Features

VOTING MOTIVES 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Maybe I was naively uninformed, but I didn’t know that Karen Hemphill was African-American (Rivera, Selawsky Appear to Hold on to School Board Seats,” Daily Planet, Nov. 5-8). I hope she runs again. Next time it should be without a campaign manager who attributes anti-African-American motives to a portion of us voters who supported a different candidate. 

Bob Gable 

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ADDRESSING THE FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that the inevitable epithets and marginalizing has occurred perhaps we can address the facts. On behalf of the South Berkeley Crime Prevention Council, others and myself made numerous contacts with the Drop-in Center and City staff months before I considered entering the race for District 3. As usual, we were trying to resolve issues before they got worse and prevent crime and violence in our community. 

Let’s be perfectly clear, I never stated a position on homeless services. What I did illustrate was the error of only using anecdotal evidence as opposed to thorough assessment of all competing interest and program effectiveness in the allocation of public funds. I also commented on obvious inequities between South Berkeley and the rest of the city. 

Contrary to Sally Zinman statements in her letter defending the Drop-in Center, I spoke with her face-to face at the City Council meeting she refers to. In the spring, I discussed the lack of oversight of this nonprofit with directors of Berkeley Mental Health departments. I also dialoged with Drop-in Center volunteers at the South Berkeley Budget Forum when they advocated for refunding, the same volunteers who publicly admitted they needed police help to keep out the dealers from ducking into the Center to avoid detection. These overtures mostly fell on deaf ears, and this summer we saw increased crime and violence along Adeline. 

Why is it that Ms. Zinman cannot be fair and admit the Center has failed to maintain good relations with their neighbors, sufficiently supervise their operations or comply with the conditions of their use permit? Agreements made 10 years ago specifically to avoid this kind of disregard. 

Why is it that compassion is not a two-way street, that arrogance and name-calling is the standard for civic engagement in Berkeley? This tactics are central to the dysfunction of our city politics. 

Get beyond it and get real! 

Laura Menard 

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ABSENTEE BALLOTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The absentee ballots that we requested well before the deadline did not arrive by Oct. 29. We were leaving town for five days so we went down to Berkeley City Hall on the 29th to vote because we have cast ballots there before. We were very surprised to learn that we could not vote at City Hall. We were given a slip of paper that gave us driving instructions via the freeway to the Alameda County Courthouse on Oakland’s Lake Merritt. No instructions for public transportation were offered. Berkeley promotes the use of public transportation and its access facilities cause many differently abled people, elderly people and students to reside in Berkeley and use public transportation. I wonder how many people who rely on public transport were unable to vote and I wonder who made the decision to require Berkeley citizens to travel to Oakland to cast a ballot? We were told by the Alameda County Registrars Office on the 29th that our ballots had been mailed on Friday, Oct. 29, but we were allowed to vote a full regular ballot on a court house machine rather than a provisional partial ballot. The absentee ballots were not in our mailbox when we returned to Berkeley on Nov. 3. I wonder if they will ever arrive? I trust that the Daily Planet will urge the Berkeley City Council to work on behalf of Berkeley citizens to be certain that we can cast ballots in Berkeley. 

Sally Williams 

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RAISING MORALE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I cannot refrain from thanking Becky O’Malley, and profusely so, for her brilliant piece “Second Guessing the Voters Again” (Daily Planet, Nov. 5-8). Nothing has helped more to raise my battered morale after the recent election: She has razor-sharp understanding and a sense of humor to boot. May the Daily Planet enjoy a long and vigorous life!  

Bruce Nalezny 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have not seen Becky O’Malley this animated in her contributions in a long time. Unfortunately her opinion of “we are smarter than you” thing does not cut it. There is good reason why our system works not just for Berkeley but for the whole country whose aggregate wisdom I personally trust more than our provincial interests. On another asides Doug is actually right about these Diebold ballot systems. Being a programmer I cannot see how we can have absolute transparency unless we have access to the source code in the gizmos. 

Steve Pardee 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to respond to Nancy Feinstein’s commentary “Defeat of Tax Measures Favors Individuals, Not Common Good (Daily Planet, Nov. 5-8).”  

First, I think she should not assume everyone who voted against Measures J,K,L do not care about our community and social services. I am so appreciate to live in a city that cares about the disabled, the environment, and social services that I don’t mind supporting our community services through my property taxes each year. I actually voted for some of the measures but what motivated me to draw the line and say no to others was finances. Maybe Nancy needs to expand her mind and take a look at what is going on in this city. It is so expensive to live here! I want to keep my house and continue to live in Berkeley. I don’t think our council fully appreciates the fact that people of color are leaving this city because they cannot afford to live here, a large population lives on fixed incomes, and some seniors are losing their homes. If council has to make hard decisions on the budget-good! To hit up Berkeley residents time and again for money is irresponsible. We elect our councilmembers to handle tough issues not pass the buck-literally! 

T. Michai Freeman 

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Editors, Daily Planet:  

Nancy Feinstein condemns the “no new tax” votes of “business owners, professionals and whoever else trying to make a living in whatever ways they do”. 

I am one of those “whoever else” people. I live in Berkeley, pay property taxes in Berkeley, and have raised two sons in Berkeley. I am also a BASTA! volunteer, who cares about services, schools and libraries. None of the above makes me uncaring or (God forbid!) a Republican. 

Instead, I and others understood the issues at hand. We want to be able to see our grown children stay in a city that has become more and more unfriendly to homeowners. I laud the response that other Berkeley citizens showed at the polls, and will continue to fight irresponsible government. 

As for the libraries: of course they are important, but if Ms. Feinstein would look at the numbers she would see that they are among the most generously funded of all city programs, but still are unable to live within their means.  

The band of BASTA! volunteers was outspent by the Mayor and his friends 7:1. Yet, the taxpayers understood the truth of our message. They are sick and tired of irresponsible wage/benefit packages, and 51+ commissions that continue to have staff, but serve little or no purpose. What we must now do is convince the mayor and council that it can no longer be business as usual. To this end, we must all work together. 

Miriam Wilson  

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Are the Berkeley citizens who voted no on the local tax measures selfish neo-Bushies as Nancy Feinstein who have it or sophisticated city budget watchers as Barbara Gilbert believes (“City’s Failed Tax Measures: Mourning Vs. Morning After,” Daily Planet, Nov 5-8)? I would propose a third category: the practical bill-payers. To parse this further, there’s the homeowner who just paid the county property tax and wonders how to manage the rest of her obligations. Then there’s the property owner who still has the bill on his desk and wonders how to pay it before the penalty deadline of Dec. 10 and the tenants who know that tax increases will be passed on to them. 

In this recession, people are strapped for cash: low wage earners, the unemployed, the retired, the part-timers, the sick and disabled. And guess what, such working class folk and people on fixed incomes actually own property in Berkeley. Wealthier owners who bought their houses at more recent higher prices and thought they could afford the mortgage have discovered the added expenses of property maintenance. 

I would submit that people voted no simply to control the spending side of their household budgets, and that’s neither selfish nor sophisticated, it’s responsible. 

Toni Mester 

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HONORING BROWER AND THE EARTH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently heard that the Berkeley Arts Commission voted in favor of the sculpture that was made as a memorial to David Brower. I’m glad that the sculpture will be in Berkeley since this is where Brower lived and worked for so many years.  

I haven’t seen the sculpture but know that its basically is a huge globe, (45 feet in diameter), with a figure of Brower walking over it. Besides its size, it seems that the design has stirred up some controversy because the figure meant to be Brower can be interpreted as a white man setting out to dominate the world, rather than protect its fragile natural elements. An alternative offered by the artist, is to have Brower sitting on a bench looking at the world.  

While I think the bench alternative is an improvement, I’d like to suggest a third alternative that I think David Brower would be likely to have approved of. My suggestion is to leave the human figure out of the sculpture all together. Brower worked hard over his long life because he loved, and cared for the Earth. What better memorial could there be to him than to honor the Earth by showing it as a simple and beautiful globe, with his name and something about his dedicated work, inscribed on a memorial plaque?  

I think Brower might see a human figure, no matter where the placement, as out of scale next to the globe of the Earth. While it seems that the world is getting smaller and smaller because of our human technical abilities, in part it is still the experience of contrast in physical scale between the Earth and one individual human that allows us to feel the awesome power and beauty of nature that Brower loved so much.  

Fran Segal  

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MANDATE ME NOT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fifty-one percent Bush/Cheney. Forty-eight percent Kerry/Edwards. An election too close to call till the morning after. One hundred fifty thousand Ohio votes away from President Kerry. Despite these slim margins and a deeply divided electorate, President Bush maintains he has a mandate and has earned “political capital” which he intends to “spend.” Excuse me, but a 3 percent margin of victory does not a mandate make. Nor does it provide a blank check to steamroll radical right political and moral agendas through Congress and into the classrooms, living rooms, bedrooms and wombs of everyday Americans. Bush clearly intends to do so, and unless we, the 48 percent who opposed Bush, remain vigilant and continue the struggle, there will be little political will in Washington to stop him from injecting religious fervor into legislation. This will result in a society where beliefs are dictated by Biblically backed laws and one’s moral decisions usurped by legislation mirroring religious doctrines. The foundations of this country (personal choice, dissent, and tolerance for differences) are under attack and, for the sake of our individual freedoms, I hope we do not let our energies of passionate opposition dissipate into contented acceptance of an election lost. 

Shu-Jon Mao 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Kenyon’s article on viewless apartments and the huge effect Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests is having on transforming Berkeley’s downtown and near-downtown served to remind me of how deeply Kennedy’s work and influence offends me for another reason (“Viewless Apartments Mar Buildings of Distinction,” Daily Planet, Nov. 5-8). 

I was not aware of the issue of viewlessness. But I have been particularly angered at his method of winning approval by holding out the promise of arts venues incorporated into some of his buildings, while finally offering unimproved raw concrete space that cash-starved arts groups could never afford to develop and use. 

I am forced by the location of the latest outrage, the Fine Arts Building on lower Shattuck, to walk, drive or bike by it several times a week and it positively makes me seethe! Some find the architecture itself or the building’s pistachio and stainless steel facade reason enough to dislike it. But for me the problem lies in the cruel irony of its “suggestion” of a cinema tower on the corner and—far worse!—an actual marquee...used to advertise vacancies, not upcoming movies! (Kennedy had, of course, at the outset of the project promised a new theater, art gallery, etc., and evidently managed to convince Keith Arnold, the proprietor of the movie house, not to oppose his plans.) 

Readers of the Daily Planet may recall an article this July by Richard Brenneman on the “death of the Fine Arts Cinema” which by then had been acknowledged as inevitable. He quoted Leslie Landberg (daughter of the original Fine Arts Cinema’s co-founder): “Anyone who crunched the numbers would’ve realized it wouldn’t work....It’s the same thing that happened with the Shotgun Players and the Gaia Building. Kennedy just uses these people for PR, then puts them over a barrel to say, ‘this is a done deal’. But somehow it never is.” 

I don’t know if he got any density bonuses for the Fine Arts, the way he did with the Gaia. I sure hope not. The only thing of which I am sure is that he’s making out like the proverbial bandit—and our community is left robbed of arts space that could have been or, even more bittersweet, was and will never be again. 

And to add insult to injury: we’ll live for the life of the building with the symbol of what we lost. 

Is this guy a piece of work, or what? 

Donna Mickleson 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ken Bullock’s review of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, performed by the Berkeley Repertory Theater, while certainly well-written, makes an ironic and critical mistake. The well-researched review misses the many compelling and emotionally engaging meanings of the play. According to Tony Taccone, Artistic Director of the BRT, Sarah Ruhl’s work “say(s) something about the world we live in” “through metaphor.” This magical synthesis of set, lighting, script and direction (as well as the strong presence of the cast), delivered an innovative transformation from classic to essential contemporary theater experience. 

By shifting the center of this classic tale to from Orpheus (musician who is driven to reunite with his dead lover) to Eurydice (a clever woman with a cherished deceased father), Ruhl gives us a version that is both surprising and heart warming. Not old-school feminism at all, but rather a Neo-feminist rendition, the play extends to its audience a refreshing tenderness and creative devotion between daughter and father. This critical human relationship, depicted so well through Sarah’s delicate language, is expressed with great eloquence through the simple metaphors of water, light, rebirth and death.  

Eurydice (Maria Dizzia) is eased into the underworld through the breaking of silence, the telling of stories and the “creation of a spiritual home ” by her father (Charles Shaw Robinson). The Father enters the world of the silent stones in a ritualized suicide after her disappearance from the Underworld. As Eurydice duplicates this sad choice, the enduring devotion between parent and adult-child hangs in the air of the shimmering set. The aqua light, the sound and sight of water both amplifies and comforts our grief for them.  

But there is more! So much more that sadly Bullock’s review missed: the charming allure of the Nasty Interesting & Lord of the Underworld whom Eurydice tricks and escapes not once but twice! And the subtle failure of her relationship and marriage to Orpheus to inspire a strong and enduring connection.  

By expecting that the play have the same emphasis as the many renditions Bullock so tediously recounts in his review, Mr. Bullock’s eye was perhaps a bit dull and insensitive to the many meanings of this innovative and enjoyable work of theater.  

Michelle T. Clinton 

Richmond 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

It seems the Daily Planet failed in “Covering the [Entire] World of Berkeley” in its post-election edition, particularly in Becky O’Malley’s editorial. Hard as it may be to stomach, there are actually those of us in Berkeley who are proud, delighted, and relieved that President Bush was elected * again. We’re not evil right wing religious zealots (a neighbor’s definition). We’re not stupid backwoods rednecks. We’re not war mongers, homophobes, or oil barons. And we’re not geographically misplaced voters. We are, in fact, Berkeley natives (i.e., “indigenous peoples”). Some of us attend church, some of us don’t. We are products of Berkeley’s public and parochial schools; we even attended UC Berkeley. We are old, young, and middle-aged. We are Democrats and Republicans. 

Our views of life and the world and our place in them (i.e., our “phony moral values,” according to Ms. O’Malley) are as sacred to us as the “real” moral values spewed at us for the past 40 years on Berkeley’s streets, from its church pulpits, in our schools, on the campus, and in publications like the Planet. We’ve listened, we’ve discussed, we’ve been patient, we’ve fought back. Our views, tested through time and experience, have remained precious to us, even through repeated personal and public ridicule and condemnation by those among us who claim moral, intellectual, social, and religious superiority as well as a monopoly on practicing tolerance and understanding justice.  

Believe it or not, Ms. O’Malley, some of us are even stupid enough to prefer Disneyland to the annual embarrassment of the How Berkeley Can You Be parade. 

Congratulations on a second term, Mr. Bush! 

Jeanne Gray Loughman 

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AMERICA WON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush is truly a great leader. We will be safe for the next four years with Bush leading the way to world peace. 

The liberals, the United Nations, and the Europeans are crying because Bush will not allow any of them to veto our ability to fight for freedom and liberty. 

Long live President Bush! 

Sidney Steinberg 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

There’s the little business of the presidential election process itself. It entailed a lack of a paper trail, screens that incorrectly recorded votes for a different candidate, systems crashing, inadequate staffing (for just one day!), absentee forms disappearing or not delivered, Diebold’s statement that he’d do anything to elect Bush, continued disenfranchisement, and numerous other “voter irregularities.” It adds up to a more finessed effort than in 2000 with the same result.  

Consider this: A national movement to pledge to boycott the 2008 presidential election until and unless the election process is cleaned up. At this point, there’s nothing left to lose. Consider not cooperating with the corruption of a democratic bedrock. More than anything, the government needs the façade of democracy. That façade can be challenged by a time honored nonviolent action, the boycott.  

Let’s take heart from Native Americans and African Americans, among others, who fight on despite all odds.  

Maris Arnold  

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the barrage of last minute get out the vote ‘robo-calls’ —from Loni Hancock, Barbara Lee, Eli Paraiser of MoveOn.org, etc.—definitely the strangest was the recording from Jerry Brown warning me of the 25,000 criminals that would be released from prison if the moderate three-strikes rollback, Prop. 66, were passed. (I’ve read elsewhere that this was false.) How far we’ve come when our own “Gov. Moonbeam”, who’s father stood against the death penalty at the risk of losing his own governorship, which he did, and who supposedly represents our enlightened California mindset, could come this far. Joining Arnold and former Gov. Pete Wilson, he helped defeat this attempt to correct the excesses of three-strikes. How sad. He must be running for some new office, possibly attorney general? 

Chris Gilbert 

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