The Opinion Pages

Editorials

Editorial: Now You Finally Have to Make Up Your Mind

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday February 05, 2008
Thanks to my advanced age, it’s very rare that I have to talk to or even see another human before 8 a.m. anymore (except of course my husband.) Which is how I like it. I’m awake early, but definitely not conversational. So I was very surprised to find myself at Peet’s on Domingo at about 7 on Monday morning, fully clothed and relatively alert. I was even wearing Norine’s scarf, a flamboyantly-flowered number which I inherited from my flamboyantly-redhaired friend Norine Smith, who never hesitated to leap into any political controversy whenever she felt that God was on her side, which was pretty much always. I wear it when I feel the spirit moving me to take action, which sadly is not too often these days. -more-

Letters

Reader Commentaries

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday February 05, 2008
PRIMARILY PRIMAL -more-

Readers Respond to Council’s Ruling on Marine Recruitment

Tuesday February 05, 2008
OUT OF CONTROL -more-

Commentary: Children’s Hospital Belongs to Us All

By Frank Tiedemann
Tuesday February 05, 2008
For 95 years, Children’s Hospital has cared for the children and families of this community. From day one, in 1912, our mission has been to serve any child, no matter the family’s ability to pay. We have never wavered from that mission. Over the years we have cared for hundreds of thousands of children. -more-

Commentary: Take Care of Both Neighborhood and Children

By Elizabeth O’Hanlon Maier
Tuesday February 05, 2008
I’m a resident of North Oakland, and Ms. Roy’s comments in the Daily Planet regarding the expansion of Children’s Hospital are profoundly disturbing to me—not least since I’m also the sister of a little girl who died in childhood of a rare form of cancer that strikes only children (Wilmes’ tumor). Today, thankfully, almost all forms of children’s cancer are treatable. If my sister, Cathy, had been born just a few years later, chances are she’d be alive today. -more-

Commentary: Why We Will Regulate Military Recruiting in Berkeley

By PhoeBe Anne Sorgen
Tuesday February 05, 2008
As a mother of a teenager, I am proud that Berkeley High School was the last high school in the nation to cave in to federal pressure and give students’ contact info to the military. Though the elected school board had voted to opt out, the school had to comply eventually to preserve federal funding. Parents may opt out, as I did, but signing up for college info opted us back in, so we are receiving deceptively seductive, glossy brochures that don’t mention that enlistees are trained to harden their hearts and kill, possibly torture, and may be killed. -more-