Opinion

There was a message on my machine on Monday: “I’m just sort of stunned by the news, and I wouldn’t mind having a friend’s take on it. I feel some…relief, frankly.”

Well, yes. Full confession: I haven’t gotten back to her yet, because I don’t know exactly what to say. I find myself having heretical ideas, hard to process, harder to disclose.

On Monday night I went to hear Christopher Hedges speak for the benefit of KPFA (and to flog his latest book) at First Congo, thinking that with his background as a New York Times reporter on the Middle East he might shed some new light on the killing of Osama bin Laden. His talk (sermon, really) caused me to question all my beliefs—and not in a good way. -more-

Schacht is Wrong; Priorities: Open Letter to Planning Director Dan Marks; Dear Christopher Adams, Blaine Beckwith, and Planet readers; Justice; Not Dead Yet; What Happened to the Old South Branch?It Was Replaced in 1961 -more-

There is always a risk in politics that arguments get personal and hurtful. But there is a difference between small town politics and national politics. Donald Trump can say false and abhorrent things about the President; nasty criticism is part of our national political tradition, and a thick skin is part of the job description for a national politician. At the small town level, not so much. The Planet editor is right to call to task those who made what to her ears were accusations of racism against opponents of the current plans for demolishing the South and West branch libraries and building new ones. And yet to someone who has followed the library’s plans for many years, it is hard not to wonder what can motivate the opponents other than something as irrational and emotional as racism. The closest national dispute that comes to mind is the opposition to building an Islamic Center near the site of the World Trade Center. -more-

Dear Chris,

I am completely taken aback by statements in your Berkeley Daily Planet opinion piece: -more-

The campaign against Concerned Library Users, the group who sued the City of Berkeley over illegal use of Measure FF Library bond funding, has reached a new low. Columnist Chip Johnson wrote an amazing hit-piece in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 29, titled “Shadowy group acts to block new library” which discredits those who seek to prevent bond financing from being misused. -more-

Berkeleyans may be confused and dismayed, as am I, by the escalating rhetoric about demolition of the West and South Branch libraries.

I re-reviewed Measure FF to see if library branch demolition is permitted. The short answer is absolutely not and I urge readers to read the stark reality for themselves at :

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Clerk/Elections/Measure%20FF%20Library%20Bond.pdf

The voters clearly approved only renovation and improvements, the measure was sold on this basis, and FF may well have failed if library demolition was an option. -more-

With the State's persistent budget crisis and the dwindling economy, the city of Berkeley has been grappling with an budget deficit of $12.5 million for the 2012 fiscal year. The projected $3 million budget on the Department of Public Health, announced in the recent Berkeley City Council meetings, has especially caused a heavy hit, as many employees were let go in the past several weeks, leading to an entire restructuring of the department structure to make up for the losses. While it has been the case, in fiscal crises, that public health services are among the first places to incur cuts, we must reconsider the tremendous value of public health all the more during these down-trodden times. -more-