Hundreds of East Bay folk gathered Wednesday in candlelight vigils, organized by Berkeley’s MoveOn.org, to oppose the Iraq war and offer support to the Vacaville woman who has managed to give a sympathetic face to the war’s opposition . 

These and similar MoveOn.org rallies held in all 50 states Wednesday were at the request of Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville mother whose vigil outside George W. Bush’s Texas ranch has captured the imaginations of the news media. 

Sheehan’s son, Casey, was 24 years old and serving as an Army Humvee mechanic stationed in Sadr City, Iraq, when he was killed on April 4, 2004. 

Earlier this month Sheehan headed to Crawford, Texas, to demand a meeting with the president. Her ongoing vigil there has drawn the attention of the world’s media and personalized opposition to the war in a new and powerful manner, attracting massive support from anti-war groups. 

“It’s such a thrill to be able to support Cindy in what she’s doing,” said Carrie Olson, Berkeley resident and chief operating officer of MoveOn.org. 

“Based on the sign-ups and their guests, we think over 100,000 attended 1,627 rallies nationwide Wednesday,” Olson said “We also know that there was at least one rally in Paris.” When the final numbers are in, she said, Wednesday night’s gatherings may have generated a record turnout for events organized by the group’s volunteers. 

More than 10,000 signed up to attend vigils in the Bay Area, she said, adding that the actual turnout was probably closer to 20,000. The only locale with a larger turnout was New York City. 

The crowded street vigils around Berkeley reminded one observer of similar protests staged back in the days when President Nixon was blasting Cambodia. Those rallies were attended by many of the same people who gathered in front of the French Hotel on Shattuck Avenue and on Solano Avenue Wednesday. 

East Bay protesters  

Tina Estes, one of those gathered by the French Hotel, had protested during the Vietnam War. “I was very young then,” she said, smiling. One of her protesting stints—this one against the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, N.H.—even earned her an arrest. 

Estes said she and her friend have been following the machinations of the Bush regime since the 2000 election. “We drove out to Colorado to get out the vote, and we were in a debriefing with the MoveOn.org folk when we realized the election had been stolen. We’ve been in a tirade ever since.” 

Val Hammell said she came out “because the war is totally disgusting, a move by the Saudi/Bush clan to keep their profits up when sanctions were about to be lifted so that Iraq could sell their oil in Europe for Euros, which would have brought the price down.” 

Brazilian-born Berkeley resident Oswaldo Rosa, a business development manager for Magnussen’s Lexus of Fremont, said he came in part because he was raised in a peace-loving culture. 

“I really like Berkeley politics. People always listen to people from Berkeley, and I like that,” he said. 

Noah Biglin said he came because “I’ve always been against the war from the start.” He said he was very impressed by Sheehan’s efforts. “It seems to be working. She’s getting national attention and it’s sympathetic.” 

“I’m usually known as Noah’s dad,” said Ed Biglin. “I’m here because it’s important for everyone in this country to see that apathy isn’t cool. I’m worried about the fact that a lot of people still don’t realize that they pulled off this war without finding any weapons of mass destruction and without finding any involvement by Al Qaeda. It’s important that people are aware that there’s another side to this.” 

MoveOn.org volunteer Alyss Dorese said that while 274 people had signed up to attend the Berkeley rallies, at least double that number had turned out. “When I signed up as an organizer last Friday, I was number 18. Now it’s close to 2,000 rallies.” 

Olson, who attended the rally at the French Hotel, said that she estimated the turnout there at close to 600. Turnout at the Solano Avenue protest may have topped 1,000. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies offered lower estimates, which he said were “very loose,” of 400 to 500 on Solano and 300 to 400 in front of the hotel. 

Okies said two other rallies were held along Shattuck, one at Derby Street and a second in front of the Starry Plough at Shattuck and Prince Street. 

Other Berkeley vigils were held on Ashby Avenue, at the intersection of Adeline Street and another at the College Avenue intersection, and at the Marin Avenue circle. 

Focus for activism 

“Cindy’s story has been remarkable,” said Olson. “Had you asked me a month ago, I would’ve been cynical. But she’s such a sincere person that it’s hard not to stand by her.” 

The next stage depends on the man behind the barbed wire in Crawford, she said.  

“The best thing for him to do would be to come out and meet with her,” Olson said. “Because he has not met her so far, he has galvanized not only the anti-war protesters but people with family members serving in Iraq right now. 

“If you are going to take these brave young men and women and send them off to war, you’d better have a pretty good reason,” Olson said. 

Particularly impressive for Olson and her colleagues at MoveOn.org was the turnout in the Red states that Bush carried so handily in the 2000 elections. 

“We had 389 sign up for Omaha, the turnout was probably twice that,” she said. 

Locally, at least 50 people turned out for a vigil in El Cerrito, and in Walnut Creek, 150 or so protesters lingered after a San Francisco Mime Troupe performance to stage their own vigil. 

For those interested in learning more about the rallies, see www.moveon.org. 

The Daily Kos, a Berkeley-based blog, is offering a comprehensive online “diary” with scores of entries about the rallies from all over the country along with numerous photos at http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/17/214516/840.$

Devin Pope, an economics graduate student at UC Berkeley, says he’s going to have a problem the next time his parents visit to help care for his toddler. 

Since he moved into UC Berkeley’s family-oriented Smyth-Fernwald Housing Complex several years ago, Pope has had his own parking space and available visitor parking near his apartment. 

But this month UC Berkeley stripped residents of their roughly 90 parking spaces. Now, with the university’s Department of Parking and Transportation controlling the spaces, students insist this year they will have less available parking, even though as young parents they said they need cars to get around more than other students. 

“My parents will probably have to park across town and we’ll have to pick them up,” said Pope from his hilltop apartment that boasts a bay view, but few nearby parking spaces. “How are we ever going to get anybody to visit us?” 

Smyth-Fernwald, located on the eastern edge of Dwight Way several blocks northeast of the central campus, is one of two UC Berkeley housing facilities designed for students with young children. Although the 74 apartments are hardly luxurious, students said they were getting a good deal with a two-bedroom apartment going for just over $900, parking included. 

Until this month, Smyth-Fernwald residents managed the nearby parking spaces, and residents were effectively granted free spaces for one car and paid a small fee for a second car.  

But free parking for residents will soon be a thing of the past. Under the new rules, incoming residents will have to pay the standard $79 a month for a student parking pass. Current residents will be allowed to keep their free parking spaces. Also any UC Berkeley student with a parking pass will be able to park at designated spaces beside the housing complex, meaning fewer spaces for visitors.  

“We’re simply trying to treat our students the same across the board,” said UC Berkeley Director of Parking and Transportation Nad Permaul. “Why should [Smyth-Fernwald residents] pay less for parking than other students all over the university?” 

Permaul said the university was moving to take control of all the university owned parking spaces around the central campus, as directed by a chancellor’s oversight committee on parking and transportation. 

“Instead of eclectic pockets of parking, we want a unified system managed in a coherent way,” he said. Permaul said that extra parking permit revenue didn’t factor into the university’s thinking and that city officials had been pressuring the university to centralize control over parking as a tool to help keep students and workers from parking on residential streets. 

“Berkeley is telling the university that this is what it needs to do,” he said 

Angela Davies, a Smyth-Fernwald resident, said the new parking rules were further evidence that, “UC is family unfriendly.” She feared that with other students now allowed to park by the dorm, she might be relegated to one of the lower parking lots. 

“People don’t realize how hard it is to drag your child and groceries up the hill,” she said. 

The parking fight at Smyth-Fernwald comes as student parents charge that UC Berkeley is eliminating most of the affordable housing available for them. The university has embarked on a rebuilding project at its other student family housing complex, University Village, that will improve living conditions, but nearly double rents. 

“This is the last affordable housing that UC Berkeley offers for families,” said Elizabeth Bremner, who lives at Smyth-Fernwald with her 6-year-old daughter.  

The new parking policy has many residents concerned that the university ultimately plans to tear down the World War II-era dormitory complex built just beside the Hayward fault. 

“Frankly it might not even exist as student housing [in a few years],” Permaul said during a telephone interview Thursday. Eddie Bankston, the university’s housing and dining executive director, was unavailable for comment. 

The residents have squabbled with UC officials in recent years. Last year, the university prohibited residents from selling their spaces to Cal football spectators on game days, which Bremner said deprived the community of the roughly $10,000 it annually collected from football parking and used for social events.  

Previously, the university closed off the recreation room because of seismic concerns, Bremner said. The university is scheduled to install two trailers to serve as a new community space, she added. 

Before, when students ran the parking spaces, residents paid a small fee for having a second car. Now they will have to pay roughly $27 a month and within three years they will have to pay for a regular parking permit to keep the second car. 

“This is a modest and incremental proposal to bring residents into the system,” Permaul said. He added that the university was looking to address the residents’ concerns over visitor parking. 

“We certainly will try to come up with a solution to that problem,” he said. 

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Results of the newly released public school test reports show that Berkeley Unified School District students continue to rank far above state testing scores in the California Standardized Test (STAR) in elementary school, but that advantage tends to evaporate as students enter the higher grades.  

At the same time, Berkeley Unified students’ scores rank slightly above the statewide average in the California High School Exit Exam. 

The results were released earlier this week by the California Department of Education. 

STAR results are used to determine federal school funding support under the No Child Left Behind Act, and this year, for the first time, the exit exam will be used as a requirement for high school graduation in the state. 

Exit exam results dropped significantly in the district and the state for socio-economically disadvantaged students, with Berkeley doing slightly worse than the county or the state. 

In Berkeley, 49 percent of such students passed both the math and English Language Arts portions of the exit exam. The results were 49 percent and 50 percent passage for the same two tests; in the state, the numbers were 50 percent and 51 percent.  

Lisa Rosenthal, senior editor of the GreatSchools.net website, which evaluates schools throughout California and the nation, said that there are good things and bad things to see in the test results. 

“Generally, test results are up all across the state, and that’s good,” Rosenthal said. 

The downside, she said, is that in order to bring the test scores up, many California schools are placing more emphasis on teaching those things which are being tested. 

“That means that we’ve had a de-emphasis on teaching in such areas as the arts, history, social science, and science,” she said. “That’s kind of sad when those programs suffer, because students need a well-rounded education.” 

She said that the state has plans to add history, social science, and science to the testing regimen in future years, and that schools will therefore almost certainly put more weight on those courses. 

Rosenthal also said that it was a positive sign that a majority of students statewide are passing the exit exam, adding that there appears to be a correlation between students not passing the test and not fulfilling other graduation requirements. 

“One of the fears about the exit exam was that it would be a gatekeeper, keeping some students by itself from graduation who had otherwise fulfilled all the other graduation requirements,” Rosenthal said. 

But she said that students who are not passing the exit exam are also generally not completing necessary course work in required subjects, or are not passing their classes, and so would not be able to graduate in any case. 

Rosenthal also said that there had been fear that California’s high school exit exam would increase the state’s dropout rate. 

“We can’t determine that as yet because of the weakness in the state’s reporting system,” she said, noting that although schools keep records of how many students have left their schools, they do not keep records of whether or not those students actually dropped out of school altogether or transferred to another school district. 

BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan said that BUSD administrators have been in a management retreat at the Berkeley Marina over the past two days, and had not had the chance to analyze the test results. Coplan said that after a preliminary look, district officials “are pleased to see that the number of students passing the exit exam is higher than we originally anticipated.” 

Coplan said that “as in all tests, our numbers tend to be higher than the norm,” but added that “the district still needs to look at the areas where some of our kids are struggling. That’s where our focus needs to be.” 

In the California High School Exit Exam, 69 percent of the BUSD students passed the math portion of the exam, while 68 percent passed the English Language Arts portion. Results were 65 percent and 68 percent countywide, and 63 percent and 65 percent throughout the state. 

In his press statement announcing the test results, State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O’Connell noted the continued discrepancy in test scores, noting that “while the consistent growth of our subgroups across all measures should be celebrated, I am seriously concerned that our achievement gap remains unacceptably wide.” 

O’Connell added that “of particular concern are the overall results of our African-American and Hispanic/Latino students, as well as our English learners and special education students. While they have made impressive gains, we must seek extraordinary progress for those students in order to close the achievement gap that persists for all groups.” 



After four hours of sometimes emotional public testimony from a packed City Council chambers, a divided Alameda City Council voted in the early hours Wednesday morning to move forward with the Historic Alameda Theater Rehabilitation Project. 

Seventy-one speakers spoke against either the parking garage or the cineplex portion of the project, or both, while 11 speakers spoke in favor. 

Opponents of the project said they turned in some 3,000 signatures opposing the garage and multiplex. Both opponents and proponents of the project support the rehabilitation of the original Alameda Theater, but opponents are objecting to the multiplex and parking garage portion of the project. 

And while opponents of the project said they were “disappointed” by the 3-2 council decision, they said their fight to try to kill the controversial project was by no means over. 

“We have the opportunity to do this,” said Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson, announcing her support for the project. “We have a developer who is willing to do this. There have been suggestions that we simply open one to three screens at the old theater, but that theater has been sitting there vacant for twenty years, and nobody has done that.” 

Johnson said that the council needed to move forward with a decision “because there will be people who are going to be mad with us either way we vote.” 

And Vice Mayor Marie Gilmore, who also voted for the project, noted that “people have said clearly that they want to restore the theater, but restoring the theater does not come cheaply.” She called the theater a “public amenity.” 

But Councilmember Doug deHaan, who voted against the garage and cineplex, called the design “butt-ugly,” and said that the total number of screens approved for the theater complex would probably not be enough for the project to break even. 

“So are we just chasing our tail on this?” he asked. DeHaan said he opposed the garage project “because it appears that we are putting too much building on too small a parcel.” 

The vote was on a citizen appeal of a decision last June by the Alameda City Planning Board to approve the multiplex and parking garage design. The financial design of the project has been approved by the Council for several months. 

Alameda has now committed itself to a $23.7 million downtown project that will rehabilitate the 77-year-old Alameda Theater as a one to three-screen venue, as well as build an adjacent seven-screen multiplex movie theater that will share the lobby with the original theater. 

A third component of the rehabilitation project is the construction, next door, of a six-level parking garage. When and if it is finally constructed, the entire project is projected to take up a third of a block on the corner of Central Avenue and Oak Street in the heart of Alameda’s Park Street downtown area, a block from City Hall. 

Both the original theater and the multiplex will be owned by the City of Alameda, but will be operated by developer Kyle Conner of Santa Rosa under lease from the city. The original Alameda Theater has not operated as a movie venue since 1979, although the building has supported other business operations since that time, including a roller rink and a gymnastics center. 

Following the City Council meeting, which did not decide the theater project issue until 2:15 a.m., an emotionally and physically exhausted Conner shook hands in the corridor outside council chambers. 

Saying that while he was “pleased with the council decision,” he wanted to caution that “there are still more hurdles to clear.” 

Conner said that architects must return to the city with details of minor design changes suggested by councilmembers during the deliberations, with the permitting process to follow. Conner estimated that “if all goes smoothly from this point,” completed construction of the three building complex was at least two years away. 

Opponents Ani Dimusheva and Valeria Ruma, who organized the Citizens for a Megaplex-Free Alameda that is leading the fight against the multiplex and garage and filed the appeal against the Planning Board decision, said they hope that does not happen. 

Both said that while they had not yet decided what next steps to take in reaction, they said those steps might range from further intervention as the project goes through the city’s permitting process, as well as, according to Ruma, “maybe making changes in the makeup of the city government itself. We haven’t made any conclusions yet.” 

“The democratic process was absent during the hearing,” Dimusheva said by telephone. “If public opinion doesn’t matter, what does?”  

And Ruma added that “we really feel that there is some higher power driving this initiative.” 

The 200-person-capacity council chambers could not hold the audience at Tuesday’s hearing, and the city set up overflow rooms, one in City Hall and one at the Elks Club, where the hearing was simulcast. Mayor Johnson said the city chose that solution rather than moving the hearing to a larger venue so that the hearing could be televised live to residents over cable. 

The hearing had the electrically-charged aspects of a political convention, with opponents wearing red T-shirts proclaiming “Listen To The People” and proponents wearing badges reading “We Support The Project.” Just before the hearing began, a project opponent with badges in her hands walked through the crowd asking “are you for the project or against it?” while handing them out. 

One man who identified himself as a project supporter surveyed the anti-project crowd and said that the Alameda Theater in its abandoned form “has been a real blight on downtown. If this doesn’t pass, the council should just tear it down and put up a bank. Maybe then these people will be happy.” 

Several opponents said they did not want a downtown Alameda project to look like projects in other areas, many citing Oakland’s Jack London Cinema and parking garage complex as an example of what they did not want. Alameda resident Michael Carvalho said “you might as well call us San Leandro West if you build this.” 

Others, like Mary Fambrough, said they doubted the economic feasibility of the project, saying the cineplex would not attract the needed patrons from other areas. 

“How many people are going to come to the island to go to a movie when they have Emeryville and Jack London Square?” she asked. 

Fambrough also expressed worries that the cineplex would change the small town character of Alameda, saying that “cineplexes tend to bring problems with them such as crime and vandalism.” 

The meeting itself grew testy as it went into the early morning hours and it became clear how the vote would go, with project opponents at one point exchanging heated words from the audience with Mayor Johnson.u

Bayer Corp.’s 54 janitors no longer have to fear for their jobs. 

The pharmaceutical giant dropped plans Wednesday to contract out janitorial work at its Berkeley facility. 

“We think Bayer realized that it was going to be a strike-worthy issue so they pulled it off the table,” said Donald Mahon, business agent for the International Longshoreman’s Warehouse Union, which represents 544 Bayer employees. 

Bayer’s union contract expires on Thursday. The company had told union officials that it was considering replacing its janitors with contract workers represented by the Service Employees International Union. 

Bayer spokesperson Clelia Baur declined to discuss any details of the ongoing negotiations. 

Contracting out the jobs would have netted a significant savings for Bayer. The contract janitors would have made $11 an hour, compared to $20.29 an hour for Bayer janitors. 

Mahon said Bayer is not asking its janitorial staff to take a pay cut, but refused to disclose the terms of the company’s offer. 

“I’m pretty optimistic we can come back with a proposal we can recommend to the workers,” he said. “The most critical issue is finally off the table.”

A bullet fired by a cyclist near the corner of Julia and California streets blasted through the windows of a city Seniors Van, missing the driver and two passengers Tuesday morning. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said that shots were fir ed by two teenage bicyclists who opened fire on two men in a passing car. No arrests have been made, he said. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz cited the incident as the latest in “an unusually high number of calls in the 1500 block of Russell [Street],” including “man with a gun” and “loud report” calls—the latter being police lingo for “shots fired.” 

A Monday afternoon probation search of an ex-convict who lives on the block turned up a sawed-off shotgun and resulted in three charges against the 20-year-old. 

Okies said the man was booked on suspicion of four charges: possession of an illegal weapon, being an ex-con in possession of a firearm, an attached enhancement of being a member of a street gang, and probation violation. 

The one-block stretch of Russel l Street is the apparent hub of violence that is occurring along a four-block stretch of California Street. 

As a result, the city manager reported in a “Safety Bulletin” sent to city councilmembers and several city staff members, the city is spending fun ds from a violence suppression grant to increase police presence on the block. 

“An e-mail alert was distributed by the police department ... to the surrounding area as part of the city’s ongoing efforts to keep the community informed about crime events in the neighborhood,” Kamlarz noted. 

The most notable police presence is the department’s big black-and-white Mobile Command Vehicle and its crew, which was stationed at the northwest corner of the Russell and California intersection Thursday afternoon. 

“We had already stepped up patrols in the area after we received a number of ‘loud report’ calls over the weekend,” Okies said. “We added the command vehicle following the shooting Tuesday.” 

Neighbors believe the apartment buildings along Russell Street are a center of drug activity, and Okies said that “in the past there has been some drug-dealing and drug-related activities in that block.” 

Another site in the neighborhood, a sidewalk in front of a vacant property at the corner of Sacramento and Julia streets, was the site of a memorial and gathering following the death of a young drug dealer who was killed by a drive-by shooting at the corner of 60th Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland two days earlier. 

“Chief (Douglas M.) Hambleton and his staff are making every effort to manage the situation to ensure community safety,” Kamlarz wrote. 

Reached Thursday afternoon, Councilmember Max Anderson, who represents the area, said he had just come back from vacation and hadn’t brought himself up to speed o n the incidents. 

“I’ll be checking with Phil Kamlarz tomorrow morning,” he said. 

Laura Menard, a former City Council candidate who lives in the area, said neighbors have called and e-mailed her to let her know how pleased they are with the heightened po lice presence. 

She said her most unusual call came from woman who identified herself as an aide to Mayor Tom Bates, who offered the suggestion that neighborhood residents should approach the city’s Peace and Justice Commission and suggest they ought to p ut aside looking at international issues and take up the cause of a neglected neighborhood in South Berkeley. 

“I laughed at that one,” she said, “because Peace and Justice has no authority to demand increased police patrols.” 

Kent Brown, another area r esident, said he welcomed the stepped-up enforcement, “especially in light of all the shooting lately. I see their van right around the corner, and I welcome their presence.”

Facing federal funding cuts, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is bracing for layoffs and asking administrative workers to consider early retirement. 

“We’re looking at about a $5 million to $6 million cut in the operations budget,” said lab spokesperson Ron Kolb. “Because labor costs represent 85 percent of the budget, this boils down to people.” 

On Monday Lab Director David McGraw sent out a memo calling on volunteers to take early retirement. As of Monday, LBNL also began a hiring freeze and halted promotions. 

Kolb said the lab hopes to find enough volunteers to limit layoffs to less than 20. However, he declined to disclose how many early retirements the lab was hoping to grant. Employees targeted for layoffs are scheduled to be notified by Sept. 15. 

The lab, which employs about 5,000 people, relies on the Department of Energy for its funding. Although Congress has not set the DOE’s budget, Kolb said lab officials have been told to expect a roughly 10 percent cut. Two years ago, the lab received $54.5 million from the DOE, the highest allotment in its history, Kolb said. 

LBNL works on a wide range of projects, with specialties in super computing, genome work, cancer research and nuclear physics. 

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory does not anticipate facing any layoffs this year, said Anne Stark, lab spokesperson. She said that Livermore, which conducts weapons research, gets significant funding from the Department of Homeland Security as well as from the DOE. 

Robert Clear, a part-time scientist at LBNL and city environmental commissioner, suspected that Livermore and Los Alamos, two other UC-run labs, wouldn’t face the same kind of cutbacks because, unlike LBNL, they do primarily classified work. 

“Everything we do is public,” he said. “If the government wants something that’s private they can’t do it here.” 

The cutbacks are targeted at the 515-person operations department that includes facilities maintenance, environmental safety oversight, human resources, and public affairs. 

Under federal funding guidelines, the lab must use a defined portion of research money to pay for the support staff. As research money has dried up, so has available funding for the operations staff, according to Kolb. 

Clear said the city should be concerned if LBNL is forced to cut back the 107-member Environmental Health and Safety Team. 

“They’re the ones that monitor the lab and do the cleanup,” he said. LBNL is scheduled to remove contaminated soil from sections of its campus as demanded for years by city officials and residents. 

Kolb said LBNL hasn’t faced an across-the-board staffing reduction since DOE budget cuts in 1995. The cuts have impacted scientists as well, he said. Recently 16 scientists working on a light source project agreed to take early retirement to minimize layoffs in the midst funding cuts. 

The layoffs will depend on which project areas are in the highest demand, Kolb said. Within a specific project area, layoffs will be determined by seniority. 

City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who retired from the lab three years ago, said staff morale seemed low during a visit last April. 

“People were gloomy because DOE funding was down and it looked like it would be down for a number of years,” he said.

On Aug. 9, a suicide bomber killed two people and critically injured 30 in a gruesome bus explosion in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province in southern China. According to the police, the suicide bomber, who died on the scene, was a 42-year-old peasant with end-stage lung cancer. In a society that emphasizes stability and harmony, the suicide bombing has shocked many and moved China’s health care—or lack thereof—to the center of public debate.  

Details of the bombing remain unknown. The Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-run news agency, reported that two people died, but local sources said at least nine people were killed in the blast. The Chinese police found a letter left by the suicide bomber but have refused to make it public.  

“Huang’s posthumous writing should be published, which will help the police investigation as well as discover the truth about why he committed the suicide bombing,” the South Metropolitan Daily in China said in an editorial.  

While most of the Chinese media speculated that the peasant committed the suicide bombing in despair over his lung cancer, other speculations abound, especially in the United States-based Chinese language media. Qingchuan Ji, from the America Fujian Assembly in San Francisco, suspects there are other reasons for the suicide bombing in his hometown.  

Ji told the World Journal, a Chinese-language newspaper with six operations in North America, that it “defies common sense” to assume the cancer was the catalyst. People with incurable diseases may commit suicide, he said. They “might kill themselves at home,” said Ji, “but they don’t kill or hurt people in public.”  

Other commentators point to the negative impact of world news on Chinese society. Che Hon Wu, the director of the American Chinese Business Association, told the World Journal that Chinese people have been increasingly exposed to news from the outside world and are changing the way they respond to society. “People have more freedom,” Che said. “They can do anything they want, and they can dare to do anything they want.”  

But inside China, the culprit is widely perceived as the inept health care system. China Youth Newspaper, a Beijing-based government news agency targeting the young generation, asked in an editorial, “Had he been kicked out of the hospital because he could not afford his medical bills? Was his lung cancer an occupational disease (as many peasants left their homes to work in the cities)? Could his children afford to go to school after he fell ill?”  

The suicide bombing happened just days after the Chinese government acknowledged that health care reform efforts were “unsuccessful.”  

Before 1985, the Chinese government financially supported its hospitals, so people only paid a small fee to visit doctors under the government-controlled economic system. In 1985, the Chinese government introduced market-driven reforms, requiring patients to pay in full for hospital visits, even in emergencies. Patients are often turned away from emergency rooms because they can not pay a deposit first.  

Commenting on the failure of the reform, Ge Yanfeng, deputy chief of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), a policy research and consulting institution directly under the Chinese State Council, told the China Youth Newspaper that the Chinese health care system has been infected by the “American Disease,” whose symptoms are inefficiency and inequity.  

Such criticism further fueled public speculation that the suicide bombing was done as a protest against China’s health care system. Two days after the suicide bombing, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao vowed in a State Department meeting to speed up the building of a new medical system in rural China. Wen pledged to cover 40 percent of the peasants in his new medical system by 2006, up from 21 percent now. Peasants make up of 80 percent of China’s more than 1.3 billion people.  

Statistics from Chinese Health Department show that though hospital visits did not increase much from 2000 to 2003, the profits made by hospitals increased by 70 percent during that period. It enormously overran the income raise in China. The Chinese Health Department reports that 48.9 percent of people who need hospital care never go to the hospital, and 29.6 percent of those who need hospital stays choose to go home instead. Peasants now have a saying, “An ambulance costs a pig; a day in the hospital costs a whole year’s work.”  

The true motives of the suicide bombing, a rare form of violence in China, lingers in mystery. In an editorial titled “We Are on the Same Bus,” the China Youth Newspaper said, “the exploded bus is just like our society—while endangered by despairing ones, it’s no longer a safe place for all of us.”  

Gabrielle Orleans has worked as a correspondent in China, Egypt and the United States, where she is currently a graduate student in journalism. ?

If American liberals had four legs and fur, they would have been put on the Endangered Species List following last year’s presidential election. Defining who is liberal has become a national sport among politicians, as Democrats frantically run from the moniker, while Republicans hurl the invective blindly at everyone on the other side of the aisle.  

New research done by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR) reveals who the real liberals in American are and the answer is not the tree-hugging, ponytail wearing ex-hippies you might expect. Instead, the new face of American liberalism is of a decidedly different hue. The nation’s remaining liberals are overwhelming African Americans. 

The BACVR study that ranks the political ideology of every major city in the country shows that cities with large black populations dominate the list of liberal communities. The research finds that Detroit is the most liberal city in the United States and has one of the highest concentrations of African American residents of any major city. Over 81 percent of the population in Detroit is African American, compared to the national average of 12.3 percent. In fact, the average percentage of African American residents in the 25 most liberal cities in the country is 40.3 percent, more than three times the national rate. 

The list of America’s most liberal cities reads like a who’s who of prominent African American communities. Gary, Washington D.C., Newark, Flint, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Birmingham have long had prominent black populations. While most black voters have consistently supported Democrats since the 1960s, it is the white liberals that have slowly withered away over the decades, leaving African Americans as the sole standard bearers for the left. 

Despite being the core of America’s liberal base, a major split exists between who the nation’s liberals are and who leads them politically. White politicians still control the levers of power within the Democratic Party, and black faces are rare around the decision making tables of America’s liberal advocacy groups. 

While there are some noteworthy pockets of liberals who are not African American, these places end up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations, but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg, than of a vibrant growing political movement. 

Further reinforcing this racial and ideological divide is BACVR research which shows that the most conservative city in America is the ultra white community of Provo, Utah, where less than 1 percent of the population is black. 

Political pundits have noted the highly polarized nature of the American electorate, postulating that religion, age, education, wealth, and even the love of car racing are at the heart of the schism between liberals and conservatives. While these experts have identified some of the symptoms of our national rift, they have missed the root cause. 

BACVR’s research gives us the real answer. The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, coastal vs. interior, or even rich vs. poor—it is now clearly black vs. white. 

Phil Reiff and Jason Alderman are directors at the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a nonpartisan think tank based in Berkeley. BACVR’s web site is www.votingresearch.org. ›

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Work0

CINDY SHEEHAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The loudmouth chicken-hawks criticize Cindy Sheehan because her cause is being supported by pro-peace groups such as MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, and TrueMajority. When a person stands up on her own initiative, arising from her own pain and moral outrage, it is wonderful that other people respond and stand with her. We are all connected; our survival as Americans and as humans on this Earth depends upon our mutual compassion and support of each other. 

If Cindy stood all alone, the hate-mongers would call her a “kook.” If she stands with others, they call her a “dupe.” Their hateful slurs show these media puppets to be hollow, cynical, limited individuals. Cindy is outraged at the callous and fatal exploitation of her son. She expresses what most parents feel, that Bush’s government ruthlessly disregards the lives of our children. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

PRESIDENT SHEEHAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Cindy Sheehan. President Sheehan. What more could America ns want in a president? She’s smart, courageous, thoughtful and humanistic. She wants to bring home our American troops from Iraq now. She has called for the Impeachment of President Bush. Cindy Sheehan says that we can end the threat of terrorism by withdrawing American troops from Iraq and getting the Israelis to withdraw from Palestine. 

When Bush and Cheney are Impeached, Tried, Convicted and Removed, Cindy Sheehan can be appointed president and “a liberal to be named later” can become vice president. I m sure that Cindy will be happy to pick a fine vice president. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

• 

BETH EL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a member of Beth El, and long time resident of the Live Oak Park Area, I wish to thank my neighbor Alan Gould, and all my other neighbors, for their continuing support our right to exist, congregate, worship, educate our children, and provide social services to the community. 

During the years that I lived next to Live Oak Park I found that most residents have off-street parking a nd therefore did not have any need to park on the street. Even residents with off-street parking qualified for a residential parking permit that allowed them to exceed the two-hour restriction applicable to all cars without the permit. The parking situati on for residents is pretty good and this not likely to change after Beth El moves several blocks to the new location. 

I now live near the North Berkeley BART station on a street that does not have any daily parking restrictions! Shocking as this may seem, our block is completely parked up by daily commuters! People park their cars for as long as they want. Later they get back in their cars and drive them away. After they leave, somebody else can park in their spot. This daily occurrence does not bother m e. The movement of people in and out of the area is a sign that our vibrant community is thriving; and is not experiencing the type of large scale urban decay prevalent in Detroit where there is an abundance of free parking now that the majority of the po pulation has abandoned the community. 

I support Alan Gould’s suggestion that we concentrate on more important matters such as educating our children and living in harmony with the environment. 

David Lerman 

• 

RINGLING BROS. 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regar ding an advertisement for Ringling Bros. appearing in the Daily Planet: 

It’s disappointing to see your complicity in animal abuse, even if it is a paid ad. We are supposed to become more aware and educated over time; it has been well documented as to the abuse and deprivations suffered by animals in circuses in the pursuit of shallow “entertainment.” This attitude and its acceptance needs to be halted; it might just make us better human beings. 

David Horn 

Oakland 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I commend your Aug. 12 article on KPFA by Matthew Artz. He cites several sources in addition to those named in the release which gave a much broader perspective on events at the station. This differed from a San Francisco newspaper that quoted the press release an d the GM who is advised by his attorney to comment as little as possible.  

Some respondents believe that the complaints of sexual harassment are a cover for a much broader objective, i.e., to avoid complying with the decision to move Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” to the 7 a.m. hour as mandated by the 2004 LSB. (I understand that the current GM decided (and later rescinded the decision) to move “Democracy Now!” to the 7 p.m., hour thus disrupting all the 7 p.m. shows including the popular “Africa Today” public affairs program produced by Walter Turner.) The question who really controls decisions or “who governs?” is still being contested at the reorganized KPFA-Pacifica and the staff is a powerful contestant.  

The Berkeley Daily Planet makes it clear th at individual complaints of sexual harassment are not the only driving force in the controversy although some workers such as Lemlem Rijio and Sasha Lily are covering themselves with this umbrella and others’ complaints. Their complaints, I’m told, stem f rom the GM’s failure to praise their performances and suggested that they may not be well-selected for some of the tasks they are attempting to perform. Performance evaluation, essential in all industries, may never have been done and is strongly resisted at KPFA except for the staff driven GM evaluation scheduled for later this year. We discussed calling performance evaluations “performance enhancement reports” as a member of the Program Council. This was done to overcome resistance to staff evaluations by staff and their presumed supporters. Again, thanks for actually working on the KPFA story that is very important to many listeners and readers.  

Willie Thompson 

• 

MOUNTAIN BIKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Sept. 23, 2000, a mountain bike race was held in Briones Regional Park, near Walnut Creek, California (see http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/ebrpd16). A 37-year-old man crashed and ended up in a coma for a long time. I asked the Parks District and the race sponsor what eventually happened to him, but they refused to tell me. I finally found out yesterday: He ended up brain damaged and divorced. 

Both the East Bay Regional Park District and the race organizer deny responsibility, and refuse to talk about this incident, and the utter irresponsibility of allowing mountain biking races in wildlife habitat, in public parks, and in places not suited and designed for racing. Serious injuries and deaths from this destructive sport have become an almost weekly occurrence. Meanwhile, the International Mountain Bicycling Association continues to lobby hard in Congress for mountain biking, for allowing bikes in wilderness, and for promoting mountain biking among children (they would like the entire nation to celebrate a “Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day”)! 

It’s hi gh time that we put a halt to this abuse and sacrifice of our natural areas and of our young people. Mountain biking accelerates erosion, creates V-shaped ruts in trails, kills small animals and plants on and next to the trail, and drives wildlife and oth er trail users off the trails and out of the parks. What’s good about that? 

Mike Vandeman 

Hayward 

• 

FIREARMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is with regards to the article by Richard Brenneman entitled, “No Charges Filed Yet in Firearms Case.” I feel it nec essary to correct some errors, some omissions, and some pejorative terminology. 

Possession of fully automatic firearms is only a violation of federal law if the individual possessing that firearm did not pay the tax, have the firearm registered, and have passed a criminal background check. For more information research the 1932 National Firearms Act (NFA) and the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA). 

Although BATF is now under the Department Homeland Security, it was previously under the Treasury Department. The 1932 NFA did not prohibit ownership of firearms but did establish a $200 tax.  

However, California state law does not allow individual to possess fully automatic firearms. A person must be a registered FFL Class 3 dealer to possess and sell fully automat ic firearms to eligible people. That is why in California it is illegal to own firearms but in states such as Arizona and Nevada is completely legal. 

I object to the author’s use of the term “assault weapons.” It is pejorative term for an inanimate objec t. Under California state law, the battlefield rifle of WWII (M1 Garand) which semi-automatically fires the venerable 30-06 cartridge is not an assault weapon. Under the same California state law, the semi-automatic version of the battlefield rifle of Vie tnam (AR-15) which fires a puny .22 caliber bullet is classified as an assault weapon. The difference between the two rifles is that one has a classic wood stock (M1 Garand) and the other has a black plastic stock with “conspicuously protruding” pistol gr ip. If I had to go to battle, I would prefer the venerable M1 Garand over the AR-15 any day of the week and twice on Sunday. 

Vicki Weaver who was standing on the front porch of her home at Ruby Ridge (cradling her baby in her arms, no less) was shot in t he head by FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, over this $200 tax. Agent Horiuchi later went on to participate in the massacre at Waco ... also over this $200 tax. None of the agents of the FBI or BATF who were responsible for the murder of these innocents have eve r been brought to justice. 

Alec Dawson 

Orange 

• 

GUESTS? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing regarding Becky O’Malley’s Aug. 12 editorial, “Crying Wolf Can Backfire,” which states that “religious institutions in Berkeley, particularly the large ones with regional drawing power like Beth El. . . . should remember that they are guests in this city which is our home, and that we are supporting their religious mission, even if we re not ourselves believers, by providing them with streets to park on while exe mpting them from paying property taxes.” What a shocking statement! I have to wonder how you arrived at these distinctions. Just how did you decide that Beth El is too large? And, in your mind, just how pure does a membership have to be to qualify as a lo cal institution?  

The idea that Congregation Beth El and other religious institutions in Berkeley are “guests” of yours, who need to learn to behave themselves, is shocking, offensive, and just plain wrong. In the first place, the vast majority of Beth E l members live in Berkeley—just like you. We are not “guests” of yours; we are a vital part of the cultural and religious life of our city. Don’t you realize that our churches, schools, fire houses, parks and police stations are the social threads that bi nd together the commercial, industrial and residential components of our city? Zoning and tax considerations are provided in consideration of these essential community elements.  

Beth El has been at the corner of Arch and Vine for over 50 years. My husba nd and I have lived here since the early ‘60s and have enjoyed many of the benefits of our residence here. Our home was saved by Berkeley firefighters, our children played in city parks and were educated in Berkeley schools, and our family continues to th rive in the nurturing arms of the Beth El community. I completely reject the notion that Beth El, or any other of our religious institutions or seminaries should be considered “guests” in their own community. Beth El is a fundamental fact of this city’s h istory and contributes daily to the goodness of our lives. Before issuing authoritative moral mandates from the editorial page, please spend some time in the company of congregants, students, officers and residents to learn how things “are” before preaching about how they “should” be.   

Shirley Issel 

• 

ANSWERING A CHALLENGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A contributor to the Daily Planet’s letters section personally challenged me to prove the statement that the Palestinian Authority has used its schools and TV stations to teach children that the best thing they can grow up to be is a suicide bomber. 

To see the evidence, log on to www.honestreporting.com, enter “relentless” in the search box, and buy the $24.95 video by that name. 

As I appreciate the chance to make this evidence well-known, I won’t expect an apology from the previous writer.  

David Altschul 

• 

HISTORY LESSONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet again treats us to Middle East “history” lessons straight from the annals of Arab propaganda, an d bearing little, if any, resemblance to actual facts. This time the lessons come from Schmavonian and Hardesty. I am not going to refute them, since I assume others will, but rather note that people are better served by learning their history from source s other than a tabloid that chooses not to do even rudimentary fact checking. I once met with Linda Maio, and asked her why she chose to make anti-Israelism a policy of the City of Berkeley. She professed to know next to nothing about the Israel/Palestine conflict. She told me, however, that someone had given her a book on the subject, and that she planned to read it one of these days. So why the anti-Israelism? No answer, except the obvious. It was a cynical sop to her radical base. So, this is what Ms. Maio and the old Peace and Justice have wrought. Day after day of incessant wrangling between the parties’ supporters in the Daily Planet, with roughly half the commentaries and letters devoted to the subject. Hasn’t this city any more immediate problems to solve, Ms. Maio, than a far away conflict of which you professedly know nothing? 

John Gertz 

• 

PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing regarding Ms. O’Malley’s Aug. 12 editorial. If parking is what troubles some members of LOCCNA so much, let’s lo ok at the facts. 

Beth El, not LOCCNA as erroneously reported in Diane Tokugawa’s Aug. 9 letter to the Daily Planet, initiated an optional environmental impact report (EIR) that was completed and filed with the City of Berkeley in 2000. Among the many thi ngs assessed by the two engineering firms that did the required studies was parking. Engineers evaluated parking on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, peak periods of Beth El operations. Assessments were done when Beth El operated at Arch and Vine and Netivot Shalom held Saturday morning services at the JCC at Walnut and Rose. 

This is what the EIR found. On Saturday mornings there were, on average, 301 surplus, unused parking spaces within a mile of the property at 1301 Oxford St., and 78 surplus spa ces within one block. On Friday nights, there were 83 surplus spaces within one block. This does not count the 23 spots on the frontage of the 1301 Oxford St. property or spaces on private property in the neighborhood. I suspect that many Daily Planet rea ders would be happy to have even 25 percent of those parking spaces available on their own Berkeley blocks.  

In the parking management plan approved by the City of Berkeley, Congregation Beth El is committed to using no more than 50 percent of the unused spaces on the public streets in an area defined by the city. If we exceed that amount, we have to make other plans. So, for example, at the block level, the parking issue is likely to come down to this: sharing up to 50 percent of the 78-83 parking spaces that are currently unused, perhaps, a dozen times a year. Frankly, the furor over parking seems to be much ado about very little. 

Katherine Haynes Sanstad 

First Vice President,  

Congregation Beth El 

• 

KPFA, ETC. 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s heartening to read Phillip Maldari, co-host of KPFA’s morning news program, respond to charges of sexist behavior against General Manager Campanella by saying, “I’m astounded that a leftist political organization like this one is so ignorant of the importance of tak ing seriously sexual harassment on the job” (Daily Planet, Aug.16) 

Gee Phil, if you are so all-fired upset by sexual harassment, why don’t you, Barbara Lubin, and Dennis Bernstein, on either KPFA News or Flashpoints, discuss the gender apartheid and hono r murder so prevalent amongst Pacifica’s Palestinian pets? And have you no words of condemnation for your buddy, Bernstein, who once again is being accused of sexism by a former female co-host of Flashpoints? 

On another matter, I think it’s appropriate t o respond to Michael Hardesty, master of Middle East historical fiction, who implied because of my support for Israel that I was a disloyal U.S. citizen. Hardesty wrote (Aug. 7), “If you really are such a great Zionist, Spitzer, go live in Israel.” I woul d like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Hardesty for assisting me in taking a trip down Nostalgia Lane as when I protested the Vietnam War, I remember right-wing bystanders urging me to go live in Russia.  

Question, Mr. Hardesty: Were you one of the vermillion-necked folks urging that I and my fellow protesters move to Moscow? Anyhow, thanks so much for the memories, to say nothing of the levity! 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

VIRTUE IN COWARDICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Gerald Schmavonian’s op-ed (“Some Myths Are Dangerous,” Aug. 16-18) inadvertently makes two things clear: (1) the far left has replaced the far right as the most important source of anti-Semitism in the United States; and (2) what really sets the left’s teeth on edge is the fact that Isra el refuses to accept the notion that there is virtue in cowardice when faced with the constant threat of violence.  

Eric Tremont 

• 

NAZI HISTORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I don’t intend to participate in the pissing contest about whether the Daily Planet is anti-Semitic, and I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about the Beth El situation, but I want to point out that David Spieler (Letters, Aug. 16) is factually very wrong about Nazi Germany. Spieler states: “If you remember Germany in the ‘30s the Nazis were n’t anti-Semitic when they started out.”  

Well, I was a German Jew when Hitler came to power, and I know from personal observation that the troubles started immediately. Some relatives were promptly denied the right to practice their professions, the Naz is having been helped to power by Aryan competitors. Similarly, an uncle who owned a successful business fled the country on the first day, knowing that he would be a prime target. Another uncle was picked up by the Gestapo within days and thoroughly beat en up. 

Hitler’s Mein Kampf was written long before he came to power and reeked of anti-Semitism. Also, Jewish cabinet members had been assassinated by Nazis during the ‘20s. 

I feel embarrassed to be defended from anti-Semitism by someone as uninformed a s Spieler. 

Gilbert Bendix 

• 

LOCK-DOWN DISTRESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Salinas Prison lock-down is highly disturbing, to all family members who have loved ones there. The continual lock-downs are state wide. Why are families tolerating this type of m ental torture to their loved ones? Lock-downs plummet the inmates into deeper mental illness, slow down their court cases and cause great stress among their children and wives. Families have been forced to travel hundreds of miles. Salinas Valley Prison h as been locked down for four months. The inmates cannot call home, mail is held up. The inmates report horrible chaos. The guards are not processing their 602 appeals, and are forcing them to drop them, through coercive means. The inmates are depressed, d ue to the separation from their families by telephone and visits denied.  

Salinas Valley is in a state of emergency, in political defiance, there is truly a crisis in effect. This is the same prison, that went without water for days, because the water th ey had be drinking was poisonous. This lock-down is worse than usual. Two guards were recently stabbed, so a good measure of this is retributive. The cycle of retribution never ends. Overcrowding and psychological torture of the inmates. Guards are pittin g gangs against one another, so that lock-down will continue, guards have an easy job during lock-downs. Guards are psychologically strained, so they behave badly. Prison administrators do nothing, to relieve the distressed guards’ torments, due to over-crowding. The courts create this entire problem. Our tax dollars at work!  

Alexis Endurance 

San Bruno 

• 

RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m writing in response to David Magid’s recent opinion piece, in which I am singled out. Contrary to his assumption, I’m not a member of LOCCNA, nor did I fully agree with LOCCNA in their dispute with Beth El. My knowledge of the controversies between the congregation and its neighbors is derived from the local papers. It may be that Beth El used no undue political influence, but my perception was the opposite.  

I’ve lived half a block from Beth El’s current site for 30 years. While my house is closer to their new site than they are, I don’t think of myself as a Live Oak neighbor. Beth El’s impact will be felt most by the blocks of Oxford and Spruce that it immediately adjoins. I believe that most other neighbors display these signs out of solidarity with them.  

Whatever they choose to believe about their neighbors, Beth El will benefit from putting those thoughts asi de and responding to the actual words on the signs. The congregation would get a lot of mileage if its leaders would simply affirm, once again, that it intends to honor its agreements and respect its neighbors. Do this, and act on it, and all will be well.  

John Parman 

• 

INTELLIGENT DESIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Enough already, can’t we get along! For the last month there have been numerous columns and letters for and against evolution and intelligent design. Good debate but a lot of rehash and ludicrou s positions. How about this: There is a self-evident creator behind everything and evolution is a scientific method used to explain manifestation and these two facts compliment and coexist with each other. Materialists seem to have problems accepting this simple insight. It’s time for the uninformed to move on to the next wedge issue. Science and a creative source can and do exist together, maybe just not in the classroom. Evolution can be experienced and validated and soul, spirit and source can be experienced and verified. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

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In Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist play No Exit, three damned souls find themselves locked in a room in hell, where they are psychologically tortured forever. The Iraqis’ failure to meet the Aug. 15 deadline for a draft constitution, is more evidence that America is trapped in its’ own no exit hell. 

The president recently reported, “progress is being made. Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.” Yet, it is difficult for the average citizen to see this “progress.” The most recent Gallup poll finds that only 44 percent of Americans support the war—versus 65 percent in March of 2004. More telling is the poll result that 57 percent believe that the war has made the United States “less safe from terrorism.” 

Before the 2003 invasion, Brent Scowcroft, President George H.W. Bush’s national security adviser, argued against an attack, warning that military action would, “divert us for some indefinite period from our war on terrorism ... the most dire consequences would be the effect in the region.” Scowcroft opined that the most likely outcome for Iraq would be civil war, because of the existing antipathy between the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis. (These considerations led the previous President Bush to stop short of a full-scale occupation in 1991.) One by one Scowcroft’s warnings have come true; failure to agree on a constitution presages another step towards anarchy. 

After two years, the American public is finally realizing that we are ensnared in our own version of no exit. We see that the only thing that has been consistent about the Bush Iraq policy has been its ineptitude. Since the president declared “Mission Accomplished” on May 2, 2003, all of the Administration’s “evidence” justifying the invasion have been refuted: presence of WMDs, delivery systems, ties to Al Qaeda, etc. Moreover, the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq has strengthened the terrorist position and fueled discontent throughout the region. 

The failure of the Iraqi parliament to meet the Aug. 15 deadline for a draft constitution is the result of yet another Administration misstep. Bush advisers had an opportunity to head off the conflict over regional autonomy a year ago. When Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis were considering the American-written Transitional Administrative Law, in February 2004, the Kurds came up with a workable solution to the sticky problem of autonomy. Writing in the Aug. 11 New York Review of Books, diplomat and Middle-East expert Peter Galbraith reported that the Kurds proposed, and the Shiites and Sunnis accepted, a rule that, “the permanent constitutions would come into effect if ratified by a majority of Iraqis, but would only be operative in [each of the three regions] if ratified by a majority of [that region’s] voters.” The Bush administration foolishly balked at this compromise. 

Now, as the American public grows increasingly skeptical of this war, the Administration is ratcheting down expectations: the new Iraq will not be the model democracy the president touted, but instead a partial democracy, where all laws will be compliant with Islam—and women’s rights greatly diminished. The new Iraq will not be economically independent; it will not even have a self-supporting oil industry. Most telling, the administration has quietly abandoned its oft-stated objective of ending the insurgency; now it expects to reduce it to a level consistent with the turnover to Iraqi forces. Despite Bush’s bombast, we will stand down well before the Iraqi forces stand up. 

Although the administration publicized the draft Iraqi constitution as a major milestone, the critical objective for Bush and company occurs a year from now—the beginning of the 2006 Congressional races. Remembering that the invasion of Iraq was, in part, a device to help Republicans win the 2002 off-year elections, it seems unthinkable that the administration would let the occupation fester and, thereby, drag Republican Senators and Congress people down to defeat. Bush and company have to be aware that in the Aug. 2 special election, Ohio Democrat Paul Hackett nearly took a “safe” congressional seat from the Republicans on the basis of his anti-war campaign. 

We will probably see Bush institute a two-pronged Iraq strategy: First, he will drastically reduce the U.S. troop allocation, regardless of whether the Iraqi security forces are ready. Then, he will declare “victory,” much as Richard Nixon did at the end of the Vietnam war. To counter any negative press that a precipitous departure from Iraq might garner, Bush will find a way to distract the attention of the American public: the most likely source for such a diversion would be an attack on Iran’s nuclear capability. 

In a recent interview, Karen Armstrong, the writer and commentator on religion, warned that the war in Iraq ,coupled with Bush’s religious zealotry, is fanning the flames of fundamentalism. She worried that the administration would provoke Islamic fundamentalists into using weapons of mass destruction. That seems to be the “no exit” hell that Bush is leading us into: There is no exit from Iraq that does not leave us more vulnerable to terrorists. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net.?

What should progressives do when confronted with the fact that they live in a city that honors a figure who has advocated beliefs or committed acts that progressives would normally condemn? 

Berkeley faced that dilemma some weeks ago after a majority of the Jefferson Elementary School community voted to change that school’s name because of Thomas Jefferson’s status as a man who kept African captives. The Berkeley School Board later decided to keep the school name, but not without agonizing over the decision. 

Oakland may some day—if it so chooses—face that same difficulty over its most famous favorite son, author Jack London. While Mr. London is best known for his writing (such as The Call of the Wild) and somewhat lesser-known as a socialist activist (which Oakland’s corporate community would like us to conveniently overlook), it is an open secret that Mr. London was almost certainly an open and unashamed racist during a period when the term had a clear and present meaning. 

Mr. London’s mostly-forgotten 1911 novel Adventure starts with the passage: “He was a very sick white man. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly-headed, black-skinned savage.” It gets worse. The novel’s black-stereotype contents prompted UC Berkeley’s digital library, where the entire book is posted, to include the notation in the link to the book: “Located in the Solomon Islands, this devastating portrayal of copra plantation slavery has scholars arguing whether London was criticizing the racism of the colonialists or approving of it.” 

We are reminded, again, of Mr. London’s views of the darker races of the world by the recent release—by Heyday Books of Berkeley and Santa Clara University—of a collection of Mr. London’s San Francisco Bay boys’ stories Tales of the Fish Patrol. In his foreword to the book, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jerry George notes, a little gingerly, it seems, that “Considering the atmosphere of Jack London’s times, it’s not surprising that the villains—cunning, conniving, and arrogant, perfect for youthful adventure—are Chinese and Greek fishermen. …[W]e cannot expect the stories to be written with 21st century sensibilities about ethnicity.” 

We will resist the temptation to debate Mr. George about what we might expect or not expect from writers of the early 20th century (after all, in the face of the raging anti-African propaganda that was sweeping the country 20 years before Mr. London’s birth and 60 years before the Fish Patrol stories were written, a little New England woman named Beecher Stowe managed to write a whole book that portrayed black people as whole human beings). 

But a glance at the first story in Tales of the Fish Patrol, “White and Yellow,” shows immediately what Mr. George was referring to. Unable to communicate with a group of Chinese shrimp-fishermen about the fact that their boat is about to sink, Mr. London has the main character, the 16-year-old hero, resort to child-like, Chinese-stereotype gibberish to try to get them to understand. “Allee same dlown, velly quick, you no bail now,” he tells them. “Sabbe?” 

(For those born in a different, more enlightened time and never exposed to this kind of oddly-written language, Mr. London’s character was mocking the fact that because there is no “r” sound in some Chinese languages, native speakers of those languages regularly substitute an “l” for an “r.” Many Africans were similarly ridiculed because they—we—came into this country during the slave trade often came from countries with no “th” in their language, and so they substituted a “d” for a “th.” And so Margaret Mitchell has the captive African Mammy ask Missy Scarlett, in Gone With The Wind, say the almost incomprehensible concerning the Tarleton twins, “Is de gempmum gone? Huccome you din’ ast dem ter stay fer supper, Miss Scarlett? Ah done tole Poke ter lay two extry plates fer dem.” 19th and 20th century authors often used the device to show ignorance in the darker races—how dumb of them that they can’t grasp our language is the subtext—but it is, of course, a cultural-physical phenomenon rather than a mental defect. Those who don’t learn these linguistic tricks in childhood most often find them impossible to pick up in later years. Native English speakers sound equally awkward trying to trill our r’s, and one wonders how that is portrayed in Spanish literature.) 

In any event I’m sure the merchants and shoppers in Oakland’s Chinatown would be highly offended if I walked the six or seven blocks from Jack London Square—where the author of Tales of the Fish Patrol is honored by the citizens of Oakland with a statue and other such stuff—and stood in front of one of the grocery markets and asked people to get out of my way “velly quick.” 

So does that mean that Oakland needs to rethink its honoring of Jack London based on a reappraisal of the anti-black, anti-Chinese, anti-dark-folk aspects of the author’s beliefs and work? Absolutely. If Jack London continues to deserve our honor, we should give it only with full knowledge of all of his public attributes, the bad as well as the good. Private matters such marital infidelity can be overlooked—President Dwight Eisenhower and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. come immediately to mind on that score—when these are things which our heroes attempted to keep hidden from public eye, and when they do not contradict the things for which the honored one is honored. But though Oaklanders have been doing a pretty good job of it, it is hard to pretend not to notice the sentiments that Mr. London prominently promoted in his books when it is for the writing of those books, alone, that he is being honored. 

But does that mean that Oakland should stop honoring Jack London? Not necessarily. (Since we are the children of the children of those times—and thus continue to carry the prejudices and the results of those prejudices with us—it would do some good to understand why a man like Jack London, who championed the little white guy against the “iron heel” of the American corporations did not seem to understand how the dark races and nations suffered equally under the “iron heel” of the European imperial powers of his day.) Or, for that matter, suffered under the prejudice of Mr. London’s own writings. What was it about him—or the times he lived in—that gave Mr. London such a blind eye? Answering such questions might give us some insight into our own lack of sight. 

A public dialogue on Mr. London’s prejudices might also lead to an understanding of how men like Tom Jefferson and George Washington were ready to sacrifice their lives to win democratic rights for the landed planters of Virginia and the merchants of Massachusetts, but did not believe that such “inalienable rights given by God” were also due to women and blacks and all people without property. 

Discussions of the long-hidden backsides of longtime honorees can be painful, of course. But if we want our heroes and heroines to be real men and women whose examples of struggle can be followed—rather than gods and goddesses merely to be worshipped—then such discussions are necessary. 



Witnesses sought 

The California Highway Patrol and six UC Berkeley students Thursday issued a call for more information about a fiery pre-dawn crash on July 16 that claimed the lives of three graduate students. 

The students were riding in a southbound 1995 Toyota that was struck by a tractor-trailer rig that swerved to miss another vehicle. 

Benjamin Boussert, 27, Giulia Addesso, 26, and Jason Choy, 29, were doing post-graduate studies in the university’s chemistry department. 

CHP spokesperson Officer Trent Cross said that a team of investigators had established that the crash may have been caused by “several vehicles that were being driven in a reckless or spectacular manner.” 

He declined to say how many and what might have been the characteristics of the vehicles witnesses observed, adding, “we want to preserve that aspect of the investigation.” 

Cross said investigators have located “many good witnesses, but we feel we have not heard from everyone who observed the crash or who might know who was involved.” 

He asked anyone with any information about the crash to contact the Highway Patrol at 1-800-CALLCHP. 

Pipe-basher 

Police arrested a 43-year-old woman at a residence in the 800 block of Page Street just after 3:30 p.m. Monday after she reportedly struck her male companion in the head with a metal pipe.  

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said the woman was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and spousal abuse. 

A real gas 

A caller tipped police that a man had just sprayed a woman with tear gas at the Subway sandwich shop in Shattuck Square about 9:19 Monday evening. Officers arrived in time to find the 30-year-old suspect still on the scene. 

He was booked on suspicion of illegally discharging a tear gas weapon, said Officer Okies. 

Rainbow robbery coalition 

A gang of four, including one Anglo man, a Hispanic man, an Asian woman and a dark-skinned woman described as “mixed-race” snatched the purse of a 32-year-old woman as she walked along Hearst Avenue near the corner of Fourth Street Tuesday evening. 

The four fled in a gray or silver import. 

Odiferous arson  

Police believe an arsonist may have set the blaze that flared up in a portable toilet at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School at 1701 Rose St. shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday. 

Productive stop 

When police stopped a suspiciously acting pedestrian in the 1700 block of University Avenue at 1 a.m. Wednesday, they discovered that the fellow was wanted on warrants. 

The burglary tools and narcotics paraphernalia they discovered in the subsequent search added two more charges to his rap sheet. 

Threatens three 

A 45-year-old man was arrested in the 3100 block of Fairview Street at 12:21 p.m. Wednesday after officers were summoned to the scene of a reported fight involving a man and three women. 

He was booked on suspicion of disturbing the peace, battery and making criminal threats to injure the three woman. His attempts to flee added yet another count. 

Deadly nugget in Urban Ore 

Workers at Berkeley’s Urban Ore thought there was nothing particularly special about the box of junk metal they bought from a woman early in the week, but when they started sorting through it just after noon Wednesday, they thought again. 

Inside the box they discovered an ominously familiar-looking object that resembled nothing so much as one of those old-fashioned “pineapple” hand grenades. 

An examination by Berkeley ordinance technicians confirmed their suspicions. 

After the bomb squad stabilized the device, Officer Okies said it was taken to a remote undisclosed location and detonated. 

After further investigation, no criminal charges were filed, said the officer. 

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As a Beth El representative on the parking committee for our new building, I have spent many hours working with LOCCNA about parking concerns and worked hard to come up with a plan that addressed those concerns. Over the years I have grown fond of many LOCCNA members. Many of us on each side of the table have listened respectfully to each other’s perspective.  

Gould and O’Malley’s criticisms of the final parking plan are unwarranted. The parking plan approved by the City of Berkeley provides for everything LOCCNA said they wanted—including numerous satellite spaces available at all times, a monitoring program and parking impact thresholds—obligations undertaken by no other religious institution in Berkeley. 

Our agreement with LOCCNA calls for us to “minimize” parking impacts in the neighborhood. LOCCNA’s current position (one that is not necessarily advocated by all LOCCNA members and certainly doesn’t represent the many neighbors who have nothing to do with LOCCNA) is that “minimize” means that no Beth El member should be able to park on the street. This is why, despite prior optimism about LOCCNA operating in good faith, I am sadly beginning to believe that at least some LOCCNA members do not want Beth El at that site under any circumstances. 

Some other important facts—Beth El has sufficient parking in the lot and frontage for about 50 cars, which, given those who walk, take public transportation, get dropped off and carpool, translates to about 150 people. Beth El rarely has more than 150 people at the building at one time. Furthermore, it is doubtful, even with events of over 150, that Beth El will use anywhere near 50 percent of the available spaces.  

The current site, where we have operated for about 60 years, is two and a half blocks away, has parking and frontage space for about 12 cars, yet street parking is available most Saturdays—when usage is greatest. Furthermore the new site will reduce problems caused by parents dropping off their children. They will be dropped off on Beth El property, not on the street. 

LOCCNA has accused Beth EL of not honoring agreements, which is not true, yet LOCCNA has violated the agreements they made. LOCCNA agreed not to oppose Beth El’s plans publicly until and unless there had been mediation. However they did not ask for mediation before the city approved the plan, nor did they do so before they put up lawn signs or before they orchestrated a PR campaign full of misinformation.  

We are looking forward to carrying our sacred Torahs to our new site on Sept. 9. We will to continue to be the best neighbors we can be from that day forward. We hope LOCNNA members will make the same commitment. 

Amy Oppenheimer is a Berkeley resident. 

A powerful minority of the KPFA staff is intent upon ousting General Manager Roy Campanella II, on the job less than a year. The last manager, Gus Newport, resigned after nine months in the position due to difficulties in working with the factionalized staff.  

Meanwhile, before Campanella became manager, and despite helping pay off the Pacifica Network’s national deficit left in the wake of the Mary Francis Berry take-over debacle, the station’s salaried staff was near doubled to 42 full-time employees. Expenditures are beyond income despite expanded fundraising efforts. Inevitably any general manager will have to make salaried staff cuts, increasing tensions. 

The effort to force out Campanella is led by a core group of paid unionized staff and includes key department heads. In June the dissident group presented a petition of no confidence with 78 signers (from about 300 staff) to the Local Station Board. Later, eight women in the group publicly claimed sexual harassment by Campanella. Since Aug. 12, the dissidents have aired their side of the controversy repeatedly. A San Francisco Chronicle article covered their filing with the state, quoting two managers who say they were harassed. An Aug. 15 Daily Planet article reported that the Local Station Board (LSB) had voted 15 to 5 not to fire Campanella, and quoted morning show co-host Phillip Maldari that the LSB was jeopardizing the station by not taking action.  

KPFA staff’s filing harassment charges with the state seems unprecedented given that the accusation against Campanella is mainly that he invited staff members on a one on one basis to share free pairs of tickets he regularly receives to newly released film screenings. These free pairs of tickets, according to Campanella, come to him regularly because of his past work as an independent film producer and director. The tickets can’t be given away so he’s always asking people around him if they want to share the tickets to new films. 

Campanella says he’s offered the tickets to many people at KPFA, including men and not so young women. But apparently some of the young female staff interpreted the offer quite differently. Others offered tickets have not complained.  

According to the complainants, when they confronted Campanella directly about his “inappropriate” behavior, he became irate and used their complaints as a basis for on the job retaliation. Campanella categorically denies those latter allegations. They appear to involve individual interpretations of tone of voice and body language rather than documented retaliatory behavior. Some in the dissident group, such as recently elected shop steward Sasha Lilley, have gone outside the station spreading the word on the street that their boss, Campanella, is a sexual harasser. On Aug. 16, in a rhetorical escalation Phillip Maldari accused me of supporting a “sexual predator” when I asked him if taking a sexual harassment issue to the state and federal governments might not also jeopardize KPFA. 

Many activist listeners who have been trying to assure more community input into reforming some of the antiquated internal processes at the station have a contrary view of what is going on as they watch the staff uprising unfold. These listeners view the effort as an attempt by some staff to block broader community input and open discussion of the station’s direction.  

According to Joe Wanzala, a member of the Local Station Board, "Roy is listening to people outside as well as within the staff. We feel the community needs to be engaged in expanding and reforming the station because of the way all kinds of diversity and progressive ideas are under attack in the corporate media and in the Government dominated environment. Campanella, whether or not he’s the perfect fit here, is at least trying to be open minded."  

An example of how much the dissenters have stymied Campanella in trying to evaluate the station’s problems is that despite being the general manager he has been unable to meet with many individuals on staff because they or their department heads resist it.  

“How can a news director be allowed to prevent the general manager from talking with news staff?" asks boardmember and chair of its News Subcommittee, Chandra Hauptman. "But this problem has deeper roots than Campanella,” she insists. “For example, the News department leaders won’t even permit a daily News Department staff meeting to discuss and prioritize the main stories of the day. This has been going on for years. Staff are just handed individual assignments by the department managers. Talk about lack of collectivity and open processes. Even the corporate media is more collaborative than that." 

The outcome of this crisis is far from certain. Campanella retains the support of the majority of the Local Station Board. Yet, the station remains ungovernable, largely under the control of the large dissident group and their strategy of non-cooperation with their boss. The mutiny threatens station function. And the dissidents believe they can and must run the station by locking out substantial elements of the left movement on the board and in the Bay Area, while building their own support base. With one sidedness in air coverage most listeners are baffled.  

KPFA listener activist groups on the other hand may end up solidifying behind a long smoldering view that many of the permanent staff have little respect for the activist community and care mainly for their own security. It is easy to imagine that a failure to find a workable middle ground might lead to a decline rather than expansion in KPFA’s quality, listener base and influence as the premier alternative radio station in the region, regardless of who comes out the victor.  

Certainly this station cannot operate without a high quality and diverse staff. Nor can it expand into broader ethnic and working class communities without integrating the sometimes raw critiques of its most dedicated listeners. Balancing the concerns of the regular staff with those of the politically active community and the need to resist the growing attacks on democracy in the U.S. is a huge challenge. Assuring changes in KPFA’s internal culture and creating a culture of openness, dialogue and conflict resolution would seem a prerequisite to other needed changes. But the going is very slow, as the concerted and personal attacks on Campanella seem to indicate.  

I was touched by Mr. Kennedy’s concern for affordable housing when, in addressing the Zoning Adjustments Board’s density bonus implementation subcommittee, he stated: “If the committee is interested in providing affordable housing,” he said, the committe e’s work “shouldn’t be done in the way of what is clearly the agenda of some people here who are interested in decreasing density” in the city (Berkeley Daily Planet, Aug. 5). 

I beg to differ: I believe that our common goal is preserve and enhance Berkeley’s commitment to affordable housing through the proper application of our community standards as expressed by our General Plan, Zoning Ordinance, and our Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. Mr. Kennedy’s goal, and one which he has had some success up until now, is to maximize his profit from cramming incredibly dense projects into selected neighborhoods through dissembling, subterfuge, and outright lies. Mr. Kennedy’s goals and strategies have at their core a deep cynicism and contempt for Berkeley’s commun ity standards shamelessly described in his own words in his presentation: “The Ten Commandments if Moses had been an infill developer” (from www.fundersnetwork.org/usr_doc/Patrick_Kennedy_Presentation.pdf) in which he presents his goals and outlines his s tratagems to: 

1. Increase allowable density. 

2. Reduce parking requirements. 

3. Reduce open space requirements. 

4. Reduce setback requirements. 

5. Encourage mixed-use projects, and allow them in areas zoned for commercial-use only. 

6. Get enabling l egislation from the state legislature to allow modification of local zoning ordinances, i.e. to do all of the above. (E.g. Ca. Gov. Code Sec. 65589.5). 

7. To avoid unnecessary controversy, begin by designating only one or two areas for high-density housi ng and locate it close to mass transit, in whatever form that may be. 

8. Identify the existing successes in the designated area—a landmark, institution, or local hot spot—and build around that. 

9. Encourage a multitude of smaller projects, different and finely grained, rather than one mega project. 

10. Do whatever it takes to get one project built; make sure it is a good one. 

This is the same developer who told my Berkeley Way neighborhood that the five-story wall of windows and 193-foot long shadows from his Kragens project next to our modest residential street is the result of our city’s requirement that all projects include at least some affordable housing; the same developer who invited our economically, racially, and generationally diverse neighb orhood to work together with him and his company to frustrate the expressed will of the city to include all of our population in all new housing projects. We declined then, and decline now. We at least believe that inclusionary housing can be built withou t destroying the quality of life in our livable Berkeley flatland neighborhoods adjacent to commercial districts.  

The question I have for Mr. Kennedy is, how many affordable units have you built in Piedmont recently? Or do your “commandments” apply only in poor and besieged flatland neighborhoods, where staff and elected officials are easily bullied by “Smart Growth” thugs? The question for the subcommittee is how do we reclaim our city from the damage that Mr. Kennedy and his ilk have already caused to our General Plan, Zoning Ordinance, and Inclusionary Ordinance?  

Stephen Wollmer is a member of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way. 

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Thank you for having the courage to publish the “Chemical Therapy Endangers Psychiatric Patients,” commentary in your Aug. 5 edition. It is a sad commentary on the state of so-called investigative journalism that articles affecting so many individuals are not reported, let alone investigated, by mainstream media.  

The fact that pharmaceutical companies spend more on direct lobbying, front groups, and political advertising than any other industry is old news. Revelations about “hidden” dangers or silencing of researchers who dare question whether a new or not-so-new drug really is “safe and effective” initially were more likely to appear in the business section of a newspaper than on the front page. These numerous revelations are beginning to raise suspicions in the public—at least with regard to medications that are not touted as remedies for mental illness. 

The risks associated with psychotropic medications continue to be minimized, while drug companies support a deliberate campaign to convince the public that persons who resist taking drugs do so, not because of the effects (or lack thereof) of the medication, but because the person lacks “insight.” Family members of persons diagnosed with mental illness, many of whom are the strongest supporters of forced drugging laws, are an important, if unwitting, force in this drug company funded campaign. 

(See Boston Globe reporter Robert Whitaker’s Mad in America for a sobering introduction to the pattern of deliberate deception, feeding of misleading reports to the media, conducting research with a knowing disregard for the subjects of that research, and the heavy conflicts of interest between “independent” researchers and their funders surrounding drug treatment for the mentally ill. Whitaker points out that the modicum of independent testing that previously existed was replaced in the late 1980s by for-profit clinical trials. Academic research had been replaced by for-profit research. Drug companies got more and more control over study design and therefore the results; clinical researchers and their research “institutions” got more and more money.) For a local angle, think of the recent Novartis UC Berkeley “partnership.”  

Tremendous weight gain, the significant increase in diabetes associated with the new anti-psychotics, the risks of seizures and perhaps suicide associated with new anti-depressants, the acknowledged risk of irreversible tardive dyskinesia and the fact muscle rigidity, movement disorders and a general lethargy and unpleasant feeling was present for almost every person taking traditional anti-psychotics, would be unacceptable to the FDA and certainly the public if the target population for the drugs was not labeled mentally ill. Warnings would at least be more prominent and risks and adverse events more prominently reported. Most significantly, persons who declined such “treatment” would not have their capacity to do so questioned. However, when it comes to mentally illness, instead of acknowledging the effects of this “treatment, ” other drugs are added to supposedly combat the effects of the psychotropics. While polypharmacy may not help the patient, it certainly helps the drug companies. 

The FDA’s mission is to protect public health… and speed innovations … With the passage of PDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act) in 1992 and its reauthorization in 1997 with the FDA Modernization Act, manufacturers (pharmaceutical companies) became explicit clients of the agency. (See Sec. 903 Food and Drug Administration.)  

Drug companies have deep pockets, but federal and state governments and those acting in a fiduciary capacity should be liable for harms caused by drugs that persons are forced or coerced to accept. In spite of the trickling reports of adverse consequences associated with psychotropics, there is clearly a missionary zeal to embrace the belief that these drugs are safe and that research methodologies and reports are unbiased. It’s much more palatable to believe that emotional “disease” and/or homelessness is the product of a “broken brain,” chemical imbalance, or genetic propensity, than to actually reflect upon the myriad causes of dis"ease"and the risks associated with this “treatment.”  

We are all on notice. While we can argue in good faith and conscience about the causes of suffering and human behavior, we should not permit willful blindness to allow us to force harmful treatments on others. We must ensure that all persons have the right to fully informed consent and that others, even those who claim to be using the latest scientific methods, do not determine the amount of risk that is acceptable to another. 

Kathie Zatkin is a Berkeley resident.

In her column of Aug. 2, Zelda Bronstein aptly referred to violations of the municipal code in the agreement between the city and UC but failed to suggest that there might be any other legal problems involved. Although I make no claim of expertise in this area, here are some thoughts on the matter. 

The settlement agreement of May 25 between the University of California and the City of Berkeley served to terminate the lawsuit that the city had brought in response to the environmental impact report of the new Long Range Development Plan of the university. The settlement involved, in part, the city effectively selling to the university (ostensibly for services) certain powers of municipal decision-making, including a veto capacity over land-use plans in the downtown until the year 2020. 

The city’s action of conferring power to UC appears to be in conflict with the city charter, which vests the city’s officials with exclusive responsibility for governance: “The council shall be the governing body of the municipality. It shall exercise the corporate powers of the city” (section 38) and “The City of Berkeley shall have the right and power to make and enforce all laws and regulations in respect to municipal affairs” (section 115). 

Nowhere in the charter are city officials authorized to delegate legislative or administrative powers to an extra-municipal party. If they were allowed to do so, then the City Council could give or sell zoning and planning powers to developers, real estate companies or anyone else.  

What the mayor and five members of the City Council did was transfer a quantity of formal power to a non-elected, non-accountable party outside of the city. The charter does not allow for the abrogation of civic autonomy by any means, including the delegation of sovereign powers. 

At the state level, it is questionable whether UC has the authority to establish a shared jurisdiction with a charter city. 

Another dubious facet of the settlement is that the residents and property owners of a substantial portion of District 4 (the downtown area) are to be subject to different authorities, standards and processes of planning and zoning than those in the other districts of Berkeley. This clearly constitutes a violation of their right to due process. 

Also, the settlement agreement appears to violate the California Environmental Quality Act. The settlement recognizes that the city is the lead agency for preparation of the Downtown Area Plan (DAP) and its environmental impact report, but then allows an outside agency, UC, to intervene extensively in the planning and execution of the EIR. It even allows UC to extort $15,000 per month if the city fails to complete its own Downtown Area Plan and EIR by an arbitrary deadline. 

The settlement states, “Any mitigation measures included in the EIR must be acceptable to UC Berkeley and applicable to all projects in the Downtown Area, regardless of ownership.” It seems to me very doubtful that CEQA would allow the city council to confer its responsibilities to another party. The settlement further states, “UC Berkeley reserves the right to determine if the DAP or EIR does not accommodate UC Berkeley development in a manner satisfactory to the Regents.” The settlement’s provisions that dispose the EIR analysis to conform to a pre-determined conclusion, regardless of the nature of the data or the public input, may well be in violation of CEQA. 

Dennis Walton serves as an aide to Councilmember Dona Spring. 

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I am a living, breathing interfaith experiment. I had a briss and a baptism; a confirmation and a bar-mitzvah. My family attended synagogue on Friday nights and went to church on Sunday. Raised by parents of separate faiths, my mother is a minister for the United Church of Christ and my father is a lay Jew. Starting with me, they decided to raise their children both religions, not just half and half. I don’t call myself a “halfie” or “half and half.” I would never want to get only half of two religions. My parents have insisted that I get the whole of both religions.  

I can hear you now. “How is that possible!? Didn’t you grow up confused? How could your parents do that to you?” Sure, growing up interfaith isn’t simple. As I’ve taken my faith into my own hands, I’ve started to realize the liturgical complexities of being both at the same time. Like, how does Jesus figure into my religious identity? That’s a very complicated question, one that I haven’t figured out how to integrate into my faith just yet. I have grown up feeling like I’m half in one religious community and half in another. I always thought my Sunday school compatriots knew I was a little weird; in Hebrew school I never felt like I belonged. They had it easy, I thought. Their parents told them who they were and they didn’t need to have questions about their “identity.” 

Regardless, it has been a blessing to grow up in a family that cares deeply about faith and religion in general. Without my parents’ insistence, I wouldn’t have had the privilege of wrestling with questions of faith and identity in our complex world. I am blessed to have been exposed to God’s majesty and feel instructed to do God’s work; blessed to have the access to the solace and comfort God’s grace provides during difficult times.  

Though I have had difficult integrating into specific religious communities, as an American and a dual-faith worshipper, I feel as if I belong. My upbringing is an essentially American experience. In Europe, for example, my parents would probably never have even thought of marrying. Outside of Western developed countries, one could assume my parents never would have even met! Cultural and ethnic identities are much stricter in other places in the world than in the United States. If you disagree, just look at current debates over immigration in France and Germany, or the struggles against extremism in the Mideast.  

But how can I talk about my experience? What vocabulary or metaphor works best to describe my religion? In school, we do learn how to describe diversity with metaphors. A popular and, I think, inadequate example is the “melting pot.” Mixing different kinds of metal into a melting pot creates a really ugly—probably brown—and useless metal. Sure, the metal is a well-mixed and uniform alloy, but the brilliance of gold and the flexibility of tin are lost in the smelting process. The strengths of American diversity—the vibrant personalities of cultural identities that make up our societal mixture—are dulled in the process, lost in the melting pot.  

With the rise of multiculturalism, a new metaphor has taken hold—the salad bowl. Much better, but not quite right. The melting pot was too industrial and metallic; a salad can be a wonderful dish with lots of interesting flavors and colors. The salad metaphor appealing and functional. When one makes a salad, adding lots of different parts makes it taste better, but each bit retains its good flavor—cranberries, feta cheese, spinach salad, garbanzo beans with a sharp raspberry vinaigrette. And a toasted baguette on the side, hmmm.  

A study of the children of immigrants, conducted six years ago among young Haitians, Cubans, West Indians, Mexican and Vietnamese in South Florida and Southern California, suggests that the salad bowl has its flaws. Asked by researchers how these children identified themselves, most chose categories of hyphenated Americans. Though they are Americans, few choose “American” as their identity. What holds the salad bowl together? What makes a group of appealing and very different parts into a single national character? One might answer, “it’s the dressing!” However, I’m still uncomfortable leaving our national identity to a topping. 

The melting pot does have the strength of suggesting a general mixing of the population marked by religious, ethnic and cultural differences. But my status as a Jew and a Christian doesn’t make me a mix of brown ugliness, but two energetic parts. The salad bowl has the strength of keeping each identity intact so that we can experience the richness of our diversity. Both of these metaphors are taking place inside of me. The melting pot is a part of who I am—I’m smelting my two religions together. The salad bowl is taking place inside me—I’m putting two awfully tasty vegetables together. But neither quite gets it, but they do bring us closer to what we’re looking for. Americans have struggled since the Revolution to combine our unmatched diversity into a cohesive character that doesn’t ignore the importance of each individual part. 

Finding a way to celebrate diversity and describe a cohesive American identity is all but impossible. We are beginning, however, to find a way to put it all together. One of the best examples of a new way to think about diversity is the junior senator from Illinois—Sen. Barak Obama. He’s the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. Obama grew up around the Pacific Rim, from Indonesia to Hawaii, a set of locales that increased his exposure to the world’s cultures. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, an editor of the Washington Monthly, writes of him, “What was perhaps most brilliant about Obama’s speech at the convention, and indeed about much of his campaign, was the way in which he revamped his unusual, foreign-seeming biography so that it fit the central American political myth, the ascent from the Log Cabin, with a post-racial 21st-century spin.”  

The way that Obama manages to talk about his life in a way that presents himself as the quintessential American, even though he grew up in Hawaii and was born to Kenyan man and white woman, addresses exactly the same problem of choosing either the salad bowl or the melting pot. People love the taste of his personality, in its richness and diversity. At the same time, voters can feel how his experience—the salad bowl of his upbringing and career—fit into a full and unified identity.  

“A post-racial 21st century spin.” Cute, but not quite right. The fact that Barak Obama has a successful way of portraying himself to the American public is not post-racial; it is successful because it is racial. The power of his candidacy is that he stays our fears about the melting pot and salad bowl, white folks feel more comfortable with his blackness and black folks feel comfortable with his whiteness. He walks, he sprints, along the lines of racial division without withdrawing the racial component of his candidacy. He is both races at once rather than neither race. Wallace-Wells gets it later on in the article when he writes, “Masterfully, Obama had used race to unite.” As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said 40 years ago and Barak Obama is living today, Americans “are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.” 

Racial identity and religious identity, critics may say, are different categories altogether. We choose religion and born a particular race. Religious identity, however, is as much as cultural experience as racial identity. Being born Episcopal links you to the culture and identity of that religion. As much as our sons and daughters try to run from their religious identities, they will always be linked and will likely return to their roots. Equally powerful are the cultural implications of race. Ever heard of a Black or Asian parent telling their child that they’re acting White? Running away from your racial or religious heritage are equally difficult. As a tool of analysis, we can consider that racial and religious identities are close enough.  

It’s a wonderful talent Obama has, and I’m trying to learn from him as I try to constitute my dual-faith experience as a whole rather than separate parts. I’ve never liked the feeling of holding onto two separate and different identities. As I’ve gotten older, I have been able to gain some perspective over the problems with my identity at Hebrew School and in Sunday school. I’ve realized how much that my experience was rooted in my own distress with who I was, rather than not being allowed to fit in. Though I have made progress toward a more unified religious identity, I am not done wrestling with the two-sided-ness of my experience. 

The tension between identity and diversity, one of those hard questions about America, has hit me particularly hard. I am still searching for a way to make my faith walk the line between Christianity and Judaism, so that I can be both at once. I wouldn’t want to divorce the tradition of either of my parents. Though it has sometimes been a difficult and frustrating burden, I am learning to respect and appreciate the responsibility that my upbringing gives me in my life. I am an experiment in religious cohesion and the American experience. 

The way I learn to deal with the blessed both-ness that God has given me will, God-willing, be helpful to a world racked with religious strife. It already has allowed me to confront and penetrate the American experiment, to engage more deeply in the promise of America. To a world stricken by the deadly battle between religious extremisms, interfaith worship and dialogue provides a value-rich counterpoint to an agenda of war and broken religion. I am excited to be a part of that conversation. 

As for an effective way of thinking about American diversity, the closest I can come to a functioning metaphor is the concept of the ethnic stew where all the ingredients are mixed in a sort of goulash where different kinds of meat and vegetables still keep their solid structure. What I like about this metaphor is the broth flavours each bit and each part keep their singularity as well. Oh, I can hear the criticisms now. What about the vegetarians?  

Americans will continue to rethink who we are, and we would be half as mysterious and interesting if a simple food metaphor could explain us. I feel similarly about myself. Asking questions about who I am or what religion I am is what life is all about anyway. 

Isaac Goldstein is a Berkeley resident

The first Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival, “A Celebration of Latin Jazz,” presented by The Jazz School (on Allston Way) is in full swing and gearing up for the weekend. With 15 stages throughout downtown for 40 events (the festival ends Sunday), including music, dance, poetry and culinary arts, festivity’s abounding. 

The festival’s focus is on Afro-Caribbean (Cuban and Puerto Rican) and Brazilian music and culture, specifically. 

“We realized ‘Latin Jazz’ is an ambiguous term. What is it?” said Susan Muscarella of The Jazz School, the festival’s director. “I originally wanted to title it ‘Una Celebracion De La Jazz Latino,’ but of course that would’ve left out the Brazilians! So we settled on ‘A Celebration of Latin Jazz,’ to avoid a clash between Spanish and Portuguese titling.”  

A advisory committee of 10 experts, including teachers, musicians and DJs, narrowed the program down to the two styles, she said. 

“It’s not just ‘Latin Jazz’ and any old thing,” Muscarella said. “We have a wonderful mix of musicians at both The Jazz School and the festival, a great pool of some of the best in the world in these styles, right here in the Bay Area. And we hope to cover all the bases.”  

“The festival is an extension of the community outreach of The Jazz School, promoting the city, especially downtown, through the arts.” she said. 

She added that Audi, the major sponsor, deserved praise for getting the festival off the ground. 

“We may be the first event of our type to embrace all of downtown, rather than just a block or so,” Muscarella said. “There are hundreds of businesses, and we involve several dozen, spread across downtown. Our goal has been to involve as many businesses as possible. We bit off a lot for our first time and we’ll be back, with a focus on a different style of Jazz. Maybe, ‘The Children of Hard Bop’?” 

Musicians will play at a wide variety of venues, including such standbys of jazz as Anna’s Jazz Island (at her new location in the Gaia Building), La Note and Downtown Restaurant, as well as Jupiter and other cafes and eateries. 

“We wanted to get bodies into businesses,” said Muscarella. “A street fair alone doesn’t get them in the door.” 

There are noontime shows at Berkeley BART, “with such players and groups as Wayne Wallace and Fourth Dimension, Marcos Silva and Intersection, John Santos—all with quite a following around the Bay,” said Jayne Sanchez, Jazz School publicist and host of “Jazz Oasis” on KCSM. 

“We’ve let the festival set the tone for August, emphasizing Latin Jazz groups before the festival’s start,” said Anna De Leon of Anna’s Jazz Island. She opened her new club, at 2120 Allston Way, 10 weeks ago. 

On her new location, near BART and the UC Campus, she said, “I’m thrilled to be downtown! It’s wonderful to be in the Gaia Building. With tropical decor, a full bar and a new Bose sound system, we can comfortably seat 88 with all focussed on the music. It’s not a recital hall or a huge cavern, but a club, a nice intimate space to hear jazz.” 

“We’re open to any correlated arts,” said Muscarella. For instance, California Poet Laureate Al Young is scheduled to read, along with other writers, at the Berkeley Library Saturday. And the Act 1 & 2 cinemas will screen Louis Malle’s 1957 first feature, Elevator to the Gallows, with Jeanne Moreau and a jazz score, improvised by Miles Davis, introduced by poet Michael Shepler. 

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“A Celebration of Latin Jazz” begins runs through the weekend. This year’s festival features jazz and film, poetry, dance and food celebrating Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian music and culture. 

Anna’s Jazz Island 

2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ or 845-5515, www.annasjazzisland.com. 

Weber Iago Trio, Friday, Aug. 19, 8 p.m. $7. 

Snake Trio, Saturday, Aug. 20, 8 p.m. $7. 

Carlos Oliveira and Brazilian Origins, Sunday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. $5. 

Berkeley BART Station Plaza  

Shattuck Avenue between Allston and Center. Marcos Silva and Intersection, Friday, Aug. 19, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 

John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Saturday, Aug. 20, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 

Urban Latin Jazz Project with Special Guest Pete Escovedo, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Free. 

L atin Percussion Petting Zoo Workshop: Learn how to play Latin percussion instruments with Curt Moore, Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-noon and 1:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Free. 

Berkeley Public Library  

2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241, www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. 

Trio Pa radiso, Friday, Aug. 19, 8 p.m. Free. 

Poetry by Al Young (California’s Poet Laureate), dartanyan brown, Francisco Alarcon, Lucha Corpi, Lucille Lang Day, Adam David Miller, George Davis. Saturday, Aug. 20, 4 p.m. Free. 

Citibank 

2000 Shattuck Ave. 849-075 4, www.calfed.com. 

Ben Stolorow Duo, Aug. 19, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 

Landmark’s Act 1 & 2 

464-5980. 2128 Center St. 

Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’chafaud). Reissue of Louis Malle’s 1958 French thriller, with jazz score by Miles Davis. Nightly shows, Friday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 25. Matinees on Saturday and Sunday).  

Downtown Restaurant 

2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810, www.downtownrestaurant.com. 

Guitarist and Vocalist Rolando Morales, Friday, Aug. 19, 9-10 p.m.  

Que Calor, 10:15 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $40. 

Rebeca Mauleon Sextet, Saturday, Aug. 20, 9 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $40. 

Maria Marquez, Sunday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $35. 

Farmers’ Market  

Milvia Street between Center and Allston. 548-333 3, www.ecologycenter.org. 

Jessica Neighbor and the Hoods “Cookin’ at the Market,” Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 

Jazzschool 

2087 Addison St. 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

John Calloway and Diaspora, Friday, 8-10 p.m. Free. 

Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Saturday, 8-10 p.m. Tickets $18/$15/$12. 

Jovino Santos Neto Trio, Sunday, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tickets $20. 

Jupiter 

2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-8277, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

Cuarteto Sonondo, Friday, Aug. 19, 3-6 p.m. Free. 

Wayne Wallace Latin Big Ban d, Friday, Aug. 19, 8-11 p.m. 

The Rio Thing, Saturday, Aug. 20, 3-6 p.m. Free. 

Mas Cabeza, Saturday, Aug. 20, 8-11 p.m. Free. 

Shattuck Down Low 

2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. 

Fito Reynoso, Friday, Aug. 19, 10 p.m. 

Mingus Amungus, Saturday, Aug. 20 10:15 p.m. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $7.50-$20. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

Bay Ensemble’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Kinell Hall, behind Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1744 University Ave. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 658-8835. 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Nicholas Nickleby” Part 2 at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666.  

“Livin’ Fat” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, through Aug. 26. Tickets are $15-$25. 332-7125. 

The Marsh Berkeley “When God Winked” by Ron Jones. Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Building, 2120 Allston Way, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$22. 800-838-3006.  

FILM 

Cinema in Occupied France: “La Nuit fantastique” at 7:30 p.m. and “Douce” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Latin Jazz Festival: John Calloway and Diaspora, lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Festival: Marcos Silva and Intersection at noon at the Berkeley BART Station. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Ben Stolorow Duo at 4 p.m. at Citibank, 200 Shattuck Ave. 849-0754.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Weber Iago Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Steve Erquiaga and Trio Parasiso at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library. Free. 981-6241. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Wayne Wallace at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Que Color at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Frito Reynoso at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

Palenque, traditional Cuban music, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. 

Full Moon, Full Voice, song and chant with Betsy Rose and Francesca Genco at 7:15 p.m. at Vara Healing Arts Center, 850 Talbot St. (enter though courtyard in back), Albany. Donation $10-$15. 525-7082. 

George Kuo, Martin Pahinui, Aaron Mahi, Hawaiian music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Vowel Movement, vocal percussion, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-12. 525-5054.  

Clairdee at 7 p.m. at Maxwell’s 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. 

Ilene Adar and Megan Barton at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Val Esway & Mirage at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Partyline, Origami, Paper Lanterns, Make Me at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Eddie Palmieri with Giovanni Hidalgo, El Negro, Brian Lynch, and others at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s through Sun. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 

CHILDREN 

Latin Percussion Petting Zoo at the Berkeley Bart Station from 11 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 2 p.m.  

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, labor day perf. Sept. 5. Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Oakland-East Bay Shakespeare Festival “Much Ado About Nothing” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt, corner of Perkins and Bellevue, through Aug. 28. Free. 415-865-4434. www.sfshakes.org 

FILM 

“Flamenco: A Personal Journey” a documentary film by Tao Ruspoli at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

Cinema in Occupied France: “Groupi Mains Rouge” at 7 p.m. and “Le Corbeau” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Al Young, California’s Poet Laureate, at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Bob Baker, author of “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook” at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. Donation $5-$10. 644-2204.  

Geoff “Double G” Gallegos, founder and conductor of daKAH Hip Hip Orchestra at 1 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jessica Neighbor & The Hoods “Cookin’ at the Market” at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. and MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Latin Jazz Festival: Ben Stolorow Duo at 11 a.m. at Citibank, 200 Shattuck Ave. 849-0754. 

Latin Jazz Festival: John Santos and the Machete Ensemble at noon at the Berkeley BART Station.  

Latin Jazz Festival: JRay Obiedo and the Urban Latin Jazz Project at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station.  

Latin Jazz Festival: The Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Latin Jazz Festival: Mas Cabeza at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Rebecca Mauleon Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Asylum Street Spankers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, roots country and west coast bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mingus Amungus at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Fourtet Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Doug Blumer, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

P.D.A., The Rosenbombs, The Dangers, The Spark at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 

FILM 

Cinema in Occupied France: “Safe Conduct” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jazz Spoken Word Sponsored by The Jazz House at 6 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 415-846-9432. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Hip Science: The Human Body 101 Live” musical theater combining rap and hip hop and science at 3 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $7-$10. 655-8078. www.hiplearning.com 

Midnight Star at 3 p.m. at Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park, 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Ace of Spades Acoustic Series with Alela Menig, Parker Frost, Judith & Holofernes at 1 p.m. at MamaBuzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. Free, all ages.  

Chris Rowan and friends at 5 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $7. All ages. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org  

Viviana Guzman, tango music, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin Jazz Festival: Carlos Oliveira & Brazilian Origins at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Latin Jazz Festival: Maria Marquez Quartet at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Jovino Santos Neto Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Shweta Jhaveri, lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m., concert at 9:15 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8-$10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Todd Boston at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

King of Kings, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Americana Unplugged with The Whiskey Brothers at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

MONDAY, AUGUST 22 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Express with Eugene David at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Taylor’s Friends Forever, Sixes, Ultra Boyz and Universal Baltimore at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 510-44GRAND. 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Sovoso, CD release concert, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23 

CHILDREN 

P&T Puppet Theater at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature: “13 Lakes” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Pamela Cranston reads from “Coming to Treeline: Adirondack Poems” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-3635. 

Sara Halprin talks about “Seema’s Show: A Life on the Left” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Riley LaShea discusses the role of women in fairytales and reads from her new novel, “Bleeding Through Kingdoms: Cinderella’s Rebellion” at 7 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 655-2405. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Gg and Ralph Dranow at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Noel Jewkes Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Howard Barkan Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Calvin Keys Trio, CD release concert, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Danny Caron at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only: “13 Frightened Girls” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chuck Klosterman explores rock star demise in “Killing Yourself to Live” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Little Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Outbound Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mitch Marcus Quintet, 13 Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 25 

THEATER 

Magical Arts Ritutal Theater, “Equus” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $25. 523-7754. www.ticketweb.com 

FILM 

Latino Film Festival “The Storytellers” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Louis Malle: “God’s Country” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Word Beat Reading Series with Diana Q. & Patricia Edith at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Karashay: Chirgilchin & Stephen Kent Lecture/demonstration on Tunvan Throat Singing at 8 p.m., concert at 9:15 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Fiddle Summit at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jason Davis Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Abel Moulton and The Tastemakers, The Radishes, The Fuxedos at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Kenny Burrell Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Selector, laptop funk, beat machines, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26 

THEATER 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Nicholas Nickleby” Part 2 at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Impact Theater “Nicky Goes Goth” at 8 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, through Oct. 1. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

“Livin’ Fat” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, through Aug. 26. Tickets are $15-$25. 332-7125. 

Magical Arts Ritutal Theater, “Equus” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $25. 523-7754. www.ticketweb.com 

The Marsh Berkeley “When God Winked” by Ron Jones. Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Building, 2120 Allston Way, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$22. 800-838-3006. www.themarsh.org  

FILM 

Louis Malle: “Au reviour les enfants” at 7 p.m. and “Atlantic City” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Nika Rejto Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Wake the Dead at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Lua at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Anna Maria Flechero, singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Maxwell’s 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. www.maxwellslounge.com 

Lee Waterman Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Damond Moodie, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Tom Freund at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Akimbo, Lords, Ass End Offend, Paint Out the Light, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

London Street and Baby James at 10 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Bitches Brew at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Kenny Burrell Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

a

On a recent Wednesday morning at 11:45, two pickup trucks and a station wagon had already pulled into the drive in front of the Berkeley Tool Lending Library at the corner of Russell and Martin Luther King Way. 

Adam Broner, who maintains the library, and Bud Burleson, a retired city electrician who is filling in that day, wheeled out several containers holding an assortment of shovels, posthole diggers and other garden tools. On the wall Burleson hung the pole saws and below them he arranged several aluminum step ladders. 

When Broner opened the two doors to the library, another busy day began. Some patrons came in returning tools, others were checking them out. Broner checked library cards and IDs while answering the phone that never seemed to stop ringing. Burleson tried to find a minute to attend to the ongoing job of sharpening a few tools. 

Even though folks are often lined up several deep, Broner, who has been working at the tool library for 14 years, manages to be full of good humor and ready to dispense advice. 

“This time of year, our garden tools are most in demand. In fact, I’m going to order some new weed eaters. We just can’t keep up with the demand,” he said.  

But garden tools make up a small part of the inventory. There’s a big assortment of carpentry and woodworking tools, just about everything you might need for a concrete or masonry project, equipment to lay a floor, put up a wall, and even equipment for electrical work or solving a plumbing and drainage problem.  

Broner said that over 5,000 tools go out each month. “Once I figured that added up to 2.37 tools per patron,” he said, laughing. 

Charlie Bowen, with the Berkeley Path Wanderers group, does her share to increase that average. If it’s late in the week, you might run into her loading up the trunk of her car with as many as 10 garden tools—the borrowing limit. The tools will be handed out to the volunteers who work together most weekends in the arduous—but satisfying—task of carving out usable pathways on the unimproved public pathways that link streets in the Berkeley hills. 

Broner has help to meet all these diverse needs. He works with several other tool library employees: Angel Entes, a cabinet maker, Robert Young and Jason Armstrong. 

“Together we add up to just over two full time employees,” he said. 

The tool lending library has come a long way since 1979 when it was started by Pete McElligott in a trailer. He worked by himself for 10 years, originally operating under a federal grant. Now the library has expanded into its permanent building and is funded by property taxes like the rest of the library system. 

The place is not just about tools. The shelves to the right when you come in are stacked with copies of Fine Homebuilding magazine and another shelf of binders contain information on other subjects. If you can’t find what you want there Broner can direct you to publications available at the South Branch Library a few steps away. 

The tool lending library itself is open five days a weeks: Saturday and Tuesday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday noon to 7:30 p.m., Friday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Along with a Berkeley Public Library card and a photo ID, you’ll need some kind of proof that you’re a Berkeley resident (a recent utility bill will do). Depending on the tool, tools are loaned for either three or seven days.  

Unlike the more muted atmosphere in the branch library next door, the tool lending library is always bustling and sometimes noisy. Patrons swap stories, and advice is passed back and forth. “What’s the best way to unplug the toilet fast?” 

Broner can probably best be described as having a full plate. In addition to the 25 hours a week he spends at the lending library, he is also the preparer for the Berkeley Art Center at Live Oak Park and is presently hanging a new exhibit. In his “spare time” he is building a sound studio for some local musicians. 

Through a long-time patron, Gil Ferrey, Broner heard about the Berkeley Rotary project helping to build a public library in Chacala, a fishing village on the west coast of Mexico. Broner volunteered his time to set up a tool library, beginning with tools mostly donated by the local Rotarians. 

“Once I was back in the Bay Area, I thought often about their tool library, wondering how it was doing,” Broner said. “When I returned the next spring the number of tools had almost doubled, and a young guy who was apprenticing to become an auto mechanic had volunteered to keep the tools in good repair.”  

When the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library (a group of dedicated volunteers who raise funds for library with their two bookstores) got wind of the project, they helped fund his trip to Mexico. 

Phila Rogers is a Friends of the Berkeley Library board member. 

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 

Conscientious Projector Film Series “The Future of Food” at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Discussion to follow with Prof. Ignacio Chapela. 528-5403. 

Arts and Crafts Cooperative, Inc. Seconds Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Aug. 21 at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. 

Berkeley Chess Club at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

Women in Black Vigil noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:30 a.m. in the Sproul Conference Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.org 

Berkeley Path Wanderers in Joaquin Miller Park, where Joaquin Miller, “Poet of the Sierras,” lived from 1886 to 1913, planting today’s redwood groves and building fanciful monuments. Meet at 10 a.m. at the ranger station. From Rt. 13, take Joaquin Miller Rd. uphill 1 mi to Sanford; go left (north) to the Ranger Station. Bring water and snack for this moderate hike. 549-2908. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Introduction to Bio-intensive Gardening We will discuss and give hands-on demonstrations of garden design and planning, hand cultivation of vegetable, flower and fruit garden beds, home composting and soil management, seedling propagation and transplanting, and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm near the El Cerrito Plaza Bart station. Bring a bag lunch and cup for refreshments. Cost is $60. 707-367-2567. plant_veggies@yahoo.com 

Chabot Space and Science Center Anniversary with festivities from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat. and to 4 p.m. on Sun. 336-7300. www.chabotspace.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours  

Richmond Seedlings and “Weedlings” Join a fun group of volunteers to transplant seedlings in our native plant nursery, and pull a few “weedlings” to help with the restoration of West Stege Marsh. From 9 a.m. to noon. Pre-registration required; youth under 18 will need a waiver signed by their parent or guardian. Sponsored by the Watershed Project. 665-3645. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

“The Global Backyard: Nature, Fire Safety and Green Materials” a slide show and talk with Robin Freeman, Chair of the Merritt College Environmental Program, at 4:30 p.m. at Rabbitears, 303 Arlington Ave. $20 suggested donation. 525-6155. 

Brooks Island Voyage Paddle the rising tide across the Richmond Harbor Channel to Brooks Island. For experienced boaters who can provide their own canoe or kayak, and safety gear. For ages 14 and up. Cost is $20-$23. 636-1684. 

Salem Lutheran Home Summer Festival with live entertainment, BBQ, handmade quilt show and sales, baked goods and more. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2361 East 29th St., Oakland. Benefits dementia programs. 434-2811. 

Berkeley Cybersalon with Dave Winer, author of Scripting News, inventor of RSS, progenitor of podcasting, and host of the OPML Roadshow, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Dinner is from 8:30 to whenever. Cost for dinner is $20.  

Garage Sale to benefit the Northbrae Community Church, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 941 The Alameda. Items include furniture, kitchenware, china, toys, car seats, children’s clothes, electronics, and many, many books. 526-3805.  

“What Girls Should Know About Puberty” with Mary Arnold, women’s health nurse practitioner, for girls ages 8-14 accompanied by an adult, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck, lower level. Cost is $50 per child. Registration required. 595-3814. 

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes, a Julia Morgan landmark, at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley. Reservations required 228-3207. 

Oakland Outdoor Cinema “Some Like it Hot” at 8 p.m. on Washington St. between 9th and 10th Sts. Limited seating, bring chairs and blankets. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

“Heal Your Back, Straighten Your Spine” with Jay Bunker, chiropractor, at 3 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. at 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 

Guided Trails Challenge Hike at Point Pinole from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to discover this area’s explosive and peaceful past. For information call 525-2233. 

Bay Trail Exploration A nine-mile afternoon stroll from downtown Oakland to the Coliseum to see wetlands, waterfronts and community art, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Greenbelt Alliance. For information call 415-543-6771, ext. 321. www.greeneblt.org 

Ducksan Distones, a 12+ piece jazz assortment, featuring Donald “Duck” Bailey, perform bright new originals & vocal standards, served with delicious home style BBQ. From 4 to 8 p.m. at Rooster's Roadside, 1700 Clement Avenue, Alameda. Cost is $12 adults, $10 children. 337-9190. 

Honoring Father Bill O’Donnell with guest speaker Dolores Huerta at 1:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. 658-2467. www.berkeleyboca.org 

Social Action Forum with Virginia Handley, a lobbyist for animals, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Lama and Filmmaker Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche will speak at 7 p.m. at the Malonga Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Benefits New Dharma Meditation Center and UrbanPEACE. Tickets are $20. 547-3733. www.newdharma.com  

Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park with Midnight Star at 3 p.m. at 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Learn how to do a bicycle safety inspection at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Bike Tour of Oakland A leisurely-paced tour covering the history of Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance of the Oakland Museum of California. Registration required, 238-3514. 

“Hip Science: The Human Body 101 Live” musical theater combining rap, hip hop and science at 3 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $7-$10. 655-8078. www.hiplearning.com 

Wolfin’ Down Books, a summer reading program finale celebration for children and families from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

MONDAY, AUGUST 22 

Sufi Teaching and Zikr presented by M.T.O.Shahmaghsoudi at 7 p.m. at the M.T.O. Center, 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite 101. RSVP to 704-1888. 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

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

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for our reptile friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Groundbreaking Ceremony of West Street Right of Way Improvements Project for Bikeway and Pedestrian Path between University and Delaware at 2 p.m. in Berkeley Way Mini Park, 1294 Berkeley Way. 981-6396, 981-7534.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

Tai Chi for Health and Long Life from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult. We’ll look for our reptile friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Aggression in Dogs: Safety Solutions for You and Your Pets” Learn how to prevent dog agression in your home, and how to avoid it in the community. From 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

Bus Riders Meeting on Van Hool Buses with Jim Gleich, Assist. GM of AC Transit, at 7 p.m. at Shattuck Senior Homes, 2425 Shattuck Ave. All welcome. 655-7508. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Breema: The Art of Bring Present” With Angela Porter at 4:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

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

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

Kundalini Yoga for All Ages at 2:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley BART station followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 25 

85th Anniversary of the Passage of the 19th Amendment Community Luncheon with Professor Cynthia Gorney, Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UCB at 11:30 a.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel, Berkeley Marina. Tickets $65. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 843-8824. http://lwvbae.org  

“Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide” a lecture and slide show with John Muir Laws at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave., behind the Lutheran Church between Grant and McGee. Meetings are fully accessible and open to the public. 845-5513. 

Activism Series on 9/11 truths and strategies for social change at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. 528-5403. 

Protest Rally at Berkeley Honda every Thurs. at 4:30 p.m. and Sat. at 1 p.m.  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu›

The two sides in a battle over a proposed movie cineplex and multi-story parking garage project in downtown Alameda both agree that more parking is needed in the city’s downtown area, and the 77-year-old Alameda Theater should be restored. They just don’t agree that the $23.7 million Historic Alameda Theater Rehabilitation Project is the way to do it. 

The issue comes to a head tonight (Tuesday) at 6:10 p.m. when the five-member Alameda City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on an appeal of a Planning Board decision to approve the rehabilitation project. The appeal was requested by residents Ani Dimusheva and Valeria Ruma. The hearing will be held during the council’s meeting in City Council Chambers, 2263 Santa Clara Ave. in Alameda. 

The parking-theater complex is proposed for the corner of Central Avenue and Oak Street in the heart of Alameda’s downtown Civic Center area, less than a block from the main business strip of Park Street and within walking distance of City Hall. City officials consider the old theater restoration and cineplex and parking garage construction as one project, listing all of them together in one link on the city’s website. 

“We want the city to call a halt to the project,” said retired Highland Hospital psychiatric medical social worker Jenny Curtis, an Alameda resident who supports the appeal. “We want them to rethink it, and to proceed with the restoration of the theater and the solving of the parking problem in a more sensible way. We don’t think the answer is in the enormous buildings that they’ve planned. We believe the citizens have been hoodwinked.” 

Curtis said that an ad hoc coalition is prepared to present petitions at tonight’s hearing “signed by an enormous number of citizens and people who work in Alameda who are opposed to the project.” 

The marquee and external facade of the historic Alameda Theater look much the same way as it did when it opened in 1932, designed by Timothy L. Pflueger, the same San Francisco architect who designed Oakland’s Paramount Theater. 

But while the Paramount continues to support live performances and specialty films in a restored interior, the Alameda Theater closed as a cinema outlet in 1979. Since then, alterations for various non-cinema uses—including a roller rink and a gymnastics center—have left the theater without the characteristic sloped floors and with holes knocked in the art deco ceiling to support added lighting. 

Last May, Alameda City Council voted 5-0 to acquire the theater through eminent domain. The city plans to retain ownership of the original theater, but will lease it for operation by theater remodeler Kyle Conner of Santa Rosa. In addition, the city plans to build a seven-screen cinema next door to the original theater. Films will be shown in both the historic and multi-screen portions of the theater complex, with the entranceway and lobby of the original theater serving as the gateway for both parts of the venue. 

The developer-operator is expected to invest $9 million of his own money into the theater project. 

Next door to the multi-plex theater building on Oak Street, the city plans construction of a six-level, 350-space parking garage. 

Leslie Little, Development Services Director for the city of Alameda, said that the purpose of the combined project is to restore the historic theater to its original use, and to provide services for Alameda residents and businesses. 

“Several years ago, the community set two priorities for the downtown area,” she said by telephone. “One of them was to build a parking structure to increase parking opportunities. The other was the restoration of the theater, which is such a gem, and needs to be saved for the use of the community.” 

Alameda committed itself to carrying out these goals, Little said, pointing to the mission of the Historic Alameda Rehabilitation Project. 

“The cineplex was included only to help offset the costs of this project, which are going to be considerable,” she said. “The cineplex will help provide some of the operation support for the electrical and water bills, maintenance costs and staffing which will be needed to keep the theater open. Without that offset, the city would have to find a way to come up with the costs ourselves.” 

That was not enough to convince Alameda residents Dimusheva and Ruma, who appealed the June 27 Planning Board approval of the garage portion of the project. Curtis said she hopes that the hearing will allow opponents to the project to present their views on the entire restoration and construction project. 

“We’re objecting to both the size and the aesthetics of the garage and cineplex,” Curtis said. “The Alameda is a magnificent building in the art deco style, but the proposed new buildings are hideous, concrete, modern structures that are incompatible with the historic nature of the area that we are trying to preserve. The basic design is inappropriate. The first time many of us looked at artist’s renditions we said ‘My God! This is horrible!’ We were shocked and stunned.” 

Curtis said the operation of a cineplex theater is financially risky, “and if this thing doesn’t work out, the Alameda taxpayers are going to have to foot the entire bill.” 

“We know the downtown area needs to change,” added Curtis, who describes herself as a preservationist. “We’re not the kind of people who want to keep everything the same. But we believe that these changes can take place without raping the downtown.”

Released from jail and with no charges pending against him, the 56-year-old Oakland man accused in the 1970 shooting death of a Berkeley police officer continued to insist on his innocence in a telephone interview with the Daily Planet and protested his treatment at the hands of Berkeley police. 

Berkeley Police officer Ron Tsukamoto was shot and killed on University Avenue by a single gunman in the early morning hours in August 1970. A witness to the shooting provided police with details that led to the creation of an artist’s sketch of the alleged killer. The witness died several years later in an auto accident. 

Last week, retired Oakland educator Styles Price was arrested by Berkeley police for Tsukamoto’s murder. A second man, 56-year-old Don Graphenreed, was also arrested and accused of driving the getaway car. 

Berkeley police say they believe a third man, Price’s brother Philip, acted as the lookout in the murder. Philip Price currently owns a home and operates a business in Mexico, where he has been living for more than a year. 

The Alameda County district attorney’s office declined to bring charges against Price and Graphenreed, but Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Morris Jacobson said the decision “wasn’t the fault of Berkeley police.” 

While he declined to go into the specifics, the prosecutor praised Berkeley detectives for their efforts. 

“The Berkeley Police Department has done an excellent job of investigation,” Jacobson said. “One of the key problems with resolving the 35-year-old murder case is that both bystander eyewitnesses to the crime died, one in an automobile crash and the other of natural causes. Even if one of the three alleged participants in the crime agreed to testify against the others, it wouldn’t be enough to earn a conviction without additional physical or other evidence that would substantiate the account.” 

But Price said flatly, “I did not do it,” adding that he could not say anything more about the case on advice of his lawyer, Oakland attorney William DuBois. 

But Price was willing to give details of his year-long contact with Berkeley police in the Tsukamoto case. 

Price said that Lt. Russell Lopes—the Berkeley investigator brought out of retirement to reopen the Tsukamoto murder investigation—came to his house in the Mills College area of Oakland in May of 2004 to get DNA samples. That was shortly after Berkeley police first arrested Graphenreed in connection with the murder. Graphenreed was released two days later, after the Alameda County District Attorney’s office declined to press charges. 

“Lopes didn’t interview me at that time, and he said that I was not under suspicion,” Price said. “He brought a small army of police officers with him, and I didn’t want to let him in my house, so we went out in the backyard and he took six DNA samples. I told him he was barking up the wrong tree, and that I didn’t want my DNA to be in the system. But he said that if it didn’t match, the police would destroy the samples. I didn’t do it, and I thought the DNA would be proof positive.” 

Price said he did not hear anything more about the matter until late April of this year, when Lopes returned with a search warrant for photos and memorabilia. 

Price said police took approximately nine photograph albums from his house, including “seven that were solely related to my wife’s family prior to the time we met.” 

Price said police also seized an “intimate videotape” of him and his wife. In addition, Price said that Berkeley police took at least two contemporary pictures of him. 

Price expressed puzzlement at one action of the police during the April search, in light of the fact that Lopes later had a computer age-progression done which attempted to show that the police ID sketch done in 1970 would have eventually aged to resemble Price as he now appears. 

“While the police were in my house, they walked back and forth several times in front of a picture on the wall of me in 1970,” he said. “If they wanted to compare that to the composite sketch from 1970, all they had to do was take it.” 

Price said he retained DuBois as his attorney following the April search. 

Around the same time as the search of Price’s house, Berkeley police also searched the North Oakland home of Price’s brother Marty, also a retired Oakland educator. Marty Price said that police broke down his door and broke several windows while he was away from home, causing $2,000 in damage. Marty Price is not considered a suspect in the Tsukamoto killing. 

Price, who suffers from high blood pressure and a degenerative spinal condition, both of which require prescription medication, said that if Berkeley police had asked him to surrender himself he would have voluntarily come into the station with his attorney. Instead, he said that he was not contacted again by Berkeley police until last week, when he said that four officers jumped out of their cars and arrested him while he was taking out the garbage. 

“I was in my slippers and sweats and a T-shirt and they just swooped down and grabbed me,” he said. “I started screaming ‘Help! Help!’ Everybody in the neighborhood said they heard it, including my wife.” 

Price said he was taken to the Berkeley police station and kept in a cell for five hours until he was brought, manacled and shackled, into an interview room with Lt. Lopes. 

“That took about a half a second,” he said. “He asked me if I knew why I was there, and I told him that I was being falsely charged with a murder. He asked me if I was prepared to make a statement at that time, or if I wanted to wait until my lawyer was present. I chose to wait. That was it.” 

Both Price and Graphenreed were scheduled for arraignment last Friday afternoon in Oakland, but court officials told family members gathered for the hearing that charges were not being brought against either man. Both men were later released. Berkeley police officials say they still consider the two men to be the prime suspects in the murder, and plan to continue the investigation.

The shooting death of Berkeley Police officer Ron Tsukamoto in August 1970 occurred during a period of tense confrontation between left-leaning community and political organizations and law enforcement agencies in Berkeley and the Bay Area, as chronicled in the pages of the Berkeley Daily Gazette. 

A little more than a week before the Tsukamoto shooting, the Berkeley City Council publicly discussed a council committee report on citizen complaints against local police officers, including the alleged July 4 police beating of a Berkeley minister and alleged police brutality against Berkeley Free Clinic medical personnel in May of that year. 

In that same week, the Berkeley-Albany Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union issued a report titled “Police Personnel Complaints and Redress Remedies,” pointing out what the ACLU called “the ineffectiveness and unresponsiveness of the city manager’s office, the City Council and the police department in dealing with citizen complaints” and calling Berkeley “a battleground with not a single trustworthy or reliable umpire present.” 

The day before the City Council meeting on the police complaint report, a group of Berkeley citizens and representatives of national organizations met at Franklin School to discuss a petition drive to put a community control of the police department initiative on the Berkeley ballot. 

Included as speakers were Tom Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society, a representative of the Black Panther Party, and Frank Daar, a Berkeley Planning Commissioner. 

According to the Daily Gazette, the proposed initiative would have split Berkeley into white, black, and campus communities, each controlled by its own separate neighborhood police departments. The Alameda County clerk’s office certified that almost 8,000 Berkeley voters—more than 15 percent of the active city electorate—had signed the petition. 

Less than a week after the Tsukamoto shooting, Berkeley City Council voted 5-2 to place the initiative on the April ballot. One of the councilmembers in favor of placing the initiative on the ballot even earlier was Ron Dellums, later elected to the U.S. Congress. During a presentation to the council, Tom Hayden—who was later elected to the California State Senate—said that “the police are on a collision course with a great many people, perhaps the majority, in this community.” 

The passage of the ballot initiative in 1972 which eventually established Berkeley’s Police Review Commission grew out of the struggles and discussions over the proposed community control initiative. 

In that same month, 12 Alameda County deputy sheriffs went on trial for allegations of brutality in the 1969 battles at People’s Park that led to the calling out of the California National Guard into the city. 

Two weeks before the Tsukamoto shooting, Black Panther leader Huey Newton was released on bail after the California Court of Appeal overturned his conviction in the 1967 shooting death of an Oakland police officer. 

Newton later said in a KPFA interview that Tsukamato’s shooting was “a revolutionary act.” 

Two days after Newton’s release from jail and 10 days before the Tsukamoto shooting, a California Superior Court judge was kidnapped from his San Rafael courtroom and later killed in an abortive attempt to win the freedom of Soledad prison inmate George Jackson. Jackson’s younger brother, Jonathan, and two San Quentin inmates were also killed in the attempt, which drew international headlines..

KPFA’s Local Station Board voted overwhelmingly Sunday to retain General Manager Roy Campanella II despite a complaint filed by eight female station workers charging him with sexual harassment. 

The board voted 15-5, with two abstentions, against recommending Campanella’s dismissal to the Pacifica Foundation, KPFA’s parent network. 

“Our investigation did not find sufficient grounds to call for his termination,” said a board member who requested to remain anonymous. The board also rejected a proposal to place Campanella on probation, several board members said. 

“The board’s decision is the second time an investigative agency has ruled in my favor,” Campanella wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Planet. “Like the first investigation conducted by Pacifica, it’s been found that I did not sexually harass or discriminate against anyone.” 

KPFA’s board has been divided between a faction that is generally supportive of the station staff and a smaller faction that charges that staff members are seeking more influence at the station and views the harassment charges against Campanella as part of a larger power grab. 

Sunday’s vote revealed that several members of the pro-staff faction opposed firing Campanella. 

“This was not a factional vote,” said a board member aligned with the anti-staff faction. “It was an overwhelming majority.” 

Philip Maldari, co-host of KPFA’s morning show, said he was disappointed by the vote. 

“I’m astounded that a leftist political organization like this one is so ignorant of the importance of taking seriously sexual harassment on the job.” 

He added that employees—many of who signed a letter expressing no confidence in Campanella—would petition Pacifica’s national board to fire him. 

“[The station] is totally dysfunctional,” he said. “When a petition of no confidence is signed by 80 percent of the paid staff, it’s clear that the manager can’t manage.” 

KPFA’s board will hold another closed door meeting Saturday aimed at closing the rift between Campanella and station staff. 

The eight staff members who filed the sexual harassment complaints last week with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), charged that from the time Campanella joined the station last November, he asked them out on dates and when rebuffed, retaliated by threatening to cut funding for their programs, criticizing their work to supervisors and threatening to fire them. 

Campanella has maintained that his invitations to go to movies or dinner were extended to both male and female employees at the station and were never intended to be considered dates. 

If the DFEH substantiates the employees’ complaint, KPFA and the board would be liable for monetary damages. 

“The board members are putting the station at tremendous risk,” Maldari said. 

Campanella told the Daily Planet that he has written to the DFEH and to the federal National Labor Relations Board urging them to conduct the investigations. 

“Not only am I convinced that they will find these charges baseless, but it will end the distraction while operating the radio station,” he wrote. 

The station board has been debating Campanella’s future for the past two months. Board members said they conducted an investigation that included testimony from the plaintiffs and concluded that there was not enough evidence to call for Campanella’s dismissal. 

KPFA has struggled to retain general managers in recent years. After a four-year period of interim general managers at the station, KPFA hired former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport in April of 2003. When Newport resigned after less then a year, Jim Bennett ran the station as interim general manager. Campanella was hired last November after a six-month search for a new station head. 

Waist-deep in the big muddy, Berkeley’s Creeks Task Force (CTF) is slogging ahead with its efforts to come up with a new framework to address a highly turbulent issue. 

For owners of 2,400 homes and other structures, the issue is simple: Just what can and can’t they do if there’s a creek within 30 feet of buildings they own? 

But for Berkeley’s sizable population of creek advocates, a central issue is “daylighting,” the excavation and restoration of long-buried creeks—something that worries many property owners, including the seven members of the 15-member panel whose property is directly affected. 

If the answers aren’t that apparent, neither are many of Berkeley’s creeks, a good portion of which flow out of sight through aging concrete tunnels known as culverts. 

Many of those long-buried culverts are in poor shape, and the issue of who pays for repairs is anything but simple, as an ongoing legal battle between the city and property owners attests. Because of the pending lawsuit, the CTF was specifically ordered to avoid the issue of financial liability. 

Adding another wrinkle to a complex issue is the fact that sellers aren’t required to notify buyers of their property about the presence of buried creeks. 

“Many property owners discovered there was a culverted creek on their property only when the city sent out letters last year,” said Barbara Allen, an organizer of Neighbors on Urban Creeks, an alliance formed to represent property owners during the formulation of a new city creeks ordinance. 

Among the members of the group’s steering committee are former Mayor Shirley Dean and Jill Korte, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

On the other side of the issue are a variety of organizations composed of daylighting advocates.  

While Chair Helen Burke comes to the issue from the side of the creeks advocates—she’s a long-time member of the Sierra Club—she says she strives to provide impartial mediation. 

“We’re slowly working our way through various issues,” she said, including: 

• What setbacks from creek centerlines should be required for new construction? 

• What structures should be regulated? Currently only roof structures within 30 feet of a centerline are covered; should driveways, patios and porches also be included? 

• How to define just what a “creek” really is, and whether or not culverts are creeks. 

Burke and Joshua Bradt, Councilmember Max Anderson’s appointee to the task force and restoration director for the Urban Creeks Council, agree that the first months of meetings, held weekly, were spent bringing members up to speed on a variety of complex issues. 

“There’s a lot to chew over,” said Burke. 

The City Council created the task force with a built-in expiration of May 1, and if the panel fails to come up with an ordinance proposal by then, owners of property affected by culverted creeks would be removed from the ordinance. 

Two September meetings will offer the public definitive perspectives of the two major viewpoints, Burke said. 

On Sept. 12, Neighbors on Urban Creeks will offer their views, and a week later, Juliet Lamont of the Live Oak/Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA) will offer the perspective of daylighting advocates. 

The following month, Burke said, the task force will examine the work they’ve done over the last eight months and consider possible changes from the outline they adopted in April. Also on the agenda is a discussion of what issues professional consultants can address to help clarify issues to be addressed in a new ordinance. 

For creeks advocates like Bradt, the issue is restoring natural ecosystems that play a major role both in preventing pollutants from reaching streams and in cleansing pollutants already flowing downstream to the Bay. 

“The property owners want to preserve their rights to develop their own properties, which is fine. But they also have an increased responsibility to protect a public resource, a functioning ecosystem that doesn’t change from property line to property line,” he said. 

Bradt and other daylighting advocates deplore culverting creeks, “because a creek inside a tube has no life to it,” he said. They also offer no opportunities for recreation and interaction with a vibrant, dynamic ecosystem. 

But the daylighting and culvert repair issues represent major challenges to homeowners, said Allen, who said that her organization was formed in response to a presentation last year by Bradt’s group. 

One major concern for Allen and her allies is a city attorney’s opinion that said that property owners should be held entirely liable for repairs to faulty culverts underneath their property. “This is really huge,” she said. “Homeowners are very concerned.” 

She noted that the city only developed its list of affected properties last year, with the result that many owners were stunned to discover that their properties were facing potentially massive costs in the event of creek failure, and serious obstacles to rebuilding. 

While city staff decided in 2002 that owners whose buildings were with 30 feet of a creek couldn’t rebuild following an earthquake or fire, the City Council voted two years later to allow reconstruction, although owners were be required to pay for an expensive survey. 

If Allen had her druthers, the ordinance would be rewritten to address the concerns of property owners, especially in regards to the culvert issue. 

“This is a major land use issue that affects all parts of the city and the people’s ability to use their own property,” she said. “Can you imagine if you bought a new house only to learn that you couldn’t add on to it? That’s happened to a lot of people.” 

“We’ve heard from a lot of different points of view and a wide spectrum of opinions,” said Burke. “Attendance by task force members has been excellent.” 

The most faithful turnout in the audience has been by members of Allen’s group, “who turn out very faithfully and make recommendations, many of which we have followed,” Burke said. 

She also said that some of the concerns the panel has raised with the city attorney’s office have yet to be answered, including a property owner’s right to rebuild following both natural and other forms of disasters. 

“There’s a clear difference of opinion between property owners and creek folk,” she said. “We’re there to hear as much as we can before we make up our minds.” 

Unlike many other city commissions and panels, the Creeks Task Force has managed to keep its web site almost up to the moment, posting agendas, minutes and additional information in a timely manner, enabling the public to keep up to date before each meeting. 

Fore more information on the task force, see their website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html.›

City officials are considering Berkeley Iceland’s proposal to stay open while the embattled ice rink upgrades its antiquated cooling system. 

On Wednesday, Iceland proposed installing a temporary cooling system by Sept. 23 that would meet city safety requirements including the removal of 4,283 pounds of potentially toxic ammonia. 

Last month, Berkeley threatened to close the 65-year-old rink at Milvia and Ward streets on Aug. 22 if Iceland didn’t shut down its current cooling system and pump out the ammonia. 

Deputy Fire Marshall Wayne Inouye said city officials will decide this week on Iceland’s request to extend the deadline. 

“We’re trying to keep everyone happy,” he said. “I don’t see how they can pull this off in seven days.” 

Iceland Administrative Manager Monte Tiedemann said the rink was confident Berkeley would approve the extension.  

“I anticipate that the city wants to help us stay open,” he said. 

If the city balked at Iceland’s plan, the rink could be made to shut down for a month while the portable cooling system is installed. 

Berkeley has maintained that Iceland’s cooling system lacks adequate safety features for dealing with a system malfunction and that the city was ill-equiped to contain a potential 4,000-pound ammonia release that could harm residents as far as a mile downwind from the rink. 

Until last May, city officials said they had been led to believe that the cooling system contained only 750 pounds of ammonia, not 4,000 pounds. 

Tiedemann said the Aug. 22 deadline didn’t give Iceland enough time to find a temporary cooling system. 

If the city agrees to the extension, Iceland will contract with Willy Bietak Productions, a supplier to the Ice Capades, to install a portable cooling system. 

Brian Lavano, production manager for Willy Bietak, said the Santa Monica company needed until Sept. 23 because it had too many ongoing projects to install the system by the city-imposed August deadline. City officials say the going rate for a portable cooling system is about $5,000 a month. 

The system would operate from a shipping container at the rink’s parking lot, according to Inouye. He said the portable system would address the city’s short-term concerns because it would require only 800 pounds of ammonia, and would include modern safety features to help the  

Fire Department handle an accidental release of ammonia. 

Inouye said that if the city grants the extension, it was unclear how long they would allow Iceland to stick with a portable system.  

Under an agreement with the city, Iceland was to upgrade its ammonia-based system by November. However, Iceland pushed back the scheduled completion of the repair work to next April. 

City building officials have so far found fault with Iceland’s engineering plans for upgrading its permanent cooling system. Tiedemann sought Monday to dispel talk in City Hall that perhaps the rink would close operations in April after its winter skating teams ended their seasons rather than follow through on repairs. 

“Our intention is to have the work complete after the winter season and our intention is to stay,” he said.  

h

Bayer Corp. is considering laying off 54 janitors at its Berkeley facility. The jobs would be contracted out to a firm that pays its employees nearly half what current Bayer janitors make, according to union officials. 

“They have been telling us for four months that they are planning to contract out the janitorial positions,” said Donald Mahon, business agent for the International Longshoreman’s Warehouse Union, which represents about 250 Bayer employees. 

But Mahon said late Monday that there appeared to be movement in contract negotiations and that the fate of the janitors would likely be known in the coming week. 

Bayer spokesperson Clelia Baur said the pharmaceutical company retained the right to contract out the jobs, but that it hadn’t determined if it would go that route. 

“Nothing’s been decided yet, so it wouldn’t be the appropriate time to talk about this publicly,” she said. 

The current three-year contract covering all union employees at Bayer expires Aug. 25. Both sides have been meeting daily trying to hammer out a new deal, Mahon said. The janitors are the only classification whose jobs are threatened. 

Mahon said Bayer was planning to contract out the janitorial jobs to a firm that employed workers represented by Service Workers International Union Local 1877. Under the SEIU contract, the new janitors would make $11 an hour compared to $20.29 an hour currently earned by janitors at Bayer. 

“Bayer said it was costing them more than $2 million a year to keep the workers,” according to Mahon. 

In recent years many large employers have subcontracted out their janitorial jobs to save money,” said SEIU Local 1877 Staff Director Andrea Dehlendorf. She added that her union would oppose any effort by Bayer to contract out the jobs. 

“We support the ILWU completely in keeping higher [salary] standards,” she said. 

Dehlendorf said the $11 an hour plus health care benefits that SEIU has negotiated for over 6,000 janitors working for subcontractors represented a major victory for the workers. 

“In the absence of having a union they would make minimum wage and have no health insurance,” she said. 

Since signing an agreement with Berkeley over a decade ago to expand its facility, Bayer has roughly doubled the number of union employees, Mahon said. Besides janitors, the ILWU represents Bayer maintenance workers, lab technicians, craftsmen and maintenance staff. 

Mahon said Bayer was asking all of its workers to pay more for health benefits under a new contract. 

t

The Berkeley Unified School District moved quickly to fill the gap left by the resignation of outgoing Deputy Superintendent Glenston Thompson, bringing back the man Thompson himself replaced a year ago. 

Late last week, BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence announced that Eric Smith would return to the district on Sept. 1 to resume his duties as deputy superintendent, with an emphasis on finances and operations. District sources said that Thompson chose to voluntarily leave that position to return to the private sector effective Aug. 3, choosing not to request renewal of his one-year contract. 

Smith holds a master’s degree in public administration from California State University Stanislaus, and has worked for the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), the legislature-created organization charged with overseeing many of California’s public school systems, including BUSD. 

During his first one-year tenure with the district that ended in May of 2004, Smith was credited with helping to erase BUSD’s $6.5 million deficit and getting the district out of the red for the first time in three years. Lawrence credited him with saving the district between $2 million and $3 million by fine-tuning systems and changing outdated business practices. 

In March of 2004, Smith announced that he was leaving the district because of a family emergency involving his two children that required him to relocate to another part of the state. “It’s purely personal,” he told the Daily Planet at the time. 

School Board Director Shirley Issel called Smith’s departure “a tremendous loss for the district.” 

In her statement announcing Smith’s rehiring, Lawrence expressed confidence in Smith. 

“I feel certain that our progress on many issues can continue without disruption and flourish under his leadership,” she said. “Eric is considered by his peers as one of the five best chief business officials in the state. In addition to his extensive knowledge of all aspects of school district operations, he is recognized as an expert in school facilities finance and construction.” 

n

Two subcommittees of the Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet with two developers at the site of their projects, each one involving a structure under the commission’s jurisdiction.  

The first meeting is at 5 p.m. Thursday at 2901 Otis St., a one-story cottage recently named a “structure of merit” slated for conversion into a three-story structure with one condominium on each floor. 

The second meeting begins at 8 a.m. Friday in the Towne Room on the second floor of the Shattuck Hotel, the flagship of downtown landmarks. 

Developer Roy Nee plans to renovate the venerable structure at 2086 Shattuck Ave. and add a small addition to structure at the northwest corner of the property. 

Both meetings are open to the public. 

The story, “Waterfront Development Frays Albany Council” in the Aug. 12 issue incorrectly reported that Albany City Councilmember Allan Maris accused his council colleague Robert Lieber of “lying to the press.” Although he did accuse Lieber of authoring e-mails distorting Maris’s positions, it was Albany resident Steve Pinto whom he accused of making false statements in a letter to a local newspaper. The story also incorrectly reported that Matt Middlebrook is a top executive at the public relations firm of Fleischmann-Hilliard. Middlebrook has left that company to become vice president of government relations for Caruso Affiliated Holdings.?

Since the London bombing attacks, Arab writers have expressed amazement that for two decades the British government looked the other way as Islamist extremists preached hate-filled jihadi ideologies in city mosques. Now, several Arab commentators insist that Downing Street must have made a deal with London’s radical Islamists: They could say what they wanted about Jews, the corrupt West and Iraq, as long as they didn’t attack the United Kingdom at home.  

The July 7 subway and bus attacks, and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s subsequent crackdown on Islamist extremists, destroyed that pact. Ironically that may have been the purpose of the blasts: to force Islamic extremists in London into more direct confrontation with the British government.  

Ilyas Frahush, writing in the London based Al-Majalla, a leading international Arab magazines, uses the term “Londonistan” for the once-happy home for Islamic extremism in England. Only under an explicit or unspoken agreement between British authorities and the radicals, Frahush speculates, could a man like Egyptian national Abu Hamza Al Masri have preached freely for 10 years in the Frinsbury Park Mosque. Al Masri was linked to Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid. Yemen accused him of inciting the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Yet, not until 2004, under intense pressure from U.S. and European officials, did Britain ban Al Masri from his mosque. He responded by preaching to his followers in the streets.  

London also became a safe haven for the Syrian national Omar Bakri, who received political asylum in the United Kingdom. According to Frahush, Bakri’s case points more directly to a pact between Britain and the extremists. Frahush writes that in an interview with the British “Evening News” program on channel 2, Bakri commented, “As an Islamic scholar I believe that the September 11 attacks are justifiable because America did not make a “peace pact” with Muslims living abroad. Thus when I heard about the attacks I prayed that the attackers were non-Americans.”  

What Bakri meant is that when Muslims agree to become citizens of the countries in which they live, they become obligated not to attack those countries.  

Farhush sarcastically asks what Bakri has to say about the “heroic four British citizens” who carried out the London explosions and what kind of “peace pact” they could have been observing when they killed British citizens on their way to work in subways and buses.  

So who would want to end the tolerant stance of the British government with a brutal bombing, and why? A front-page article in the July 12 issue of the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper offers a possible answer. Jamal Khashqaji, a consultant for the Saudi Ambassador to London, believes that certain radical Islamists want to force other groups of Muslims into direct confrontations with their governments.  

Kkashqaji says that 10 years ago in London, he personally talked with Abu Musab Al Suri, who, according to Al-Majalla magazine, was and still may be closely associated with Bin Laden and other radical Islamists. Khashqaji told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al Suri met with him and said, “I know you like the non-violent Islam orientation of the Muslim Brotherhood, but we will force you to get involved despite your noise.” Al Suri continued, “When jihad [armed operations] are carried out in Saudi Arabia, the government will respond by going after everyone. Since we are more organized and better prepared, you will be forced to seek our help when the government puts pressure on you.”  

Al Suri lived in London from 1995 to 1998, but was not placed on the list of wanted terrorists until January 2004. While in London he edited Ansar, a publication aimed at young Algerian men. Along with the Jordanian Abu Qatada Al-Falastini, whom the Jordanian government linked to the assassination of an American diplomat in Amman in 1999, Al Suri issued religious decries allowing armed Algerian groups to kill civilians. Abu Qatada was teaching the radical Islamic ideology “Takferism” to young Muslim men in his home in London at the time.  

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, the United States has offered $5 million for the arrest of Al Suri, who is believed to be hiding along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  

The London bombings can be understood in the same context as the series of armed attacks carried out in Saudi Arabia recently, such as the suicide car bombings against the Saudi Interior Ministry in February 2005. For many decades, Saudi Arabia has had a deal with the puritanical Wahhabists, who are allowed to preach freely in mosques, determine school curricula and proscribe social rules so long as the king retains sole control over foreign affairs, including oil. The deal shielded the kingdom from armed attacks until America stationed U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.  

Both London and Riyadh thought that by tolerating radical Islamists, those groups would not turn against them. But it seems that Al Qaeda and other groups that advocate a particularly violent brand of radical Islam have grown frustrated with the perceived passivity of these jihadi groups.  

Jalal Ghazi monitors and translates Arab media for New California Media (a project of PNS) and Link TV.?

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Work

CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet  

Although the Aug. 12 commentary on Maria King and the mental health system (“Chemical Therapy Endangers Psychiatric Patients”) bears my byline, it was not written by me. It was written by Randy Busang, a Bay Area activist and member of the organization I founded in 1989, the Network Against Coercive Psychiatry. Ms. Busang misinterpreted my praise of the draft of the article she sent me as authorization to submit it for publication under my name. For the record, the letter is not written by me nor in my style. I did not attend Maria King’s funeral, as I have not been in the Bay Area since 1985. 

While I agree with most of Ms. Busang’s criticisms, I think her explanation for why the mental health system fails to help its clients is inaccurate. She attributes its failure both to ignorance on the part of the federal government and to the fact that it is financially profitable both to the drug companies and to the psychiatric establishment. While I agree that the profitability of the mental health industry explains its extraordinary growth in spite of its destructiveness, I do not think ignorance on the part of the government explains why the system has been shielded from oversight. Rather I would argue the mental health system is protected because it is designed not merely to be profitable but to control and contain the perceived threat of “deviation” from dominant social norms. Since it succeeds fairly well, albeit imperfectly, at achieving the latter goal, few people, least of all politicians, are inclined to discern that it does not serve the interests of its clients or contribute to the greater social good. 

Thank you for rectifying the misattribution of the article on Maria King to me. 

Seth Farber, Ph.D. 

New York City 

• 

WORDS OF WISDOM 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Kudos to Rabbi Sara Schendelman for her temperate words of wisdom. She tells it exactly like it is. 

As a former, three-time resident of Berkeley over the past 40 years, I found this comment by the Rabbi to be especially pertinent: “We may be the home of the Free Speech Movement but we are probably the most intolerant place in the U.S. when faced with a differing view.” This was even more true when I moved to the Midwest in 2003 then it had been when I entered Cal in 1965. 

I recently spent a week at a convention in Salt Lake City and took various opportunities to explore the local Mormon culture. Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered quite a few extremely conservative Republican folks—who undoubtedly viewed me as “far left”—who managed to debate politics and even theology with grace and good humor, and who listened to my consistently opposing viewpoints without getting defensive, hostile or contemptuous. For some reason, that doesn’t happen in Utopia By The Bay. 

I’ve read some pretty embarrassing stuff related to Middle East questions in the past few months. It would be nice if some of you folks—of all opinions—would grow up and act your age. 

Michael Stephens 

Chicago 

• 

BLATANT VIOLATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Becky O’Malley’s Aug. 12 editorial makes clear her proposition that public opposition to the pressures of construction and parking should not be seen as animosity toward the institutions attempting to expand their facilities. 

But she inadvertently raises a larger question: “Religious institutions in Berkeley...should remember that they are guests in this city which is our home, and that we are supporting their religious mission, even if we’re not ourselves believers, by providing them with streets to park on while exempting them from paying property taxes.”  

Why should many of us who are not believers, who in fact see all religious institutions as purveyors of mythology and deception, as well as the cause of endless cultural wars and disputes (even here in the Peaceable Kingdom of Berkeley), bear the tax burden that those institutions evade? 

What more blatant violation can there be of the separation of church and state, and why should we tolerate it in Berkeley? 

Jerry Landis 

• 

IDIOTS AND WOLVES 

Editors, Daily Planet 

It only goes to show what an idiot you are. The little boy who cried wolf. Your paper is one of the most anti-Israel and anti-Semitic papers around. Under the name of liberalism and showing all sides. The only side that shows in the newspaper is your bottom side. If you remember Germany in the ‘30s the Nazis weren’t anti-Semitic when they started out. Then they started burning books, then Jew-owned stores, then synagogues, then finally people. All along the little Jewish boy was crying wolf and no one even came. All your Arab pals were siding with Adolph including the Arafat clan. Wake up and realize what you’re saying. Beth El did expose the creek, tore down a bunch of firetrap shacks, cleared the brush and fire hazard property and made a synagogue, school and improved the property values of the neighbors’ land. So give it up. If it was up to the neighbors, UC Berkeley would have been run out of town in 1868 because it was developing unspoiled land.  

David Spieler 

• 

PREDATOR 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Becky O’Malley correctly notes in her Aug. 12 editorial that: “Anti-Semitism and racism are real, living evils, existing in the world and even in Berkeley at this very moment.” And she cites the Beth El controversy as exemplary of crying wolf over what some call anti-Semitism, saying that by so doing, “the public will react as villagers did to the boy who cried wolf and ignore them.” 

Although I am not sufficiently conversant with the Beth El situation to take a stand on it, I can say that O’Malley is in an excellent position to acknowledge that “Anti-Semitism (exists in) Berkeley at this very moment,” as her paper and some members of the Peace and Justice Commission have served as a catalyst for the local metastasis of this ancient cauldron of hate. 

How so? Instead of focusing upon local matters, as a good municipal paper should do, O’Malley has been obsessed with castigating Israel. And while a local publication shouldn’t waste time and space on international matters which can be found elsewhere, it is telling that O’Malley should, week after week, run biased reportage, op-eds, and editorials bashing the sole democracy in the Middle East. But even if one were to run commentary about international issues, why this overwhelming emphasis upon Israel rather than the planet’s genuine tyrannies, including all Arab nations, which violate human rights in the most egregious ways? What reason other than anti-Semitism can one discern for this constant spotlight on Israel? 

And this issue, until recently, was reflected in a so-called Peace and Justice Commission which was likewise obsessed with castigating Israel while refusing to examine either local incidents of rights abuses or dictatorships like that darling of the Left, Cuba. Here, too, there can be but one rationale. Fortunately, those honorable members of the City Council and Mayor Tom Bates have recently appointed unbiased members to the commission, thereby defusing it an incubator of bigotry. 

Years before he took power, Adolf Hitler clearly delineated in Mein Kamph what his intentions were for the Jewish people. As Hitler continued to make gains politically, a number of astute observers pointed out both to the German people and the world what a clear and present danger he was. And to be sure, they were accused of crying wolf by the Becky O’Malleys of their time. 

Ms. O’Malley, by your incessant Israel bashing, you have identified yourself likewise a predator in our community and those of us who have expressed this are hardly crying wolf. If you are to garner any genuine notices of merit for your publication, please cease and desist from letting it serve as a springboard for anti-Semitism. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

FREE SPEECH 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Your editorial about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” could have been about Johnathan Wornick’s whining commentary “Is Free Speech Dead in Berkeley.” 

In “Opposed to Department of Peace” he was hostile. His taunting of Department of Peace supporters with slogans like “call it peace, puppies and chocolate” was bizarre. He even attacked citizens for participating in democracy by lobbying the City Council, something that is an essential part of free speech. 

Now he claims free speech is dead in Berkeley. That’s odd, how many people heard of this character before the Daily Planet published his writings?  

His opinions are out of character with your editorial position, so how did he manage to get it published in a community that lacks free speech? 

He goes on to say that he thought people in Berkeley would stand up for his right to free speech but found he was mistaken. But he gives not one example of anyone infringing on his right to free speech. Was his right to express himself denied? No, I learned about it by his whimpering on the pages of the Daily Planet, despite the fact you are under no obligation to publish it. 

Apparently what interfered with his right to free speech is that the Planet dared print responses disagreeing with his childish rant. Imagine someone writing a letter expressing disagreement with Wornick’s viewpoint! My, my, no one should have to put up with such repression!  

What could be more threatening to free speech than that? 

Elliot Cohen 

Peace and Justice Commissioner 

• 

SINS OF THE FATHER 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I often agree with Elliott Cohen, but when he is wrong he can be very wrong. In his Aug. 12 commentary he attacks Johnathan Wornick for “deceitfully [omitting] his father’s role as founder of . . . the largest supplier of military food rations" as a reason for opposing a resolution supporting a department of peace. 

One would think that an army must eat, whether at peace or at war, and we are not about to disband our army, department of peace or not. So logic eludes Mr. Cohen’s argument. 

But more to the point, are we reduced to visiting the (supposed) sins of the father on the son? I would have thought that guilt by association was something we left wingers eschewed—having been the victims of it for far too long. Mr. Cohen needs a (recent) history lesson. Mr. Cohen is far better (and far more effective) sticking to the validity of the arguments for his position than using these essentially right-wing tactics against his opponents. 

Mr. Wornick, on the other hand, needs to stop classifying everything with which he disagrees as “the radical left” in order to be taken seriously. I dare say that I fall under his criteria for far left, yet here I am defending his right to say his piece. Perhaps he needs to do some reflecting on his debating style and start talking more about issues than about classifying his opponents. The left in this country is marginalized and I know few left-leaning people who think that, because they are marginally more numerous in Berkeley than other cities, they have any serious power. 

John Gertz is far more subtle in his attacks on the left, but his arguments lack validity. There are many of us on the left who neither want the destruction of Israel nor the transformation of it into an aggressive, land-grabbing, colonialist power. If Mr. Gertz truly wants to get out of the West Bank as he implies, let him join the rest of us fighting the policy of U.S. government tacit (or active) support for an Israeli government policy of retention of the West Bank settlements. If he does not support that position of withdrawal to the Green Line, he needs to be clear and say so, and say why.  

All in all, the debate is healthy and democratic but each side needs to stop trying to silence the other side or so demonize it that everybody in this debate will soon lack credibility. I know that Mr. Cohen and Mr. Gertz are both intelligent, charming people; no doubt, so is Mr. Wornick. I just wish they would stick to the facts in the debate. 

Mal Burnstein 

• 

DISHONESTY AND DECEIT 

Editors, Daily Planet 

About the Peace and Justice Commission controversy. 

Mr. Wornick, we get it. Apparently you are planning to run for office one day and want to appeal to a new demographic whose opinions may be less “radical.” 

Fine. You have that right. But why the dishonesty and deceit? 

In two commentaries in a row you claimed your vote against peace related proposals was because it made no difference what Berkeley said, so the vote was a waste of our tax dollars.  

Get real. City councilmembers are paid the same salary no matter how many things they debate or vote on, so it does not waste money to have the City Council act on peace resolutions.  

So that must mean your complaining about the cost of implementing the recommendation. Let’s see, that would be the cost of four postage stamps to mail copies of the resolution and a cover letter to Barbara Lee and Senators Boxer and Feinstein. A tremendous burden on our tax payers. Sure glad we have a fiscal watch dog like WAR-nick on the case. 

Why all the fuss? Were you really worried about the cost of a few postage stamps? Then we learn from another commentary (“Don’t Let Conservatives Silence Berkeley’s Voice,” Elliot Cohen, Aug. 12) that Wornick’s ability to buy a house in Berkeley’s expensive market is the result of money made selling food rations to soldiers who Wornick voted against withdrawing from mortal danger in Iraq!  

But wait. He’s a vegetarian. Even if Wornick gets rich while people die in far off places eating food rations that make him rich at least we can take comfort in the notion they eat vegetarian foods! 

Wornick is nothing but a self-serving hypocrite out to make a name for himself, hoping he can one day represent a new demographic base. Wornick no doubt has a good future, following the pattern of Bush, who also supported a war while sitting safely at home building a political future and belittling people who called for peace. Berkeley has room for conservative viewpoints; there are already several conservative democrats, as well as a vegetarian, on our City Council. What we don’t need are war profiteers that lie about their motives for voting against peace.  

Since Wornick voted against bring troops home from Iraq maybe he should put his money where his food rations are and volunteer to go there himself. I doubt he’ll do it, a coward like him would much rather bully people with deceitful lies and insults then ever fight in a war he votes to let others fight for him.  

Alan Reisse 

• 

DECEITFUL CLAIMS 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Jonathan Wornick, in an effort to establish his liberal credentials, attacks those who oppose abortion for repackaging the anti-abortion movement as the pro-life movement. He claims this was an effort to infer that if one wasn’t pro-life, they must be pro-death. But he knows as well as I do that the anti-abortion movement started calling itself pro-life in response to the repackaging of the pro-abortion movement as the pro-choice movement, which was indeed an effort to portray those who opposed abortion as being against making choices. Wornick argues that he should be respected for expressing his views, but I that believe that no community is well served by honoring and respecting those whose views are based on deceitful claims. 

Bill McGregor 

• 

COHEN’S DESPERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Elliot Cohen’s Aug. 12 commentary, “Don’t Let Conservatives Silence Berkeley’s Voice,” succinctly revealed his true intentions and his desperation.  

Plainly and simply, his flailing attempt to discredit me with a slanderous accusation falls flat. It also shows the weakness of his arguments and his inflated opinion of the power of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission. 

Plainly and simply, he accused me of having a secret agenda to support the war in Iraq, or rather, all wars in order to line my and my family’s pockets. He could have solved his concern with a simple phone call to me. It is true that there is a company named the Wornick Company that does produce military rations. It is also true that my father created the company—something I am quite proud of. I wonder what Cohen has created, besides flimsy accusations? Feeding our military in the field during war and training is not exactly equivalent to making bombs. Furthermore, the Wornick Company also produces relief rations for the United Nations, food for the space program and a number of other commercial products. But most importantly, our family hasn’t owned the company for nearly a decade.  

Perhaps Elliot is smoking a little too much of his favorite substance—something he always manages to proudly bring up at our commission meetings.  

I look forward to real debate when the Peace and Justice Commission resumes in September.  

Jonathan Wornick 

• 

BLOODY OCCUPATION 

Editors, Daily Planet 

The Daily Planet has published a spate of fulminations from the local Israel State apologists that exceed even their usual flatulent bombast. Lawrence W. White’s hysterical op-ed is a textbook case. 

First, he libels Mark Ritchey as equivalent to the KKK for correctly pointing the tactics used by one of Israel’s zealots. Only someone ignorant of the bloody history of the Klan could make such a ludicrous statement. 

Second, White ignores totally the 40 years of Israel’s terroristic occupation of the Palestinians and only condemns their reactions, not the original crimes against them. Spare us your crocodile tears, White.  

Third, in 1956 Eygpt was invaded by Israel, Britain and France after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Which is in Eygpt last time I looked. But in the White fantasy world the “Arabs” launched that war too! 

In fact in 1967 Israel launched what it termed a preventative war against Eygpt and Syria, but White again credits the “Arabs” with launching that one too! 

In 1948 five Arab Armies did enter what had been Arab Palestine to stop the expulsion of the Palestinians that had been occurring months before Israel’s unilateral declaration of state on May 15. In the White fantasy world this is all the “Arabs” fault. 

Fourth, there were never anywhere near one million Jews expelled from Arab countries. Several hundred thousand Jews were recruited by Israel to leave Iraq, Morocco and Yemen, from where 95 percent of all Arab Jews originated. Alfred Lilenthal’s The Other Side of The Coin (1965) documents this. 

Fifth, where are there any “security’ fences anywhere in the world matching the horror wall that Israel is building? None since the Berlin Wall went down. 

Sixth, many of us are fed up of the obnoxious Holocaust exploitation used by Israel’s apologists to try to silence legitimate criticism of Israel. Why is this crime so much more publicized than the tens of millions killed in China, Russia, etc.? Or even the millions of victims of American imperialism here in the U.S. (slaves, Indians) or abroad (Indochina, Indonesia, etc.) 

Seventh, if White thinks that Arabs have anything like an equal situation inside Israel itself he needs to talk to some who live there. It is of course much better inside the Green Line than in the Occupied Territories but that should hardly be the standard! 

Eighth, it’s hardly Arafat’s personal corruption that has kept the Palestinians in poverty but the Israeli rejectionist policy of occupation underwritten by the U.S. government. 

White’s mentality is the reason this conflict has persisted for so long. But fewer people are being intimidated the longer this bloody occupation goes on. 

Michael Hardesty 

Oakland 

• 

LET’S DO LUNCH 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I’ll treat Michael Hardesty, Robert Lipton and Mark Richey to a Friday lunch at Saul’s Delicatessen if they can only prove that three of the following 10 events “has its root cause” in the acts of the Israeli government since 1967: 

• The British decision to give 77 percent of the land mandated as a Jewish national home to Emir Abdullah, creating what we call Jordan and what the PLO recognizes as Palestine. 

• The 1920-1921 anti-Jewish riots in Palestine. 

• The 1929 slaughter of 133 Jews by Arabs in Hebron. 

• The 1936-1939 riots in Palestine, in which anti-Jewish mobs carried signs reading “Palestine for Arabs.” 

• The Arab rejection of partition plans in the 1930s and the 1940s. 

• The 1941 meeting between Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem to discuss what the Mufti called their shared purpose. 

• The Mufti’s 1948 proclamation of a holy war to murder all Jews. 

• The May 14, 1948 declaration, by the secretary general of the Arab League, of “a war of extermination” against Israel. 

• The May 15, 1948 order by the Mufti of Jerusalem telling Israel’s 600,000 Arabs to abandon their homes so that Arab armies could invade their land and fight in their stead. 

• The Jan. 9, 1954 statement by the King of Saudi Arabia that “the Arab nations should sacrifice up to 10 million of their...people...to wipe out Israel.” 

If our local paragons of unemotional historical literacy decline my invitation, we can only infer it’s because they are already out to lunch. 

David Altschul 

• 

SOURCE OF AMUSEMENT 

How unfortunate that some members of the Peace and Justice Commission have chosen to waste their talent and energy on international issues when they could be making a difference by thinking locally. As it is, they are a source of irritation and divisiveness in Berkeley and some amusement nationally. 

Could be that this is precisely the kind of commission that belongs on the list of those that never would be missed.  

Hopefully, none of its members collect the $40 per meeting available in some situations. That would truly be a case of money misspent. 

Rhoda Levinson 

• 

88 TICKETS 

In an attempt to illustrate the vast worldwide conspiracy against tiny Israel (the fifth-largest military power with 200 nuclear bombs), a writer to this paper states that the United Nations General Assembly has passed 88 resolutions against Israel. Following this reasoning, would getting 88 speeding tickets make one a good driver? 

Barbara Henninger 

• 

THE BALL 

Concering the Brower sculpture: 

Install the Ball! 

New York City might have the Big Apple, but we have the Behemoth Blueberry! 

Richard List 

• 

ALTA BATES 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Alta Bates-Summit has problems other than just those mentioned in your paper. The organization has refused for many years to state which reproductive services they provide. Vasectomies, tubal ligations, abortions? They won’t say. 

Nancy Ward 

Co-chair 

Oakland/East Bay 

National Organization for Women 

• 

RFID 

Editors, Daily Planet 

The employees of Berkeley Public Library say that the future plan/intention is to have all library people checking out books replaced by the RFID machines. I was told this by five employees—none wanted to have their names used. 

As it is now, the one machine does not work. I asked, “Has there been a public notice of this plan?” The answer was, “After the machines are the only way to check out library materials.” 

No one has discussed the serious computer security problems with RFID. The Berkeley Public Library is vulnerable because of lack of security protocols. How far away from the library can RFID be read by unscrupulous pirates seeking private data? 

Alexandra Andrews 

• 

REAL BLACK PEOPLE 

Editors, Daily Planet 

What a joy to read a story that represents how real black people live. I have almost stopped reading and watching mainstream media coverage of anything, especially when it concerns black folks. J. Douglas Allen-Taylor report on the free concerts in Arroyo Park was the type of news coverage that is missing in the media. Outside of a few black-owned newspapers you would never hear anything positive in regards to the Honorable Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam nor an event that didn’t include any anti-social behavior. The district council women, Dwayne Wiggins and all those that put on the event should be commended and their model should be taken on a U.S. tour.  

Since I’m here in Houston Texas, I think I’ll go and enjoy a red soda-water. 

Laurence Woods  

Houston 

• 

BERKELY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Let me get this straight: 

Berkeley voters have made clear property taxes are too high. 

Car dealers are the biggest business tax producers in Berkeley. 

The Berkeley City Council is officially supporting a boycott of the local Honda dealer. 

I am neutral on the contract dispute between workers and the owner at the Honda dealership. Certainly, people have the right to boycott the dealer. But the city should be neutral. 

As it is, the City of Berkeley is signaling yet again that it is aggressively, and needlessly, anti-business.  

Just where does the City Council expect the expect to get the money to provide city services? 

Tom Case 

• 

IF YOU WERE THEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Imagine waking up one morning to learn that you are out of work and that the new owners of your workplace replaced you with recent school graduates. Or imagine that your pension plan after 20 years of seniority with the firm was suddenly canceled. But also imagine to your delight that many people, all strangers to you, are morally outraged at how you have been treated, and as a result they publicly protest to defend your rights as a working person. 

At Berkeley Honda, these wonderful idealists and Berkeley Honda strikers have been protesting every Thursday from 4:30-6 p.m., and Saturday, 1-2 p.m. The East Bay Labor Committee for Peace and Justice is sponsoring these neighbor to labor events until the labor dispute is resolved. These striking workers deserve our support. We must send a message to the new owners that union busting will not be tolerated in Berkeley. Please join us, and bring along members of your family and friends.  

Harry Brill  

El Cerrito 

• 

BERKELEY NIGHT OUT 

Editors, Daily Planet 

As a citizen of Berkeley since 1961, I am delighted to have the Berkeley Night Out to see our fire and police officials come out and talk with us—they see the public at their worst—and we the public see them at their best most of the time. They’re terrific, for the most part. But can we make Berkeley a better place with the same budgets and constraints? We can and it is a simple solution—stop funding the homeless—and give the money to the fire stations (to cease brown-outs) and to the Police Department to buy a dog for K-9 duty. The city simply cannot afford to pay these homeless their free medical prescriptions, their free Viagra, their free coffee, their mental health any longer. The city does not pay for my prescription meds! Hell, the homeless use the bathroom on a city street and in our school yards!! The fire and police serve all the people of Berkeley, and who do the homeless serve? Nobody; they just take take take from a resource that cannot repair their streets, keep their libraries open, fix their buildings, and clean their streets. Which is more important? I say fire and police before a person who takes a dump in a school yard! Thanks Berkeley Fire Department and Berkeley Police Department. No thanks homeless people.  

Mark Bayless 

• 

TAKING ISSUE 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I must take issue with Barbara Lee. She says in her recent commentary: “Most Americans are unaware that the right to vote is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution.” 

I think it is explicitly stated in the first three words and first 52 words of the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” 

Although the bulk of the Constitution establishes representative democracy, the introduction implies more. It implies what is stated explicitly in the Brown Act and the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act in California. It implies participatory democracy. All of the powers of the representative government emanate from “We the People,” and we do not by establishing representatives relinquish our control over them. They are to act as our delegates, enacting our will, and not as surrogates for us, substituting their own will for our will. The will of God resides in the will of the People, not in the will of their rulers or even their representatives. That is the profound idea stated explicitly in our Constitution. 

Peter J. Mutnick 

• 

ATOMIC BOMBING 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I had some additional comments to Tuesday letter about the atomic bombing. On that day, several of my relatives died in Hiroshima and my grandmother who went into the city soon after, died several years later from a “blood disorder.” Because of the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the world’s first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the media has discussed both pros and cons of this action. Japanese militarism with its accompanying brutality and atrocities committed upon many during World War II needed to be defeated. American lives were probably saved from having to make a landing in Japan. Any people will fight much harder on their own soil.  

But I don’t want to get into the whys or who suffered more. I quietly mourn the loss of hundreds of thousands of civilians whose lives were lost with two bombs. I mourn for those who have died in the process of making the bomb, from the miners of the radioactive material to our solders and scientists who were exposed during testing to Americans exposed to the radioactive fallout after the testing, and for the devastated Pacific islands where the testing was done. Aug. 6 and 9 remind me to continue to oppose the proliferation of nuclear weapons and Bush’s plans for mini nuke bunker busting bombs and to worry about the security surrounding nuclear power plants. As my uncle once told me, “War makes everyone crazy. In war, everyone suffers.” 

Diane Tokugawa  

• 

GALLO BOYCOTT 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Thank you for printing the letter about the Gallo wine boycott. For those readers who want to support the farm workers, it is important to know the brands to boycott. These include Anapamu; Andre; Ballatore Spumante; Bartles & Jaymes Coolers; Bella Sera; Black Swan; Boone’s Farm; Bridlewood Winery; Burlwood; Carlo Rossi; Cask & Cream; Copperidge; Da VINCI; E&J Brandy; Ecco Domani; Frei Brothers; Gossamer Bay; Indigo Hills; Liberty Creek; Livingston Cellars; Louis M. Martini; MacMurray Ranch; Marcelina; McWilliams Hanwood Estate; Mirassou; Napa Valley Vineyards; Peter Vella; Rancho Zabaco; Red Bicyclette; Redwood Creek; Tott’s; Turning Leaf; as well as anything including the name Gallo. 

I have attended the United Farm Workers (UFW) meetings in Oakland, and I am amazed at the number of people this has affected. As the UFW and Gallo return to the table this month, we as the consumers have the power to finish this. By supporting the UFW’s boycott, we can succeed. Join us in the fight against Gallo.  

Jessica Cervano 

• 

RIGHT OF PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet 

As a citizen, I exercised my right of protest by phoning the White House switchboard (202-456-1414) to tell them that President Bush was wrong to push through a recess appointment of John Bolton to be the United Nations ambassador for the United States. The White House operator said “OK” and was ready to hang up on me, when I replied: “Aren’t you going to take down my contact information?” The operator replied that she “already has it.” I was confused, because my phone number is a blocked number. Me, being curious, said, “How do you have my phone number?” The operator was quick to say, “Sir, I’m sorry. I can’t discuss that.” And as I started to say something else, the operator rudely hung up on me (maybe because I was from Berkeley).  

Apparently, the Bush administration has installed a “defense” system that reveals blocked information. So residents, beware, President Bush knows where you live and how to contact you. He’s watching you! 

Rio Bauce 

?

One of my treasured mementos is a yellowing copy of the December 1971 issue of a Berkeley community newspaper called New Morning. Laid out like a tabloid, its 12 pages radiate the freewheeling exuberance of this city’s political counterculture some 30 years past. The pervasive tone is sounded by the comic book-style narrative that occupies most of the front page. “Friends,” it begins, “this is a lesson in dialectics called OM is MAO spelled backwards.”  

Veering from serious to silly and back, the contents also include a proposal for a rent control amendment to the Berkeley City Charter; “Notes from the Asparagus Underground”; a full-page salute from the prisoners at Attica; information about the Free University of Berkeley’s fiscal problems and upcoming classes (Women’s Basketball, Beginning Astrology, A Day at the Track, Mechanics, to name just a few); a critique of “the traditional diatonicism” of the Cal music department; and articles on the Free Clinic, the Rap Center (no, not that kind of rap), the low visibility of Asians in town, and the sexist division of labor in communes.  

Then there’s my favorite thing: “Loni Hancock Reports” (see story at right). The previous May, Hancock had been elected to the Berkeley City Council as part of a four-candidate slate supported by the April Coalition. She was the leading spokesperson for a youthful constituency that, as she wrote in New Morning, was “committed to basic change.” Until then, the council had been controlled by members of the local Democratic and Republican establishments. Councilmember Hancock and her comrades were political interlopers determined to challenge the status quo. Which, her New Morning account of her first six months in office makes clear, they surely did.  

Part of the piece’s fascination lies in its enduring relevance. We’re still grappling with some of the same problems that Hancock confronted in 1971: “automobile and parking lot domination of the city”; out of control “plastic, high-rent” development; and the “undemocratic, unresponsive” city manager form of government.  

In other ways, mostly having to do with lifestyle and culture, we’re living in a very different world. That, too, comes across in Hancock’s report. No longer, for example, do the Berkeley police round up young people in the summer and drive them out of town or to Juvenile Hall.  

The piece highlights another contrast between then and now: the big difference in attitude. Today, in Berkeley as in the nation at large, democracy is on the defensive, and the liberal-progressive mood is bleak. In 1971, democrats also had plenty to bemoan. The United States was still at war in Vietnam. In Berkeley, Hancock emphasizes, she and her cohorts did not have a majority on the City Council. As she does not say, often she did not even have the support of some councilmembers whom the April Coalition helped to elect. Nevertheless, her report exudes determination and confidence. It opens and closes with the same vow: “There Will Be No Turning Back.”  

Berkeley’s civic leaders often boast about this city’s cutting edge achievements in social justice, civil rights, environmentalism and other fields of endeavor. It behooves them—and the rest of us—to remember that those achievements were initiated by a bold and visionary activist citizenry that often had to overcome great odds, not the least of which was the resistance of entrenched officials and their powerful allies outside of City Hall. Loni Hancock’s 1971 bulletin serves as a reminder of that fact and, for me, as a source of renewed resolve.  

It’s also the source of an idea that, if implemented, would brighten the local popular mood: office hours for the mayor and the council. Hancock prefaces her report proper with the announcement that on Fridays between 10 and 12, she “will definitely be around with no appointments scheduled to talk to people who want to visit … Everyone is invited to stop by and rap.”  

Whenever I’m on the fifth foor of the beautifully refurbished Civic Center Building, where the mayor and the council have their offices, I notice the excessively wide hallways, and I wonder how all that empty space could be utilized. The answer is now clear: institute open office hours for everyone, and put out comfortable chairs and couches along the walls of the corridors where people can wait for a chance to rap with (and sometimes just rap) their elected representatives. While they’re waiting, they might rap with each other about the dialectics of democracy in 2005 Berkeley and beyond.  

There Will Be No Turning Back 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the full text of Loni Hancock’s December 1971 New Morning report.  

Even though we lack a majority of council members who are committed to basic change, the first six months has [sic] still seen us make tremendous progress in setting new directions for the city and ending many of the oppressive actions initiated or condoned by the old Council.  

In the summer of 1970 young visitors to Berkeley were victims of a wholesale roundup by the police and were driven out of the city or sent to juvenile hall. The old City Council did absolutely nothing to restrain the Berkeley Police.  

This year the new Council unanimously abolished the summer round up and detention of young people. The Council then appropriated over $6,000 to assist in the creation of two summer youth hostels, including a University dormitory.  

In a similar lifestyle discrimination, the old Council had established a ban on block parties, thus preventing a form of expression and enjoyment favored by many young people in the city. In September the new Council eliminated the ban, and several block parties have since been approved.  

Hiring discrimination against young men with beards or long hair had been the official policy of the Berkeley Police Department. These discriminatory standards were abolished by the new Council and all city employees were guaranteed the right to determine their own personal appearance.  

In addition to showing concern for individual life styles, the new Council has also demonstrated a far greater degree of environmental concern than the old Council.  

The proposal by developers to build a giant shopping center on the Marina had been vigorously opposed by citizens groups as an undesirable use of land and a surrender to the automobile. All newly elected Councilmembers had campaigned against the shopping center and the Council killed the proposal. We will now be considering alternate uses for the land which hopefully can be turned into a park.  

The Council has taken other actions against automobile and parking lot domination of the city. We rejected the proposed purchase of land for the Cedar Street Overpass and blocked a supermarket parking lot expansion that would have meant demolition of a house.  

When neighborhood residents came to the Council in opposition to a 65-unit plastic, high-rent apartment building which was planned to be squeezed onto the corner of Shattuck and Delaware, the Council met its responsibilities to the community and denied the building permit.  

Perhaps no issue has generated as much publicity as the Council’s struggle over the budget. The budget that was finally passed was, from my point of view, unsatisfactory, but it was still the best budget this community has had for years.  

This year the Chamber of Commerce didn’t get its usual $23,000 gift from the city. And the super-inflated Police Department budget, previously untouchable, was reduced by nearly $400,000. In a small attempt to re-order city priorities, funds deleted by the City Manager were restored to the Health Department and to Recreation and Parks.  

The city also started making new kinds of appropriations to organizations serving the youth community. $3,000 was unanimously allocated to the Berkeley Free Clinic and $2,400 to the Runaway Center to keep it functioning. The new Council also funded a methadone maintenance program that had been rejected by the old Council.  

This year no funds were appropriated for the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency and the city cut off all aid to the West Berkeley Industrial Park project which has been bitterly opposed by residents of the Ocean View area. Thus far there have been no demolition of Ocean View homes since the new Council took office.  

While the budget proposed by the City Manager would have meant a 40 cent increase in the property tax[,] which hits hardest at people with fixed incomes[,] the final budget passed by the Council actually provided for a small property tax decrease. It was only because of pressure from new Council members that we were able to hold the tax rate.  

The new Council has recognized that Berkeley is not isolated from the nation or the world. We passed a resolution supporting a United Nations investigation of the death of George Jackson and the conditions in California prisons. Recently the Council also went on record in support of the anti-war efforts of Coral Sea sailors, offering them city assistance and sanctuary.  

In addition to the many positive actions just mentioned, no one can know how many undesirable things we have prevented just by our presence on the Council. The day is past when the City Manager or conservative council members are even willing to propose such items as the purchase of surveillance helicopters by the police.  

What we have done so far is only a beginning. Remember that we are still plagued by the City Manager form of government, although I hope that this undemocratic, unresponsive system will not be with us much longer. In the past 6 months, the Berkeley City Council has taken the first steps towards embarking on a course of justice and service to the city’s residents. There will be no turning back.  

LONI  

›

I hadn’t seen the Scrabblettes in several weeks. Everyone was busy so we postponed lunch and playing Scrabble together until Pearl got back from barging in France and Rose returned from ferrying among Washington’s San Juan Islands. Louise stayed home but that didn’t mean she wasn’t otherwise engaged. There was gardening to do, plays and movies to see, friends to visit, and a trip down memory lane to West Oakland with her mother. 

We gathered around the Scrabble board at Pearl’s apartment. There was a new, life-size nude statue in the living room. It was difficult to ignore. 

“French art?” I asked. 

“Yes,” said Pearl. “From a flea market in Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, a town not far from Lyon.” 

“Nice,” said Rose. “How’d you get it back here?” 

“Carried her under my arm,” answered Pearl. “She’s not heavy.” 

“Mmmmm,” commented Louise. “Interesting.” 

“Have you thought about putting some clothes on it?” asked Rose. “You know, like Gloria over there.” Rose nodded to another mannequin in the room, this one covered in beads and polyester, circa 1969. 

“Maybe,” said Pearl. “But right now I prefer Claudine Bernardette in the buff.” 

“Claudine Bernardette?” asked Rose. “Is that what you call her?” 

“Yes,” said Pearl. “In honor of our guide, Bernard.” 

We all stared at Claudine Bernardette. It was hard to believe that Pearl had dragged her across Burgundy, carried her onto a trans-Atlantic flight, and shoved her into an overhead bin. Claudine didn’t have any arms or legs, but that’s not what made her noticeable. 

“I may move her in with Eunice,” said Pearl. 

“Eunice?” I asked. 

“Eunice from Brooklyn,” Pearl explained. “I keep her in the back bedroom, but she could use some company. Or maybe I’ll bring her out here. Make it a threesome with Gloria and Claudine B.” 

“How were the San Juans?” said Louise, giving her attention to Rose and 

changing the subject. 

“Beautiful. I love it up there.” 

“And the weather?” asked Pearl. 

“Wonderful. We drank cocktails every night along the water. Manhattans, 

martinis and cosmopolitans. I’m not a boozer, but I just love those cosmos.” 

“What was the price of gas?” asked Louise. 

I groaned. Louise always wants to know gas prices around the country. “Enough with the gas,” I said. “You can't afford to drive all the way to Washington just to fill your tank.” 

“It’s $2.49 per gallon for regular right now at Costco,” said Louise, 

ignoring me. “That’s high but not as high as downtown Berkeley.” 

“Costco is always three cents less than Arco,” said Pearl. “You can depend 

on that.” 

“What about toilet paper?” asked Rose. “Did you price it while you were in 

Costco?” 

“Stop,” I said. “Let’s not go there again.” Everyone stared at me. 

“Not go where?” asked Rose. “To Costco?” 

“No,” I said. “You know we have this toilet paper/gas conversation every time we see one another. I'm tired of it.” 

“Suzy’s right,” said Pearl. “Let's change the subject to something else.” 

“I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said Rose. “I loved it so much, I saw it twice.” 

“Johnny Depp,” sighed Louise. 

“Yes,” said Pearl. “Those cheekbones.” 

“Those eyes,” said Rose. 

“He lives with a French woman,” said Pearl. 

“Like Claudine Bernardette,” said Rose. 

“Kind of,” said Pearl. “But better looking.” 

“Did you see Johnny Depp in that other movie about chocolate? The one where 

he lives on a barge?” I asked. 

“Like Pearl’s barge?” asked Rose. 

“Not exactly,” I said. “But yeah, a barge in France. A small town. A lot of 

chocolate. 

“Wasn’t that set in Mexico?” asked Louise. 

“No,” I said. “That was the other chocolate movie. The one where a girl 

rides a horse.” 

“Naked,” said Pearl, finishing my sentence. 

“Like Claudine,” said Rose. 

“Exactly,” said Louise. 

“Maybe we should go back to talking about toilet paper and gas prices,” I volunteered, but no one seemed to hear me. 

Car clout rash 

The word this week is: Watch your cars! 

Berkeley car owners reported a rash of car clouts—copspeak for auto burglaries—jumping from three on Thursday to 16 Friday, nine Saturday, and 11 Sunday. 

“From time to time an individual or two or even a group will come through,” said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

“We always encourage people not to leave their valuables in their cars, especially not in plain view. We see quite a few computers and other valuables taken, and often when they’re left in plain sight,” said Okies. 

“We recommended that people make their cars the least inviting they can to burglars by parking in well-lit areas on well-traveled streets,” he said. 

Not all the pilferage fit the precise definition of burglary—which involves breaking and entering—because several drivers forgot to lock their vehicles, the number one no-no on Okies’ list. 

Urban Ore invader 

Berkeley officers responded to an alarm at Urban Ore just after 5 a.m. Thursday, arriving to find a trespasser on the property who tried to flee before officers could lay on the handcuffs. 

His flight arrested, officers conducted a quick search and turned up burglary tools, leading to the 47-year-old fugitive’s booking on suspicion of violating three separate sections of the California Penal Code. 

Juvenile busted 

Police arrested a 16-year-old Friday morning on suspicion of stealing cash from a residence near the corner of Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue. 

Sprechen Sie “Stickup?” 

A caller told Berkeley that she and two others had been confronted by a would-be bandit employing the hand-in-the-pocket-I’ve-got-a-gun routine near the corner of Tenth and Grayson streets about 5 a.m. Thursday. 

There was just one problem. The would-be robber and would-be victims didn’t speak the same language. 

The frustrated bandit gave up in disgust. 

Whole Foods, missing tools 

A Thursday morning visitor to the Whole Foods market at 3000 Telegraph Ave. left with something more than healthy eats. 

Workers for Sutti Construction of Burlingame called police just after 11 a.m. to report that someone had swiped some of their tools. 

Police have no suspects, said Officer Okies. 

Kragen bandit 

A heavy-set fellow sporting a beard, a raffish fedora—yes, a fedora—and a black T-shirt emblazoned with “Peace” across the chest strolled into Kragen Auto Parts at 1950 Martin Luther King Way shortly before 9 a.m. Friday and acted in a decidedly non-pacific manner. 

Producing a pistol, he demanded the contents of the till and departed. 

Carjack 

A driver who stopped for a sign at the corner of Fifth and Delaware streets just after 11 p.m. Sunday found herself staring into the barrel of the pistol being wielded by one of two young men standing next to her car. 

Ordered to relinquish her keys and leave the vehicle, the driver wisely complied. The robbers took the car and fled.?

The Live Oak Codornices Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA) has heated up its war against the members of Congregation Beth El, using misleading signs and Daily Planet letters to spread misinformation. The underlying myth that this group continually promulgates is that Congregation Beth El is moving into a new neighborhood.  

The fact is, Beth El has been a Live Oak neighbor for 60 years—longer than most if not all of the members of LOCCNA. The synagogue’s current building is closer to its new building than are the homes of many LOCCNA members. Beth El is moving a grand total of 2.5 blocks. 

The next bit of fiction, repeated once again in a Daily Planet letter by John Parman on Tuesday, is that Congregation Beth El somehow used its influence to “gain concessions that are not readily available to others.” In fact, just the opposite is true.  

Our neighborhood is zoned for a mixture of residences and community institutions. Beth El’s building conforms in every way to the zoning regulations and is being built without requiring a single variance. The synagogue also covers a significantly smaller percentage of its lot than any of our neighbors’ buildings, leaving far more green space. 

We voluntarily initiated and paid for an environmental impact report (we were not required to do so by the city), and we implemented and paid for environmental mitigations. Because we were building on our property exactly what the zoning called for, because we were in conformance with all city requirements, because our new site would actually serve to reduce our parking and traffic impact on the surrounding neighbors, because we passed the environmental impact process, our building permit should have sailed through the city approval process.  

But because LOCCNA exercised its considerable political clout, we had to endure an acrimonious three-year approval process at the end of which, we made even more concessions. I’d like Mr. Parman to show me any other Berkeley community organization that has been saddled with anything like the requirements and restrictions that have been placed on Beth El. 

We are also falsely accused of not living up to our commitment to restore the creek. The truth is that as part of our building project, the members of Beth El have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars stabilizing the banks of the creek, as we agreed. This investment was necessary due to the years of neglect by the previous owner—an owner who I’d guess would have been happy to have LOCCNA perform the work had LOCCNA’s members been willing to step up to financing the task.  

It was not until Beth El moved in that any substantial progress was made on the creek. Once construction is finished, Beth El will continue planting the creek beds because a beautiful, healthy creek has always been part of our plans. I doubt LOCCNA can identify a single property owner on Codornices Creek who has spent more private money on creek restoration than the members of Beth El. 

Beth El has gone to extreme lengths to satisfy conflicting neighborhood demands. For example, when one neighbor demanded that we remove some trees whose roots were damaging his foundation and threatened to sue, while another neighbor demanded we keep the trees as a screen, while other neighbors insisted we not remove any trees, Beth El absorbed the tens of thousands of dollars it cost to replace the trees with new ones that everyone finally accepted. 

On the Berryman Path side of our property, our neighbors want us to spend tens of thousands of dollars to build a fence that will allow people walking on the path to see the Codornices Creek. How many private landowners on Codornices Creek have been required to provide public viewing of their property? 

The latest red herring is the parking issue. LOCCNA claims that Beth El is not keeping its agreements to mitigate the parking impact it will have. Our current site—in the same neighborhood—has parking for three cars on-site and 12 parking spaces on its street frontage. 

At the new site, the members of Beth El have put in 31 parking spaces, and there are 23 parking spaces on the street frontage, for a total of 54. We have added 39 more parking spaces—more than enough for the vast majority of our events. And, very importantly, we have constructed a drive-though to greatly cut down on parking needs.  

The undeniable reality is that the increased parking spaces and driveway at the new building will considerably decrease our impact on parking and traffic in our neighborhood. This is why it is so important for LOCCNA to pretend we have not been in the neighborhood for 60 years. 

We have also arranged for alternate parking sites and have agreed to insert draconian parking messages in our event invitations. We have agreed to spend hours before, during and after our events counting empty parking spaces in the neighborhood to attempt to measure our parking impact and ensure that we do not use more than 50 percent of the spaces left unused by our neighbors and others. This means that our members might be forced to park blocks away while parking spaces near our site remain vacant throughout the event. I am sure that neighbors on the residential streets adjacent to the restaurants and stores of Solano Avenue or Walnut Square or next to some of our local event halls, schools or other community institutions would love to have concessions like that, yet they are only applied to Beth El. Unfortunately, none of this is enough for LOCCNA because they interpret our agreement to “minimize” our parking impact as an agreement to “eliminate” our parking impact. 

Meanwhile, Congregation Netivot Shalom just left its long-time residence at the Jewish Community Center on Walnut and Rose—1.5 blocks from our new site. Netivot Shalom typically drew 150 to 200 people to its services every Saturday. Beth El draws 30-40. Even on a Bar Mitzvah Saturday, we rarely approach the numbers at Netivot Shalom. So, if LOCCNA was really concerned about parking, they should be happy. Between our new spaces, the driveway and Netivot’s exodus, parking in the neighborhood will be much better, not worse.  

Sadly, none of our efforts appear to have any impact on LOCCNA. Despite the peace signs on their bumper stickers and banners, it seems LOCCNA is determined to continue its war against Beth El. 

Daniel Magid is member of Congregation Beth El’s board of directors. 

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As a former resident of Berkeley, I and many of my friends, also Cal graduates now living in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, enjoy reading the Daily Planet online. So it was especially disheartening to read the past several issues of the Planet, and the outrageously racist, anti-Jewish and anti-Arab comments made by numerous letter writers. 

The comments ranged from the ludicrous to the insidious. Mr. Richey (Aug. 7) attacked Mr. Gertz’s skullcap as the “Funniest looking yarmulke I ever saw.” If Mr. Gertz wants to wear a lampshade on his head, that’s no one’s business but his own. 

Mr. Hardesty (Aug. 7) attacked Mr. Spitzer’s loyalty to the United States. “If you are really such a great Zionist, Spitzer, go live in Israel.” Americans have the constitutionally inherent right to verbally attack or verbally defend any nation, including Israel, without being labeled a traitor or threatened with expulsion. 

Joanna Graham (Aug. 2) writes, “1967 is demonstrably the year in which American Jews en masse converted to Zionism.” In 1967, I was a student at Cal and most of the people I knew (including Jewish-Americans) came to regard Israel in that year, not as the land of kibbutzniks skipping down the furrows hand in hand, but as a militant, racist, jingoistic state. None of them converted to Zionism “en masse.” 

Lawrence White (Aug. 5) attacks Mark Richey for his temerity as a foreigner (?) from Cotati to attack “the character of a Berkeley citizen [John Gertz].” I never realized Berkeley issued passports and had its own citizens. I believe residents of Cotati and residents of Berkeley can both be citizens of the United States. 

But Mr. White is just getting started. He then makes the claim that the thesis of a Jewish conspiracy “had the logical consequence of the murder of six million.” Does he mean that if six million were not murdered that would be an illogical consequence? Or does he mean that criticism leads to genocide when it is directed at specific groups which should, thus, be exempt from all criticism? 

Mr. White, obviously confused, then poses a number of questions which I would like to answer. He asks: “If the occupation is the problem, how come the Arabs launched three wars (1948, 1956, 1967) before the occupation began?” Mr. White perhaps subscribes to the notion that people are more apt to believe a big lie than a small one. This is a prime example of an orchestrated lie, which through countless mindful repetitions conducted with a complete disregard to the historical record begins to appear “factual.” According to all historical sources, all major encyclopedias, including the Jewish Encyclopedia, all three wars (1948, 1956, and 1967) were launched by Israel. And, to Israel, each new conquest became a new starting point for negotiation. Mr. White fails to mention the only Arab-Israeli war really launched by the Arab side was the Yom Kippur War, launched by Anwar Sadat in 1973. But Sadat never attacked Israel proper, but only the Sinai Peninsula, which was Egyptian territory that Israel had occupied a few years earlier in 1967. 

Mr. White continues “And how come the Palestine Liberation Organization was established before there was an occupation? What were they trying to liberate?” I refer Mr. White again to any major encyclopedia, including the Jewish Encyclopedia, all of which show detailed maps of the United Nations’ division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. In the 1948 war, Israel conquered much of the proposed Palestinian state and subsequently expelled through intimidation and murder many of the local Palestinian people who were living there. That, Mr. White, is the occupation the Palestine Liberation Organization was trying to liberate. 

His next query is equally unintelligible “How come Germans don’t send suicide bombers into Poland to get back land they lost during World War II?” To remind Mr. White, Nazi Germany was the aggressor during WWII. Germany attacked and conquered Poland, not vice versus. The proper analogy would be if the Nazis had won WWII and consequently conquered and destroyed Poland, would Poles have the right to send bombers into Polish-Germany to get their nation back? And should we support those Poles or “let bygones be bygones” regarding the Holocaust? In fact, Mr. White, if the Palestinians didn’t fight against being dispossessed and dehumanized, it would be a travesty and tragedy for all free peoples. 

Next his inventive mind leaps again. This time he claims “a million Jews were forcibly expelled from Egypt, Libya, Iraq and other Arab countries.” Actually, those countries at the time, were ruled by Western-installed, pro-Western monarchies, none of which expelled any Jews to Israel. In fact, it was Israel’s policy to conduct “Magic Carpet” flights to bring Jews from all over the Middle East to Israel to populate it with Jews. The emigration was totally voluntary. British and American planes airlifted the Jews to Israel. And according to Alaska Airlines (one of the main carriers involved), the mission was accomplished without a single loss of life. 

Since Mr. White feels no imperative to cite any sources, his hare-brained fables continue unabated: “not one (Palestinian) votes in any Arab country.” In fact, Jordanian citizens of Palestinian descent do vote, as do Lebanese citizens of Palestinian descent, etc., etc. (just as American citizens of Palestinian descent may vote.) In fact, only “Israeli-citizen” Palestinians can vote in Israel, none of the four million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank have any voting rights in Israel despite having lived under Israeli rule for two generations (38 years). Israel emulates formerly apartheid South Africa’s policy of excluding blacks from voting by saying they were “citizens” of Bantustans (tribal homelands) and legally not citizens of South Africa proper and consequently had no right to vote. This allowed apartheid South Africa to claim that it was “the only democracy on the entire continent of Africa.” Mr. White, rather than offer smug, insincere, and misleading assertions regarding the suffering of an oppressed people, do some research. To demonize the victim and portray the oppressor as the oppressed, not only requires a manipulation and distortion of history, it also takes a cruel person to perpetrate and perpetuate such a hoax. 

Rabbi Sara Shendelman (Aug. 12) encourages readers to “see both sides,” then proceeds to praise Lawrence White’s commentary “for its attempt to educate” the opposition. Posturing and exhorting “in a community that is 25 percent Jewish,” is she trying to intimidate the Daily Planet by numbers? It shouldn’t matter what percent of what the community is comprised of. True is true and untrue is untrue. Politics is a numbers game, but education should not be. The Rabbi must be leading a very insular life when she makes a blanket statement such as “We [Berkeley] are probably the most intolerant place in the U.S. when faced with a differing view.” 

John Gertz (Aug.7) demonstrates his total lack of historic knowledge by making so many ignorant and false statements that they almost defy comment. But in the interest of fairness, I will include him. He writes that Islam is the only religion spread by an army. If Mr. Gertz thinks only Islam has a bloody history of conquest, I refer him to the Old Testament. If he is unacquainted as to where to look: Check out Joshua. Also, anyone with a smattering of knowledge regarding the spread of Christianity knows that Christianity barely made any headway in its first few hundred years (only the Armenian nation had converted to the new faith). But then along came “By This Sign You Shall Conquer” Constantine. Gertz continues that Islam “is a religion that teaches that it has superseded all others.” Duh! So does Judaism, Christianity, and all other religions. It is, in fact, the very definition of any religion that it supersede all others. Otherwise, why would anyone convert? 

David Altschul (Aug. 8) asks “What governments in the Middle East allow women to drive cars, go to school, hold jobs, etc., etc….well, there’s Israel.” This duplicitous phrasing is obviously meant to mislead and deceive uninformed readers to think only Israel allows women any rights. In fact, the majority of Middle Eastern governments allow women these rights. And, interestingly, most of the ones that don’t allow women these rights are Americas’s closest friends and military allies in the region. He continues: “What government has used the schools and TV stations it controls to teach its children that the best thing they can grow up to be is a suicide bomber? The Palestinian Authority.” I challenge Mr. Altschul to prove this claim. When on the defensive, these same tired lies are always trotted out in hopes they’ll go unchallenged and through countless repetitions dupe some uninformed people. People, such as Mr. Altschul, who rely on lies to support occupation and suppression, must perpetuate stereotypes. If one oppresses people with violence, they will react with violence. That is a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Lastly, people who love to bandy about terms such as Islamofacists, but are appalled at the Zionazi moniker because of the historical oppression of Jews by  

Nazis should take into account that the first peoples attacked by fascists (Mussolini) were Islamic peoples (Somalis, Eritreans, and Libyans). And just as in the case of the Jews, the world did nothing. 

Gerald Schmavonian live in Fresno. 

On behalf of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, I would like to respond to Matthew Artz’s Aug. 5 article, “City, Pacific Steel Will Study Noxious West Berkeley Odor,” and to Tom McGuire’s Aug. 9 letter to the editor about Pacific Steel’s “daily emissions of toxic effluvia,” as Mr. McGuire eloquently puts it. The West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs builds on the more than 25-year history of community action regarding Pacific Steel Casting Company’s pollution. We are everyday people in Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Kensington concerned about the quality of life, the impact on workers at Pacific Steel and other local businesses, the risk to children in nearby childcare centers and schools, the risks to pregnant women and their unborn, the risk to elders and those with compromised immune systems, and the danger to the environment. 

We have had experiences with the acrid burning pot handle/burning brake odor very much like Mr. McGuire’s. Some of us had the means to move out of the area, while others had to close our doors and windows, trying to coexist with the odorous pollution. Some of us experience difficulty breathing, headaches, nausea, and throat/eye irritation when we are exposed to Pacific Steel’s emissions. Some of us suffer from asthma, other respiratory illnesses and cancer. 

We believe that Pacific Steel Castings and other local industries must take full responsibility for their production, keeping the air clean and jobs safe. We denounce the false dichotomy advocated by industry that we can either have job creation and economic development or we can have a safe environment. We can have both, and the financial and technical burden of this responsibility should fall to the owners and managers of industry, not to the workers, neighbors, or tax payers. We take a Keep It In My Back Yard (KIIMBY) approach, advocating for industry to be responsible employers and good neighbors. We want the facilities to stay here and clean up, keeping decent jobs local and preventing dirty industries from running away to pollute elsewhere. 

Although we were able to address the problem well over 15 years ago when the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Hearing Board (at our behest) forced Pacific Steel to mitigate emissions from plants 1 and 2 (but not plant 3) with pollution control equipment, fugitive emissions continued to escape. Pacific Steel’s production has increased, and the odor is as bad as ever. Over the odor’s decades-long history, authorities have responded with too little, too late. 

We have been imploring the Air District, the City of Berkeley, and Pacific Steel to undertake a comprehensive and well-conducted Health Risk Assessment (HRA). When the Air District decided (after receiving many community odor complaints) that the HRA had to be done by Pacific Steel, the Alliance pushed the Air District and the City to improve the HRA protocols and plan. It is a perversion of our public regulatory agencies’ responsibilities to have a known violator hire its own consultants to study its own emissions. This is the job of our public regulators and the scientists we pay with public money. They should be protecting us, but are not. 

Initially, there was to be no public input in the HRA process, and data in the health risk assessment was to include 1989 statistics. However, the West Berkeley Alliance has urged the city to intervene, providing public review and requiring testing of all sources of emissions. The city has apparently been successful in getting these interventions inserted into the process, and has received assurances form Pacific Steel that they will fund additional studies not required by the Air District. Unfortunately, the Air District and the city have not solved the problem in the past and thus far have not been extremely forthcoming with initiative and information. This leaves many people in the alliance wondering if the public will ever have full access to all of the information and decision-making in the HRA process, and in the overall resolution of this problem. 

Therefore, the West Berkeley Alliance is conducting its own testing. Community members, without government or industry assistance, have been trained to use state-of-the-art air sampling devices to gather data. This testing is laborious and expensive, but provides results independent of the Air District and Pacific Steel’s consultants. 

We are still hopeful that the City of Berkeley, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and Pacific Steel Casting Company will step up and protect the health of workers and residents. The West Berkeley Alliance encourages the city to initiate a comprehensive neighborhood health survey, conducted by the county and state departments of health, with community oversight. The alliance urges the Air District to follow its regulations, to thoroughly and continuously enforce permit to operate conditions, and to constantly monitor all of Pacific Steel’s sources of emissions until the pollution problem is mitigated. We believe that on behalf of workers, the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics, and Allied Workers International Local 164-B should demand that OSHA conduct a longitudinal health study of the workers’ long term and chronic health issues. Lastly, we hope Pacific Steel will protect its workers and the community by installing necessary pollution controls to eliminate all toxic and nuisance emissions. 

To reach our goals, we are educating the public about the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and how to call in odor nuisance complaints to the Air District. Any time (24 hours a day) anyone experiences an odor nuisance in the Bay Area they should call 1-800-334-6367 and make a complaint.  

We haven’t exhausted our ideas for cleaning the air and preserving safe and healthy jobs, but we are always open to public input and new members. We invite Mr. McGuire, and everyone else impacted, to join the West Berkeley Alliance: 558-8757, or westberkeleyalliance@yahoo.com. Or go to our webstie: http://westberkeleyalliance.blogspot.com for ongoing updates.  

David Schroeder is a member of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs. 

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Call me stolen-elections-hypersensitive (see 2000, then 2004) but something happened last week that perked up my vote fraud antenna and makes me wonder why no one else I know of has picked up on it. 

Two articles early last week, one by the Associated Press and one online by Guy Ashley of the Contra Costa Times, reported similar failure rates for Diebold AccuVote TSX voting machines equipped with printers during certification tests held in Stockton in late July. 

On Saturday July 30, an Associated Press article stated that they had a failure rate of 10 percent and “Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said that was too high a risk and he notified company officials in a letter sent Wednesday.” 

A few days later an online Contra Costa Times article by Guy Ashley reported that “McPherson said that Diebold machines showed a failure 

rate of about 10 percent in the tests, due mostly to unexpected screen freezes and paper jams.” 

But then on Wednesday Aug. 3, the Contra Costa Times reported that “Officials in McPherson’s office said 19 of 96 machines tested encountered problems including paper jams and screen freezes… ..” By my reckoning, 19 out of 96 constitutes about a 20 percent failure rate—double the 10 percent originally reported by Secretary of State McPherson and his office. 

When I inquired about this of Times reporter Guy Ashley, he confirmed the numbers for me. He explained in an e-mail to me that he was told (presumably by an Alameda County official) that the 10 percent figure cited by AP was low and he should check with secretary of state’s office. He did and was told that 19 of 96 computers used in the testing did have problems. 

I find it hard to believe that the Secretary of State McPherson, who happens to be a Republican, or his office would inadvertently fail to report accurately on this critically important voting rights issue which is all about accuracy of the vote count. 

If the reported figures of 19 out of 96 voting machines having failed are accurate it would appear that Secretary of State Bruce McPherson significantly misrepresented the failure rate. Then one might ask why? Does the secretary of state’s office really have such poor math skills? Or was it a deliberate attempt to gloss over and minimize Diebold’s ineptitude? 

You might say 10 percent, 20 percent what’s the difference? Well, as unacceptable as the reported 10 percent failure rate is, it is somewhat innocuous. To residents of California who are paying something approaching 10 percent sales tax it’s annoying but palatable. On the other hand, if the secretary of state’s office reported that one-fifth, or 20 percent of Diebold’s machines failed the certification tests, that could be expected to generate a heck of a lot more interest and would probably be received by the voting public the way an announced 20 percent sales tax would be.  

I cannot imagine that the secretary of state did not anticipate what reporting a 20 percent failure rate of Diebold machines would evoke from the voting public-and maybe even the lethargic media. I think given Diebold’s extensive record of voting machine irregularities and their CEO’s, now infamous, promise to “deliver the (presidential) vote” in Ohio to Republicans, it might have tipped the scales and generated an outcry that would have precluded giving Diebold another shot at demonstrating their voting machine’s un-reliability for the fast approaching upcoming elections. 

According to the July 30 AP article, Alameda County Election Commissioner Elaine Ginnold “said Diebold officials were “confident” the troubles encountered in last week’s test could be easily fixed. She is hopeful certification will be granted sometime in September.” Hmmm, well, is she now? 

Alameda County has suffered numerous under-reported problems in recent elections due to Diebold machines and now they are in negotiation for more Diebold machines. I don’t know how Ginnold can be so confident that Diebold’s 20 percent, not 10 percent, failure rate can be remedied given any amount of time. And time is running out to make changes for November elections. It should have run out a long time ago for Diebold.  

I think Alameda County should cut the proverbial umbilical cord with dysfunctional Diebold and immediately look to another more reliable, non-partisan manufacturer or simply go to hand counting ballots which they successfully do by the millions in Canada. 

I also think there may be an issue as to the independence and loyalty of Republican Secretary of State McPherson, who appears to be engaging in 

Diebold-like practices. 

For extensive background info on Diebold Corporation go to www.blackboxvoting.org. To get involved in making sure our votes count contact Voting Rights Task Force, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, www.election-reform.us. 

Peter Teichner is a Berkeley resident. 

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“A Celebration of Latin Jazz” begins Thursday and runs through the weekend. This year’s festival will feature jazz and film, poetry, dance and food celebrating Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian music and culture. 

Anna’s Jazz Island 

2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ or 845-5515, www.annasjazzisland.com. 

Misturada, Thursday, Aug. 18, 8 p.m. $5. 

Weber Iago Trio, Friday, Aug. 19, 8 p.m. $7. 

Snake Trio, Saturday, Aug. 20, 8 p.m. $7. 

Carlos Oliveira and Brazilian Origins, Sunday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. $5. 

Berkeley BART Station Plaza  

Shattuck Avenue between Allston and Center. Wayne Wallace and the Fourth Dimension, Thursday, Aug. 18, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 

Marcos Silva and Intersection, Friday, Aug. 19, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 

John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Saturday, Aug. 20, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 

Urban Latin Jazz Project with Special Guest Pete Escovedo, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Free. 

Latin Percussion Petting Zoo Workshop: Learn how to play Latin percussion instruments with Curt Moore, Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-noon and 1:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Free. 

Berkeley Public Library  

2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241, www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. 

Trio Paradiso, Friday, Aug. 19, 8 p.m. Free. 

Poetry by Al Young (California’s Poet Laureate), dartanyan brown, Francisco Alarcon, Lucha Corpi, Lucille Lang Day, Adam David Miller, George Davis. Saturday, Aug. 20, 4 p.m. Free. 

Citibank 

Ben Stolorow Duo, Aug. 19, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 

2000 Shattuck Ave. 849-0754, www.calfed.com. 

Landmark’s Act 1 & 2 

464-5980. 2128 Center St. 

Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’chafaud). Reissue of Louis Malle’s 1958 French thriller, with jazz score by Miles Davis. Nightly shows, Friday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 25. Matinees on Saturday and Sunday).  

Downtown Restaurant 

2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810, www.downtownrestaurant.com. 

Celso Alberti and Friends, Thursday, Aug. 18, 8 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $35. 

Guitarist and Vocalist Rolando Morales, Friday, Aug. 19, 9-10 p.m.  

Que Calor, 10:15 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $40. 

Rebeca Mauleon Sextet, Saturday, Aug. 20, 9 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $40. 

Maria Marquez, Sunday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. Prix Fixe Menu $35. 

Farmers’ Market  

Milvia Street between Center and Allston. 548-3333, www.ecologycenter.org. 

Jessica Neighbor and the Hoods “Cookin’ at the Market,” Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 

Heyday Books 

2054 University Ave., Suite 600. 549-3564, www.heydaybooks.com. 

Poetry by Ivan Arguelles, Lucille Lang Day, Ishmael Reed, Jack and Adelle Foley, George Davis and others. Thursday, Aug. 18, 7 p.m. Free. 

Jazzschool 

2087 Addison St. 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com. 

Mimi Fox Acoustic Trio, Thursday, Aug. 18, 8-10 p.m. Free. 

John Calloway and Diaspora, Friday, 8-10 p.m. Free. 

Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Saturday, 8-10 p.m. Tickets $18/$15/$12. 

Jovino Santos Neto Trio, Sunday, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tickets $20. 

Jupiter 

2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-8277, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

Cuarteto Sonondo, Friday, Aug. 19, 3-6 p.m. Free. 

Wayne Wallace Latin Big Band, Friday, Aug. 19, 8-11 p.m. 

The Rio Thing, Saturday, Aug. 20, 3-6 p.m. Free. 

Mas Cabeza, Saturday, Aug. 20, 8-11 p.m. Free. 

La Note Restaurant 

2377 Shattuck Ave. 843-1535, www.lanoterestaurant.com. 

Steve Erquiaga and Ricardo Peixoto, Thursday, Aug. 18, 8 p.m. 

Shattuck Down Low 

2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. 

Fito Reynoso, Friday, Aug. 19, 10 p.m. 

Mingus Amungus, Saturday, Aug. 20 10:15 p.m. 

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 

CHILDREN 

The Puppet Company, “Mae Lin & the Magic Brush” at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature: “Animal Attraction” with Wago Kreider in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gallery Talk on “Wholly Grace” works by Susan Dunhan Feliz at noon at the Bade Museum, 1798 Scenic Ave. Free.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Adrian Gormley Group, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Warsaw Village Band at 8 p.m. at Lake Merrit Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$20. 444-0303.  

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50. 548-1761.  

Mike Lipskin at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bob Schoen Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Eddie Palmieri with GIovanni Hidalgo, El Negro, Brian Lynch, and others at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Adrian Gormley Group, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only: “Whip Hand” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

Café Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Duncan James Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Swingthing at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lessons with Belinda Ricklefs at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

“Joy of Jazz” with Bishop Norman Williams from the Church of John Coltrane, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Quimbombo at 10 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Falsano Baiano at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Beppe Gambetta with David Grisman at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Luminance” Works by ten women artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave.  

“Under the Influence” sculptures by artists with disabilities. Reception for the artists at 6 p.m. at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St. Richmond. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

“New Visions: Introductions 2005” Reception for the artists at 6 p.m. at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland.  

FILM 

Louis Malle: “Human, Too Human” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ishmael Reed, Michael Shepler, Ivan Arguelles and others read from their poetry at 7 p.m. at Heyday Institute, 2054 University Ave., Suite 600. 549-3564. 

Aimee Bender, reads from her new book “Willful Creatures” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 841-5139. 

Word Beat Reading Series with Robert Beck & Louis Cuneo at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Festival: Wayne Wallace and The Fourth Dimension at noon at the Berkeley BART Station.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Celso Alberti & Friends at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Misturada at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Steve Erquiaga and Ricardo Peixoto at 8 p.m. at La Note, 2377 Shattuck Ave. 843-1535. 

Go Jimmy Go, The Uptones, Deal’s Gone Bad, ska, rock, soul, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054.  

Crooked Jades at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Montana, Plum, Astral, Tomihira at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082  

Casey Neill and Hanz Araki at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 208-1700. 

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $7.50-$20. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

Bay Ensemble’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Kinell Hall, behind Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1744 University Ave. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 658-8835. 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Nicholas Nickleby” Part 2 at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666.  

“Livin’ Fat” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, through Aug. 26. Tickets are $15-$25. 332-7125. 

The Marsh Berkeley “When God Winked” by Ron Jones. Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Building, 2120 Allston Way, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$22. 800-838-3006.  

FILM 

Cinema in Occupied France: “La Nuit fantastique” at 7:30 p.m. and “Douce” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Latin Jazz Festival: John Calloway and Diaspora, lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Festival: Marcos Silva and Intersection at noon at the Berkeley BART Station. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Ben Stolorow Duo at 4 p.m. at Citibank, 200 Shattuck Ave. 849-0754.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Weber Iago Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Steve Erquiaga and Trio Parasiso at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library. Free. 981-6241. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Wayne Wallace at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Que Color at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Frito Reynoso at 9 p.m. at Shat- 

tuck Down Low. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

Palenque, traditional Cuban music, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. 

Full Moon, Full Voice, song and chant with Betsy Rose and Francesca Genco at 7:15 p.m. at Vara Healing Arts Center, 850 Talbot St. (enter though courtyard in back), Albany. Donation $10-$15. 525-7082. 

George Kuo, Martin Pahinui, Aaron Mahi, Hawaiian music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Vowel Movement, vocal percussion, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-12. 525-5054.  

Clairdee at 7 p.m. at Maxwell’s 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. 

Ilene Adar and Megan Barton at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Val Esway & Mirage at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Partyline, Origami, Paper Lanterns, Make Me at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Eddie Palmieri with Giovanni Hidalgo, El Negro, Brian Lynch, and others at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s through Sun. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 

CHILDREN 

Latin Percussion Petting Zoo at the Berkeley Bart Station from 11 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 2 p.m.  

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, labor day perf. Sept. 5. Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Oakland-East Bay Shakespeare Festival “Much Ado About Nothing” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt, corner of Perkins and Bellevue, through Aug. 28. Free. 415-865-4434. www.sfshakes.org 

FILM 

“Flamenco: A Personal Journey” a documentary film by Tao Ruspoli at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

Cinema in Occupied France: “Groupi Mains Rouge” at 7 p.m. and “Le Corbeau” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Al Young, California’s Poet Laureate, at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Bob Baker, author of “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook” at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. Donation $5-$10. 644-2204.  

Geoff “Double G” Gallegos, founder and conductor of daKAH Hip Hip Orchestra at 1 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jessica Neighbor & The Hoods “Cookin’ at the Market” at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. and MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Latin Jazz Festival: Ben Stolorow Duo at 11 a.m. at Citibank, 200 Shattuck Ave. 849-0754. 

Latin Jazz Festival: John Santos and the Machete Ensemble at noon at the Berkeley BART Station.  

Latin Jazz Festival: JRay Obiedo and the Urban Latin Jazz Project at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station.  

Latin Jazz Festival: The Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Latin Jazz Festival: Mas Cabeza at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Latin Jazz Festival: Rebecca Mauleon Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Asylum Street Spankers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, roots country and west coast bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mingus Amungus at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Fourtet Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Doug Blumer, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

P.D.A., The Rosenbombs, The Dangers, The Spark at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 

FILM 

Cinema in Occupied France: “Safe Conduct” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jazz Spoken Word Sponsored by The Jazz House at 6 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 415-846-9432. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Hip Science: The Human Body 101 Live” musical theater combining rap and hip hop and science at 3 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $7-$10. 655-8078. www.hiplearning.com 

Midnight Star at 3 p.m. at Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park, 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Ace of Spades Acoustic Series with Alela Menig, Parker Frost, Judith & Holofernes at 1 p.m. at MamaBuzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. Free, all ages.  

Chris Rowan and friends at 5 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $7. All ages. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org  

Viviana Guzman, tango music, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin Jazz Festival: Carlos Oliveira & Brazilian Origins at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Latin Jazz Festival: Maria Marquez Quartet at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Latin Jazz Festival: Jovino Santos Neto Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Shweta Jhaveri, lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m., concert at 9:15 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8-$10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Todd Boston at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

King of Kings, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Americana Unplugged with The Whiskey Brothers at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

MONDAY, AUGUST 22 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Express with Eugene David at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Taylor’s Friends Forever, Sixes, Ultra Boyz and Universal Baltimore at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 510-44GRAND. 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Sovoso, CD release concert, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23 

CHILDREN 

P&T Puppet Theater, at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature: “13 Lakes” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Pamela Cranston reads from “Coming to Treeline: Adirondack Poems” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-3635. 

Sara Halprin talks about “Seema’s Show: A Life on the Left” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Riley LaShea discusses the role of women in fairytales and reads from her new novel, “Bleeding Through Kingdoms: Cinderella’s Rebellion” at 7 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 655-2405. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Gg and Ralph Dranow at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Noel Jewkes Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Howard Barkan Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Calvin Keys Trio, CD release concert, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Danny Caron at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.s

Don’t panic, folks. Those trees aren’t dying. 

Our town has a number of public California buckeye trees, some planted in medians (Sacramento Street south of University Avenue, for example) and some in privately owned visible spots: there’s a cute little buckeye on the streetside corner of Andronico’s University Avenue store’s parking lot. Right now, many of them are dropping leaves, or looking brown and sickly. Relax; it’s normal. 

When I took my first tree course ever up at Merritt, Judy Thomas told us that as practicing landscapers we were guaranteed to get this question more than once in our careers: “What’s wrong with my tree?? It’s dying! It’s shriveling up and dropping leaves and it’s only August!” To answer, first we were to find out the tree’s species, and it would probably be a native buckeye. If it was, we could reassure our panicky clients and look like heroes.  

Coastal California is a strange place to be a plant. When the days are longest, there’s no water; when it’s raining, there’s little sunshine for months on end, no matter the weather, because days are short. Plants have to cope either by doing their growing on a diet of scant sunlight or by figuring out how to grow new tissue with little or no available water. Trees in particular make a lot of themselves, of slowly, and make dense wood too, not flimsy stems.  

Back east, say, they have an easier decision. When the ground freezes in winter, that’s effectively a drought, as plants need liquid water to absorb onto their rootlets. Despite summer rainstorms, daylight gets lavished on them in the long days of summer. So they can start their drinking and growing when the ground thaws out—and it doesn’t take much thawing to kick them off, as witness New England’s sugar maples, whose sap flows when the ground is still under snow.  

In winter, northeastern trees have to conserve moisture. Evergreen conifers have small, hard needles or even scales, often with a waxy coat that keeps water in. Deciduous trees have a different solution: After pulling their chlorophyll back into their woody bits and exposing other pigments for a fall show, they just jettison their tender, vulnerable leaf tissue before the winter blasts can desiccate them, or freezing temperatures explode the cell walls—water expands when it freezes. (In a rare freeze here, I’ve seen tender succulents dissolve into sad green mush or even explode, sending shattered bits of nopales several feet into the garden. Yikes.) 

We have several native soft-leafed deciduous trees here, like bigleaf maple and red-twig dogwood. We have broadleaf evergreens like California bay laurel, and of course lots of conifers like redwood. But our buckeye is our only tree species that has reaches this particular compromise, and it makes me wonder about its evolutionary history. It’s bare in winter, and quite handsome that way, with its pale bark and sturdily graceful structure. It leafs out in spring, and flowers with subtly scented upright candles of little white blooms. Those blossoms, by the way, are toxic to honeybees, but apparently not to the various pollinators native here.  

Some of the flowers—not many—mature into hard, red-brown nuts like chestnuts but lumpier, and not edible roasted the way chestnuts are. They do have a grocery value, though—the First Peoples who lived in range used them to stun fish. No, not by conking them on the head like your little brother; by putting some of the pulp into a pond or a creek backwater. Compounds in the nut stunned the fish, who would float helplessly to the top where shoppers could pick the ones they wanted. Most of the rest would recover and swim off, presumably with a piscine hangover, and the pulp would dilute and wash away harmlessly. (A lot of things are harmless when only a few people do them.) 

Then, toward the end of summer, just before the hottest, driest days of September, when the soil is parched and things are beginning to look tired, many buckeyes let their leaves shrivel and drop. The ones that don’t usually live beside year-round creeks, or suckle at some permanent underground water source. The ones that do aren’t hurting, just doing what comes naturally.  

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Tai Chi for Health and Long Life from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “Nature vs Nurture” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. Advance sign-up needed 594-5165. 

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Diana Bohn will show the video titled “The Road to Hope” which she made with Potters for Peace, at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters welcomes curious guests and new members at 7:15 a.m. at Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Ave. at Milvia. 435-5863.  

Entrepreneurs Networking at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. 562-9431.  

Come Spot Come Total recall training for your dog at 6:30 p.m. at Rabbitears, 303 Arlington Ave. Cost is $35, registration required. 525-6155. 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www. 

oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

Kundalini Yoga for All Ages at 2:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

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. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Doing Good” at 7 p.m. at Lakeside Park, Lakeside Drive at Lake Merritt, Oakland. 415-285-1717. www.sfmt.org 

EarthTeam’s Annual Teachers’ Lunch High school and middle school teachers interested in environmental curriculum are invited to this luncheon featuring speakers, Q&A, student video projects, and curriculum materials offered by non-profits. At 11:30 a.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, entrance on Dana. Free for teachers, $12 for others. RSVP to 655-6658. 

“No More Boring Lunches” A talk on how to prepare quick and easy lunches that are nutritionally sound and delicious, at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

Simplicity Forum “Home Grown Dairy Products in Berkeley” with Jim Montgomery of Green Faerie Farm in Berkeley, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509. www.simpleliving.net 

Volunteer Outreach Workshop for the UC Botanical Garden at 4 p.m. at 200 Centennial Drive. Free, but registration suggested. 643-1924. 

Waterwise Gardening Tour at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Arts and Crafts Cooperative, Inc. (ACCI) Seconds Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Aug. 21 at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 

Conscientious Projector Film Series “The Future of Food” at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Discussion to follow with Prof. Ignacio Chapela. 528-5403. 

Arts and Crafts Cooperative, Inc. (ACCI) Seconds Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Aug. 21 at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 

Berkeley Path Wanderers in Joaquin Miller Park, where Joaquin Miller, “Poet of the Sierras,” lived from 1886 to 1913, planting today’s redwood groves and building fanciful monuments. Meet at 10 a.m. at the ranger station. From Rt. 13, take Joaquin Miller Rd. uphill 1 mi to Sanford; go left (north) to the Ranger Station. Bring water and snack for this moderate hike. 549-2908. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Introduction to Bio-intensive Gardening We will discuss and give hands-on demonstrations of garden design and planning, hand cultivation of vegetable, flower and fruit garden beds, home composting and soil management, seedling propagation and transplanting, and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm near the El Cerrito Plaza Bart station. Bring a bag lunch and cup for refreshments. Cost is $60. 707-367-2567. plant_veggies@yahoo.com 

Chabot Space and Science Center Anniversary with festivities from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat. and to 4 p.m. on Sun. 336-7300. www.chabotspace.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours  

Richmond Seedlings and “Weedlings” Join a fun group of volunteers to transplant seedlings in our native plant nursery, and pull a few “weedlings” to help with the restoration of West Stege Marsh. From 9 a.m. to noon. Pre-registration required; youth under 18 will need a waiver signed by their parent or guardian. Sponsored by the Watershed Project. 665-3645. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

“The Global Backyard: Nature, Fire Safety and Green Materials” a slide show and talk with Robin Freeman, Chair of the Merritt College Environmental Program, at 4:30 p.m. at Rabbitears, 303 Arlington Ave. $20 suggested donation. 525-6155. 

Brooks Island Voyage Paddle the rising tide across the Richmond Harbor Channel to Brooks Island. For experienced boaters who can provide their own canoe or kayak, and safety gear. For ages 14 and up. Cost is $20-$23. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Cybersalon with Dave Winer, author of Scripting News, inventor of RSS, progenitor of podcasting, and host of the OPML Roadshow, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Dinner is from 8:30 to whenever. Cost for dinner is $20.  

Garage Sale to benefit the Northbrae Community Church, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 941 The Alameda. Items include furniture, kitchenware, china, toys, car seats, children’s clothes, electronics, and many, many books. 526-3805.  

“What Girls Should Know About Puberty” with Mary Arnold, women’s health nurse practitioner, for girls ages 8-14 accompanied by an adult, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck, lower level. Cost is $50 per child. Registration required. 595-3814. 

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes, a Julia Morgan landmark, at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley. Reservations required 228-3207. 

Oakland Outdoor Cinema “Some Like it Hot” at 8 p.m. on Washington St. between 9th and 10th Sts. Limited seating, bring chairs and blankets. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of the Oakland Point. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

“Heal Your Back, Straighten Your Spine” with Jay Bunker, chiropractor, at 3 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. at 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 

Guided Trails Challenge Hike at Point Pinole from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to discover this area’s explosive and peaceful past. For information call 525-2233. 

Bay Trail Exploration A nine-mile afternoon stroll from downtown Oakland to the Coliseum to see wetlands, waterfronts and community art, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Greenbelt Alliance. For information call 415-543-6771, ext. 321. www.greeneblt.org 

Honoring Father Bill O’Donnell with guest speaker Dolores Huerta at 1:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. 658-2467. www.berkeleyboca.org 

Social Action Forum with Virginia Handley, a lobbyist for animals, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Lama and Filmmaker Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche will speak at 7 p.m. at the Malonga Center, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Benefits New Dharma Meditation Center and UrbanPEACE. Tickets are $20. 547-3733. www.newdharma.com  

Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park with Midnight Star at 3 p.m. at 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Learn how to do a bicycle safety inspection at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Bike Tour of Oakland A leisurely-paced tour covering the history of Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance of the Oakland Museum of California. Registration required, 238-3514. 

“Hip Science: The Human Body 101 Live” musical theater combining rap and hip hop and science at 3 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $7-$10. 655-8078. www.hiplearning.com 

Wolfin’ Down Books, a summer reading program finale celebration for children and families from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

MONDAY, AUGUST 22 

Sufi Teaching and Zikr presented by M.T.O.Shahmaghsoudi at 7 p.m. at the M.T.O. Center, 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite 101. RSVP to 704-1888. 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

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. 

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As I blew out my candle and walked away from the vigil in front of the French Hotel last night, I told the friends who were with me that this is as close as many of us in Berkeley ever get to church. Demonstrations like this are the most inclusive of our indigenous religious institutions, with all the elements which contribute to a soul-satisfying religious experience. Congregants from my generation spontaneously sang our oldest hymns--“We shall overcome…we shall not be moved….ain’t gonna study war no more”—memorabilia of our successful struggles to end segregation and stop the war in Vietnam.  

We had elders there, the white-haired, fragile but still fiery old commies, and babies like the dimpled smiling grandson of a MoveOn founder. I even wore a holy relic: one of departed trooper Norine Smith’s brilliantly-colored scarves, given to mourners at the wake following her memorial. 

“It won’t make any difference” said my friend the red diaper baby, “but I had to come anyway.” When I first met her, she was flirting with Reaganism (she’ll deny it now) as a reaction to a difficult childhood in the bosom of The Party. But she still believes in hoping. “We should be going to Martinez or somewhere that they don’t know about this,” she said, but Thursday’s dailie s carried stories about vigils in Pleasant Hill and other improbable outposts.  

Those of who periodically attend services like this share a deep-down lingering faith in the perfectibility of the human species. We talk like cynics, but we’re bluffing. Soo ner or later, we think, they’re going to see the light. We marched against the first Gulf war, we marched against the second Gulf war, and it didn’t do any good, so many of us have skipped the last few attempts at big marches. But in Cindy Sheehan we’ve f ound a new Joan of Arc to lead us in battle against the forces of darkness.  

The parents among us are especially moved by her tragedy, a mother’s loss of a child for a cause she cannot even support. It’s not just that we agree with her that it’s a sensel ess war. It’s not about ideology, particularly when most Americans, even some Republicans, now know that Bush’s excuses for going into Iraq were completely manufactured.  

We join vigils to support Cindy Sheehan because we understand her pain as if it were our own. Pundits have been saying that opposition to this folly would be stronger if the television news shows carried pictures of flag-draped coffins, as they did during the Vietnam war, or will be greater when the body count rises. But Cindy Sheehan’s manifest grief over her son’s death illustrates what Dylan Thomas said about the death of another child: “After the first death, there is no other.” We don’t need to hear from more mothers of dead children to know what we have to do. 

The mothers of the living are starting to cry out as well. We received this letter on Wednesday from Evelyn Hannett of Christiansburg, VA: 

I too have a son in Iraq and am worried every single minute of my waking day that my son will be another casualty like Casey Sheehan. Doesn’t the president even care what this is doing to the families here in his own country just waiting for that day when they find out their precious loved one has been killed in a senseless war ? Is he going to be able to financially take care of the single mother that can no longer work because she can’t cope with holding down a job because she is crying all the time ?  

These men and women that are in Iraq have good jobs, are a asset to society and have families that love them deeply. If the Preside nt wants to “fix” a country he just needs to look in his own back yard. We have people starving, homeless people, people that are sick and can’t afford medicine. We have the single mother raising children making $6 per hour. Some of that money that is bei ng spent in Iraq could be spent on “Our Country.”  

President Bush obviously does doesn’t care for the people in his own country or he would have our troops home and safe. Let other countries handle their own affairs, who died and appointed President Bush ruler of the world ? 

What does it have to take to make President Bush wake up and bring our troops home ?  

If anything happens to my son and he does not make it home alive, I am holding President Bush responsible. He needs to send his own daughters over there and then see how he feels about this senseless war.  

Thank you for your time.  

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, Ms. Hannett, and for your courage in saying what many other parents would like to say. We’d like you to know that many of us here do still believe, as our old song says, that we will overcome someday. We’ve won some big battles, and we will win this one if we persevere. We didn’t end racism, but we did stop segregation. We didn’t end war for all time, but we did end one war in our time. We’ll do our best to help you get your son home alive from this one.  

i

Cindy Sheehan has finally managed to capture the imagination of the nation and of the world. Those of us in northern California have been aware of her campaign against the war in Iraq for more than a year. Members of Military Families Speak Out, including Cindy Sheehan, spoke at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Berkeley in July of 2004, but it’s taken a while for the national media to process their message. This has historically been the case for ideas and movements originating outside of the New York-Washington corridor.  

Part of the reason her story is finally surfacing is that August is a notably slow media month. Many magazines take a week or two off at this time of year, and others (including the New York Times) are uncharacteristically thin. So timing a big media campaign for the slow season when Congress is out of session makes perfect sense. When I was a political operative in the ‘60s we used to say “never underestimate the laziness of the newsies”—the pack will always respond to a well-timed and well-packaged story much faster than they will to raw news events.  

Cindy’s story has always been a compelling one for those who took the time to listen. She was in the position of many parents of young people who can’t connect with jobs or school, to whom the military looks like a good career option, or at least a way to get some education. She was suspicious from the time he enlisted, but his death confirmed her worst fears. 

Just about three years ago (it seems like much longer) I was involved in rescuing a young man of my acquaintance from the evil clutches of an army recruiter in response to his mother’s anguished plea for help. I discovered that the recruiter (then based at Eastmont Mall, probably still there to prey on young Oaklanders) had lied shamelessly to the boy (that’s all he really was) about what he was signing up for, and then lied some more regarding whether or not he could legally change his mind before showing up for induction. That was before the Iraq invasion, and the kid was sufficiently ignorant of current events not to realize that he was headed for combat, not “foreign language training” or a mechanic’s job like Casey Sheehan.  

Not, of course, that the New York Times or the Washington Post or the U.S. Congress were any better informed at that point. Political people around here were starting to get nervous, but they had no real facts to cite.  

The Downing Street memos from that same summer of 2002 reveal that there was plenty to be nervous about. It’s clear that the invasion of Iraq was in the works and moving forward, and that all the subsequent avidly-reported byplay about inspections and weapons of mass destruction was a Bush-Blair concoction which the gullible media eagerly swallowed. It’s no wonder that my young friend and Casey Sheehan were also deceived. 

The nutso-right web pages, including FrontPage.com, mouthpiece of the irrepressible David Horowitz, are fulminating about the fact that Cindy is now getting help from the best-of-breed progressive public relations specialists. Code Pink, started by PR genius Medea Benjamin, is in Crawford with her. According to Thursday’s New York Times, so is Fenton Communications, started by David Fenton, who was hanging out in the same anti-Vietnam-war circles that I was in Michigan in the sixties, and later went on to publicize Rolling Stone magazine when it started. (He might well have been the origin of the lazy-newsy quip quoted above.) The right-wing bloggers are Shocked that PR counts, but of course it does. Fenton et al. have honed their skills over close to forty years of being, more often than not, the bearers of news from the outside trying to get inside. Cindy Sheehan’s message, which was ignored coming out of Berkeley in July 2004, has been cleverly thrown into the media vacuum which surrounds Crawford Texas during Dubya’s summer vacation, and lazy but hungry newsies have gobbled it up.  

It’s too bad that much of the news which makes the bigtime media is, shall we say, enhanced by the skill of the public relations profession, but it is. It’s true that Daily Planet readers heard about Cindy Sheehan last year, but in all fairness we must also say that you heard about her thanks in part to the impressive publicity skills of the local Unitarian Universalists (the “U-U’s” as they’re fondly known), who wield a mean press release considering that they’re amateurs.  

It shouldn’t have taken a sophisticated PR firm like Fenton’s to spotlight Cindy Sheehan so that the major media could see her, but it did. “Enterprise reporting” (which may or may not be the same as what used to be called “investigative reporting” ) has a flashy reputation, but often good reporting just means listening to what people are trying to tell you.