Features

PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If Laura Anderson really wants the community to help the Berkeley Public Library find solutions to preserve intellectual freedom at BPL she would find a bigger space for the next BOLT meeting on March 9 and she would make sure that the Daily Planet printed correct information in its announcement for this meeting. 

Pop Vox 

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total security 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your editorial on the analogy between squirrels/bird-feeders and the homeland security problem (“The Total Security Myth,” March 1-3). I feel a lot safer now. I hope in the future Becky O’Malley will have time to delve into raccoon mating habits and their relationship to nuclear proliferation. 

Wade Ramey 

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TUBMAN TERRACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On the Planet’s March 1 front page, once again Berry Gardner, the president of the Tenants Council at Harriet Tubman is heroized. No mention is made of the Black History Month dinner not being served until 7:30 p.m.—and cold, at that. Well, not such a big deal? We were lectured—forced to sit on hard chairs for over two—while Mr. Berry was getting all the credit for putting on this event with donated money and a definite lack of consideration for people’s comfort. The event was not well attended. 

My purpose here is not necessarily to criticize Mr. Berry—just the glorification of “our president.” Margo Norman, a poet and tenant and activitist—member of the Council on the Aging for the City of Berkeley—was not in attendance. On New Year’s Eve she also cooked a huge dinner for a party which could not be held in the multi-purpose room presently reserved for only the Tenants Council—when, really, it is a room for all of the tenants. Mr. Berry has not dealt with our management over the decision to withhold this meeting place until after the renovations of the new owners; and, who knows when that may be. Why can’t it be used if no one is using it? 

There are so many problems that need correction at Harriet Tubman Terrace. Use of the multi-purpose room seems insignificant—but, just as with our mighty and unchecked President Bush—abuses of power and praise should not go unchecked.  

Iris Crider  

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OH, ‘DEM DEMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Bob Burnett’s Feb. 25 article “Howard Dean Hits the Ground Running”:  

Insider reports of the Dem machinery at work are of some interest, but the question is are they of use—do they shed light on the party’s dilemmas? I would like insider reports that explain something, like the Dems’ failure to challenge elections scams, let alone the war in Iraq or the Patriot Act. It’s nice to hear thinking about “messaging” from the “ground up,” presumably the same terrain as in “Howard Dean hits the ground running.”  

What does that say about policy issues? Did the candid discussions deal, for instance, with Dean’s thinking about the implications of being killed off by the media, after his anti-war campaign proved surprisingly popular? If Dems are to be anti-war—and most of the convention delegates in 2004 were, and were silenced by party bosses—how will Dean address that issue? 

I see our job as “outsider” supporters to lobby the insiders to face these huge challenges. We just had a success in persuading Barbara Boxer to sign on to the Black Caucus 2004 election challenge, and prevent the debacle of 2000 when—as seen in Fahrenheit 9/11—Al Gore surrealistically gaveled down the challenge to his own questionable loss of the presidency.  

There is a history in the Democratic Party of a substantial minority opposed to empire, war, and neo-colonialism—just like the 2004 delegates. This history is disposed of in the same manner as was Howard Dean’s anti-war popularity—it is killed off by the Establishment, which should be understood to include the majority of insider Dems. (A piece of that history has to do with the role of the New York Times as establishment Dems, whose mild insider critiques are positioned to head off the nitty-gritty ones of the populist, anti-imperialist wing. That is why you never see an op-ed piece by Noam Chomsky, the most widely read political writer in the world.) 

I see our outsider position as saying the “Emperor Has No Clothes.” Sure enough, we know that the insiders and office-seekers will have to compromise, but let’s make them do so after hearing the rank-and-file message loud and clear. So, what has Howard been saying lately about the military budget and the war in Iraq? 

Neal Blumenfeld 

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TEACHERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is no more important group of people to the residents and families of Berkeley than our public school teachers. They take our children for half their weekday waking hours and teach, guide, nurture, advise and inspire them, prepare them for life’s challenges and mold their outlooks on the world. 

I have been a parent of children in the Berkeley public schools for seven years (and will be so for ten more). My children’s teachers have been, almost without exception, hard-working and dedicated, willing to go beyond the call (and hours) of duty to take care of special needs, introduce special projects, innovate and stimulate the students. The recent “work-to-rule” action reminds us just how hard and long these teachers work, in ways that we have come to take for granted. 

It is critical, especially given the projected 4.2 percent increase in unrestricted funs coming into BUSD, that we give our teachers their fair share, for several reasons: 

1. Fairness: They deserve, at minimum, the cost-of-living increase they are asking for, after going more than two years without. 

2. Quality: We cannot maintain or improve the overall quality of our teachers without meeting basic economic necessities for them, or have salaries slip in comparison with nearby school districts. This is basic supply-and-demand economics. And if the quality of our teachers decline, we will inevitably lose more children to the private schools, further draining the schools of outside resources and active families. 

3. Morale: Even the most dedicated teachers-- as anyone in any job-- will stop going the extra mile when they feel their employer, and, by extension, the entire community, is disrespecting their efforts. By neglecting even basic cost-of-living increases, we are saying to them, you are just not quite important enough for our community for us to go the extra mile for you. For the impact on all students and our community, we cannot afford for that to happen.  

As for the class size issue: Class size reduction has been the single biggest improvement in California in the last generation. Let us put into practice and maintain the commitment we as voters made with Measure B, as the teachers have reminded us. 

We need to support the teachers within Berkeley, while expanding our efforts statewide and with the governor to obtain more money for education for all California teachers and schools. Let us all go the extra mile—for our teachers, for our children. 

Rick Goldsmith 

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DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many of you may be familiar with Diablo Valley College, a community college out in Pleasant Hill, which for many years had the reputation of being among the very top community colleges in the state. It gained this reputation because it was largely a faculty-driven college, run on the assumption that the people in contact with the students everyday should have a great deal of input on how the college and curriculum operate. This faculty empowerment led to a high degree of faculty involvement and dedication, which in turn led to a high degree of student success. Diablo Valley College has for a long time been one of the top colleges for transferring students to UC Berkeley. I bring this to your attention because I predict that things will change. 

The administration at the Contra Costa Community College District has begun a campaign to break down the faculty. It started two years ago when the elected faculty division chairs were fired and replaced with high paid deans that were unfamiliar with the college, but only had to answer to the president. Thus enabling the highly paid administrators who have little contact with the students a great deal of power in running the college. The faculty have been in contract negotiations with the district since last July, and the only offer the district has made entails: a 7 percent permanent salary reduction retroactive to July 2004, a considerable increase in faculty pay towards healthcare, an increase in class sizes, and the administration would like to control when and where faculty prepare for and grade coursework. To top that off, last September, during contract negotiations, the board of directors “fired” the chancellor, and his severance package included $250,000 and life-time health benefits. For some reason California law doesn’t require community colleges to reach binding arbitration, and the district has been offering the same “last best and final offer” since September, which they will soon have the right to impose upon faculty. 

I bring this to the attention of the people of Berkeley because there are a large number of students that attend DVC from Berkeley, and a large number that transfer to UC Berkeley. I predict that if the administration at DVC get their way, the faculty which has in the past given 110 percent because they loved their jobs, will do only what is required of them. They will teach, hold office hours and leave. The quality of the education DVC offers will decrease, and the quality of students transferring to UC will decrease. For the administration it looks good on paper to have low paid faculty, few full-time faculty, and large classes. In their equation revenue is up, expenses are down. Strange how this equation doesn’t include the quality of education. 

If you have five minutes and care about the community college system, go to the Contra Costa Community College website at www.4cd.net, click on governing board, and let them know how you feel. 

Karl McDade 

South Berkeley resident 

Professor, Diablo Valley College 

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HOWARD DEAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While not as optimistic as Bob Burnett’s fine recent article: Perhaps you already saw the op-ed piece in the Feb. 5 New York Times by David Brooks about Howard Dean leading the Democratic Party. 

Brooks feels that Dean and others already in party leadership positions are far enough to the left that the Democrats will be able to attract only quite liberal voters. He even mentions our fair city, saying: 

“Thanks to this newly dominant group, the Democrats are sure to carry Berkeley for decades to come.” 

Perhaps the Dems are simply continuing in the proud tradition of Mondale, Dukakis, and Gore. We choose people who we like to do practical things and feel good about it. But we don’t pick people who have much chance of succeeding in their roles in practical terms. 

And the Republicans, for all their sometimes hard-to-fathom views, don’t mind picking people who can actually succeed.  

Is it possible that the Dems have become a sort of Lite version of the Green party? The Greens would call the Dems too centrist to be relevant, but perhaps the Dems too liberal to be more than semi-relevant. Are the Dems as self-marginalizing as the Greens are, only to a lesser degree? 

Or are the Dems in the pay of the administration... to be a semi-useless opposition party to keep all of us lefties occupied while the administration does so many things in the interest of who knows what? A nicely paranoid notion, but what is it that makes the Dems so impractical and ineffective?  

Many of us (present company excepted) seem to be spinning our wheels politically. What can be done to get some actual traction? If the Republicans can do it and we can’t, will liberalism simply become extinct, one of political evolution’s dead ends? 

Nice cartoon you may have seen in The New Yorker, with a very large man in a suit sitting behind a large desk looking down at a very small man standing before the desk.  

The very large man says: “I don’t believe in evolution, but I do believe in Darwinian selection.” 

Or were the Democrats practical enough to win the last election but the result was changed through unfair means? In which case, do we need to change the Democratic Party at all?? 

Brad Belden 

P.S. Thank you for a wonderful, vibrant paper for this interesting, important city. 

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PETER HILLIER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Jerry Landis’ ugly attack on city traffic chief Peter Hillier in the last Daily Planet: 

Yes, there are some officials in Berkeley who have to be dragged into helping their fellow citizens and some who are prone to snits. They should, as Landis says, leave office since we “pay your salary; you work for us and answer to us.” 

Judging from my experiences during the Adult School fight, these are usually elected officials.  

Peter Hillier, on the other hand, treated us in a thoroughly open and professional manner and worked hard to mitigate the effect of the school on our neighborhood. It may have helped that we respected the heavy demands on his time and acknowledged (eventually) that there are not always perfect solutions to traffic problems and that some problems are well beyond the reach of any traffic strategy. 

I was not at the meeting Landis writes about.  

However, if Hillier did something wrong—and reportedly some think he didn’t do anything terribly wrong—then he should make it right. Ditto anyone else at the meeting who may have been over the top. Maybe a lot of people around here should review their communication skills. 

Perhaps Hillier was just being a human being under pressure. Unfortunately that is not a safe thing to be in a town with so many scolds lurking everywhere (see Bates v. the Daily Californian).  

In any case, nothing deserves the ugly mockery Landis spewed out in his letter.  

Of course, most of us like to rant and rail at officials. They usually deserve it, it’s fun, and it eases the pain of losing. It’s the price the powers that be pay for getting their way. But some rants are better kept private lest we wake up the next morning embarrassed and owing apologies.  

Finally, it’s true that Hillier does not have—nor in a grown-up world should he need to have—the bullshitter smile too many of our city and school district officials and flacks have perfected, that kindly establishment face that says to the lowly citizen heavy with worry, “We’ll just put you in our Process Machine for a year or two and you’ll come out completely numb, neutered and never wanting to bother us again, and you’ll even thank us for it.” 

Maybe a dour puss is a sign of integrity.  

James Day 

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GRAMMAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kathleen Berry’s spirited response to Michael Larrick’s complaints about teachers is fascinating. It is not particularly fascinating for its pettiness, which may, perhaps, have been called for. What is fascinating is that she accuses Larrick of being uneducated and inattentive to detail because he uses poor grammar, while her parenthetical boast at the beginning of the letter claims she was “a teacher who, incidentally, had all As and three Bs in four years of high school...” Larrick may have difficulty with subject-verb agreement, yet one would hope that our teachers would understand what the word “all” means, especially those teachers who criticize logical fallacies. 

Besides, whose job was it to teach Larrick grammar? 

Justin Azadivar 

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GRADING THE TEACHER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kathleen Berry, the “I am a teacher”, who wrote suggesting that Mr. Larrick might benefit from a course in remedial English should consider taking the course with Mr. Larrick. Ms. Berry wrote that she “had all As and three Bs in four years of high school … .” If she had all As, why did she have any Bs? 

Dan Brown 

Emeryville 

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PUBLIC APOLOGY 

People of Berkeley: 

This letter is a public apology. On Wednesday, March 2, at approximately 12:50 p.m., I was driving northbound on Sacramento Street between Bancroft Way and University Avenue. I was not paying attention and I almost hit an elderly African-American woman pedestrian who was legally crossing Sacramento from east to west. 

Although I missed hitting her and nobody was injured, I have no excuse for my actions. A white woman in an SUV with a peace sign followed me, issued a middle-fingered gesture in my direction and called me an “a--h---”. In that instant, she was justifiable in doing so. If she hadn’t done it, I might not have thought twice about my regrettable actions.  

After crossing University Avenue, I made a legal U-Turn at the first available opportunity and tried to find the elderly pedestrian whom I had just missed hitting to personally apologize for my careless and thoughtless actions. I couldn’t find her. 

Therefore, I do hope she is reading this. I am profoundly sorry. I myself was run over by an 18-wheel semi truck while riding my bicycle through Oakland four years ago. The driver was at fault. I am lucky to be alive today and I would never dream of (even accidentally) causing anyone the pain I suffered in my own accident. Please accept my sincerest apologies. I will be much more careful and attentive from now on. 

Steve Ongerth 

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BUSD BUDGET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence continues to blame Gov. Schwarzenegger for Berkeley Unified’s alleged inability to keep its teacher salaries competitive, but her stance leaves three crucial questions unanswered:  

1. Why is it that other districts in this area are able to offer their teachers cost of living adjustments even though they face the same statutory burdens as BUSD, and even though Berkeley has a base revenue limit per child higher than the state average? BUSD’s overall expenditure per student is roughly $10,000, while the state average is $7600. In Northern California only the Palo Alto school district has higher overall expenditures per student than Berkeley.  

2. What steps has this district taken in the two years that negotiations have been going on to ensure that when significant new revenue was finally available, as it will be next year, they would be in a position to keep their teachers’ salaries competitive? At the table they have offered no cost of living adjustments, but are demanding significant new employee contributions to health care costs. Superintendent Lawrence must know that her recent comment to the Daily Planet that, “...compensation is similar to other districts” is false under the district’s proposals. Indeed, with other districts in this area getting cost of living adjustments for this year, which the BFT has not asked for, Berkeley Unified teacher compensation levels are reportedly slipping below average already.  

3. What steps did Superintendent Lawrence and the school board take in the last five years to ensure that teacher compensation in Berkeley, which had finally become average for this area after years of rock-bottom conditions, could be maintained at a competitive level? It’s true that this district has made cuts, but much of the savings came on the backs of children and teachers who have had to suffer through the largest class sizes this district has seen in at least a decade. When our last contract was signed we urged this district to commence a careful examination of its finances so that Berkeley teachers could stay at average compensation levels into the future. Should Berkeley students and teachers now have to pay the price for BUSD’s failure to restructure its budget?  

Cathy Campbell  

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BUSD SALARIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I seem to remember that the superintendent of Berkeley schools got a pay rise this or last year. I believe the same thing happened in Oakland. If so, you may have published the figures at the time. But even if you did, it’s worth printing them again, so amounts can be checked against the teachers’ salaries. How much do these superintendents make? 

Nancy Ward 

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UNIVERSITY AVENUE PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have never seen a description of the project underway at the foot of University Avenue, just south of the Seabreeze Cafe adjacent to the bicycle bridge. What is going on there? It is a giant mound of dirt with no indication of intent. Please illuminate me! 

Miko Sloper 

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ARNOLD’S TEAM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Did you know that Terry Tamminen, cabinet secretary of the governor’s office does not even have a B.A. degree? He is a good example of how far one can get with having the right personal contacts. Tamminen was a ship captain and a part-time Shakespeare actor in Australia. He came to the U.S. and cleaned pools in Beverly Hills and Malibu when he met his wife. He thought he is an environmentalist since he had been cleaning pools, so he teamed up with a friend and opened an environmental firm. Later he met Schwarzenegger and convinced him that he is the best candidate to lead the Cal/EPA, thus Schwarzenegger appointed him. After a year-long resistance from scientists who hold PhDs, Schwarzenegger appointed Tamminen to the highest position in his cabinet. 

Would this have been possible if Tamminen were a woman? 

Mary Hayes 

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NO TAX FOR WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a recent letter (Feb. 1) to Daily Planet, I wrote that I would not file taxes this year to oppose the war and hopefully stop it. I believe that if people collectively refuse sending their tax money to IRS, the Bush’s regime will go bankrupt and will have to stop the war. Bush has recently asked for 82 Billion more for the war. I will not contribute a penny to it. 

There are people in America who do not file taxes to oppose the war. There is a group in Northern California. There will be a rally in Berkeley in April. Interested people can check the following sites: www.nowartax.org/Main%20HTML%20Pages/index.html, www.nwtrcc.org, www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0212-03.htm. 

Helena Bautin 

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BUSH’S BUDGET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

No one was surprised when the first budget of Bush’s second term was immediately attacked. It does not contain the costs of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It does contain a deficit. It adds up to astronomical dollars and ordinary citizens are too busy to read the multiplicity of items much less evaluate them.  

We who did not vote for Mr. Bush must, per force, rely on Congressional Democrats, left-leaning think tanks, progressive columnists and non-partisan agencies who agree, at least in general, that the Bush budget favors the military industrial network, treats the rich kindly and big corporations deferentially but is inordinately mean toward many millions in need, towards voiceless children, the chronically poor and infirm.  

Thus, as a born again Christian the president delivers a budgetary theme that updates the moral climax of the Prodigal Son parable in Matthew Chapter 20: many are called to satisfy the greed of the chosen few. And those among us desperately clinging to the lower rungs of society are thus abandoned to continue weeping and gnashing their teeth. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo