Barbara Brust, known affectionately on the streets of Berkeley as “the soup lady,” passed peacefully in the early evening on February 25, 2021. Founder of Consider The Homeless!, radical dyke, and fierce lover of justice, Barbara inspired and coordinated a small army of volunteers who continue to reach out to Berkeley’s unhoused twice a week to offer groceries, soup, and a smile.

Barbara was born on June 11, 1951 in Queens, New York. Her early work history includes several years as a taxi cab driver in NYC, followed by jobs as an AT&T telephone installer in Albuquerque, Manager at Berkeley Local Transport, and an inventory control job at 1-800-Software, a software startup in Point Richmond.

The Internet was made available to the public in August, 1991, and initially, very few people even noticed. Barbara completed coursework and prepared to open her own business. In 1996, she started Lucille Design, a web development and graphic design shop.

Barbara came alive at the Michigan Womyn’s Festival, and was devastated when it ended. She came to be an ally to trans folks in her life and in her work.

For thirty years, Barbara was a stage manager for the Woodminster Theater in the Oakland Hills. She also took great joy in working for the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival every summer from the 1990s- 2015, on the acoustic stage crew and/or shuttle crew. She also coordinated the Festival’s bulletin board and assisted with their Facebook page and website.

On Thanksgiving Day of 2014, Barbara spontaneously decided to prepare a complete Thanksgiving feast and bring it to the people encamped at Provo Park. She was so moved by the potential to connect with others and build trust through a shared meal that she started making and distributing soup a few times a week. Very soon the organization now known as Consider The Homeless! was formed.

Barbara and her board members developed a well-tuned operation of volunteers who continue to source food, conduct inventory, pack grocery bags, make soup, and deliver it to unhoused residents wherever they are found: on the streets, in encampments and in their vehicles. The non-profit also delivers tents, sleeping bags, tarps, new socks, and sleeping pads.

Barbara personally knew so many of the estimated 1,000 unhoused persons in Berkeley that when a person died on the street, the County Coroner’s office called on Barbara to identify the deceased. She was recently pleased to have played a significant role in the return of a deceased person’s remains to their tribal land and loved ones. An elder with a disability, she persisted nonetheless in witnessing police evictions of homeless neighbors from encampments. In one instance, officers grabbed her and arrested her as she attempted to ensure a fellow activist and unhoused friends were unharmed. Officers took her cane and forcibly carried her to a police van. Barbara was a fearless and tenacious advocate, but also very saddened by this incident.

In an interview with Berkeley Times in November, 2020, she shared her wishes for the Berkeley community: “I hope everybody can learn to love and accept.”

Barbara’s extensive work and deep dedication to the most marginalized in Berkeley was recognized by the City Council when they issued a Proclamation in her honor in December, 2020. The same month, Barbara also celebrated her 31st anniversary of sobriety.

On the night before she passed, Barbara gave this instruction to friends at her bedside in her home: “Tell everyone to do something each day to make at least one person smile or laugh. That would be on my tombstone if I had one.”

Barbara is survived by an extensive chosen family of friends, fellow activists, colleagues, volunteers at Consider The Homeless!, allies in government, and scores of people who Barbara referred to as “unhoused but not unloved”.

Barbara is predeceased by her nephew Akiva Saren-Demarinis. She is survived by her nieces Jade Saren and Leila Zaremba. She is also survived by her beloved Akita dog Kuma, her cat Simkhe, and lizards Titi and Stumpy. Barbara asked that everyone show compassion to unhoused brothers and sisters who suffer outdoors. Tax-deductible donations can be made to considerthehomeless.org in lieu of flowers. A community celebration of Barbara’s life and contributions will take place in the near future. Details will be announced by press release and social media posts. -more-

Professor Michael Mann begins his important book, "The Climate War," with this quote: "Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public." Although the quotation originated with a sixties tobacco executive, it could be spoken today by the leaders of the Republican Party, as their primary product is disinformation.

In George Orwell's classic, "1984," the ruling Party controls the people by systematic propaganda; "brainwashing" that Orwell described as "doublethink:"

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.

1984's ruling Party, "big brother," uses the "thought police" to control the populous through disinformation. Professor Michael Mann observes that Republican oligarchs -- the Koch brothers, the Mercer family, Rupert Murdoch, and others -- control the GOP faithful through disinformation. Donald Trump is their willing servant.

Since the advent of Trump. political observers have noted that Republicans -- who once focused on "conservative" ideology -- have moved away from traditional Republican ideas and, instead, embraced the cult of personality: "Trumpism." Because Trump is a media personality and a pathological liar, enclasping him made it easier for the GOP to become the Party of disinformation. -more-

When I was eighteen, I was arrested because I had been behaving in a bizarre manner, I was a nuisance, and, technically speaking, I had broken the law. The arrest did not involve physical resistance against the cops. I was jailed and was in there far too long. I wasn't going to be let out. Then, my mother spoke to the judge. I credit her with not only bringing me into this world, but also with saving my life.

When incarcerated, apparently people assumed I was high on drugs. At some point, when I continued to become increasingly disoriented and disconnected, it was apparent that illicit drugs were not the problem. This is because plenty of time had elapsed in which I would have detoxed, had drugs been the problem. I was taken to Highland Hospital.

Over the last three and a half decades, as a mentally ill man, I've had my share of dealings with police. In 1996, when I was 5150'd, in my most recent psychotic break, I nonviolently resisted police. A parishioner, possibly the minister, was present when I was picked up by the cops at a church in Pleasant Hill.

Police in this case did not resort to pepper spray and did not use an inappropriate level of force. They tried some judo holds on me, such as trying to inflict pain to my hands, and that was all. They were about to up the ante when I began to cooperate. I am alive partly because even though I have a psychotic disorder, I seem to retain a compartment that does not get sick, and that allows me to act based on observable facts. -more-

The Senate Parliamentarian recently ruled that a raise in the minimum wage to $15-an-hour could not be part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package as it was not proper under budget conciliation. Biden signaled that his administration would abide by the ruling. The only alternative is to offer it as a separate bill although it probably would not get the 60 votes necessary to pass unless the Senate filibuster rule is eliminated. -more-

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

What a loss but what a legacy.
Poems and paintings
and books galore.
The dog trots freely in the street
as my mind revisits Coney Island.
Ferlinghetti was a living landmark
and now, alas,
our City Lights briefly dim.
The Brits had Laurence of Arabia
but we had our
Laurence of Bay Area.
He was as beloved and present
as Frisco's famous fog.
So as Karl the Fog continues
to curl around the Seven Hills,
Imagine:
Ferlinghetti is not gone but,
like Karl's atmospheric caress,
still wraps the Cool Grey City
in an abiding cloak of recollections and love.
He will be mist.
Dishing MTG in DC -more-

I normally end my Activist’s Diary with what I am reading, but this week it is also the start. There is good reason why Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass is on the best seller list. It is a lovely book about living with nature and the environment, consuming only what is needed and being a good steward. Kimmerer weaves in those who see resources as a commodity to be consumed until depleted, nature as an inconvenience to be conquered and the waste left behind to be disregarded. She leads us to contemplate that we are at a crossroads. Which road do we chose, the path of stewardship of the living world or the path of consumption and destruction?

It was a scattered week of too many meetings, impossible to do justice to more than a few.

At the 4 pm February 23 Special City Council meeting the single subject was the Report and Recommendations from the Mayor’s Fair and Impartial Policing Working Group. It started with a report of the findings, need for improvements and recommendations. The testimony from the public at the February 9 Council meeting on the Vote of No Confidence in the Police Chief, my own attendance as an observer at the last two Fair and Impartial Working Group meetings and Police Chief Greenwood’s response to the report and recommendations, define a police chief who is defensive and obstructive. In situations where leadership performance is at issue and care of the person still matters, the result would be a private conversation and a graceful retirement exit. This is not Berkeley, at least not yet. -more-

Worth Noting:

The most consequential meetings of the week are on Monday, the Public Safety Committee meeting at 10:30 am on police use of non-lethal weaponry and controlled equipment and the Land Use Committee Special meeting at 1:30 on Quadplex Zoning. If the vote on Quadplex Zoning is not taken on Monday, it will rollover to the Thursday Land Use Committee meeting.



On Wednesday, the FITES agenda includes two environmental issues, electrification of the city fleet and the rights of nature.



Affordable housing funds for the BART station projects is on the agenda at the Measure O Bond Oversight Committee at 6 pm on Monday and the Housing Advisory Commission on Thursday at 7 pm.



The City Council March 9 regular meeting agenda is available for review and comment and follows the list of City meetings.



If you have a meeting you would like included in the summary of meetings, please send a notice to kellyhammargren@gmail.com by noon on the Friday of the preceding week. To read the Activist’s Diary of what happened last week go to www.berkeleydailyplanet.com.



Sunday, February 28, 2021

No City meetings or events found



Monday, March 1, 2021

City Council Closed Session 9 am

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/City_Council__Agenda_Index.aspx

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86861132018

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 868 6113 2018

AGENDA: 1. Labor Negotiations Public Employees Union Local 1



City Council Public Safety Committee, 10:30 am

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/Policy_Committee__Public_Safety.aspx

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83787178426

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 837 8717 8426

AGENDA: 2. Introduce an Ordinance permanently banning the use of less lethal weaponry, chemical irritants, smoke projectiles, acoustic weapons, directed energy weapons, water cannons, disorientation devices and ultrasonic cannons used by police on civilians, 3. Providing our Unhoused Community with Fire Extinguishers, 4. Adopt Ordinance adding chapter BMC 2.64.170 regulating Police Acquisition and Use of Controlled Equipment, 5. Presentation by the Fire Dept on Evacuation Plan, -more-