between 9:45 and 10:45 a.m. 

Lisa Bullwinkel, executive director of the Solano Avenue Association, said one lady named Minnie Pearl, who will be 95 on Sept. 15, has already qualified and is practicing her waves by watching videos of Queen Elizabeth II, but there’s always room for a few more Pearls on the string.™

FRIDAY, SEPT. 10 

International Literacy Day celebrated from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Listen to authors and adult literacy students read their poetry and short stories. 981-6299. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Anne Butterworth, PhD on “Solar Wind Mission.” At 11: 45 at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Gloria La Riva, Cuba solidarity activist and union leader and Richard Becker, co-founder, ANSWER coalition, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Donation $5. 528-5403. 

“The Wild Buffalo of Yellowstone” a discussion with the Buffalo Field Campaign at 7 p.m. at The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema on Washington St., between 9th and 10th Sts. Music at 5 p.m., and film, “Singin’ in the Rain” at 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs and blankets. Sponsored by the City of Oakland and the Old Oakland Historic District. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 652-5324. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 11 

Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush Marathon Letter-Writing Party from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at The Common Room at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby Street. All materials will be provided. Please bring your own pen. A donation of $5, or more, is requested. For additional information and to RSVP, email bobbie@themmob.com  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Stroll in Miller/Knox Regional Park. Meet at 10 a.m. in the main parking lot of Miller/Knox, off Dornan Drive. For more information call 235-2835. 

Mini Farmers A farm exploration program for children accompanied by an adult. Wear boots and prepare to get dirty. At 9 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3-$5, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Meet My Tarantula and learn that spiders are essential in our world at 1:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Educators Academy: Monarchs in the Classroom from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Coyote Hills Regional Park. You will construct and take home your own rearing cage, complete with milkweed and larvae. For grades K through 5. Fee is $45-$51. Registration required. 636-1684. 

California Natives Learn how natives benefit local wildlife, save water and are attractive additions to your garden, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Responding to Terrorism from 9 a.m. to noon at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/fire/oes.html 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Collecting Good Water Quality Data, a workshop with Dr. Revital Katznelson, Environmental Scientist for the State Water Resources Control Board at Merritt College. Cost is $11. For information call 434-3840.  

Community Sing from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 1216 Solano Ave., Albany. Adults $3, children $2. Sponsored by the Albany YMCA. 525-1130.  

Video Screening of the “Battle of Chile,” Parts 1 & 2, with introductory remarks by author, Roger Burbach at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Luna Kids Dance Open House with a free parent/child dance class, at 10 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

“Traditional Jewish Teachings on Spiritual Healing” the practice of Mussar with Dr. Alan Morinis at 8:45 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10-$15. To register call 523-7709. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 12 

Solano Avenue Stroll “A Pearl of a Stroll” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany. Parade, entertainment, food, crafts, art and antique cars and Kidtown. 527-5358. www.solanostroll.org 

5K Run for for Kerry at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Participants can either run the perimeter of Cesar Chavez Park twice or walk one lap. Race registration costs $20.00 and a check-in table will be open at the Marina at 2 p.m. Dogs, on leash, are welcome. 486-1420. fivekforkerry@hotmail.com  

Butterflies in the Garden Learn how to attract these colorful, delicate insects to your own yard at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Monarch Migration Celebration Learn about these amazing butterflies from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Fire Bush! A fundraiser for America Coming Together sposored by the Potter’s Studio, from noon to 6 p.m. at 637 Cedar St. Art auction, music by the BHS Jazz Combo and the Square Peg String Band, poetry, and a firing of Bush in the kiln at 5 p.m. 527-5268. 

Sunday in the Park Without George A concert and benefit for MoveOnPAC to benefit Kerry/Edwards featuring music by Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal, food and wine, young spoken word performances by semi-finalists of the San Francisco Poetry Slam, MoveOn founders Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, comedian and political satirist Will Durst. From 3 to 7 p.m. in Coventry Grove. Cost is $1,000. For reservations see www.sundayinthepark.org  

Herb Walk in Strawberry Canyon Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Walk lasts about two hours. Cost is $6 to $20 sliding scale. Offered by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org  

Benefit for Habitat for Humanity and Berkeley Food and Housing Project from 2 to 5 p.m. at A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. Wine tasting, live improvisational jazz, food donated by Bay Area restaurants. Cost is $35. 525-7621.  

Appian Creek Clean-Up from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Refreshments, tools, and gloves provided. Meet at Appian Creek behind the Boys & Girls Club, 4660 Appian Way in El Sobrante. Youth under 18 years need signed permission. Contact us for a waiver. Sponsored by The Watershed Project. To register contact Elizabeth O'Shea, 231-9566 or Elizabeth@thewatershedproject.org 

“The Emerging Green Trend in the Political Landscape of Muslim-America,” a primer for Greens and Progressives. At 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th, Oakland. 

Huston Smith will speak at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Part of the Personal Theology Seminars. 525-0302.  

Picnic for Jewish Families and Friends from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Joaquin Miller Park. Music, magician and raffle. www.jfed.org/picnicfest 

Rauda Morcos, Palestinian lesbian activist and poet from Kufar Yassif, Israel at 4 p.m. at Middle East Children’s Alliance. 901 Parker St. at 7th St. Donation $7-$20 sliding scale. 548-0542.  

“Is Israel’s Fence Legal or Necessary?” with attorney Ephraim Margolin at 7:15 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel-Berkeley and the BRJCC. Donation $10. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

Neighborhood Disaster Training for Sante Fe and Gilman Sts. from 9 a.m. to noon. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. To register call 981-5506. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Class Learn how to perform basic repairs on your bike, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $85 REI members, $100 others. Registration required. 527-4140. 

South Asian Bookclub meets to discuss “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabakov at 11:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Traditional Mayan Healing at 6 p.m. at Upaya Center for Wellbeing, 478 Santa Clara Ave., Suite 200, Oakland. Also on Mon. at 7 p.m. 444-8729. www.upayacenter.org 

“The Wisdom of Chakras” at 3 p.m. at Alaya’s, The Shaman Store, 1713 University Ave. Donations requested. 548-4701. 

“Breema: The Art of Being Present” Open House with Jon Schreiber at the Breema Center, 6076 Claremont Ave., at College. Call to schedule first-time Breema bodywork sessions 5:30-6:30, or attend the class at 7 p.m. 428-0937. www.breema.com 

“Dreamtime Rituals” a lecture by author/ritualist Antero Alli at 6 p.m. at Premalaya Books, 1713 University Ave. 548-4701. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 13 

Reclaim Democracy with Joan Blades, Patricia Ellsberg and Ronnie Gilbert at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

9/11 Uncensored with a new film “The Great Conspiracy” at 6:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Donation $10-$20, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 415-453-4023. 

Berkeley Community Garden Meeting at 6 p.m. at Spiral Gardens, 2838 Sacramento St. at Oregon. Potluck dinner and speaker, Rosalie Fanshel on “Growing our own Medicine.” 883-9096. 

Reportback on Haiti at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita. Please bring snacks and drinks to share. 644-1937. 

Afterschool Center providing tutoring and support for Berkeley students age 5 to 14 at 1255 Allston Way. Cost is $20 per week. Sponsored by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 845-9066. 

Great Popular Fiction Bookgroup meets to discuss “Sandstorm” by James Rollins at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra rehearsals begin at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing at Dana. No auditions, all welcome. 964-0665. www.bcco.org 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call 601-4040, ext. 109.  

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

“Ulysses” Discussion Book Group at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. We will meet every Mon. night and hope to finish by Bloomsday 2005. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 14 

“The Unfolding National Tax Disaster” background and options with Prof. Alan Auerbach and Prof. John Ellwood at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302.  

“The Polls: The Battleground States” a panel discussion at 3 p.m. at 109 Moses Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Institute of Geovernmental Studies. http://politics.berkeley.edu 

“Preemptive Peace, Finding Solutions to the War System” with Jonathan Curiel from 7 to 10 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Sponsored by the World Federalists of Northern California, the International House and UC Berkeley’s Peace and Conflict Studies. 415-227-4880.  

Furthering the Movement End US colonial occupation of Iraq, presented by James Cosner with Shaka At-Thinnin from the Black August Organizing Committee and Carlos Padilla from Students for Justice at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Donation $5-$10, no one turned away. 419-1405.  

“Saving the Coast: A Job That’s Never Done” with Peter Douglas, Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission, at 5:30 p.m. in 10 Evans Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

Introduction To Sustainable Landscape Design Create an environmentally friendly oasis in your yard using the principles of sustainability. Use of native plants, recycled materials, water conserving techniques and pest control will be discussed. From 7 to 9 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $35. To register, call 525-7610. 

“Trail Running” for fun or competition with Ethan Veneklasen at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. This is a project of Spiral Gardens. 843-1307. 

Solid Waste Management Public Workshop on Organic Materials, residential and commercial services, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley Solid Waste Management Commission. 981-6357. 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives Flag Football for boys and girls ages 9 to 11, Tuesdays 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. at 1255 Allston Way. Cost is $10 for residents, $15 for non-residents for 5 weeks. 845-9066. sports@bysonline.org 

Family Story Time at the Kensington Branch Library, Tues. evenings at 7 p.m. 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Kurukula Self Defense Classes for girls ages 10-16 at 6:15 p.m. in Albany. Drop in for $15 a class. 847-2400. www.albanykarateforkids.com  

Dance and Visual Arts Classes offered by All Souls Episcopal Parish for middle and high school students. Classes begin Sept. 14. Scholarships available. 848-1755. www.youthartstudio.org 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors offered by Stagebridge, at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Classes are held at 10 a.m. Tues.-Fri. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 415-336-8736.  

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15 

Wednesday Bird Walk Discover the first of the migrants and help us with the monitoring of the shoreline, at 8:30 a.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline. Turn into the park off Swan Way, follow the drive to the end and meet at the last parking lot by the observation deck. 525-2233. 

“Alternatives to Greed” a talk by Antonia Jiuhasz, project director of the International Forum on Globalization at the Berkeley Gray Panther’s evening meeting, 7 p.m. 1403 Addison. 548-9696. 

“Against the Grain” and “Genetic Time Bomb” films at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Admission is free. Part of the GMOs and Food series sponsored by GMO Free Alameda County. 527-9898. www.gmofreeac.org 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Prebyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday, rain or shine, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop meets at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 524-3765. 

“Cardiovascular Herbs” How they can save your life at 6 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave.  

Celebrate a Humanistic Rosh Hashanah with Kol Hadash, at 7:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Hall, 1325 Portland Avenue, Albany. 428-1492.  

THURSDAY, SEPT. 16 

UC Botanical Garden Volunteer Orientation from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 200 Centennial Drive. Free, but registration required. 643-2755. http://botnaicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Bridging Zapatismo to Our Communities a teach-in with proceeds supporting the Chiapas Community Mural Project at 8 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Redefining Agrarian Power” with Nancy Peluso, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at 4:10 p.m. at 223 Moses Hall, UC Campus.  

Kairos Youth Choir Open House for boys and girls age 7-15 at 4:30 p.m. For information call 414-1991. www.kairoschoir.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., Sept. 13, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon., Sept. 13, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Sept. 13, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon., Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Housing Authority, 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/publichousing 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 15, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 15, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Sept. 15, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaignC

Staff members and patrons of the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library have been devastated by the loss of Library Assistant Charlene Rochelle Agos, who was killed in a traffic accident in Oakland the night of Aug. 15. 

Her car was broadsided by an sports utility vehicle that ran a red light at the intersections of Foothill and Havenscourt boulevards. The occupants of the SUV reportedly continued driving for several blocks, then abandoned the car and ran. 

The four men had been drinking at a nearby bar where they had participated in a fight that resulted in a patron being badly beaten and hospitalized. Oakland police are still looking for the perpetrators of this crime.  

Charlene, born in Oakland in 1966, attended St. Benedict’s Elementary School and graduated from St. Elizabeth High School in 1984. A memorial service was held for her at St. Benedict’s Catholic Church on Aug. 23. She leaves behind Hoche Agos, her husband of 13 years, twin 3-year-old daughters, Kyelle and Arden, her parents, in-laws and a large, extended family. 

“It’s no surprise that the North Branch’s staff is reeling with shock, sorrow and anger over the unnecessary loss of our co-worker,” said Teen/Reference Librarian Debbie Carton. “We are a lively, active group and Charlene’s calm, easy, helpful, and serene presence was needed to pitch in at just the right moment to ease traffic at the circulation desk or solve a problem.” 

Vivian Vigil, Charlene’s immediate supervisor, said, “Charlene worked here for 10 years and was dedicated to her job and her family. Her girls would visit the library and use the computers like they were 7-years-old, not 3. They are very bright, curious, outgoing kids.”  

The North Berkeley Library staff is taking up a collection on behalf of Charlene’s daughters. Photographs of Charlene, her husband and children are displayed at the Information Desk, along with candles and flowers. 

A small book is available for patrons to write their thoughts and wishes for Charlene and her family. The donation box has collected over $2,000.  

“Patrons see the sign,” said Debbie Carlton. “Their faces lock and freeze as they read the news. They reach into their wallets and pull out bills, coins, and checks. They reach into their hearts and write the most wonderful things in the book for her family.” 

Indeed, many moving tributes to Charlene can be found in the journal. 

“I was always touched by her kindness and quiet containment,” writes one library patron. Another adds, “What is worse than staying behind? Watching a figure recede. Saying good-bye, remembering…” 

To make a contribution in Kyelle and Arden’s behalf, stop by the North Branch of the Berkeley Library during operation hours, (Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.), or send a check made out to Kyelle and Arden Agos, North Branch, Berkeley Public Library, 1170 The Alameda, Berkeley, 94707. For more information call 981-6250.›

Why did about 400 students at Berkeley High get shut out of classes in one of the school’s most popular programs just eight days before the start of school?  

It depends on who you ask. 

According to the official version, the students were primarily the victim of a giant scheduling snafu. But others believe the last-minute scheduling edict by Principal Jim Slemp amounts to drawing a line in the sand against Academic Choice, the controversial program praised by some for trying to restore academic rigor to Berkeley High and decried by others who fear the program’s majority white-classes will further segregate the school. 

“Blaming scheduling is a rhetorical device to ignore the issue,” said Academic Choice teacher Doug Powers. “It’s Berkeley’s version of attacking Saddam Hussein to get rid of terrorism.” 

Academic Choice, since its inception in 2001, has been at the heart of a simmering debate over how education reform ought to be accomplished at Berkeley High. 

The program, which includes some of Berkeley High’s most experienced and respected teachers, focuses on higher level classes and teaches some of the school’s AP courses with the goal of offering students a more challenging curriculum.  

Although it’s open to all, its ranks have been filled disproportionately with white and Asian students. Last year Powers said about 400 students in tenth through twelfth grades took the program’s classes in a variety of subjects. About 56 percent of the program’s students were white, he said. 

Academic Choice’s demographics have made it a target for community members whose top priority is diversity in the classrooms, especially supporters of small schools, the district-approved reform drive to bridge the achievement gap between white and Asian students and African American and Latino students. 

By next year nearly half of Berkeley High students are scheduled to attend four autonomous schools inside Berkeley High, all of which must reflect the ethnic diversity of the student body, which is about 37 percent white and 32 percent African American. 

Since Academic Choice opted not to seek small school status, it will remain in the big school, where critics—including the majority of parents on the influential Berkeley High School Site Council, comprised of parents, students and faculty—have warned it could further segregate classes, especially in social science and history, where students aren’t tracked based on aptitude. 

When class enrollment figures, released last spring, showed a surge in enrollment for Academic Choice classes—initial figures counted as many as 1,200 students, although the number was later pared down to over 600—the School Site Council voiced its displeasure.  

“We were concerned that if half the school was Academic Choice and Academic Choice was largely white and Asian, then the school would be essentially split in half,” said School Site Council President Claudia Wilken. 

To prevent that possibility, last spring the School Site Council proposed a diversity requirement for Academic Choice and passed a site plan calling on programs in the large school to reflect the diversity of the high school at large. 

Powers said Academic Choice parents had sent letters over the summer encouraging minority students to enroll in the program and that Principal Jim Slemp had assured them in July that the controversy wouldn’t affect the program this year.  

But then at an Aug. 24 meeting of the Site Council, Slemp announced that scheduling problems had forced him to cut Academic Choice classes and consolidate Academic Choice students into regular classes. In all of the more than 600 students who requested an Academic Choice class, fewer than 250 received one. 

“It was mostly scheduling,” said Slemp, explaining that trying to divide class sections between Academic Choice and the regular school meant classes in neither grouping would have enough students. The consolidation of classes didn’t cost any students the opportunity to take an Advanced Placement class, he added. 

Although Slemp insisted “there was no intent to get rid of Academic Choice,” he acknowledged that political infighting played a role in his decision and that school “needed to take a year to find out what its mission will be.” 

Powers sees Academic Choice partly as a bulwark against a perceived movement to turn the high school exclusively into small schools partially funded with money from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. 

“This goes to the whole philosophy of Berkeley High,” Powers said. “Are we really planning to be a Gates guinea pig school? If that’s true we need to know it so a lot of us can go on and do something different.” 

He said Academic Choice teachers opposed forming a small school because it wouldn’t have been fair to group so many top teachers in a school of just a few hundred students. 

On the race issue, Powers said the program was starting to do more outreach and wasn’t as segregated as its critics claimed. While whites comprised over half of Academic Choice students, African Americans accounted for 12 percent and “mixed” students for about 30 percent, he said. 

“If we can recruit 20 Latino kids and 50 African American kids we’d be at the school average,” he said. 

Powers, though, doubted the program’s critics wanted to see that happen. 

“When close to 700 kids chose more rigorous and difficult program that was clearly a signal of what Berkeley wanted and it made the site council try to undermine us,” he said. 

Site Council member Michael Miller insists Academic Choice opponents didn’t want to kill the program, but were trying to ensure it doesn’t reduce equity in the name of choice.  

“We need all our master teachers teaching all of our students,” he said, pointing to a past policy, dumped by the district in 2001, that allowed students to pick their teachers. Opponents of the policy had argued that in practice wealthier, better connected students ended up with better teachers. 

The next chapter in the struggle will likely come Thursday when elections will be held to pick the four parent representatives on the Site Council. A slate of four Academic Choice parents will seek seats, in the caucus style election, where any Berkeley High parent who shows up can vote. 

Meanwhile Academic Choice teachers are still simmering over the school’s schedule, not released until the third week of August. “It was the latest it’s ever been done in my history at Berkeley High,” said veteran teacher Steve Teel.  

“You can’t have teachers prepare for one course and walk in and find they’re teaching something different. That’s unprofessional.”  

Sally Hindman has made a name for herself in Berkeley as the homeless advocate who co-founded Street Spirit. But if all goes according to plan, her biggest legacy could be in Varna, Bulgaria. 

Hindman first traveled to the Black Sea port town two years ago to adopt an orphaned Roma (“Gypsy”) child, but in the finest tradition of Berkeley do-gooders she threw her arms around the entire town. 

While spending nearly five months in Varna waiting for officials to process the adoption of her now 3-year-old daughter Sylvia, Hindman followed through on her planned tile wall art project for local Roma youth, assisted the local Jewish community win international grants to rebuild its synagogue left in disrepair since World War II and immersed herself in the city’s history, including its role as a chief point of departure to Palestine for European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. 

Now, armed with a grant from the U.S. embassy in Bulgaria, but still in need of additional funding, Hindman is planning a return trip early next year to oversee construction of a second tile wall she hopes can honor the city’s Jewish past and create a better future for all its residents. 

“I want it to facilitate healing around the past and put forth a vision for creating a tolerant community,” she said. 

The centerpiece of the wall will be a memorial to the victims of the Ship Salvador, which on Dec. 4, 1940 departed Varna for Palestine with 321 refugees and sank in the Marmara Sea off the coast of Turkey. Two hundred and one passengers drowned, 66 of whom are believed to have been orphans. 

“Every time I visited that little gypsy child, I kept imagining the boatload of people escaping in the middle of winter. Especially since my husband was a little Jewish child,” she said.  

When it comes to treatment of Jews, Bulgaria scores fairly well for an eastern European country. Nearly all of the country’s estimated 50,000 Jews avoided concentration camps, thanks largely to energetic support of Bulgarian society against the Nazi’s puppet regime. 

But like nearly all countries in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria’s Roma minority, which a 1992 census placed at 312,000, suffers from ingrained prejudice and has seen its standard of living drop precipitously since the country emerged from Soviet domination. 

“In Bulgaria, Roma never get a fair chance for jobs or education,” said Sani Rifati, president of Voice of Roma, a charitable organization based in Sebastopol, Calif. “With employment no longer guaranteed, they’re the first ones fired and the last ones hired.” 

Inevitably, he added, many Roma women decide they can’t care for their babies and give them to orphanages, the fate Sylvia suffered prior to her adoption by Hindman. 

Hindman said she witnessed local disdain for both minority groups during her first stint in Bulgaria. She watched a police officer beat a Roma man on a train and she tore down posters of hook-nosed Jews that served as an advertisement for a joke book about Jews. 

Even before her journey to Varna, though, she had drawn parallels between the two groups, which contributed to her and her husband’s decision to adopt a Roma.  

“We wanted to reconnect with Eastern Europe and with my husband’s roots there,” she said. “We thought we might have something to offer a Roma child.” 

Sylvia knows who her “mommy” is. The rambunctious girl, who competed gamely for Hindman’s attention during a recent interview, will accompany her mother in Varna and attend nursery school in her home town. 

While Sylvia enjoys a homecoming, Hindman will be hard at work pulling off the tile project. She hopes the wall will be both a work of art and a vehicle for Roma, Jewish and ethnic Bulgarian children to learn about each other and move beyond centuries-old prejudices. 

Before she begins the project, Hindman is working to raise $2,000 in donations to pay for Roma youth facilitators to lead tolerance workshops where Roma and Jewish youth will discuss the discrimination they face. 

Each of the Jewish children participating in the project will design a tile with the name of a victim of the Ship Salvador. Hindman tracked down all the names by searching archives at Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum in Jerusalem. 

The rest of the wall, including its size and shape will be decided by a committee of Varna residents. 

Hindman’s last tile wall was built by 250 Roma youth, many of whom were orphans, and funded in part by the Gavroche Association, a Varna-based organization that cares for homeless youth. The young artists painted tiles demonstrating their future dreams and the final work now stands on permanent exhibit at the Varna Children’s Museum. 

The future location of the proposed project rests with the Varna City Council, said Hindman, who said she would lobby for high-visibility space. 

“This wall is a pledge for a tolerant city,” she said. “It’s a statement that this is our past but it’s never going to happen again.” 

Donations for the tile wall project can sent to “Shalom Varna Tile Project—Bulgaria” Central and Eastern European Program, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 847A Second Ave., New York, NY, 10017.

With Berkeley as little as a month away from rolling out a state-of-the-art online system to track homeless residents, some local homeless service providers are wondering if the new technology will catapult them into the 21st century or send them back to 1984. 

Dubbed the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), the program, mandated in a 2001 congressional appropriations bill, requires any jurisdiction that receives federal homeless dollars to implement a computerized tracking system approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Homeless clients will be asked to provide basic information including their social security numbers to help authorities monitor use of various service providers. Clients will have the right to withhold their information and still receive services. HUD is also forbidden from distributing client information beyond local service providers. 

The program’s mission is to get sound data on the number of homeless nationwide, analyze patterns of use and study the effectiveness of homeless care providers. The information will be used to compile the first congressionally-mandated Annual Homeless Assessment Report, due out next year. 

HUD has selected Berkeley as one of 80 sample jurisdictions to be included in the report. The Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project and Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) have been selected as the first service providers to operate the system. 

But with the city scheduled to begin the program as early as the end of the month and no later than February, not everyone is fully on board. 

“There are a lot of mixed emotions about this,” said Jane Micallef, the city’s homeless policy coordinator. 

On the plus side, Micallef said, when the system is fully implemented the city would better understand the nature and extent of homelessness. By addressing gaps in services, agencies could improve case management coordination, access to data, and report generation capabilities, she said. 

Then there is the privacy issue. 

Should homeless clients chose to provide personal data, they will get a second option either to allow their data to be shared among local providers, so they won’t need to register again at other agencies, or refuse to share their data altogether. 

All personal information collected in Alameda County will be stored on a server in Shreveport, LA, home of the county’s HUD-approved information technology provider, Bowman Internet Solutions.  

The fear, said Robert Barrer, deputy director of BOSS, is what might happen down the road. 

“People say ‘What if the congressional mandates change and they have this information at their fingertips?;” he said.  

A cautionary tale comes from San Francisco, which, armed with a HUD grant, initiated its own tracking system last year that, unlike Berkeley’s, is mandatory for homeless clients and requires them to submit to a fingerprint scan. 

The system is supposed to be full-proof when it comes to protecting client identities, but when Chance Martin, editor of San Francisco’s Street Sheet, made a public records request of the San Francisco Department of Human Services and Metsys Monitoring, the city’s information technology provider, he couldn’t believe what he saw. 

“We got reams of papers full of bug reports that had confidential client information all over them,” Martin said. “It was clear that the people running the program didn’t know the meaning of confidentiality.” 

HUD didn’t earmark money to pay for the tracking system, and how much it will cost Berkeley and local homeless service providers remains unclear. The Alameda County Continuum of Care has submitted a grant proposal to HUD that would pay for half of the implementation costs for every effected jurisdiction in the county, Barrer said. 

Since Berkeley has to get its system online early, he said, the city is providing funds to BOSS and other service providers to help offset the cost. BOSS, which is one of the largest service providers in the county, wouldn’t have much trouble implementing the new system, Barrer said, but smaller agencies with less technological infrastructure could take a big hit. 

“Unfunded mandates are never cheap,” he said. 

›

NEW YORK—There are many stories to tell at this convention. The known storylines inside Madison Square Garden are familiar Republican themes that are repeated over and over: the recycled compassionate conservatism, John Kerry’s misrepresenting his war record, the war on terror, George Bush is the only candidate who can protect you, and of course, Bush will cut your taxes even more. 

The recognizable mainstream news storylines from outside the convention are about ever-tighting security around the Garden, the large Sunday afternoon half-million strong anti-Bush protest through Manhattan, and customer-starved small businesses in and around what has become known as the convention’s Green Zone. But, there have been perhaps, a dozen or so stories that are either being covered inadequately or not at all. 

The under-reported stories of Republican National Convention 2004 occurring on the inside include the numerous demonstrators—up to 30 in all—who have broken through the intense Madison Square Garden security lines and gotten onto the convention floor to make protest statements, the relentless pursuit of the Missouri delegation by members of ACT-UP and other activists, the now infamous and short-lived Band-Aid over a purple heart stickers representing John Kerry’s not really earned medals that were passed out and worn by an estimated 250 Republican delegates, and finally the glaring absence of any fresh Bush—read Republican—ideas on really moving the country forward. 

Outside the Garden the untold narratives are legion. First, the ubiquitous, forceful, costly and massive presence of police in the New York City streets surrounding the convention site may be seen, when history is written, more as an occupying force that had to kill some democracy in order to save the Republican convention. 

Next, the daily large-scale street protests—nothing like the half-million, but significant by Bay Area standards—often received little or no coverage. The wretched conditions which exist at the Pier 57 detention center, an old oil-stained former bus maintenance facility set up by police to hold and process those arrested during this convention week is another story not often told. And finally, a story which has received scant exposure was the absolute outrage by average New Yorkers towards the Republicans’ attempts of co-opting the 9/11 terrorist tragedy for political gain. 

On three out of four nights of the convention, anti-Bush people made severe breaches in security, according to secret service members. 

The first two nights saw several patches of empty seats inside the Garden and Republicans sought to fill up the seats even if it meant handing out tickets to non-delegates who never underwent the usual security background checks. In fact, on Tuesday night Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, the recipient of one of these passes, unfurled a banner that read, “Be Pro-life, Stop Killing in Iraq.” 

She did it during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s prime-time speech. In fact, Schwarzenegger, Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Governor George Pataki, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card all had there speeches interrupted by protesters. And yes, even President Bush’s speech was interrupted by one very determined Code Pink heckler, June Brashares.  

In an interview, Code Pink’s Benjamin said, “The great under-reported story of this convention is June Brashares getting in without any credentials at all. She just walked onto one of the hotel shuttle buses and told security that she simply lost her credential.” 

Contrast all of this with the relative few street protests at the Democratic convention in Boston, and only once was there a floor protest, by Benjamin herself, and you have a recipe for an extremely polarized America. By mid-week New York City’s police chief was even chastising the Republicans for being lax about security. 

The Missouri delegation was targeted by protesters from the very beginning. Missouri has passed a “Defense of Marriage Act,” and the delegates definitely bore the brunt of protester’s ire for the passage of this measure. Whether it was at their hotel (Westin), or the restaurants or clubs they frequented, and even while attending a Broadway show, the Missourians were confronted again and again. They were beseeched in the form of picket lines, kiss-in’s, chants, and in your face cat-calls. The Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender community and their supporters clearly made it a more uneasy convention for the Show-me stators. 

And what about the Band-Aid over the purple heart incident? “A little Ow-ee,” is how former Nixon Administration operative and now conservative radio commentator, G. Gordon Liddy put it to this reporter when asked about the mocking of John Kerry’s purple hearts by some Republican delegates. 

Democratic National Chair, Terry McAuliffe, earlier in the day, was incensed about this gesture of wearing Band-Aids over purple hearts to signify that Kerry sustained only light war wounds. McAuliffe said, “It was disgraceful and disgusting. There were 250 of these [Band-Aids] handed out and that doesn’t happen without the top leadership directing it.” While no formal apologies were issued by the RNC, few Republicans spoken to agreed with this type of action. 

Finally, from the inside, the most startling revelation coming from the mouth of President Bush during his prime time acceptance speech was that there were no new policy ideas, only recycled ones. Beyond the revamped compassionate conservative sloganeering—“Government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives,” Bush read off a state of the union-type litany of “new” program ideas, but without identifying the legislative hurdles or economic impacts each would have. 

Overhauling Social Security and Medicare, tax relief, health savings accounts, reining in federal spending, reshaping immigration law, “simplify the federal tax code,” and of course, the 9/11 tragedy and protecting the United States from terrorists—”we have fought the terrorists across the earth.” These are all Republican topics from the past. There is nothing here akin to the bold agenda that the president’s aids, in the days leading up to the speech, promised reporters that he would divulge. 

Outside the convention the untold stories were even more numerous. Whether it was the 60 protesters who marched all the way from Boston to NYC after the close of the Democratic convention, or the literal good cop-bad cop split personalities on the part of some New York police units during the dozen mass protest gatherings here, or singer-songwriter Steve Earle’s relentless personal campaign “to turn up the vibe and get people out to vote,” in exorcising “W” from the Whitehouse, and not to mention the previous Sunday’s half-million marchers. Although much has been written about this latter event, given its proper context—the largest convention protest march in history—much more could be said. But I chose four other underreported stories. 

First, the cops. Every police officer, traffic cop, and police cadet was mobilized. They were supported by hundreds more—FBI, Secret Service, National Guard, New York State Troopers. All days off were canceled. 

This massive security apparatus totaled almost 40,000. The area around Madison Square Garden became known as the “Green Zone,” as the U.S. security zone in Baghdad is known. While police were generally friendly when approached by reporters, none would willingly go on record, and many times in tense situations the media were treated like the protesters, with even some arrests of journalists made by accident. Only in Guatemala City during the 1980’s dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt has this reporter felt so closely watched. 

Walls of bicycle and motorcycle cops, waves of helmeted riot police, dozens of plainclothes police were constantly hovering, always trying to be one step ahead of the next protest event, even when there wasn’t one. This situation created an almost permanent sense of foreboding, fear, and confusion. Was it the police strategy from the beginning? Probably. But also, away from the Green Zone of the convention hall, police were almost always hanging out in small groups usually trying desperately to while away their 12-hour shifts. 

Secondly, since it would be difficult to top the gigantic march of Sunday, so many of the smaller marches were lightly covered by the more than 15,000 media people holed up in the Garden waiting for the Republicans. On Monday there were two marches. The first, a permitted one, saw more than 5,000 marching towards the Garden. The second, the “Poor People’s March,” was a non-permitted demonstration which police allowed, had close to 10,000 marchers. On Tuesday, the day planned by the A-31 coalition as being a day of “direct action,” saw more than 1,200 people arrested. The largest number of arrests that day—over 200—came during a non-permitted, War Resisters League procession of a few hundred. 

The arrests took place when confusion and miscommunication on the part of police and protesters alike had police wrapping orange plastic mesh around the a large group at the front of the march which started from “Ground Zero.” It had been headed towards the convention but never made it. Many non-protesters were arrested including a 15 and 16 year old on their way to a movie theater in the same area, and a building maintenance worker who was putting out the garbage.  

Also on Tuesday, large protests took place at Fox News Headquarters where a “Shut Up-athon” targeting Bill O’Reilly attracted about 2,000. Near the same time a demonstration organized in the East Meadow in Central Park by the National Organization of Women (NOW) drew more than 10,000. On Wednesday a massive labor rally was held. More than 25,000 union members and their supporters were jammed into seven blocks along Eight Avenue from 23rd to 30th streets. 

The following day, the night of President Bush’s acceptance speech, saw two large rallies. A candlelight vigil at Union Square attracted more than 5,000, and a raucous, closely-watched by police rally of close to 10,000 took place within four blocks of the convention. 

Overall, given the number of demonstrators and the number of security people, the vast majority of gatherings were peaceful, well-organized and offered useful outlets for ordinary New Yorkers, hardened protesters, and others in-between, to vent their frustration and outright anger with the Bush Administration. 

The most underreported story of this convention was most likely the jail conditions and the time it took for those arrested in street demonstrations to contact their lawyers and see a judge. In fact, on Friday it got so bad that Judge John Cataldo of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan demanded that the city process all demonstrators immediately. 

When that had not happened by 6 p.m. that day he held the city in contempt and ordered a fine of $1,000 for each person still held. Many were finally released late Friday, some after having spent more than 60 hours in detention and in violation of their Constitutional rights. 

Bill Dobbs, Media Coordinator for group United for Peace and Justice which organized many of the protests and also assisted in legal help, said that as of Saturday afternoon, “The vast bulk of detainees had gotten out of jail and that it looks like [these long detentions] were politically motivated by the city.” 

Dobbs went on to say, “In the same way Bush used a preemptive strike against Iraq, the New York Police Department used a preemptive strike against protesters. The Mayor and police department went too far,” Dobbs said. Lots of different lawyers are involved from groups like the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights, according to Dobbs, and that they will be back in a New York courtroom tomorrow (Wednesday). 

Finally, the last under-reported story of this convention is perhaps how not-Republican New York City is. Average New Yorkers came out to many protests, people who had never even been to a protest before. Those not protesting often supported protesters. There are stories of restaurant bills paid anonymously, taxi rides given free of charge, and spontaneous bursts of applause throughout Manhattan for anti-Bush protesters. 

It is doubtful Bush will be back here to campaign, given that New York is Kerry country, or that the Republican National Convention will be convening in this city anytime in the near future. 

ª

It’s Tuesday evening on the corner of 34th Street and Sixth Avenue. The sidewalk is packed with protestors hemmed in by a wall of police. Traffic had been diverted. The protestors are chanting and yelling and waiving signs, and have made passage up and down the sidewalk nearly impossible.  

The doors of the corner pizzeria are open. At the table nearest the entrance a woman is trying to calm an 18-month-old baby, who is clearly at the end of her rope. The baby is clutching a tattered stuffed animal, saying “piggy, piggy” every time she drops it. The animal is now an indecipherable shade of grey from too many close encounters with New York sidewalks. 

The mother is trying to feed the child with spoonfuls of baby food, smeared on slices of cold pizza she has ripped into bite sizes with her teeth. The child is not eating. She grabs her mother’s hand and tries to pull her out into the street, into the thick of the demonstration. The mother resists. The baby cries. The mother gets up, takes the child’s hand and commences a game of ring around the rosy. The child is happy for a minute, and then begins to cry again. Finally the mother gives up, gathers her belongings, straps the child into the stroller, and starts off towards the subway. I follow Rachel, my daughter, who has been trying do the impossible—nurse a sick child and at the same time report on the protests for AlterNet. 

After I help her load the stroller and Luna June into the back seat of a taxi, I head back to the protest. Police have blocked off access to the 34th Street corner. On the next street south, 33rd street, at the northern end of Greeley Square, the sidewalk is clogged with protestors, who are taunting delegates heading to the convention from one of their numerous parties. They walk by in groups of twos and threes, with large plastic convention passes dangling from chains around their necks—the women, carefully coiffed, the men in their suit jackets and leather shoes. 

As each group approaches the corner the protestors erupt with raucous shouts of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” One of them lobs a half eaten banana in the direction of the delegates. Another raises his fists with a double middle digit salute. Stony faced or with a weak smile the delegates try not to make eye contact as they walk by. A few walk through the crowd massed on the sidewalk. The majority make their way down the center of the street, escorted by police. 

A squad of cops waits on the other side of Sixth Avenue. Long blond wood riot batons dangle from their black gloved hands. High above the scene, a large billboard advertises the ipod. Against an olive green background the black silhouette of a woman grooves to the music. She holds her white ipod in one hand. Thin white wires dangle from her ears. She is in her own world, plugged in, while below her, an unruly rabble of protestors has clearly come unplugged and is decidedly out of control. 

Which is why I expect a bust to happen any minute. An argument breaks out in the crowd between a man in a “Microshit” t-shirt who identifies himself as a Navy veteran and another man with a crew cut and an open neck dress shirt, who is questioning his military record. As I pass by, Microshit is yelling at dress shirt: “The Arabs invented zero, you dipshit.” 

I take a break to pee and buy a bottle of water. In the basement restroom of Steevie’s Fast Fresh Food I encounter Louis Alvarez, a short old man with skin the color of a Havana cigar and a white stubble sprouting on his face. He’s standing at the sink, washing up, his pants down around his knees, and a straw hat on his head.  

“What do you think of the protests?” I ask.  

“It’s a great country,” he says, as he hitches up his pants. “Anybody can protest. Why just the other day there were people protesting naked.”  

“What were they protesting?” I ask.  

He doesn’t know.  

“And what do you think about the protests going on outside?”  

He tells me he would not protest, but he supports them. He doesn’t like Bush, primarily because of polices towards his homeland, Cuba. He does not understand the point of the blockade, or the new rules making it harder to visit and send money. “I will vote for the other guy,” he says. “I don’t know what the other guy will do, but at least he’s not Bush.”  

The arena of Madison Square Garden, ringed around with police, is like a spaceship that has landed on planet New York from which alien life forms, the convention delegates, venture out into the city in well-guarded clumps. But the protesters are also in some sense an alien form. Walk away from a demonstration, go down into the subway, and there, waiting for the train, are old people, large people, mothers with children, beggars, tired workers falling asleep. People who look like them are by and large not out there on the street with picket signs and banners. There have been very few children at the marches. And the bubbling racial mix that is New York is not much in evidence. 

It does not need to be this way. On Monday a “March for Our Lives” is led by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. The Union was started in April 1991 by a group of welfare mothers who lived in the Kensington neighborhood of North Philadelphia, the poorest district in Pennsylvania. They began organizing around the basic human needs for food, housing, medical care, jobs, and the price of utilities. 

Now the Union has brought people from the neighborhood to New York and established a makeshift encampment they call “Bushville” at a church on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn. And although they came from Philadelphia, their march looks like New York. In the lead is a line of children in strollers and elderly women in wheelchairs. In the lap of one of the women rests a book, "Spiritual Solution.” One of the children in the strollers sucks on a bottle of red punch. 

An unruly scrum of photographers pushes and jostles for the money shot of the kids and old women. The crowd chants “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Poverty must go!” The monitors struggle to keep the photographers from falling onto the strollers, and although this is an unpermitted march the cops are putting most of their energy into helping the monitors control the media. It’s a tumultuous wonderful scene. 

The march is headed for Madison Square Garden to deliver a letter of demands to the GOP. There will, no doubt, be some sort of confrontation. I want to stay to see what happens, but I need to leave to take care of Luna June so Rachel can continue her reporting.  

Walking away, with the sound of the protest diminishing behind me, I’m suffering from protestus interruptus. I feel like I’ve been tossed up by a churning river onto a dry embankment. A woman walks by carrying bags of groceries. A man passes me talking on his cell phone. We each inhabit our separate worlds, and as a consequence the world we share in common becomes unexamined background, imbued with permanence and inevitability.  

The next day I search in vain for a story on the march in the Daily News and the Times. Nothing. What happened to all those photographs all those photographers were jostling to take? If a protest falls in a forest of silence does it make a sound? What if the whole world is not watching? 

The silence is never complete. The corporate media could not completely ignore half a million people marching on Sunday, and 1,500-plus arrests over the week of protests. We do not know the resonances of our acts. Old men, tucking in their shirts in basement restrooms hear shouts from the streets above. Mothers at home with sick babies, may look down from their windows and catch sight of a banner fluttering by below. Protest—permitted, unpermitted, disruptive, orderly, inclusive and less inclusive—preserves our capacity for audacity. It’s a capacity we will need in full measure no matter who wins in November.  

ô

Yet another player has joined the ranks of would-be East Bay gambling—and though it’s identity remains obscured, the firm’s sales pitch is breathtaking in the promises it implies. 

According to two people polled, the calls began as a traditional election poll. 

“They started out by asking what I thought of (California Senate Majority Leader) Don Perata, (Assemblymember) Loni Hancock, Mayor Bates and the mayor of Albany,” said Berkeley computer consultant Tom Hunt. 

“They wanted to know about how various things would change my mind about casino gambling at Golden Gate Fields,” he said. “They way they put it, Berkeley and Albany would be rolling in cash forever.” 

Hunt was floored when the pollster asked him if it would change his mind about the suggested casino if every graduate of Albany and Berkeley High Schools were given a college scholarship. 

“They were talking about laying out large sums of dollars the same way I’d think about buying a printer cable,” Hunt said. 

“We were contacted by several constituents in both cities and they asked us if we know who was behind it,” said Terri Waller, district coordinator for Assemblymember Hancock. 

Waller declined to speculate on the poll’s sponsors. 

The poll appears to be more than a mere opinion survey. Instead, it smacks of what political operatives call a “push poll,” a pseudo-survey designed to influence opinion rather than merely record it. 

One of Waller’s callers was Merry Silk of Albany, who told the Daily Planet she was called about two weeks ago by the pollster. 

“They said, ‘We’re conducting a poll about the upcoming election,’” Silk said. “They asked what I thought about the mayor of Albany and the mayor of Berkeley. 

“Then they began to ask, in several different ways, would it persuade me to support an Indian Casino at the track if they offered every child in Albany and every child in Berkeley were offered a scholarship.” 

Silk said she was “really irritated because the survey indicated to me that this organization was ready to put a lot of money into ensuring that there’d be as large a development as possible.” 

While Silk doesn’t consider herself a major activist—”I joined the Sierra Club mostly because I was concerned about things going on nationally”—she has two children in Albany public schools and she’s active in the PTA. 

Both Silk and Hunt said the pollsters didn’t say how much the scholarships would pay. 

Waller declined to offer any speculations about who’s funding the polls, but Hunt and Silk suspect the cash came from Magna Entertainment, the Canadian racing and gambling firm that controls the track. The firm hasn’t returned any of the Daily Planet’s calls—either about the regional shopping center they’ve proposed for part of the track site or about the casino poll. 

The two sets of questions—one focusing on a tribal casino and the other not—reflect two parallel current in California gambling. 

Owners of race tracks and card rooms have floated Proposition 68, a ballot initiative that would award slot machine licenses to its sponsors unless each and every Native American casino in California agrees to pay a fourth of their net gambling handle to the state. 

The card rooms and “racinos,” as casinos at race tracks have been termed, authorized by the measure would pay a third of their earnings to the state. 

Polls show Prop 68 trailing badly—meaning that if Magna wants casino gambling, they’d have to find a tribe who would buy the land, apply for reservation status and seek authorization from the Department of the Interior to open a casino on the site. 

Silk said the caller also asked which of the track’s arguments might persuade her to endorse the casino plan, and what arguments from opponents would lead her to reject it. 

She finally hung up after a series of questions asked her age, her race, her religion and her income. The first two she answered, the rest she didn’t. 

“Scary,” she concluded. 

While Magna owns more than twice as many North American racetracks than it’s nearest competitor, the firm hasn’t made money for it’s shareholders. 

The poll comes just as Magna has been going through major management changes and a shift in corporate direction. According to accounts in the Canadian press, Frank Stronach, the Austrian immigrant and friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger who controls the firm, is looking deeper into the casino business. It already has a casino at its Canadian racetrack and is seeking to bring slots into it’s tracks in the U.S. The firm also owns a major Internet gambling site. 

Over the objections of many of the minority shareholders in Magna Entertainment, Stronach wants to buy them out and bring the company under the sole control of Magna International Developments, a spinoff created 13 months ago by Magna International, the Canadian giant built up from the world’s largest auto parts company. 

On Aug. 19 and 20, two well-connected Magna executives stepped down, former Ontario Premier William Davis and Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin—who left within hours of learning that Stronach had hired former General Motors Vic President Mark Hogan as Magna International CEO. 

With Schwarzenegger’s opposition to Proposition 68, the ballot measure sponsored by Stronach and others to install slots at card rooms and tracks, a move to bring in a tribe would be the logical solution. 

Magna’s already announced its intention to building a massive regional shopping center on part of its Golden Gates Fields property, a tactic already implemented at some of its other racing facilities. 

The firm is also building a major racing facility in Dixon in nearby Yolo County that is specially designed for streaming video and simulcasts, leaving the fate of racing at Golden Gate in question since the firm also owns Bay Meadows and getting a racing season is a difficult task.

County education administrators have indicated their intention to certify Berkeley Unified School District’s roughly $90 million budget, ending three years of strict supervision over the cash-strapped school district. 

Alameda Board of Education officials handed a draft certification letter to Superintendent Michele Lawrence at a Monday meeting, district spokesperson Mark Coplan said. An official letter of approval is expected to be delivered at an upcoming school board meeting, he said. 

The district succumbed to county oversight three years ago when its creaky financial systems and ballooning budget deficit nearly sent the district into receivership. During the course of a three-year plan approved by county regulators, the district slashed $12.5 million from its budget. 

The cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, and reduced music and library programs. The district is pushing an $8.3 million parcel tax this November to lower class size and restore funding to music and other programs. 

Coplan said county certification means Berkeley will no longer face oversight from the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). The controversial auditor, appointed to the district as part of a deal brokered by the state legislature, was to have made two additional progress reports. FCMAT was not available to confirm they would cease their work with Berkeley Unified. 

Also, Coplan said, the district would no longer be required to produce three time-consuming interim budget reports for county education officials. 

Superintendent Lawrence has previously warned the school board that although district finances appeared sound for the next two years, structural deficits were projected to return in fiscal year 2007. 

Two major issues come before Berkeley’s land use agencies this week, when the revised municipal landmarks code comes up for consideration by the Planning Commission Wednesday night and the Zoning Adjustment Board conducts its final hearing Thursday on a use permit for the Seagate Building. 

Many in Berkeley’s sizable community of preservationists worry that the measure, which comes before planners during their 7 p.m. meeting in the North Berkeley Civic Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., will weaken the city’s protections for older builders. 

Not all in the pro-development community are all that happy either, and the debate is expected to be lengthy. 

The Seagate Building, a nine-story structure planned for Center Street just west of the Well Fargo Annex building, has drawn some fire as well, stemming from its height—bigger than anything constructed in downtown in recent years—and for the placement of the units reserved for low- and lower-income tenants. 

Civics Arts Commission members blasted the developer, Marin County-based Seagate Properties, for reneging on an agreement to have a city employee in charge of selecting the artworks to display in a public corridor and for giving control of the large ground floor performance space to one already-well-funded theatrical troupe. 

The combination of the inclusionary housing units and the cultural space allowed developers to tack on four more stories than would be normally permitted. 

The ZAB meeting begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the second floor City Council Chamber, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Yet another land use-related meeting is scheduled for the same hour Thursday evening, the West Berkeley Project Area Commission, which will gather in the West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 Sixth St.  

—

“I want a zippered, hooded sweatshirt with the letters SFSU splashed big across the front,” says my friend Corrie. We are in the student bookstore at San Francisco State University shopping for textbooks, but very quickly we have migrated to the other side of the room and are perusing racks and racks of work-out clothes and underwear that sport the logo SFSU in the school colors that, I learn for the first time, are gold and purple. 

“Isn’t that kind of geeky?” I say, glancing over at Corrie nonchalant-like to see if I have made the right response. Since returning to graduate school after a 30-year hiatus, I have become unsure of my sense of fashion, or if, in fact, I ever had one.  

“No,” says Corrie emphatically. “It’s not geeky at all. In fact, it’s kind of cool in a geeky sort of way.” 

“It is?” I ask, pausing between hangers. “I don’t remember it being cool to wear a college logo in 1969. I only wore tie-dye t-shirts and overalls.” 

“Suzy,” says Corrie, “times have changed. Just look at all this stuff with San Francisco State written across it. You need to get with it.” 

Indeed, there is a lot of logo stuff in this store, so much so that it is overwhelming. There are sweatshirts and t-shirts of all shapes and sizes, pants and boxers with SFSU scrawled along the sides, printed around the waistbands and stamped across the buttocks.  

“What about these?” I say to Corrie, holding up a pair of skimpy, slinky gold shorts with SFSU in purple block letters on the behind. “You think you’d look good in these?” 

Corrie squints at the shorts through the lenses of her light blue cat-eye shaped glasses. I remember when those kinds of frames used to be geeky. But now they are cool. I know this because I’ve considered getting myself a pair, though by the time I get around to it they may be uncool. I need help with fashion decisions which is one reason why I have latched on to Corrie. She seems to know the trends. 

“No,” says Corrie seriously, “I wouldn’t look good in them.” 

“But do you think they’re cool or geeky?” I ask.  

“Slutty,” says Corrie. “Definitely the slut look. Which is, of course, cool if you know what I mean.” 

“I thought wearing thong underwear so the waistband shows above your low rider stretch jeans was the slut look,” I say. 

“No,” says Corrie. “That’s a cool look. But only in the U.S. In Europe they are much too cool to do that. They let skinny, multiple bra straps show underneath skimpy tops, but they don’t do that gross thong showing underwear thing. That’s been out of style on the Continent for years.” 

“I’m moving to Europe,” I say. “Wearing thong underwear is definitely overrated. It hurts like hell and I can’t imagine pulling it up around my waist. My god, it would kill me. I’m all for VPLs.” I pause for effect. “That’s short for visible panty line, “ I add. I want Corrie to know that I can be cool when I want to be, but she is no longer paying attention. 

I put the shorts down and continue filing through the racks. We can’t find a size large woman’s zippered, hooded sweatshirt with the logo SFSU on it and we can’t locate a size small men’s sweat of the same design. The men’s sweatshirts are all so big that Corrie would have to put on about 85 pounds in order to fill one out. The woman’s sweats are only in sizes small or x-tra small and cut short so that one’s bellybutton is exposed when wearing them. I haven’t displayed my midriff in public since about 1972, and I don’t intend to now. I decide right then and there not to be sucked into this logo sweatshirt obsession of Corrie’s. 

“I’m going over to the notebook section,” I say to Corrie. “They’ve got these cool books with San Francisco State printed on the cover.” 

“Big time uncool and geeky,” says Corrie under her breath as I walk away, but I ignore her.?

WAR CRIMINALS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The severity of damage to our national reputation caused by the Bush administration still hasn’t been fully comprehended. Our new enemies see Abu Ghraib not only as the chambers of torture imposed by an imperial occupier, they see the sexual humiliation as proof that ours is a culture of perversion. Our violent entertainment, our sex-titillating commercial advertising, and now, the images from Abu Ghraib, represent the reason why our enemies gain members who are willing to die for their cause. They are fighting a war for their cultural survival. 

It doesn’t help our desire to be the “light on the hill,” when official investigations like the Schlessinger report lack the courage to place responsibility where it belongs. While Bush’s strategists, Justice Department lawyers, and Rumsfeld’s memos tacitly encouraged such torture, saying the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply, Schlessinger’s commission was only able to mumble something about “inadequate planning, organization, and accountability.” 

The responsibility lies in the White House. The only way we can redeem the good reputation we think we deserve is to vote these war criminals out of office, and then hold them accountable before the bar of justice. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

EASTSHORE STATE PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the hope that at least one councilmember is minding the store during City Council’s summer break and will read this letter, I would like to know if the council approves of the present, on-going decimation of the meadow in Eastshore State Park, and do you care?  

I was under the impression that since City of Berkeley has final approval on Eastshore State Park plans, the city had rejected the state’s meadow plans after great public outcry; that the meadow would be left as is, intact, as the last wild area in the Eastshore State Park. Was I, and hundreds others, mistaken? 

These state plans, as you may recall, call for four wooden paths starting at the corners of the meadow converging in the center to a “bird sanctuary.” Apparently, the construction of such paths require the clear cutting of the meadow taking place right now. 

These paths, if completed, will greatly multiply foot/bike/blade traffic in the meadow and destroy a great natural habitat. Bye, bye red winged blackbirds, et al. Hello to more of the Disneyfication of the natural. 

A more lasting, positive legacy would be to underground the telephone lines on the north side of the meadow and lay down a new curving blacktop road, replacing the current pothole-ridden road so that scenic views of the meadow, as created, will be accessible to wheelchair users, pram-pushing parents roller bladers, etc. Those improvements, plus removing the concrete blocks in the adjacent inlet, are all that are needed in that area. We have enough of the managed look of nature in our city parks. 

Were those hundreds of us who lobbied to keep the meadow free of further invasion just shined on? I look forward to receiving a clarification of City of Berkeley’s policy for the meadow. 

Maris Arnold 

• 

SHORELINE WILDLIFE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For many years so many of us have enjoyed the wild life in the fields that grew between the boulevard and Frontage Road by the Berkeley Marina, rabbits, snakes, birds of many kinds et cetera, and now it is all being ravaged by development in favor of yet another sterile and boring park that will cost not only to build but to maintain and police. Could someone from the East Bay Regional Parks please tell us why? For whom is this park intended, when so many of us would rather have kept the fields wild? I thought the park system was for preserving wilderness, not eliminating it. 

Peter Najarian 

• 

BERKELEY SCHOOL BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to strongly urge the Berkeley community to support Kalima Rose and Karen Hemphill in the upcoming race for the Berkeley School Board. As a member of the Berkeley High Jacket for the last three years and its editor last year I have attended many School Board meetings as a reporter. My conclusion is simple: This board is not doing enough to address the overwhelming and unacceptable problem of the achievement gap among children in the district. 

Although much lip service is paid to the achievement gap and some admirable efforts have been made, the community needs strong leaders with experience and insight into our district’s most pressing issue serving on the board. Kalima is one of the most active parents in CAS, Berkeley High’s successful pilot small school. Kalima and others recognized the importance of diversity right from the inception of the program and it is one of the only groups at BHS that is intrinsically diverse. Karen would be the only African-American member of our board, lending real diversity to a traditionally homogeneous group. 

Karen also has a lot of experience with school district issues- she is a member of the District Advisory Council, is president of the Washington School Site Council, and is a former BSEP Planning and Oversight Committee member and for the past two year was a member of the Longfellow School Governance Council. 

We cannot afford another term of inaction from our School Board. Year after year our white students excel and our students of color fall through the cracks. Kalima and Karen care about all students in our community and are committed to the vision of a district that affords them all an equal chance at success. Please vote for and support Kalima Rose and Karen Hemphill for Berkeley School Board. 

Peter True 

Berkeley High Graduate, 2004 

Editor, Berkeley High Jacket, 2004 

• 

QUESTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How come we are doomed to multi-storied buildings erupting like poisonous mushrooms all over Berkeley? Who decided New York City was the model we should follow? 

What happened to buildings we could see the tops of? What happened to the zoning people who supported the kind of town we could live with? The town that once had a department store and a deli with seats to accommodate the customers, where did it go? 

In a town where traffic is already hazardous and pedestrians must jump out of the way, why must we fill up every last inch of the territory with endless cars and the people to run them, others to evade them? 

Why do the perpetrators of the multi-story eruptions call themselves developers? Where did our control go? Who pushed the go button? 

Dorothy V. Benson 

If you didn’t watch the Republican National Convention, you didn’t miss much. Most of the convention speakers before the president spoke from the same biased script: Republicans are strong on defense; Democrats are not. Republicans are macho action figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger; Democrats are “girlie-men.” George Bush is resolute; John Kerry waffles. For four days viewers across the nation saw the worst face of partisan politics, an event carefully orchestrated to demean John Kerry and to convince voters that only George Bush could keep them safe. 

After listening to the closing speech of the third day, Dick Cheney’s angry Kerry-bash, independent voters may well have wondered, “Do Republicans think we don’t get it? Do they believe that we have some how missed their core message that Bush is steadfast and Kerry is a flip-flopper?” Some independents may have concluded that the convention was so determinedly negative because Republicans had nothing positive to talk about. 

For this reason, there were high expectations when Bush stepped onto center stage at Madison Square Garden, as it was widely anticipated that he would deliver a positive message, his vision for America. Instead, Bush continued the negative attacks on Kerry and presented not a plan, but a pastiche of doctrinaire conservative ideas and well-worn Bush-campaign themes wrapped in faux patriotism. As the first “MBA President” George Bush should be expected to know what a plan is—a vivid definition of an attractive future that provides the step-by-step details of how we get from here to there.  

In foreign affairs Bush provided no semblance of such a plan. First, he had the nerve to compare our post-war situation in Iraq to our occupation of Germany after World War II, and himself to President Truman. (To paraphrase former Senator Lloyd Bentsen, “I knew Harry Truman, Mr. President, and you’re no Harry Truman.”) He offered the same simplistic prescription for Afghanistan and Iraq: “We will help new leaders to train their armies and move toward elections and get on the path of stability and democracy as quickly as possible,” completely ignoring the anarchy in both. Bush maintained that our “success” in these countries would send “a message of hope” throughout the Middle East. This is not just an inadequate plan, it is a delusion; the failure of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan has spawned terrorists and earned us the dubious status of most-hated nation. 

Bush’s “new” strategy for the war on terrorism is based upon the same arrogant unilateralism that has been a hallmark of his administration. Apparently, Bush and Republicans, in general, have given up on the United Nations, and the idea of coalition building, because it makes them look like “girlie-men.” Real men go it alone. 

For his domestic plan, Bush offered an omelet made of broken promises, old ideas, and new slogans. The cornerstone was once again tax cuts, reframed as “tax relief.” For four years the president has stubbornly argued that no matter what problems faced America, tax cuts were the cure. By now, most Democrats and Independents understand that when Bush talks about tax relief, he actually means “tax inequity”—abandoning the historic American philosophy of tax fairness in favor of tax privileges for the rich and powerful. Bush proposed more tax cuts—masked as tax “incentives” and “credits”—without saying how they would remedy the serious economic problems facing the nation such as loss of three million decent jobs, erosion of worker benefits, and a staggering increase in poverty. 

The Bush “solution” to a crisis where 45 million Americans are without health care was a call for tax cuts for those who purchase their own insurance, an additional tax break to those able to pay for these policies. Of course, what the president did not say was that his proposal would undermine the troubled health-care system as it would give employers another excuse to refuse to pay their share of insurance costs. 

Bush again proposed privatizing Social Security and restructuring educational benefits. (He had the nerve to declare his “No Child Left Behind” program a success when most commentators feel that it has done more harm than good.) In each case this would provide still more privileges for the rich and powerful, and further weaken an important element of the social safety net. It’s ironic that while Bush’s proposed foreign policy emphasizes homeland security, his domestic policy results in homeland insecurity.  

Bush’s speech concluded a convention that will long be remembered for its hubris and hate. Gone was any pretense that the president strives to be “a uniter, not a divider.” Gone was any attempt at civility, any notion of reconciliation across class, culture, or party. The Republican Party, which talks so frequently about values, has adopted the moral philosophy that the ends justify the means; everything is permissible so long as you win. In this mean spirit, Bush is waging a campaign based on patriotic rhetoric, lies about his accomplishments, benefits for the rich and powerful, and negative attacks on did present his plan for America—a demolition plan. 

Berkeley resident Bob Burnett is working on a book about the Christian Right.

For over 20 years, Berkeley law has required developers of new apartment buildings to offer 20 percent of their units at levels affordable to people with lower-than-average incomes. It’s a trade-off with developers (for which they’re handsomely rewarded) to make sure that, as Berkeley develops, poorer people aren’t steadily forced out of the city. That same law requires those units to be evenly dispersed throughout the building, because poor people shouldn’t be sequestered in special poor sections of apartment buildings. 

But in all apartment buildings erected in the last five years, the top levels are free of these affordable units. (When you get in the elevator, don’t press “P” if you’re poor; that button’s for penthouse residents, not for you.) So instead of poor-people ghettos in new apartment buildings, we’ve made poor-people-free zones. How did a city that prides itself most of all on its commitment to fairness end up violating its own laws to segregate its housing stock and keep poor people out of its best (and most heavily city-subsidized) new real estate? 

The tale descends arcanely from the 1989 state law that codified how developers are to be compensated for providing these lower-priced units. Five years ago a big Berkeley developer came to the Berkeley city attorney and complained that we weren’t interpreting that law strictly enough. The city attorney agreed, and wholesale changes were instituted in the project approval process that took away almost all city discretion over project size. (All four-story projects, for instance, have automatically become five-story projects.) In essence, apartment buildings were granted a 25 percent increase in square footage. Furthermore, that increase itself, according to our city attorney’s state-law interpretation, does not generate any further affordable-housing requirement. 

Ten days ago, during a discussion of the composition of units in the proposed Seagate Building (the north side of Center Street just below Shattuck), which at seven stories was so big that it was granted two extra of these “bonus” stories, sharp-eyed commissioner Laurie Capitelli noticed that there were no affordable units marked out for the penthouse floors, as we'd always understood our Code required. City staff explained: “The first five stories are what’s allowed in the Code, the next two are for the Cultural Bonus [we also grant extra stories for space creation deemed to benefit the city culturally, which this building has taken advantage of in an unusual way], and the last two are for state density bonus. That’s why they’re on the top.” 

So the state density bonus units go on the top, which just happens to be the most valuable residential real estate. And then the coup de grace: since the bonus units do not themselves generate any requirement for further affordable units, there shouldn’t be, we were told, any such units on those floors. 

Interpretation layered on top of interpretation, and Berkeley’s law giving the poor some measure of access to new housing has been reshaped to exclude them from the best of it. 

Dave Blake is a long-time member of the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board 



The dozen or so petitioners at Saturday morning’s Sick Plant Clinic at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden brought offerings ranging from dried leaves to big branches: a sheaf of photographs, a pear, a Japanese maple twig, an orchid growing on a bark slab. 

They all had the same questions: What’s wrong with my plant? What can I do about it?  

The implied third question—What did I do wrong?—could give the session a confessional air, but what happens is much jollier. 

Dr. Robert Raabe, UC plant pathologist, and Dr. Nick Mills, UC entomologist, convene a cordial team at the conference center of garden the first Saturday of every month to diagnose plant illnesses and recommend remedies, at no charge, to anyone who walks in with a request and enough information to figure things out. 

The easiest way to ensure that is to take a piece of the poor plant along—in a securely sealed container, please; a zipperlock bag is ideal.  

Last Saturday, Raabe and Mills were joined by plant pathologist and arborist Ann Northrup, Master Gardener Ermadene Tilley, and Liz Waterman of the California Rare Fruit Growers to answer questions and consult. A couple of microscopes were handy, to get a better look at insects and infestations and signs of disease. 

Raabe offered to take one leaf sample home and try to culture whatever was attacking it: to grow out the hidden organism until it showed its identity. He also explained how that works. One of his plant pathology students was attending, and he took the opportunity to educate her and the rest of the crowd on things like the distinction between a sign and a symptom. 

The room quickly filled with chatter, a detectives’ cascade of questions, answers, guesses, refined answers, explanations, and advice. People swapped stories. People showed off interesting flowers as well as what Raabe has been known to call “beautiful examples” of fungus spots or insect damage. People peered through microscopes and flinched. Impromptu, focused anatomy and natural history lessons were given. These folks clearly just like explaining things, and they’re good at it.  

One client wondered aloud if her mystery insect was trying to make lace when it attacked her shrub. Another allowed his caterpillars to pose for photos. The atmosphere was more one of excited discovery and puzzle-solving than sickroom gloom, in spite of the occasional bad news about verticillium wilt. There was, in spite of much opportunity, absolutely no scolding.  

If this were about human medicine, I’d call it “holistic.” Most of the advice given was not about what pesticide to apply but about how to keep the plants happy, because a healthy plant is less susceptible to disease and more able to fight one off. If a sick plant is dosed but the conditions that made it susceptible aren’t changed, chances are it will just get sick again.  

Quite a few examples of plant damage were culture problems, rather than pests or disease: brown-edged leaves were evidence of sunscald or thirst, and sometimes that in turn was caused by soil-mix problems. Plants from Mediterranean climates, unaccustomed to summer water, were dying of fungus infections at the root or crown. (Answer: Plant them in fall and let the winter rains establish them.)  

To keep plants healthy, it helps to know them. Know what they are, where they come from, what conditions they prefer, what they’ll tolerate and how to help them endure unaccustomed conditions. Put them in places where they’ll thrive—sun, shade, clay, gravel. Learn how to plant, water, and fertilize right. If you don’t know, ask! Garden people, whether they’re yard owners, nursery workers, or just mavens, generally like to talk about gardens and plants. Keeping your neighborhood’s ecosystem healthy helps a lot in the long run. An overfertilized monoculture with all the natural predators starved or killed out is an invitation to disease.  

Sometimes plants just get sick anyway. That’s when to consult the Sick Plant Clinic. It happens every month, 9 a.m. to noon, first Saturday, at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive, in the canyon above the stadium. Admission is free (and you can sneak a look at the garden afterwards) but parking in the lot across the road is fifty cents an hour, payable in advance at a machine on the lot. Make an estimate of how long you’ll stay and then double it because the place is too much fun to leave.  

The garden is throwing a plant sale on-site on Sunday, Sept. 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dr. Raabe will be among the experts giving advice there. He’ll have an educational display with plant samples and disease examples, where you can take the first steps toward solving your own problems. 

Most Saturday mornings you can find Marty Schiffenbauer at the counter at Ozzie’s, the venerable soda fountain in the Elmwood Pharmacy at 2900 College Ave. 

“I’m one of the very new customers,” he said. “I’ve only been going there 24 years.” 

Like many Ozzie’s patrons, Schiffenbauer fears the loss of a unique community touchstone as economic realities bear down on the pharmacy and its tenant. 

The charms of Ozzie’s run deep, spanning more than half a century. 

Chuck Gresher discovered a lot of them when he paid his first visit last Wednesday afternoon. 

“I’ve seen it a million times, but I’d never come inside. Today I was hungry and wanted to try something new,” Gresher said. “I’m glad I did. You get simple, good food, and you get to enjoy it in something that pretty much doesn’t exist anymore.” 

“I’ve been coming here for a long time, and it’s an excellent place,” said a woman who asked to be called “just Dawn.” 

The draw? 

“Good food at reasonable prices in a very, very friendly, very, very Berkeley place” is a major attraction, she said. 

Asked to name the eatery’s single best feature, she answered instantly: “Michael.” 

Michael Hogan—“Mike” or “Mikey” to many of the folks who congregate at his counter—knew from the first, when he took over three and a half years ago, that he was stepping into some very big shoes. 

Last of It’s Kind 

Ozzie’s, it seems, is a rare breed, the Bay Area’s last authentic drug store soda fountain around, a neighborhood hangout with a solid crew of patrons, many of them regulars, some going back to Ozzie’s early days. 

“It would be a real loss to the neighborhood to see it go away,” said Dawn.  

But that’s the danger, and Michael Hogan said he is committed to rescuing a venerable Berkeley institution. 

Ozzie’s gets its name from Charles Osborne, the soda fountain’s long-time former proprietor. He first stepped behind the counter in 1950 and gave the place his nickname. 

And there was no doubt it was his place, starting with the picture on the menu: Ozzie wearing his World War II Army Air Force flying gear, standing beside a biplane trainer. Printed next to the photo are words from the most famous of World War II Air Force ballads, “We Live In Fame Or Go Down In Flame.” 

And fame he got, as he piloted British-made Spitfire and American P-51 fighters in five invasion campaigns in the European Theater, downing enough German and Italian fighters in aerial duels to earn the coveted title of ace. 

He didn’t figure on sticking around. Berkeley was just the latest stop in his search for a salubrious environment for his asthmatic son. 

Osborne was looking for something to do when “the place was recommended to me by a friend who worked for Borden Ice Cream,” he said. 

With Osborne’s arrival at the Elmwood Pharmacy, the fountain was transformed from a four-stool narrow affair at the back of the store into a congenial 16-stool counter running the length of the north wall, warmly lit by the store’s big windows. 

And behind the counter, the fearsome aerial warrior proved a compassionate, genial figure who quickly earned a cherished spot in the hearts of his growing ranks of customers. 

Counter-Culture Revolution 

Osborne wasn’t looking to get rich, and his political instincts were as compassionate as his business practices. 

Though he’d never intended to sink his roots into Berkeley soil, “there came a time when I couldn’t envision being anyplace else,” he said. “I’ve never been one to wish for a glut of money, and the prices were always quite reasonable.” 

He and his customers’ lives had merged into a unique community. 

Ozzie’s became “a touch-base for high school kids, for younger kids and for older retired neighbors,” he said. 

As his politics edged Left, Ozzie’s became the meeting spot and petition central for Elmwood activists. 

By 1982 he was serving the grandkids of some of his earlier patrons and had been an honored guest at the weddings of some of their parents. But other faces had vanished as the California real estate bubble drove out many fellow merchants from his earlier days in the Elmwood. 

With word of impossible new rents, the end was in plain view. 

That’s when his regulars became his champions. 

Barbara Lubin was one such regular. 

“Ozzie was the best friend of Barbara’s son, who had Down’s Syndrome,” Marty Schiffenbauer recalled. He became her de facto baby sitter, giving her a reliable, safe, and friendly environment where son was comfortable. 

Lubin circulated a “Save Ozzie’s” petition, gathering signatures form all parts of Berkeley. During a chance encounter Schiffenbauer asked Lubin, “Why not a real petition?” 

A petition to regulate commercial rents.  

Voters supported two landmark initiatives that year, one rescheduling city elections from April to November, the other creating the nation’s first commercial rent control system. 

Before long, “a third of all the businesses on the avenue were sold to their renters,” Osborne recalls. 

Seven years later, a year after the California lawmakers passed legislation outlawing commercial rent control, Osborne called it quits. 

“I’d stayed well beyond my Medicare eligibility,” Osborne, now 84, said. “And one day I just left, just like that.” 

The Pharmacy  

The wood frame structure, with its high ceilings and spacious interiors, went up on the corner of College Avenue and Russell Street in 1921, created by noted Berkeley builder John Bischoff. It’s been a focus of Elmwood neighborhood life ever since. 

Fred Beretta took over the Elmwoord Pharmacy in the building beginning in 1923 and over time developed a friendly competition with the College Avenue Pharmacy, at College and Ashby, run by Charles Carter. Beretta’s son Leslie, who inherited the pharmacy, had an understanding with the Carter family: should one ever decide to sell, they would give the other the first option to buy. 

This happened in 1960, when Beretta decided to sell and Carter packed up his store and moved a block north into the Elmwood Pharmacy. Osborne had been serving sandwiches and milk shakes for a decade already when Carter took over ownership. 

Until last month, Victoria Carter, Charles’ daughter, ran the pharmacy and sundries side. She’d been in charge for 18 years. 

But the pharmacy died last month, when harsh economic realities forced her to close the prescription department. Records went to Elephant Pharmacy on Shattuck Avenue, and today the shelves in Carter’s prescription department are largely empty. 

The Elmwood Pharmacy had struggled in recent years, sapped by the same overwhelming forces that have closed thousands of independents across the country. 

The culprits? Insurance companies and high rents. 

“Pharmacies are the only businesses where a third party dictates what you can make,” Carter said. “They discount you so much that you simply can’t afford to fill a prescription.” 

Carter said “it was very difficult” to close down the pharmacy, and it would be harder to close the store, and with it, Ozzie’s. 

“The store’s been here 83 years, and we like to think it’s been important to the neighborhood. Everyone would like to have it remain, but I’m not sure if that’s feasible.” 

And then there’s the lease, which runs out at the end of the year. 

“This is a very unique neighborhood,” Carter said. “There aren’t many like this in the whole country. Business neighborhood-oriented. We have a bank, a cleaner’s, a theater, a hardware store and other convenience stores. 

“Unfortunately, it’s also very, very expensive.” 

Many of the older business are gone, as the Elmwood becomes ever-trendier place and rents soar, only a unique quota system remains to help the survivors. 

Without more business, Carter said, “the future is very uncertain.”  

The Gentle Optimist 

Three-and-a-half years ago, Ozzie’s had been closed for several months and the regulars were starving for their old haunt. Another regular, Burl Willes—author of Tales of the Elmwood as well as the store history posted at www.ozziesfountain.com—stepped up to the plate. 

Willes was a natural for the task after spearheading the drive to save the Elmwood Theater by creating a self-taxing business district. 

The ideal candidate would be a lot like Ozzie, someone who cared about people, about community, someone who wasn’t out to make a fortune. 

“When he asked me, I said yes,” Hogan said.  

A native of Annapolis, Md., Hogan moved to Pacifica in 1995. “Before, I was a massage therapist, and I did non-profit law work for ten years,” he said. 

But once behind the counter, he discovered his real niche. 

“He’s made it his life,” Schiffenbauer said. “He’s been steadily improving the business, he’s kept up a lot of the traditions, the food is a lot fresher.” 

“I think he’s done very well,” says Osborne. “He tries very hard to keep it open, and he certainly provides an adequate amount of food.” 

“It’s our first time,” said Cory, sitting at the counter with Betty, her mother, last week. “I heard that the sandwiches were great. And as soon as she saw BLT on the menu, my mother had to try it.” 

Asked why no last names were offered, Cory quipped, “We’re celebrities. We’re traveling incognito.” 

So what about their BLTs? 

“Really very good,” Cory said, “and it’s a very nice atmosphere. I like it.” 

Not bad, considering Hogan’s previous experience in the restaurant world had been a brief dishwashing gig at age 14. 

Above the shelves facing Hogan as he works is a row of album covers—all 50’s and early 60’s LPs from artists like Sinatra, Connie Francis, a very young Harry Belafonte, Peggy Lee and Tennessee Ernie Ford. There’s even a favorite and rather ribald party album from 1960, Rusty Warren’s “Knockers Up,” not far from a poster for the cult, camp 1957 flick Reform School Girl. 

He’s particularly fond of the cordless mechanical cash register, which outdates him.  

Ozzie’s Today 

“We’re on this corner near the entrance to the customer parking lot, and people coming to shop walk right by our front door. What’s most amazing to me is the number of people who walk by the corner and stop, slack-jawed,” Hogan said. 

“When they walk in the door, they tell me they’re amazed that a place like this still exists.” 

And what a place. 

Walking for the first time into Hogan’s anyone near Social Security age who lived a childhood in the U.S. confronts an overwhelming sense of deja vu. To be sure, the chairs are cane, not woven wire, and the tables aren’t marble—but the essence was the same.  

The long counter, the cast iron square pedestal stools with the revolving round vinyl cushions, the long counter topped with chrome-plated menu holders that serve as home base for the condiments, the tall glass chrome-topped sugar container and the even taller round glass straw holders, the kind with the straw-lifting chrome lids. 

Rounding out the picture at 3 p.m. on a recent Wednesday afternoon were the customers, filling most of the seats, some munching on sandwiches accompanied by chips and a cup of salad, arrayed with a casual artfulness raises the deja vu tingle to near fever pitch. 

Nearly every seat is taken, and customers are talking, writing, reading and eating—of sipping at ice cold malts and sodas, served up in heavy, stemmed tulip glasses. 

And Hogan finds time to swap smiles and stories as he works on a pair of BLTs. 

To most customers, it’s a instantly familiar place, even to the first time visitor. 

First-time customers are frequent, many of them coming down from the Claremont in search of something different. Of the local first-timers, more and more are becoming regulars. 

What’s Next? 

Learning of the impending changes, Hogan set to work—e-mailing his “counter contingency,” the regulars, asking for thousand dollars apiece as investments in a limited liability corporation that would own the business and pay to make it work. 

Though interest was high, he soon realized he needed a serious feasibility study and specific proposals. That’s what he’s working on now, he said. 

Whatever the plan’s specifics, he knows it’s his customers who’ll save Ozzie’s. 

“They’re great,” he said, offering the warm smile that’s became familiar to his customers. 

“Today we were short-handed when a big family came in. When they say how busy we were, they bused two tables themselves and had a wonderful time. They’re a very loyal and compassionate bunch, and some of them say that if we’re forced out they’ll never shop at whoever replaced us.” 

He’s already got some ideas. 

“I would expand the hours and double the seating capacity with twenty more places, and I’ve always wanted to be open Sunday because there are very few opportunities for breakfast around here and customers keep encouraging me to do it.” 

He hopes to reopen the pharmacy, though cutting back on some of the sundries to open space for seating. 

Pointing to the counter’s Formica top, he said “they’re still making this. And they’re still making the linoleum,” he added, casting his eyes down at the hints of black and white squares still visible in the spaces where they’re not been worn down to the wood by generations of feet. 

Hogan also wants to restore the interior, filling in the gapes of lath, replacing leak-stained ceiling tiles and refinishing the wood. “I want to make it pretty again,” he said. 

Restoration and bringing the cooking area up to full efficiency won’t be cheap. There’s the new freezers needed to hold a reasonable supply of the ice cream that goes into malts, shakes, sodas, sundaes and cones. There’s the stove and vent hood to prepare meals for a doubly large crowd. 

While other parties have shown interest in the building—including one Fourth Street restrateur—Hogan said “I want to be a contender, and with the support of the community, I think we can do it.”  

And one thing’s certain. He’s got a lot of folks pulling for him. 

“I don’t know what I’d do with my Saturday mornings,” Schiffenbauer said, trying to imagine a life without Ozzie’s. “There’d be a big gap in my life, and in the lives of a lot of others.” 

That there’s some reason for hope can be found literally right next door, when the vanished Avenue Books is returning in a new incarnation as Ms. Dalloway’s. 

Forever Ozzie 

Though he’s living in Palo Alto these days, Ozzie Osborne remains in close touch with his band of regulars. He still throws the annual Valentine’s Day party he started in Berkeley 22 years ago. 

“Every year about 40 of us gather. Hardly anyone’s ever missed one,” Osborne says. 

Including Marty Schiffenbauer, who said, “He spends the year collecting the joke gifts he gives out at the party.” 

Another Berkeley regular is carrying on with Osborne’s 4th of July fetes, when the old crowd exchange visits and calls with their long-time patron. 

Though he’s 84 and has suffered some circulatory problems, Osborne’s stays busy. “I love landscaping, and I’m in charge of the grounds of a very large church,” he said. The site covers half a city block. 

As for Ozzie’s, “it was a good lifetime for me. I was able to reach out to a lot of people and get involved in their lives—and they in mine.”  

?

TUESDAY, SEPT. 7 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theatre Lab “The Faith Project” runs Tues. and Wed. at 8 p.m. to Sept. 15 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Free with suggested donation. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Mark P. Fisher “Love for Sale” paintings, opens at Turn of the Century Fine Arts, 2510 San Pablo Ave. and runs to Oct. 20. 849-0950. www.turnofthecenturyfinearts.com 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “The Films of Morgan Fisher” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Richard Clark discusses “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terrorism” at 6 p.m. at Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Campus. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. Tickets are $10. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Mandy Aftel descrbes “Aroma: Recipes for Scented Food and Fragrance” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Edessa & Smyrna Time Machine at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Peter Barshy Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jazz House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Ernestine Anderson at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Also on Wed. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazz School Tuesday with Misturada at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Ninth Annual Yozo Hamaguchi Printmaking Scholarship Awards Exhibition Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Isabelle Percy West Gallery, California College of the Arts, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. Exhibit runs to Sept. 19. www.cca.edu  

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep, “The Secret in the Wings” opens at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. until Oct. 17. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Performance Anxiety: Linda Montano” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Café Poetry at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. 

www.starryplough.com 

Roya Hakakian describes “Journey From the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, Jessie Lee, piano, Garrett McLean, violin, Inning Chen, piano, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Baguette Quartette at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kurt Ribak Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jules Broussard, Ned Boynton and Bing Nathan at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Pat MacDonald, Liam Carey and Paul Panamerenko at 9 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. 524-9220. www.ivyroom.com 

Larry Ochs with Fred Firth, Miya Masaoka and Chris Brown at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested.  

www.thejazzhouse.org 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 9 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Vincent Avalos: Interactive Installations” reception at 6 p.m. at Oakland Box Gallery, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Exhibition runs until Oct. 1. 451-1932. www.oaklandbox.com 

Bill Dallas “Artmatism” reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 409 14th St. Oakland. 465-8928. 

7th International Juried Enamel Exhibition Docent tour at 2 p.m. at the ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

FILM 

“Beautiful Secret: A Tribute to Katy Jurado” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Maurice Pialat: “A nos amours” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ursula Hegi talks about her new novel “Sacred Time” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jennifer Leo, editor, introduces us to “Whose Panties are These? And Other Misadventures” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Luisah Teish and Bayou Heat, stories and videos in the style of New Orleans at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $10. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with Jeremy Morris Siegel and David Gollub at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Odessa Chen, Inca at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

The Serna Band at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jazz Mine at 6:30 p.m. at King Tsin Chinese Restaurant, 1699 Solano Ave. www.jazzmine.net 

Hot Buttered Rum String Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Gini Wilson, solo piano, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Larry Ochs of Rova at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $8-$15. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Jane Monheit at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Also on Fri. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 10 

THEATER 

Alameda Civic Light Opera, “Pippin,” Sept. 10-11, 17-18 at 8 p.m. Sept. 12 and 19 at 2 p.m. Kofman Auditorium, 2220 Central Ave., Alameda. Tickets are $23-$25. 864-2256. www.aclo.com 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Persians” opens at 8 p.m. and runs through Oct. 10. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep, “The Secret in the Wings” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. until Oct. 17. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre, “Fluffy Bunnies in a Field of Daisies” at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid, and runs Thurs.-Sat. through Oct. 2. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “Flower Drum Song,” at 8 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd. Fri.- Sun. to Sept. 12. Tickets are $19-$31. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

Unscripted Theater Company, “The Short and the Long of It,” improv theater, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph, through Oct. 2. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

7th International Juried Enamel Exhibition at the ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Reception 6 to 8 p.m. Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

“Blossoming” the floral works of three local women artists, Jane Magid, Chaya Spector and Karen Mills. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. www.wcrc.org 

“Times of India: The Woman and the Goddess” Reception at 7 p.m. at the Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 981-7546. 

Kei Mizuochi “Silkscreens” Reception for the artist at 6 p.m. at Schurman Fine Art Gallery, 1659 San Pablo Ave. 524-0623. 

FILM 

Maurice Pialat: “The Mouth Agape” at 7:30 p.m. “Police” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema on Washington St., between 9th and 10th Sts. Music at 5 p.m., and film, “Singin’ in the Rain” at 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs and blankets. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

International Literacy Day at 12:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Local authors and adult literacy students will read their poetry, short stories and other works. 981-6299. 

Colin Channer reads from his new collection of stories “Passing Through” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Gary Erickson, founder of Clif Bar, discusses “Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alfredo Muro, Peruvian guitar virtuoso, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Hogan, Emerge perform jazz, latin funk and eclectic in a free concert at 5 p.m. at Baltic Square, behind 121 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. 236-1401. www.pointrichmond.com/music 

Hitomi Oba Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Hot Buttered Rum String Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Vinyl, The People, funk, groove, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Larry Ochs with Fred Firth, Davon Hoff and Miya Masaoka at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Grapefruit Ed and David Gans at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Mimi Fox Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

DJ & Brook at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Mingus Amungus at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Toys That Kill, Rasputin, Bezerk, Rivithead, Stiletta at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 11 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Eyes Opened Wider” Recent panoramic landscapes by photographer Robert Reiter. Reception for the artist from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Oct. 16. 644-1400. 

“Bodyspeak” paintings by Debbie Moore. Reception at 8 p.m. at Loop Gallery, 6436 Telegraph Ave. 590-0040. 

FILM 

“The Battle of Chile” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donations. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Maurice Pialat: “Graduate First” at 7 p.m. and “French Chronicles,” “Early Shorts” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Larry Tye will read from his book “Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class” at 2 p.m. at West Oakland Library, 1801 Adeline St. 238-7352.  

Victor Villaseñor describes his memoir of life in Mexico, “Burro Genius” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque “Cupid’s Arrow” with music by Rameau at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62 available from 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Bobby McFerrin, solo performance at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Zydeco Flames at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Angel Magik at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Larry Ochs, with Fred Firth, Mark Dresser and Miya Masaoka at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Brown Baggin, Low Fat at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Leftover Dreams with Tony Marcus and Patrice Haan at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Frank Jackson Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Tangria at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Fleshies, The Frisk, Scattered Fall, Shadowboxer, in a benefit for Jesse at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

John Schott’s Typical Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Fishbone, Audio Agency at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Wallace Roney Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 12 

FILM 

Maurice Pilat: “The House in the Woods” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Fictitious Marriage” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $2. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Where Do We Go From Here?” a discussion of Southeast Asian cultural legacies in conjunction with the exhibit “California and the Vietnam Era” at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. www.museum.ca.org 

Poetry Flash with Forrest Hamer and Alice Jones at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Shoso-in Treasures: Reconstructing Musical Instruments,” a lecture and demonstration by Toshiro Kido at 1 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

East/West Canvas: “Questioning Beauty” Dance performance by Sue Li Jue at 3 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Concert of Peace with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Peace Chorus and William Corbett-Jones, piano, at 4 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Honoring Fr. Bill O’Donnell and St. Joseph the Worker’s 125th Anniversary. Tickets are $15-$30, reservations suggested. 843-2244. 

Philharmonia Baroque “Cupid’s Arrow” with music by Rameau at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

David Buice, organist, perfroms an all Bach program “Darkness into Light: A Meditation on Chorale Preludes” at 6:10 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. www.stmarksberkeley.org 

La Nina Flamenco with Carola Zertuche, guitarist Jose Valle “Chuscales” and dancer Antonio Granjero, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Music from Japan’s Reigaku and Gagaku: A Living Tradition at 3:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall. Tickets are $28. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Americana Unplugged with Pete Madson at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Deaf Electric, electronic experimental sounds, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Kenny Werner and Peter Barshay in a dinner concert fundraiser for the Jazzschool at 7 p.m. at Downtown. Cost is $60. 649-3810. 

John Stewart, singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, SEPT. 13 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Bella Feldman and Katherine Westerhout, sculpture and photography at the Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St. Exhibition runs until Oct. 29. 622-8190. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

FILM 

“The Motorcycle Diaries” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “The Unsuitable Object of Desire” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free.  

Stephen Ducat discusses “The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars & The Politics of Anxious Masculinity” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express featuring contributors to the “Berkeley Review of Poetry” from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony, featuring Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto, Viviane Hagner, violin, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$49. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Catie Curtis, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jackie King at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

I just finished a collection of natural history essays by Howard Ensign Evans, a retired entomologist in Colorado. One of the pieces, about a meadow where he and his wife had enjoyed songbirds and wildflowers, concludes with this paragraph: 

The meadow is now posted and is becoming a housing development. That, of course, is how essays on environmental subjects usually end. 

He’s right; modern environmental writers are about as cheerful as Richard Thompson. But if doom is our stock in trade, it’s only a reflection of the steady drumbeat of bad news: mass extinction, habitat loss, global warming, West Nile virus, overfishing. Think of all those PBS nature documentaries that end with the sound of the chainsaw. 

But there are times when we have something to celebrate rather than mourn. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a white-tailed kite at the Berkeley Marina, hovering over the field where University Avenue feeds onto Interstate 80. These raptors used to be called “angel hawks”; they’re mostly white, with pale gray wings and black shoulders, and have an ethereal look. The story of the kite is a welcome counter-example—a native species that made it back from the edge of the abyss. 

James Cooper, who published the first major study of our state’s birds in 1870, described the white-tailed kite as “quite abundant in the middle districts of California,” especially in the tule marshes of the Sacramento Valley. That was the case up through the mid-1890s, and then the kite population nosedived. In 1927 Ralph Hoffman, author of the pioneering field guide Birds of the Pacific States, estimated there were “not more than 50 pairs left in California.” 

Five years later Gayle Pickwell described the bird as “probably a dying species.” Joseph Grinnell and Alden Miller confirmed in 1944 that the kite was “rare or entirely gone” from most of its former range. 

What had happened? In part, it seems to be the old familiar story of habitat loss: wetlands drained for farming. Californians shot a lot of kites, too. The birds were unwary and made conspicuous targets. Although kites feed almost exclusively on small rodents, they were believed to prey on quail and ducks as well, and hunters killed them to eliminate the competition. Along with crows, jays, owls, and other hawks, they were targeted in mass hunts sponsored by manufacturers of ammunition. 

Then there were the oologists. Egg-collecting was one of those late-Victorian obsessions (remember Peter Cook’s character in The Wrong Box?) The eggs of the white-tailed kite, considered among the most beautiful of North American birds’, were a particular prize. 

And the increasing scarcity of the kites after the turn of the 20th century only whetted the collectors’ appetites. 

So the kite looked like a goner. But a funny thing happened on the way to extinction. Around the time of the Second World War, birders began to notice an upswing in kite numbers. And the trend continued into the ‘50s, the ‘60s, the ‘70s. White-tailed kites reclaimed much of their lost range in California and pushed north into Oregon, where they had never nested historically. They bounced back in Texas, too, and spread into Central America all the way south to Panama. The kite have had their ups and downs, declining during drought years in the last couple of decades, but they’ve come a long way from Hoffman’s 50 pairs. 

Legal protection, which came in 1905, clearly helped the kite. But this was long before the Endangered Species Act: the white-tailed kite never had a recovery plan, a captive breeding program, a critical habitat designation. In part the bird seems to have been the unintentional beneficiary of man-made changes to the California environment. And it had a set of traits that positioned it for a comeback once the shooting stopped. 

Although conversion to farmland destroyed much of the kite’s original habitat, farmers created something to replace it. Kites eat voles; voles require standing water; and fields that are irrigated year-round are a vole’s paradise. The dependable supply of rodents may have boosted the kites’ breeding success and compensated for natural fluctuations tied to rainfall cycles.  

In a 1971 article in American Birds, Eugene Eisenmann speculated about other factors in the kite’s recovery. Most birds of prey maintain exclusive territories. White-tailed kites, though, are flexible enough to nest in colonies and share hunting grounds when conditions are right. Typical hawks lay two or three eggs and produce only one brood per year; kites have four- or five-egg clutches and are sometimes double-brooded. Rather than occupying the same territory year-round, kites evolved a nomadic lifestyle, going where the voles are. This tendency to wander favored the dispersal of pioneering birds into vacated portions of the species’ range. 

During the white-tailed kite’s rebuilding years, the populations of other raptors—the peregrine falcon, the osprey, the bald eagle—went down the tubes, largely as a result of pesticides like DDT. Eisenmann suggested that the kite may have escaped the worst effects of pesticide contamination by eating low on the food chain. 

Kites eat voles that eat leaves and seeds: two steps from primary producer to predator. Eagles and ospreys, on the other hand, eat big fish that have eaten smaller fish (and so on), accumulating higher levels of toxins in the process. 

Let’s not get too optimistic here: the example of the white-tailed kite doesn’t show that endangered species can make it back from the brink of extinction without human assistance. The kite’s recovery seems to have reflected a unique mix of environmental factors and life-history traits. It was, in short, one lucky bird. And we are lucky as well that we can still see angel hawks from the freeway.m

TUESDAY, SEPT. 7 

An Evening with Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar and author of “Against All Enemies” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Goldman School of Public Policy. Tickets are $5-$10 available from 642-9998.  

“OUTFOXED” a documentary on media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News at 9:15 p.m., 1834 Park Blvd.,Oakland. Free, sponsored by Not in Our Name. 601-8006.  

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. in the Boardroom of the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. The speaker will be Jean Damu who will discuss reparations for damages caused by slavery. 287-8948. 

WriterCoach Connection (formerly Writers’ Room) seeks volunteers for this coming academic year for Berkeley schools. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and on Sept. 14. Other training times available. For information please contact Lynn Mueller at 524-2319 or writercoachconnect@yahoo.com www.writercoachconnection.org 

Family Story Time at the Kensington Branch Library, Tues. evenings at 7 p.m. 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

“Trekking the Himalaya and Beyond” Practical tips for exploring the world on foot with Arlene Blum at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Docent Training at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden every Tues. through Feb. 8 at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $125. To register please send a check to Dr. Glenn Keator, 1455 Catherine Drive, Berkeley, 94702. For more information call 527-9802. www.nativeplants.org 

Kairos Youth Choir Auditions for boys and girls age 7-15. For information call 414-1991. www.kairoschoir.org 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors offered by Stagebridge, at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Classes are held at 10 a.m. Tues.-Fri. For more information call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance sign-up needed 594-5165.  

Creating Economic Opportunities for Women Free orientation meetings for training programs for immigrant and refugee women in English, finance and computer skills. Also on Sept. 9. 655 International Blvd., at 7th Ave., 2nd floor. To register call 879-2949. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush on Tuesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 415-336 8736. dan@redefeatbush.com 

“Heal Your Back, Straighten Your Spine” at 1 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Scuba diver Carl Arnoult will show underwater slides of coral reefs around the world at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672.  

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8 

Wednesday Bird Walk Discover the first of the migrants and help us with the monitoring of the shoreline, at 8:30 a.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline. Turn into the park off Swan Way, follow the drive to the end and meet at the last parking lot by the observation deck. 525-2233. 

Workshop for Candidates and Treasurers offered by the Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950. 

“Fed Up” a film at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Admission is free. Part of the GMOs and Food series sponsored by GMO Free Alameda County. 527-9898. www.gmofreeac.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m., Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Prose Writers’ Workshop An ongoing group focused on issues of craft. Meets Wed. at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Auditions for the new Arlington Children’s Choir will be held between 4 and 6 p.m. at 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Children ages 8-14, who enjoy singing and performing, are invited to participate. For audition time call 843-7745. 

Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Alison Seevak, every second Wed. at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, Edith Stone Room, 1247 Marin Ave. Registration required. 526-3700, ext. 20. 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. 548-0425. 

Rosh Hashanah “The Meeting Point Between Cosmic, Cyclical, Linear and Historical Time” A workshop presented by Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237, ext. 112. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 9 

Berkeley Folk Dancers’ Beginners Class starts and runs for 8 weeks on Thurs. at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, Shattuck at Berryman. Cost is $30. 528-9168. 

East Bay Mac User Group meets at 6 p.m.at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. http://ebmug.org, 

www.expression.edu 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers monthly meeting at 7 p.m at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave., with Kirston Koths on “Fly Fishing in Scotland: In Search of Sea Trout, Brown Trout and the Historical Connection to Scotch Malt Whisky.” 547-8629. 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 10 

International Literacy Day celebrated from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Listen to authors and adult literacy students read their poetry and short stories. 981-6299. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Anne Butterworth, PhD on “Solar Wind Mission.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Gloria La Riva, Cuba solidarity activist and union leader and Richard Becker, co-founder, ANSWER coalition, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Donation $5. 528-5403. 

“The Wild Buffalo of Yellowstone” a discussion with the Buffalo Field Campaign at 7 p.m. at The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema on Washington St., between 9th and 10th Sts. Music at 5 p.m., and film, “Singin’ in the Rain” at 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs and blankets. Sponsored by the City of Oakland and the Old Oakland Historic District. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 652-5324. 

Mandala Circle of Bliss Workshops Fri.-Sun. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento. Cost is $175. To register call 883-0600. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 11 

Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush Marathon Letter-Writing Party from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at The Common Room at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby Street. All materials will be provided. Please bring your own pen. A donation of $5, or more, is requested. For additional information and to RSVP, email bobbie@themmob.com  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Stroll in Miller/Knox Regional Park. Meet at 10 a.m. in the main parking lot of Miller/Knox, off Dornan Drive. For more information call 235-2835. 

Mini Farmers A farm exploration program for children accompanied by an adult. Wear boots and prepare to get dirty. At 9 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3-$5, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Meet My Tarantula and learn that spiders are essential in our world at 1:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Educators Academy: Monarchs in the Classroom from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Coyote Hills Regional Park. You will construct and take home your own rearing cage, complete with milkweed and larvae. For grades K through 5. Fee is $45-$51. Registration required. 636-1684. 

California Natives Learn how natives benefit local wildlife, save water and are attractive additions to your garden at the same time. At 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Responding to Terrorism from 9 a.m. to noon at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/fire/oes.html 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Collecting Good Water Quality Data, a workshop with Dr. Revital Katznelson, Environmental Scientist for the State Water Resources Control Board at Merritt College. Cost is $11. For information call 434-3840.  

Community Sing from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 1216 Solano Ave., Albany. Adults $3, children $2. Sponsored by the Albany YMCA. 525-1130.  

Video Screening of the “Battle of Chile,” Parts 1 & 2, with introductory remarks by author, Roger Burbach at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave.  

Luna Kids Dance Open House with a free parent/child dance class, at 10 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

“Traditional Jewish Teachings on Spiritual Healing” the practice of Mussar with Dr. Alan Morinis at 8:45 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Co-sponsored by Netivot Shalom, Temple Isaiah and Temple Beth Chaim. Cost is $10-$15. To register call 523-7709. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 12 

Solano Avenue Stroll “A Pearl of a Stroll” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany. Parade, entertainment, food, crafts, art and antique cars and Kidtown. 527-5358. www.solanostroll.org 

Butterflies in the Garden Learn how to attract these colorful, delicate insects to your own yard at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Monarch Migration Celebration Learn about these amazing butterflies from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Fire Bush! A fundraiser for America Coming Together sposored by the Potter’s Studio, from noon to 6 p.m. at 637 Cedar St. Art auction, music by the BHS Jazz Combo and the Square Peg String Band, poetry, and a firing of Bush in the kiln at 5 p.m. 527-5268. 

Sunday in the Park Without George A concert and benefit for MoveOnPAC to benefit Kerry/Edwards featuring music by Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal, food and wine, young spoken word performances by semi-finalists of the San Francisco Poetry Slam, MoveOn founders Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, comedian and political satirist Will Durst, and other special guests. From 3 to 7 p.m. in Coventry Grove. Cost is $1,000. For reservations see www.sundayinthepark.org  

Herb Walk in Strawberry Canyon Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Walk lasts about two hours. Cost is $6 to $20 sliding scale. Offered by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org  

Benefit for Habitat for Humanity and Berkeley Food and Housing Project from 2 to 5 p.m. at A New Leaf Gallery, 1286 Gilman St. Wine tasting, live improvisational jazz, food donated by Bay Area restaurants. Cost is $35. 525-7621.  

Appian Creek Clean-Up from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Learn about the program and the trash assessment monitoring tool as we remove harmful trash. Refreshments, tools, and gloves provided. Meet at Appian Creek behind the Boys & Girls Club, 4660 Appian Way in El Sobrante. Youth under 18 years need signed permission from a parent or guardian so please contact us for a waiver in advance. Sponsored by The Watershed Project (formerly Aquatic Outreach Institute). To register or for more information, contact Elizabeth O'Shea, 231-9566 or Elizabeth@thewatershedproject.org 

Picnic for Jewish Families and Friends from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Joaquin Miller Park. Music, magician and raffle. Sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation Young Leadership Division. www.jfed.org/picnicfest 

Rauda Morcos, Palestinian lesbian activist and poet from Kufar Yassif, Israel at 4 p.m. at Middle East Children’s Alliance. 901 Parker St. at 7th St. Donation $7-$20 sliding scale. Sponsored by BAWIB, GenerationFIVE, JFFP, JVP, MECA & QUIT. 548-0542.  

“Is Israel’s Fence Legal or Necessary?” with attorney Ephraim Margolin at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel-Berkeley and the BRJCC. Donation $10. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

Neighborhood Disaster Training for Sante Fe and Gilman Sts. from 9 a.m. to noon. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. To register call 981-5506. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Class Learn how to perform basic repairs on your bike, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $85 REI members, $100 others. Registration required. 527-4140. 

South Asian Bookclub meets to discuss “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabakov at 11:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Huston Smith will speak at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Part of the Personal Theology Seminars. 525-0302.  

“The Wisdom of Chakras” at 3 p.m. at Alaya’s, The Shaman Store, 1713 University Ave. Donations requested. 548-4701. 

“Breema: The Art of Being Present” Open House with Jon Schreiber at the Breema Center 6076 Claremont Ave., at College. Call to schedule first-time Breema bodywork sessions 5:30-6:30, or attend the class at 7 p.m. 428-0937. www.breema.com 

“Dreamtime Rituals” a lecture by author/ritualist Antero Alli at 6 p.m. at Premalaya Books, 1713 University Ave., near McGee. 548-4701. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 13 

Reclaim Democracy with Joan Blades, Patricia Ellsberg and Ronnie Gilbert at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

Berkeley Community Garden Meeting at 6 p.m. at Spiral Gardens, 2838 Sacramento St. at Oregon. Potluck dinner and speaker, Rosalie Fanshel on “Growing our own Medicine.” 883-9096. 

Reportback on Haiti at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita. Please bring snacks and drinks to share. 644-1937. 

Afterschool Center providing tutoring and support for Berkeley students age 5 to 14 at 1255 Alston Way. Cost is $20 per week. Sponsored by Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 845-9066. 

Great Popular Fiction Bookgroup meets to discuss “Sandstorm” by James Rollins at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra rehearsals begin at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing at Dana. No auditions, all welcome. 964-0665. www.bcco.org 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call 601-4040, ext. 109.  

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. 524-9122. 

“Ulysses” Discussion Book Group at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. We will meet every Monday night and hope to finish by Bloomsday 2005. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on Disability meets Wed., Sept. 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Sept. 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Sept. 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Sept. 8, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thurs., Sept. 9, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation 

Community Health Commission meets Thurs, Sept. 9, at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. The Commission is interested in hearing from Berkeley residents about the health issues that are important to them, their families, and their neighborhoods. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/health 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 9, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 9, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Sept. 9, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning  ª

It’s hard to believe that it’s been only three years since Saudi Muslim extremists commandeered commercial aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What was before September 11, 2001, a small fire fanned by a few fanatics has become a firestorm which threatens to engulf the world. The historic willingness of human beings to kill and be killed for a religious ideology has been demonstrated again and again since 9/11, most recently in the appalling occurrences in North Ossetia, now part of Russia, where men and (most tragically) women were willing to kill defenseless children who had done nothing to harm them, in support of an abstraction which is essentially meaningless to non-believers.  

The Bush regime has supplied the gasoline for the conflagration. Iraq has been transformed from an admittedly vicious secular dictatorship, a pariah state even for religious fanatics, into a spawning ground for more fanaticism and inter-sect warfare which imminently threatens to spread beyond its borders. And while the U.S. has been preoccupied in Iraq, religious militants of every stripe have been actively recruiting elsewhere, including Chechinya, the Phillipines and Indonesia. Some originally secular nationalist movements whose militants came from an Islamic background, like Chechins and Palestinians, are being captured by religious extremists who are even more dangerous because their beliefs allow recruiting for suicide missions with the promise of an after-life to follow.  

People who are not religious have difficulty understanding how religion turns to fanaticism. Here in Berkeley the resurgent Christian right seems just about as alien to non-believers from a Christian cultural background as Islamic fundamentalism does.  

And it’s not only the monotheistic religions with roots in the desert which have bloodthirsty adherents. Hindus, Native Americans, African animists … if you can name a group, any group, it’s probably had members who have been willing to kill for belief. 

Religion does not have a monopoly on ideological fanatics, of course. Atrocities have been committed on behalf of secular beliefs ever since the Enlightenment at least: by the French Revolution and its progeny, during the Spanish Civil War, under Stalin and many other Communists, by Saddam and the Baathists in Iraq…the list is long and getting longer. Killing for the cause is part of the human gene pool, a curse which other species have been spared. 

Is there anything we can do about it? Dedicated believers have always attempted to restrain the extreme elements in their group, with varying amounts of success. Lysistrata recounts the attempt by Athenian women to stop a war with Sparta. Christian believers were the earliest and most persistent opponents of the war in Vietnam, and the Pope condemned the invasion of Iraq. Both religious and non-religious people from the world Jewish community have spoken out for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine. It is heartening to see the launch of Not in the Name of Islam in the United States, and the voices against extremism in the French Muslim community. As long as humans have lived on the earth, good people have always had to struggle with the killer instinct in their midst.  

Sometimes, as when footage of the tragedy in Russia is shown on television, it’s tempting to believe that this struggle can’t be won. And in truth it is the fate of humans to need constantly to push back the dark side of our inheritance. Many belief systems have stories about this aspect of the human condition. Christian theology calls the persistence of evil among humans Original Sin, and dates it back to the first humans on earth. The ancient Greeks had the myth of Sisyphus, condemned to rolling a rock uphill, else it would roll back and crush him. That’s where we are today as humans, rolling that rock up the hill. As hard as it is to continue to push back against those who want to kill for their cause, we’ve just got to keep doing it, all of us, or we’ll be crushed.  

—

Last Friday night after work I went down to Orchard Supply Hardware to buy a couple of small items. (Only chain stores are open on Friday nights in Berkeley.) As I was driving back up Ashby Avenue on my way home, I saw a white van marked “Crime Scene Unit” parked on the southeast corner of Ashby and California. There were three or four Berkeley police cars parked on the north side of Ashby, and I saw several police officers. Since that’s a neighborhood which has had several shootings in the last year, I wondered what might be going on.  

I turned left at the next corner and went around the block to come south on California Street, where I saw three or more additional police cars parked at the corner and more officers. I pulled up alongside one of the officers who were standing in the street and asked him what was going on. “Why do you want to know?” he asked. I told him that I’m with the Daily Planet, and that I thought that something newsworthy might have happened. “Why should you think that?” he said. Because of the number of police present, I said.  

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he said. “Rubbernecking, holding up traffic like this, it’s a serious breach of decorum.” I looked in my rearview mirror back along California Street—no one behind me, no one held up.  

Perhaps he hadn’t heard me say that I was with the press? I tried again. I stuck my hand out the window, shook his hand (much to his discomfort), told him my name and my job, and asked him what his name and badge number were. “Officer Jim __________, Badge 114.” he muttered. I couldn’t hear his last name, something ending in “I,” but I was afraid to annoy him by asking again. I fumbled around in my purse for a card, but he didn’t want it, wasn’t interested. He asked what right I had to ask what was going on. I hazarded an answer, knowing it would not make him happy: “The people’s right to know?” Hands on hips, he frowned again. 

By this time a younger officer had come up behind him and was trying to get his attention, saying he needed to talk to him about something. It was pretty obvious that the junior guy, who had arrived on a bicycle, was nervous about Officer Jim’s belligerent behavior, but O.J. refused to be distracted.  

“What are you doing here?” he said. I told him that I worked nearby, and lived on Ashby, and that I was on my way home. “This is my neighborhood, and I haven’t seen you at any neighborhood meetings,” he said in a challenging tone of voice. Finally, grudgingly, with an eye on the junior guy listening, Officer Jim said, “What if I told you there was a traffic accident?” 

By this time there was another car waiting behind me, and I figured that was the best I was going to do, so I left. When I got home, I called the police non-emergency number, and was told that there had indeed been an accident on that corner.  

Why did Officer Jim feel such a strong need to be gratuitously rude to a citizen who stopped to ask a question? O.J. was hostile to me even before he found out that I am connected with the press, which would not have been an excuse for rudeness anyway. 

I’m not exactly threatening looking: a middle-aged somewhat frazzled-looking plump woman driving a granny van.  

He couldn’t have been too busy, given that there were a minimum of six cars with attendant personnel, plus the crime scene unit, available to take care of the traffic accident, if that’s what it was. By the time I got there, I didn’t see any dented cars, obvious victims or ambulances, though they may have been there earlier. The officers I saw were just standing around. 

So why couldn’t he just politely answer my polite question? “What’s happening?” “There’s been a traffic accident.” Thanks and goodbye. Simple, but obviously too challenging for Berkeley’s finest.  

I remembered a letter the Planet received a while back from a citizen who was unwilling to have it printed because of fear of reprisals. He said: 

“Public safety workers are rapidly becoming the new aristocracy of labor. Police and fire salaries and benefit costs are soaring and are taking an increasing chunk of General Fund money. This is leading to proposals for parcel taxes to fund things that are getting squeezed out by the growth in public safety and other public employee costs. But the City Council should not expect the voters to be sympathetic to calls for new parcel taxes until they deal with the underlying cause of the city’s budget problem which is excessive municipal employee wage and benefit increases.” 

He backed up his analysis with credible facts and figures, too many to include here. One comparision: “ ….if no changes are made in the police contract, the starting salary for a rookie police officer will be almost double the starting salary of a teacher who just got a credential. Right now, the starting salary of the lowest paid cop is at least 168 percent of that of the lowest paid teacher with a credential. Teachers with emergency credentials are paid even less.” I thought of a recent story: the police chief will soon be retiring at 55 with a lifetime pension of about $150,000 a year.  

We get frequent complaints from readers about how hard it is to get police attention for drug dealing, prostitution and other crime problems, particularly in south and west Berkeley. But it’s not as if we’re tying the hands of the law—our paper and others have reported that most if not all Police Review Commission decisions about inappropriate police behavior are now overturned by the police department’s internal affairs office. Bottom line, the popular perception is that Berkeley police manage to combine ineffectiveness with hostile and belligerent behavior toward innocent citizens, and that they’re grossly overpaid.  

In the City Council election campaign now underway, this is a situation the candidates should be addressing. Comment from incumbent councilmembers, from the city manager’s office and even from the mayor would also be welcome. Voters are right now making up their minds about the parcel tax, and they’d like to know what’s going to be done about the police. 

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