Public Comment

THE IRS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While we’re all thinking about the IRS, have other people noticed that, although we’re penalized and charged whatever interest it pleases for a late payment, it pays no interest at all on the withholding and prepayments it collects? Deposited in any bank it would make some interest, and the government, I’m sure, uses it in ways that make a lot more for it than we get in our local banks. 

Isn’t that our money? Shouldn’t we be credited that amount? 

Ruth Bird 

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TELEGRAPH NUISANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For more than a decade now, we the street vendors, merchants, shoppers, and residents on the block of Haste and Telegraph, have been forced to endure a group of out-of-towners who invade our city nearly every Saturday with their message of hate. I’m talking about the Bay Area Outreach Ministries. With amplifiers blasting so loud that you can hear it two blocks away, they harangue us with their message that we’re all going to hell if we don’t believe the same beliefs as them. Even worse is the no-talent on the guitar who uses the amplifiers for a bully-pulpit to play the same five dull, inane songs that he’s been playing week after week, year after year. Just one of those blowhards that you know will never get tired of the sound of his own voice. We are now collecting signatures on a petition to get the city to do something about these pests. Please drop by any weekend on the corner of Haste and Telegraph and sign our petition. 

Ace Backwords 

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TALK IS CHEAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If the whining of a few vocal NIMBYs manages to stop Bus Rapid Transit, Berkeley will be the laughingstock of California. It will send the message that the city of Berkeley, for all of its talk about saving the planet, is unwilling to actually do anything to reduce our automobile dependence. 

Jacob Berman 

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BERKELEY HYPOCRITES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley hypocrites. Don’t you love them? 

Residents of Berkeley are all for stopping global warming, stopping pollution, and stopping the war—until it actually means doing something. Yes, we’re for mass transit, but not if it means eliminating a traffic lane for our beloved gas-guzzlers or losing some parking spaces for our hallowed automobiles. 

And, of course, Code Pink, in order to protest the War for Oil needs a humongous, polluting truck and a free parking spot for it in front of the Marine recruiting office. What a laugh! 

Mark Johnson 

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PAUL ROBESON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Halfway through his otherwise excellent article on the Paul Robeson birthday celebration, J. Douglas Allen-Taylor made the double mistake of characterizing Robeson as “an almost stereotypical baritone.” In the first place, Robeson was not, strictly speaking, a baritone. The two of us, who remember the profundity of the first two notes of Robeson’s “Old Man River,” were ready to say that he had one of the greatest bass voices of the twentieth century. 

When we looked him up in the Grove-Norton Encyclopedia of Music, however, we found that it called him a bass-baritone. And then we remembered how he soared up to the final “Old man” at the end of that song, and we realized that he had risen into the baritone range at that point. But the bass part of his voice must never be ignored. 

Furthermore, there was nothing stereotypical about Paul Robeson. His voice, his extensive musical repertoire, and his versatility as a performer set him apart from the other singers and actors of his day. Both of us had the privilege of seeing and hearing Robeson in person. In the spring of 1944 Virginia was present when he played the role of Othello for a Des Moines audience and she listened to that unforgettable voice say Shakespeare’s heart-piercing lines. 

In 1952 Henry heard Robeson sing spirituals and Russian folk songs at a small gathering in Palo Alto to raise funds for refugees from the Spanish Civil War; (Franco was still very much in power). At that time, Henry recalls, Robeson seemed a true bass, a worthy heir to Fyodor Chaliapin. 

But we don’t wish to quibble. Thank you and Mr. Allen-Taylor for an enjoyable article about an important occasion. 

Henry Anderson 

Virginia Foote Anderson 

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JUBILEE ACT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Thursday, April 16, the House of Representatives voted 285 to 132 to pass the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634). This strong bipartisan legislation urges expanded debt cancellation to impoverished countries that need it to meet the Millennium Development Goals and provide much needed clean water, health care without fees, and food to its people. 

Just two months ago, President Bush made an historic trip to Africa to review the progress of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and other administration-sponsored development programs in the region. He observed and praised increased investment health care and education, made possible by MDRI debt cancellation. 

Right now, Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, is suffering from a food shortage. Its citizens are literally starving for justice. The Associated Press reports that many Haitians are eating cookies made of dirt to stay alive. And this year, the Haitian government is scheduled to pay more than $1 million a week to the World Bank and Inter-American Bank to repay money these banks loaned to the Duvalier regime. An amendment included in the Jubilee Act urges the Bush administration to work to immediately cancel or stop the payments of these debts. 

Debt cancellation is an essential element of any real, long-term development progress in Africa and Haiti. The Jubilee Act, which now moves to the Senate for consideration, should be supported by our Senators. The act provides debt cancellation for more poor nations and would help put an end to the kind of irresponsible lending that caused crippling debt burdens in the past. 

Tom Luce 

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RADIO FREQUENCY RADIATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How much radio frequency radiation is your home receiving? A few of us who live near UC Storage in South Berkeley and near the French Hotel in North Berkeley are about to find out, for our homes anyway. The battle over the siting of cell phone antennas in Berkeley is far from over. This Friday, starting at 11 a.m., a group of South and North Berkeley neighbors will be observing and monitoring the measurement of ambient RF radiation around UC Storage at 2721 Shattuck Ave. Later Friday afternoon we will head for the French Hotel at 1538 Shattuck Ave. for more measurements. 

Last month Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (BNAFU) convinced the City Council to pay an outside firm, EMF Services, to take before and after antenna installation measurements of RF radiation at the above two locations. 

The history of this struggle goes back over two years. During that time, Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board twice rejected the Verizon/Nextel cell antenna application for 2721 Shattuck Ave. This past November, however, the City Council caved in to Verizon’s demand to install eleven antennas at 2721 Shattuck. The council apparently had considered it no small matter that Verizon Wireless had launched a 65 page lawsuit against the city in federal court. So the council, with five out of nine votes in favor, overturned the ZAB decision rejecting the Verizon/Nextel application.  

BNAFU is currently suing the city, Verizon, and Patrick Kennedy, the owner of UC Storage, in Alameda Superior Court. Our goal is to stop the installation altogether.  

This Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 7 p.m., we will also be present at the Berkeley Planning Commission meeting at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst and MLK. On the agenda is a proposed new cell antenna ordinance for Berkeley. 

If you would like to join us, today, Friday, or this coming Wednesday, call 849-4014. If you want more information about our group or about the RF radiation issue we are so concerned about, you can e-mail us at: jllib2@aol.com. You can also Google the “Bioinitiative Report” to look at one of the latest comprehensive, research-based summaries of the dangers of cell phone antennas. 

Michael Barglow 

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SPEEDO CHEATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

speedo cheats 

Have you heard about the other Olympic story? Speedo has a swimsuit that boosts swim times 1-2 percent, and the U.S. team will use them. The suits considerably increase buoyancy. Something like 45 of the 46 records broken recently have been with the new suit. Some countries have contracts with other swimsuit manufacturers and so they won’t be able to use them. The Olympic committee has agreed to allow the new suits to be used in China—from my point of view an unfair and unsportsmanlike decision. Should we boycott Speedo? If you want to read more about this, go to: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=3343795#. 

Estelle Jelinek 

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IMAGE COUNTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a world in which image counts, the city of Berkeley is losing the battle to maintain its image. Berkeley no longer offers people a genuine hope for freedom and peace. Certainly, nobody looks to this city as a problem solver to our environment woes. The efforts to deny the People’s Park to the people and the attempted closure of its flea market are in part a strong indication of the direction in which the city is headed. Very definitely, the sustained efforts to remove the downtrodden from its vicinity cannot be counted as liberalism in any sense of that word.  

By contrast, the city’s inclination to protect authority figures is a clear indication of what image it wishes to cultivate. The theft of several bags of drugs stolen by police from their department and yet nobody - nay not a single one – has been prosecuted speaks volumes of a Bush/Cheney type privilege. As if this is not terrible enough we now learn that the cops have killed an elderly woman. This is not the first time that Berkeley cops have killed women. However, it is a stark reminder that this a repressive police force is exactly what conservatives are seeking to quell any dissent in this country. 

Evidently, Berkeley’s residents lack of involvement in its city’s affairs has come back to haunt them. Already the city is under the rule of a sovereign entity—the University of California. UC’s Board of Regents, which is an out and out dictatorship, has hijacked the city and enjoys control of most of it downtown plans. Notably, its proposed developments are not only tax free. Nay it requires that the residents foot the bill. 

As a further insult, the university has chosen to prostitute itself to BP—yes the selfsame oil pollution company. The scheme apparently aims to bring a cleaner solution to the fossil fuel problem. This arrangement smacks of the same circumstances in which a tobacco company was exposed today for funding cancer research at another university. Such research is tainted because of the conflict in interest. Besides, who in his or her right mind can believe that BP wants to give up its profits in the oil industries because they care about you and me? Now, they really cared they would be supporting the electric cars and all the other feasible solutions that are already out there.  

More than ever, it is important to note that the Berkeley residents’ actions to bless or banish the anti-liberal stance of UC to aligning itself with BP is a test of just how conservative they are willing to become. The fact that Mayor Bates is in favor of that unholy alliance is already another blow to the city’s image.  

Zachary Runningwolf