Features

WHIRLEY CRANE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Nov. 8 article “Historic Crane Docks At Richmond Park” contained a glaring error. The Whirley crane was not used to build “the cruisers and battleships that sailed out into the Pacific and helped win the naval war for the United States,” since Kaiser’s Richmond shipyards built no cruisers nor battleships. Battleships and cruisers were built in a few Naval shipyards especially designed to accommodate their much larger size and weight.  

Precisely 519 of the 747 ships built in Richmond were Liberty ships, slow “ugly ducklings” manned by merchant mariners. An additional 142 ships, including the Berkeley Victory, were Victory class. These ships carried raw material to our factories, and troops and war supplies to the fighting fronts and to Navy ships at sea, assuring Allied victory in World War II. 

Henry Kaiser made his mark by adopting mass production methods to shipbuilding, lowering construction cost of a Liberty ship to less than $2 million dollars each. A Liberty ship comprised 250,000 parts weighing about 14 million pounds. As a publicity stunt, the Richmond yards built one in four days, 15 hours and 29 minutes, while the average was about 30 days.  

Readers can see photos of the record-setting Liberty ship SS Robert E. Peary at www.usmm.org/peary.html and can visit the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, one of two remaining Liberty ships of the 2,710 which were built, at San Francisco’s Pier 45 1/2. 

Toni Horodysky 

Webmistress, American Merchant Marine at War, www.usmm.org 

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OVERLOOKED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley’s Latinos, and in particular Mexicanos, are often overlooked in political discussion of who are our strong “liberals” and “progressives.” It is said that the Latino community is in flux, or in other ways hard to evaluate. But state-wide results for the Nov. 8 election reveal one very large Latino (mostly Mexicano) community that showed itself outstandingly liberal and worthy of attention and support. 

Imperial county is 72 percent Hispanic, mostly Mexican. On Propositions 74, 76, 77, 79 and 80, Imperial beat out Los Angeles to stand as the most “liberal” county in Southern California. On Prop. 79 the Imperial vote was more liberal than Alameda, and second in the state to San Francisco. 

The people of Imperial county tend to be poor, and in our Latte Liberal world of Berkeley it is lamented that too little is known about what actual poor people want. The vote in Imperial county shows that what is wanted is medical care. It is wanted so bad that the Imperial folk will take anything they can get. The Imperials were not only second in the state for Prop. 79, their vote for Prop. 78 was the highest percentage in the state. 

Ted Vincent  

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OREGON STREET  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After reading with interest the letters to the Daily Planet about the drug dealing from a house on Oregon Street, I am left with the impression that if is not your front yard that is being pissed on and not your property on which are tossed drug needles and used condoms, you can become concerned about the lack of compassion for a nice African American grandmother homeowner of this house and her 37 grandchildren who are then said to be victims of racism and poverty. 

Of course the letters that could be written might be about where these drugs come from and why there have not been more arrests for the drug dealing. 

Max Macks 

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THE FIRST CREDO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My heart goes out to those South Berkeley neighbors who have suffered the ravages of a crime-plagued neighborhood, been forced to look to a small claims court action when all other efforts failed, and now must endure the taunts of “racist” for merely seeking a peaceful neighborhood. 

The first credo of any Berkeley lefty is to always call your opponent a racist. But aren’t those screaming about racism in this instance, e.g., Andrea Pritchett and Leo Stegman, the real racists? They’re saying we should accept that black neighborhoods have a lot of crime. 

Of course, it is a little hard to feel sorry for Paul Rauber who works at the Sierra Club, an organization that likes to engage in race-baiting. A few years ago, the Sierra Club was overtaken by a wave of political correctness, withdrew its policy that called for reduced immigration along with reduced birthrates as part of a comprehensive plan to stabilize the population of the U.S. Prominent environmentalists such as E.O. Wilson, Lester Brown, Sen. Gaylord Nelson, and David Brower said that was wrong. The Sierra Club response was to smear its critics, especially candidates for the board of directors, as “racists” and “nazis.” 

Sometimes what goes around, comes around. 

Mark Johnson 

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SIDESTEPPING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The very public dispute between Lenora Moore’s family and her neighbors has a seductive “which side are you on” quality, tempting people to comment as to whether participants are showing too much compassion or not enough. But by suggesting to the afflicted neighborhood that a civil suit is the appropriate course, the City of Berkeley neatly sidestepped its own responsibility to keep streets safe, something we all know it can do when it wants to.  

There is no politician in Berkeley whose street, if similarly plagued with problematic behavior, would not be problem-free in minutes. The police, moreover, have had years of political backing for all manner of extra “tools” (anti-loitering, pepper spray, wooden and rubber bullets, etc.) without which they claimed to be helpless.  

Come help rebuild the People’s Park freebox. You’ll be suddenly and instantly surrounded by at least a dozen police officers equipped with video cameras who will videotape even a singing circle. You’ll suddenly realize that this town has all the police it needs and can accomplish anything it needs to once it straightens out its priorities. 

Carol Denney 

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FREEBOX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

UC is trying to privatize the give-away box at People’s Park. The freebox which started out with a cardboard box had grown over the last 30-some years, to a wooden covered large box. So has the second-hand clothing industry, which is now one of the United States’ leading exports.  

Used clothing that was intended to go to the poor, in most cases, is now sold to corporations for profit. Then the used clothing is sent to Africa. There it has become 80 percent of the local textile sales. This has put millions of workers out of work in Africa. 

There is no charity when it comes to the trade in used clothing. This is a lucrative business.  

Last spring the People’s Park freebox was burned down. This is the third time this has happened but this time the gathering of the repressive forces‚ organizing around “blaming the victims for the way they must live,” has led to an attack by UC. The freebox was torched and UC will not let us build a replacement. 

Up until the late ‘60s, many African Americans and poor people could not venture east of MLK (formally Grove Street) in Berkeley. You know why: the police! But with the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements, People’s Park was the place to go. People who were not part of the college community had and still have a hangout. The park is UC’s only class-diversity program.  

Now People’s Park is the most used park in Berkeley. There are three services in the park, free food (Food not Bombs), free clothing, and a little free speech (12 concerts or rallies a year). UC has been attacking the Food not Bombs for years and park advocates and users had to go to court to get the concert times. Now it is time to end the freebox repression. 

Come to the park on Nov. 12 around noon and help us build a new steel box.  

Michael Delacour 

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TAKING THE CHALLENGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Loath as I am to reprise the battle of words about Israel in your letters column that inevitably winds up with someone likening the Daily Planet to Mein Kampf, I must award Robert Blau’s statement that “Jews are more reasonably paranoid about being in jeopardy than any other ethnic group in the history of civilization” with a prize for ethnic solipsism and meretricious victimhood. Blau follows his declaration with the challenge “Prove me wrong.”  

OK, Mr. Blau. You occupy land (California) previously inhabited by a people whose numbers by 1913 were reduced to less than 6 percent of what they had been in 1769 at the moment of white contact. That genocide is only a subset of the largely unknown Holocaust that overwhelmed Native Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere in the past 500 years as Gentiles and Jews forcibly took virtually everything they owned and often massacred them when disease and slavery proved insufficient to clear the land of their irksome presence. Yet I know of no museum commemorating their Holocaust in California, let alone of any serious effort to compensate their descendants for the horrors they suffered.  

Nor do I see in or on many of the Holocaust museums and monuments I have visited much, if any, mention of the persecution those of us who are gay, Roma, Slavic, African-American, or disabled have suffered throughout the centuries leading up to our own collective destruction in Nazi death camps.  

A friend asked her mother who had survived Auschwitz why most Holocaust museums concentrate on the agony of Jews to the exclusion of the rest of us, to which the lady candidly responded “Because we are white.” Is Mr. Blau prepared to state publicly that his team is worthier than the rest of us who have suffered as well?  

Gray Brechin  

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RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Gosh. Until I read Rhoda Levinson’s letter demanding to know my education, profession, and time, place, and length of stay in Israel/Palestine, I had no idea that a curriculum vitae was a prerequisite for passing on information about upcoming events. 

While I’m on the subject, let me remind readers that “Justice Matters: Artists Consider Palestine” continues at the Berkeley Art Center on Walnut Street through Dec. 17. There are a number of worthwhile special presentations in conjunction with this exhibit. For information about them go to www.berkeleyartcenter.org. 

Also, I cannot too highly recommend the amazing Ibdaa Dance Troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp. These energetic young people will be performing at King Middle School at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 26. Make support for kids who are struggling to maintain hope under soul-crushing circumstances part of your family’s Thanksgiving celebration this year. Tickets are available at local bookstores. 

You can catch Ziad Abbas, the co-director of the Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 25 at the Berkeley Art Center. Bring your questions about life in the West Bank. 

And lastly, for holiday gifts, check out the Palestinian Handcrafts Sale at Berkeley Friends Meeting House on Walnut and Vine from 10 to 4 on Saturday, Dec. 3. Lots of moderately priced tchatchkes and the gratification of knowing your money goes to people who really need it. I suggest you get there early before the bottles of excellent olive oil sell out. (Rhoda, if I see you there, we can chat.) 

Joanna Graham 

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BERZERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As an aside to the Berzerkeley Veterans’ Day event reported in Daily Planet and elsewhere, my quirky imagination has me wondering if the casket carrying stunt planned for Santa Monica’s Veterans’ Day observance has any credibility. Did the terrorist sympathizers in People’s Republic of Santa Monica exploiting Bill Mitchell’s grief ever stage events where participants carried caskets to mark the deaths at Khobar Towers, Mogadishu, Marine Barracks Lebanon, USS Cole, World Trade Center (twice), the Pentagon, a Pennsylvania farm field, a Bali nightclub, U.S. embassies in Africa, and several airplane disasters? If you covered any such casket-carrying stories, I guess I missed them. There’s something “fishy” about “Country Joe” McDonald inviting Bill Mitchell to Berkeley. But then, maybe not, considering “Country Joe’s” history as a former associate of Hanoi Jane Fonda. Kudos to Berkeley DAV president Ed Harper for withdrawing from the event.  

Richard Rongstad 

USN, Phu Cat to Phu Quoc, Vietnam, ’69-’70, DAV life member 

Concord 

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OIL INDUSTRY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Finally, the Senate is taking up the oil companies’ excessive profits. The oilmen tell us their all-time record high profits are “in line” with industry averages as a percentage of revenues. That’s not a satisfying statistic. While the world market for oil has shot up due to Bush’s war and Katrina’s response, the cost of oil production remains relatively constant. Add a fixed percentage profit margin onto higher prices and voila! higher profits. As oil companies pass the higher market prices onto us consumers, responsible companies would keep their profits at a fixed amount, not a fixed percentage. Congress should enact a Windfall Profits tax immediately, and should rescind the tax-breaks recently given to these gougers in the Energy Bill. Let them share our pain. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

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