Opinion

Wow. Last time we checked, we had more than 9,000 words of letters in the queue, at a point where we would usually expect to have about 2,000, and that doesn’t include letters from out of town, which we don’t usually print. And it doesn’t include long commentary pieces. We have amazing readers, and they keep those letters coming. Most, though not all, are writing about the upcoming election these days. We’ll try to find room by adding extra opinion inches over and above what the advertising volume would normally permit. -more-

This week Berkeley is remembering the grand excitement of the Free Speech Movement, at a time, 40 years later, when a sizable number of movement veterans are still around to reminisce. I wasn’t here in 1964 myself, so what’s entertaining for me is finding out which of my current friends and acquaintances who still live here took part in the action, considering who they are now. Landlords, teachers, corporate lobbyists, lawyers, stock market investors, gardeners, small business owners, farmers, political organizers, librarians…their jobs, if they still have them, run the gamut, as do their experiences over the last 40 years. What was remarkable about the FSM is that it swept up a broad cross-section of students who understood that it was a bad idea for a state university to ban free expression of ideas from its campus. -more-