Features

HEALTH CARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In recent years, many Californians have been gouged by exorbitant hospital bills, especially those resulting from emergency room visits. Consequently, many of the uninsured avoid going to the hospital out of fear of the final price tag. In the effort to address such a serious issue, I am currently sponsoring Assembly Bill 774, which will place limits on the amount that hospitals can charge their uninsured patients. 

In order to better understand the scope of this problem, I am encouraging residents to share their stories. If you readers have been overcharged because of lack of insurance, and are facing over $10,000 in debt or even bankruptcy as a consequence, please have them contact my office at 286-1670, ext. 23. Their input will make a difference! 

Wilma Chan 

Assemblywoman, 16th District 

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LIBRARY MEETING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regard to the Berkeley Public Library Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, March 9, why was a meeting of such interest to the community held at the South Branch, a building with very limited space, instead of at the newly remodeled Berkeley Public Library Central building?  

The citizens of the City of Berkeley paid for this building. What could be a more appropriate use for its new meeting spaces than a meeting which directly concerns the library and the community that uses it? Choosing the South Branch location instead suggests a desire on someone’s part to limit participation and attendance at the meeting. Whose decision was this? 

Shirley Stuart 

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ANGEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A message for Pat McCullough: Hurray for your continuing effort to aide our community. We need more heroes like you. Your heartfelt spirit, your time and energy hopefully will inspire others to follow in your footsteps. There are angels in all of us and you are the chosen one. 

Anna Marie 

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CLASS SIZE REDUCTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a parent of two children in the Berkeley public school system, I was confused when I read what Michelle Lawrence , superintendent wrote in regards to class size reduction, Measure B and the teachers action of work to rule (Daily Planet, March 1). For, according to the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, one of the issues of contention as laid forth in a flyer distributed to parents within the last few weeks, is also one of class size reduction. According to this flyer, “The board intends to: refuse to commit to reasonable class size limits, despite the BSEP/Measure B parcel taxes.” 

At first glance, I wondered what the problem could be. It seemed like both sides are in agreement, for Michele Lawrence, speaking for the district says, “ … the district is committed to the class size ratios we promised in Measure B. The class size averages will be 20:1 in grades K-3, 26:1 in grades 4-5, and 28:1 in grades 6-12.” 

Now, after reading between the lines, I have come to wonder if the sticking point on this issue might be that the district is speaking about averages (throughout the district), and that the teachers are speaking about fixed class size numbers for each and every class. For example, I am wondering if what the district is currently proposing would allow them to have a fifth grade of 30 students in one school, as long as there were less children in another fifth grade anywhere in the district, as long as it averaged out to 26 children. However, I am not in the know on this issue, and if my analysis is erroneous, I would appreciate the correct facts. 

But if my reading of this issue is correct, I have to say that as a parent who has watched my child suffer in classes of 30 children, that this idea of using averages across the district would be laughable if it were not so sad. What good does it do the child trapped in a class of 30, to know that across town, another fifth grader only has 25 other classmates? How can we reduce any child’s life to an average, a statistic? This makes absolutely no sense to me and as someone who voted for, and donated time working for the passage of Measure B, I am beginning to wonder if I have been duped. I understand that Measure B is up for renewal in two years; do you think the voters of Berkeley will approve it again, if this time, the district makes a mockery of its intent? 

I support the BFT in this issue and hope that they succeed in requiring that Berkeley Unified honor the intent of Measure B, that class size maximums should be written into the teachers’ contracts. What is a matter of working conditions for Berkeley’s teachers is, for Berkeley’s children, a matter of learning conditions. I urge other parents who have experienced large class sizes to voice their concern. 

Diana Rossi 

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PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing you from my grief about what is happening at the library. I had thought with the new building that the very best of all it had been would now be made real. Instead, I find that everything I love about the library is being taken away. This is a terrible way to learn the Dewey decimal system: the 300’s section has been stripped down which means the peoples’ histories, the folklore, unions, all that work that people did in the last century to build hope for a human oriented community. Much of that writing and public documentation has been casually discarded into a specially ordered dumpster. The new director of the last few years has suggested our library isn’t “balanced” enough. How dare she come into our town and strip our history out from under us before the next generations can see it! 

I had heard our library disagreed with the spying the federal government wants to do on our reading and us. I heard the library would avoid operating with scanning and reporting our reading interests. Now, I learn that this director, Jackie Griffin, has ordered and is installing the devices that scan chips she is placing in each book and that emit radioactive waves continually, possibly effecting workers health. I feel a secular sacred space in our community, source for our gathering democracy, a center where we celebrate our art and music and expression in words, grow our children’s minds and promote the best of our thinking, our library, has been raped by an interloper from the outside.  

I hear that she doesn’t believe in people working at the same place for more than three or four years. But, it’s the opposite with librarians: The longer they are there, the better they can be because they know the books best and have the most sense of the community’s history. But, she wants to fire librarians who meet the public, some who have been there for decades. She’s stripping the teens’ services that help youth find books, learn the library, and do homework. She’s installing machines to check out our books. She threatening to reduce the quilt displays that were so wonderful and remind us of the past and the incredible art done by women who are often seen as doing nothing but housework. They were historians and healers instead.  

She’s stealing our cultural heritage, and we’re paying her salary! Citizens should have had a vote about whether the chips (RFID’s) could be installed in the books and about dumping literary artifacts of our history. I say we should dump her and dump those chips and take the cost for extracting those chips out of her severance pay. And, keep the library workers; they keep the library being on a human scale. 

Nancy Delaney 

Save Our Library 

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THE PASSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks very much for March 8 cartoon by Justin DeFreitas (“The Passion: Recut”). I am 75 and it brings back memories when I was in junior high school near Boston, when I was first called a Christ killer. Recently I saw a book review by Jimmy Breslin. His comment was, “It was Roman nails, Roman lumber and Roman soldiers.” 

Many thanks. 

Jack Melnick 

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ROSA PARKS COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a parent of two (soon to be three) children at Rosa Parks Elementary School, I am often surprised at the positive attention paid to every other school in the district (except Berkeley High) while the coverage of our school remains negative. Our school went through serious changes last year, which I wasn’t supportive of. However, the changes I see this year are positive and I welcome the improvements. But I have not seen any positive coverage of Rosa Parks since last year. This creates the opinion that Rosa Parks is not a good school. Please, review our new science curriculum, as we are a science magnet, and our fabulous new teachers. We need positive coverage in order for families to feel good about Rosa Parks. We have many Spring activities planned and encourage your newspaper to cover any of them. While the news about teacher work-stoppages is important, so is the vitality of our schools. Please present a balanced portrayal of our school, there is much to love. 

Sally Torrez 

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FREE PRESS IN IRAQ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The story of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, whose car was attacked by a U.S. tank, is relevant to the question of how committed the U.S. military leadership is to the process of democracy, including a free press, in Iraq.  

For an answer to that question we should remember the story of Army Major Charmaine Means, who was at one time assigned the task of public relations in the city of Mosul. One day in May of 2003, Major General Petraeus decided that the local TV station, controlled by Iraqis, had too much freedom. So he ordered Major Means to seize the TV station with U.S. troops. Means refused to follow that illegal order.  

For her commitment to democracy, Charmaine Means was relieved of her post. It is a classic story of the lack of any commitment from the leadership of the occupation forces to any real freedom for the Iraqi people. Charmaine Means is truly one of the real military heroes of this war, and we can find a list of such people at www.tomjoad.org.  

Jim Harris  

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LESS SMOG MORE SMUG 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Reading that Ms. Maio and Mr. Wozniak are proposing the city spend money on a study that considers the costs and benefits of allowing hybrid and other fuel efficient vehicles to park for free at metered spaces (“City Audit Slams Parking Enforcement Practices,” Daily Planet, March 8-10) leads me to believe they are in bed with Toyota of Berkeley. Why else would they hold the elitist ideology that such a proposal stems from? While it is essential that city policies promote cleaner air, the majority of city residents are in no position to spend upwards of $30,000.00 to receive the perk of free meter parking. Why can’t we all be special? 

L.J. Cranmer  

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SCHOOL LABOR DISPUTE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the labor dispute between BUSD and the teachers’ union: as a parent, I’m sympathetic to the teachers’ situation and respect how hard they work to educate my children. As a taxpayer, I appreciate Superintendent Michele Lawrence for straightening out the school district’s incredible financial mess and avoiding a state takeover of our school district.  

The person who so richly deserves criticism is our governor who has broken his promise to fully fund education and made it even more difficult for the cash-strapped BUSD to satisfactorily and speedily resolve the contract dispute. Write to the governor today and tell him how he’s hurting your children, teachers, and community. 

Brenda Buxton 

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AC TRANSIT BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

AC Transit’s Jaimie Levin (Letters, Daily Planet, March 8-10) correctly pointed out what I failed to mention—the one, single advantage of the new Van Hool buses: Tthe passenger enters almost on curb level, instead of climbing up the two steps of the older buses. However, she neglected to add that, while the passenger climbs up those entry steps in the older bus, the bus is standing still. 

The new buses are MOVING while the passenger climbs up a steep step into a seat, climbs down from the seat, searches for a button to signal departure, searches for something to hang onto while getting to the exit, then searches there for the button that works the electric door opener. 

Dorothy Bryant 

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MORE ON BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a March 8 letter, Jaimie Levin of AC Transit defends the Van Hool fleet of buses, without using comparative statistics. Ask riders which bus they’d rather ride in, and I suspect you’ll get different answers. The Van Hool’s have a teeth rattling ride, few seats with a good view, awkward ‘stop’ buttons, and third doors that rarely get used. This may be the latest European design, but when it comes to a bus, I prefer comfort over style. 

Bryce Nesbitt 

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BUSH’S DECISION-MAKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for publishing Bob Burnett’s article (Daily Planet, March 8-10) which analyzes and critiques Bush’s decision-making process. I am not convinced by the analysis in the article and, if I assume the analysis is correct, I disagree with the critique. 

The analysis (how he thinks the Bush administration operates) is too reductionist. I’ve little doubt that Burnett is probably right that the administration uses “blink”-style decision making in some situations. I question, deeply, the suggestion I see in Burnett’s analysis that “blink” is either unselfcritically applied by the administration or that it’s application is the result of a cult of loyalty rather than the result of a rational process. 

Nevertheless, if we assume that “blink” is one of the most important aspects of the administration, Burnett’s critique falls flat: 

First, Burnett should probably leave off trying to keep up with the technical and military game-playing questions that determine the wisdom of a NMD program. Bush does not operate in a vacuum and Burnett’s assumptions about the goals and technical status of the NMD program strike me as plainly naive for widely-known reasons that I will not rehearse here. He has heard that some geeks at MIT critique the program and that it is unlikely to protect the world from a cold-war-style global thermonuclear war —I agree with those facts—but Burnett then assumes that such absolute protection is the NMD goal and that the critiques from geeks condemn the program (in fact, they strengthen it). 

Second, Burnett conflates “blink” decision making with hubris. Making an analogy in the language of math, I think that “blink” and hubris are “orthogonal axes”: one can make blink decisions with or without hubris; one can display hubris with or without blink decision making. If Bush is guilty of hubris, his presumed use of “blink” decision making does not prove the charge. 

As a professional engineer (which might be accurately described as a career concerned with the craft of making practical decisions) I could write an essay defending this claim: refusal to rely on blink decisions when they are the best option, if such refusal is based on an arrogant and non-scientific philosophy, is hubris—in the mundane world of commercial engineering, there are countless examples of companies and projects that fail, hard, for that very reason. I don’t see any reason why global geopolitics should be very different from more mundane engineering, in that regard. 

Tom Lord 

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DOWNTOWN BART STATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is the time to think about replacing the “drum” at the main downtown BART entrance, since BART is considering redesigning the downtown station and the city is doing planning to redesign the BART plaza.  

This faceless steel and glass structure at downtown BART should be replaced with something that works as a symbol of Berkeley, since this station is a major gateway to Berkeley, and since its position at a curve in the street makes it a very prominent building that is visible for a long distance down Shattuck Avenue. 

Replacing the drum itself should not cost much. It is as big as a small house, but it is just a shell, with no interior walls, no wiring, no plumbing, and no cost of land, so replacing it would cost much less than building a small house. 

I suggest that the city should hold a design contest. Invite people to submit conceptual designs to replace the drum that are appropriate symbols of Berkeley. I expect that many local architects, architecture students, and community groups would be interested in creating a design for such a prominent location—arguably the most prominent location in Berkeley.  

I myself would like to see something in Maybeck style, with vine-covered trellises, using modern materials rather than wood to reduce the cost of maintenance. But, this being Berkeley, I am sure that there would be many other good ideas. 

If we replaced the sterile BART that we now have with something more attractive, it would be a catalyst for further revitalization of downtown.  

Charles Siegel 

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CREDIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You max-out 16 credit cards and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the credit card whores… (With apologies to the late Tennessee Ernie Ford). 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

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DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sometimes things are not that complicated. 

Three members of the School Board decided Wednesday night to deny children in this city something they need—a baseball field—because a powerful and well-connected neighborhood wanted them to. 

The politics of this fight has always been about avoiding the third rail this neighborhood represents. The board did a favor for every politician in this town by again avoiding touching that rail. They did a favor for their superintendent by not asking her to take on this issue, and she in turn did them a favor by giving them cover arguments about staff time and money. And of course, these three did themselves a favor by not revisiting a process that was obviously confusing and flawed. 

They did a favor for everyone except the children. 

James Day 

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WORD FREEDOM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Freeing words from ideas and thoughts frees them for mischief. We have heard unprovoked invasion called pre-emptive strike; a trust fund that may shrink to zero 30 years from now called a crisis; no child is left behind but the schools themselves are in front; the only patriots are those supporting the Patriot Act.  

Politicians, journalists, commentators, critics, writers and poets are word merchants: Their work produces words and only words. They are the specialists. They don’t have to be eloquent but they ought to be clear. They don’t have to be grammarians but guardians of the nexus between words and meaning. 

Today’s word merchants have become word mercenaries; they produce words for a price. Ignoring the nexus they spin words to suit and support any purpose whatsoever. The first turn is word change: “Gaming’ is better than “gambling”, in reference to security “homeland” is preferred to “national,” “personal” and “individual” are preferable to “private,” and on and on.  

Word mercenaries have mastered the lesson Humpty Dumpty taught Alice. “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean… neither more nor less.”  

To make words serve any purpose so that any word may mean the opposite of what it says obliterates any chance of distinguishing between fact and fiction, science and dogma, truth and falsehood, reason and faith.  

As Humpty Dumpty explained the question is who is to be master.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo