Public Comment

More Nonsense From Israeli Apologists  

Except for Egypt the US does not give money to any ofthe Arab states that Dan Brown lists. And the only reason we give closely supervised money to Egypt is because they sold the Palestinians down the river at Camp David in 1979.It gave Israel a free hand for subsequent invasions of Lebanon. As far as the Occupied Territories goes the inhabitants have no rights as such because that is the very definition of a military occupation. Inside Israel the Arab citizens have some rights but they are still very much second class citizens. Maybe it would be helpful if Brown met some actual Palestinians who have lived under the Israeli Occupation instead of regurgitating the old AIPAC cliches.I remember Rhodesians and South Africans who sought to justify apartheid by referring to Idi Amin or some other African despot. All true and all totally irrelevant. Since we in the US foot the bill for Israel we have blood on our hands and need to take action to stop supporting such a state. I think we should cut off all our client states like Israel, Egypt, Colombia, ad nauseum. Now. 

Michael P. Hardesty 

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What's the AARP Doing? 

Can you believe that AARP which supported the health overhaul effort without knowing its impact on medicare advantage, said it's too early to assess the potential impact of the law because too many details are not known? Nora Super, AARP's chief health care lobbyist said, "There may be a few bumps along the road as we transition into this new period." 

About half the funds to pay for the $940 billion health law will come from reduced federal government spending on the new Medicare program and she thinks we should sit tight and see what happens! I hope all seniors who are on the edge over this insurance care overhaul would drop their AARP membership. 

Tori Thompson 

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KPFA Meeting a Pleasant Surprise 

We were blessedly bored on April 10th, and went home at the end of the afternoon, thankful for an undramatic and productive (LSB) meeting. 

That was not at all what I expected. After the multiple dramatic scenes of the previous KPFA board meeting (held on March 7th), I personally dreaded the absolute worst--more filibustering, yelling and screaming. Instead, to my surprise and relief, it went almost amicably. 

The CL'ers ("Concerned Listeners") had been pushing for a re-election of board officers, and, the ICR ("Independents for Community Radio") agreed to it. While board members are elected by KPFA listeners and staff, the officers of the board are chosen by members of the board itself. The CL'ers had boycotted the election of officers on December 5th and refused to recognize the results. They had been asking for at least one office, and at this meeting they got it, and, in return, gracefully accepted the three other officers proposed by the ICR. 

Anthony Fest (ICR) is the new chair, and Pam Drake (CL) the new vice chair. Akio Tanaka and Simon Pius remain secretary and treasurer. It did seem fair to many people (including myself) that the minority should have one of the four officer positions. 

The station has a new interim General Manager, Ahmed Anderson. He attended the meeting to give a report on the state of the station. He has been the Pacifica Human Resources Director and expects to return full time to his HR job within three months, by which time a permanent General Manager should be found. 

After that, committees were finally set up and peopled with board members. A GM hire committee was also launched. 

A lot got done that day, and writing this summary, I was about to express my hope that more meetings would be like this one--but ?! Glancing at my notes, I'm reminded of bad news from the treasurer's report. KPFA is extremely low on funds, even lower than we thought. So if your KPFA membership has lapsed, or if you haven't been a member, this would be an excellent time to renew or join. 

Daniel Borgström 

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Teens Turning Green  

I am an eighth grader attending Marin Country Day School but I live in Berkeley. At my school we do service learning projects to learn about how, why, and where we can do community service. I have been volunteering with some of my classmates with an organization called Teens Turning Green. TTG is also known as Teens for Safe Cosmetics. It is a organizations of teens across America that is working toward eliminating toxins in our daily lives. That means cosmetics, cleaning supplies, clothes, and anything else you come in contact with on a regular basis. We generally try to make the world a cleaner and healthier place for everyone. Our latest project is passing a ban eliminating single-use plastic bags and possibly taxing paper bags in Marin County. Did you know that the US uses about 380 billion plastic sacks, bags, and wraps annually? These end up mostly in landfills, urban and rural neighborhoods, and the ocean. Also, paper bags can be just as harmful to the environment as plastic bags because of the enormous amount of energy it takes to create and distribute them. It all needs to end. My goal with this letter is to inspire anyone who reads it to start a similar movement in their area. Who knows, maybe Berkeley will beat Marin to banning single use bags, I certainly wouldn't be surprised, or all that upset. 

Zoe Morgan-Weinman