Page One

FOR PROP. 54 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I support Proposition 54. When I (an Anglo) legally adopted my Hispanic son who was born in the Dominican Republic, we started a color-blind family. I think that society should be that way. Racial classification permits discrimination and reverse-discrimination which may become more prevalent as a result of illegal immigration and overpopulation. 

Opposition to Prop. 54 based on the claim that the health exceptions in the proposition are in adequate is a completely untested supposition. I have supervised large health research grants for Kaiser Permanente, and it is very likely that markers of health vulnerability other than race can be found when individual data (the best kind) are not available. Individual differences of physiology, attitude, skill, and social class within racial groups is very wide. Let’s recognize and honor people as individuals as much as we can. It’s not easy but it’s the right thing to do. 

Robert Gable 

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FAIR TRADE COFFEE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your article about fair trade coffee (Daily Planet, Sept. 16-18) is an example of not providing the background needed to understand the issues. Procter & Gamble is mentioned five times (misspelled four times) and not once does the article mention what kind of coffee Procter & Gamble manufactures. In fact, it’s not even clear whether P&G is a coffee manufacturer or retailer. The company is simply described as “the largest seller of coffee in the U.S.” 

It’s not common knowledge that Procter & Gamble, primarily known as a manufacturer of household cleaning products, makes the Folgers and Millstone brands of coffee. But nowhere was this mentioned. One of the first rules of journalism is that anything that isn’t common knowledge should be included in an article. Readers were left with a lot of confusion about what it is that P&G sells that fair trade coffee advocates are objecting to. 

Jim Davidson 

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LOOKING DEEPER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The piece on Arianna Huffington starts out by quoting polls. 

It is important to learn that polls are meaningless, they are based only upon those registered in the last election and has nothing to do with the millions of newly registered voters. Why not teach students how meaningless crime statistics and polls really are instead of using them as a reliable source of information? 

Huffington understands the issues and is by far the best candidate for students. She and Camejo are the only ones who understand that the prison slave labor empire is breaking our backs, breaking our hearts and the priorities are wrong. I didn’t feel that the author really knows the issues or the process. Feel free to visit our website to learn how special interests are controlling our State. 

Arianna cannot be bought and she has a rare quality that Thomas Jefferson said was necessary to good governing, that of “A love of people.” 

Look deeper. We need to turn the world right side up and Arianna is capable of doing that. Students need to get involved or suffer for their ignorance and apathy. 

B. Cayenne Bird 

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HUMMER NOT ALONE 

The Hummer is not the only politically incorrect tourist to Berkeley. I had a guest who had “Bleached Blonde” yelled at her on Telegraph Avenue. One would not dare to wear furs here...  

Margot Smith