The Opinion Pages

It’s May Day today, a traditional holiday in a wide spectrum of traditions. For the Old Left and much of the rest of the world, it’s a Labor Day, a day for assertive marching and waving red flags. The ILWU and friends are honoring the old-school customs by trying to shut down shipping on the Left Coast to protest the war in Iraq. Pre-left traditions from Olde England were celebrated by gathering baskets of spring flowers to hang anonymously on the doorknobs of sweethearts and friends. Even in my innocent college days first year students left May baskets for favorite seniors—do they still do that, I wonder? -more-

From the beginning, the idea of converting an industrial property in the middle of our manufacturing district to recreational fields and a skate park, was pure folly. Like the lie that requires another to cover up its dishonesty, the planning and rezoning of the park complex have led to a series of outrageous decisions, and of course, more of our tax dollars being spent to “fix” a multitude of mistakes. -more-

Could the tragedy of Christopher Wootton’s death have been avoided if we had been more proactive with prevention and enforcement efforts in our community? Sadly, we think it’s possible that might be the case. We are a group of neighbors who have volunteered our time for over two years on the Chancellor’s Task Force on Student/Neighbor Relations working on issues of alcohol-related behavior in the Southside. -more-

Over the past week top Pentagon officials have upped the Bush regime’s verbal attacks against Iran in what may be a prelude to actual military attacks. On April 21, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered a speech at the West Point military academy where he accused Iran of being a rogue nation that supports “terrorism; that is a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons.” He went on to say, “Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. And in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table, given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat – either directly or through nuclear proliferation.” Gates and all other top Bush administration officials, including the president, continually emphasize that the military option is always on the table in regard to Iran. -more-

Many people familiar with the Berkeley City Council’s resolution calling the Marines Corps Recruiters unwelcome intruders and the resulting protests might be surprised to learn that they had been deliberately bamboozled into believing that the Berkeley leaders were insulting the men and women who serve in the Marines. The mass hysteria was fanned by the nation’s mostly pro-war media who were willingly led by the nose by Republican war hawks. Their goal was to paint war critics like Berkeley as unpatriotic haters of the troops and to deflect attention from the disgraceful behavior of the Marine Recruiters which was the topic of the Berkeley resolution. -more-

Why would a moth that has probably been in California for at least a decade, that is not spreading as rapid as California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) demographic models predict and that has not devastated the agriculture in the countries where has been established for decades, suddenly become the target of the state agriculture’s department and agribusiness? This little insect is simply being used as an excuse to protect California’s big agriculture interests and to justify the continuation and expansion of the budgets of the state’s agricultural bureaucracies. For this strategy to work, it is necessary to resort to the well known terror campaign, so familiar to us as it is daily used by the current U.S. administration as a mechanism to justify the war that enriches a few big military industries and oil companies and impoverishes the vast population now subjected to increasing home foreclosures, unemployment, increased oil and food prices and cuts on education and other basic services. -more-

This is in response to Laurie Capitelli’s April 18 commentary in the Daily Planet. He begins his commentary standing at Vine looking south “down a vibrant Shattuck Avenue thronging with pedestrians…spilling out across traffic to claim and use the grass median strip.” What he does not say, is that this thronging mass of pedestrians does not continue down Shattuck Avenue or continue into the real downtown of Berkeley. -more-

Oakland crime is out of control. Our city is in crisis and our residents are in shock. Oakland is one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the country. Our 2008 murder rate is nearly 60 percent higher than at this same time last year. Recently, a young East Oakland mother was killed while she slept in her bed; she was struck by a bullet intended for a group of people outside her home, a 10-year-old boy was permanently disabled when a bullet ripped into him while he took piano lessons in Montclair, diners were robbed at gunpoint at six restaurants in just the last two weeks, and many residents have been assaulted on the streets, and subjected to car-jackings and other personal and property crimes. -more-

On April 23, the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) unanimously approved a resolution, brought by School Board Director Karen Hemphill, in opposition to the aerial pesticide spraying proposed for the Bay Area. (The current CDFA plan is to spray every 30 days for nine months of each year for up to five years or longer.) The board’s resolution requests that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) act to protect the health and welfare of the residents and natural environment of Alameda County by immediately shifting its light brown apple moth (LBAM) control methods to least-toxic Integrated Pest Management methods. The resolution also urges BUSD to join neighboring jurisdictions, including other school districts and local governments, to oppose the spray and requests that the Alameda County School Board and other local school districts take a similar stand. -more-

Most Berkeley residents are aware of the encampment in the oak trees by the University of California’s Memorial Stadium. -more-

It’s unfortunate that the concept of visualization has gotten such a bad rap. Because of its connection with what turned out to be mushy-brained 1960s social science, or perhaps because it has become the butt of so many jokes (e.g., the bumper sticker “Visualize Whirled Peas”), it now languishes in history’s big dustheap, somewhere between encounter groups and last week’s coffee grounds. As it turns out, we probably cannot change reality simply by “visualizing” an alternative one. -more-

To protect and to serve” has never been UC Police policy when it comes to student protest. Back in 1969, UC Police enforced UC policy on People’s Park. UCPD failed, and today we have a park, not a parking lot. In 1999, when hunger strikers defended Ethnic Studies, UCPD beat the protesters. Again they failed, and today Ethnic Studies has tenured faculty. -more-

It has been a year and a half since the Memorial Stadium oak trees—now part UC Berkeley protest fame—have had to call a new kind of longhaired species resident. Perched on limbs, sitting on the sidewalk or frequenting the I-House Café, protestors continue to sit even though student support is clearly on the wane. As an athlete at UC Berkeley, I probably spend more time inside cracked and unsafe walls of Memorial Stadium than any other lecture hall, coffee house, or library on campus. The oak grove is part of my campus, and if I have learned nothing else from Berkeley’s history, I have learned that if someone is doing something I do not agree with, it is my turn—my responsibility—to stand up and have myself be heard. -more-

Mayor Bates, at the April 14 meeting of the City Council Agenda Committee, declared that the City Council would proceed with an April 22, 2008 Public hearing on the Draft Sunshine Ordinance left behind by the city’s former city attorney. This, despite the City Council’s receipt of a letter (from the very prestigious panelists that the City Council itself had invited to participate in a March 2007 Sunshine Ordinance Workshop) requesting that the public hearing be postponed in order that a Sunshine Ordinance draft in process by a citizens’ group could also be subject to public review and consideration. This citizens’ group was initiated by, and participated in by, the very panelists whom the mayor and councilmembers had encouraged to do just that. -more-