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To the Editor: 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington talks a lot about “fighting” in his campaign literature: for students, for progressive values, for neighborhoods. He is fighting all right, but not for students, values or neighborhoods. He's sent his companions out to trash the mayor for endorsing his opponent Micki Weinberg, while dozens of Micki's public campaign signs have been torn down from lamp posts (I'll let folks draw their own conclusions as to who might have done that and why). As someone who has spent a lot of time on local issues, I know there are times when you have to fight – fairly and ethically – for what you believe in. But usually, I have found that to get something done, you have to bring people together, motivate them and make sure you are really listening to their concerns. 

Many of my neighbors share my concern that the issues really affecting us have not been effectively addressed over the past six years of Mr. Worthington's tenure and I was delighted to hear Micki Weinberg talk about many of them during his campaign: safety and crime (especially around Telegraph Avenue), traffic and transit policy, and housing. I was interested to see that a lot of Micki's agenda – a student agenda – matched mine.  

What I am particularly impressed with is Weinberg's willingness to work with the various constituents to solve problems. It is a refreshing change from Mr. Worthington's pattern of pitting groups against each other – the us vs. them syndrome. Worthington's style of attacking opponents with insinuation, innuendo and implication is what makes him such a controversial politician, not necessarily his votes on the issues. As much as Worthington wants to turn the mayor's race into a referendum on Shirley's Dean's leadership and personal style, so too is this race a referendum on Worthington's. 

Micki has heard the rhetoric for what it really is – self-serving politics designed to keep Worthington in power. He believes we need to stop “fighting” each other and start working together to tackle the real problems we all face, students and neighbors alike, and that's why I am enthusiastically supporting him for City Council. 

Gregory S. Murphy 

Berkeley