An Open Letter
Several Berkeleyans who were aware of the nature of the harassment of BDP advertisers became alarmed by the increasingly belligerent tactics and consequences of the campaign and thought a statement was necessary to clarify the issues from their perspective, express what they feel is a community consensus, and reassure besieged advertisers. They have no web site or formal affiliation, so they asked the Planet to post their statement with signatures they are in the process of collecting. We have done so here.
The organizers asked that those who want to be listed send their names and identifying information, if they wish, to an email address they have set up to collect signatures: signBDPletter@gmail.com.
We, the undersigned East Bay residents, civic leaders and public officials, decry the attempt by a few individuals to intimidate the Berkeley Daily Planet's advertisers and betray our city's proud heritage of free speech. Local businesses have been confronted -- sometimes in coercive personal store invasions, sometimes through deceptive communications with the stores' national corporate offices -- with indiscriminate threats arising from the Daily Planet's commitment to free expression, specifically its commitment to publishing all shades of opinion on the fractious politics of the Middle East. Those individuals accuse the paper of anti-Semitism. They claim to speak for the Jews of Berkeley; they do not.
Some signers of this open letter are Jewish, and some are not. Those who are Jewish resent anyone peddling shameless misrepresentations in their name. The misrepresentations are based on the dangerous notion that anyone who disagrees with the current Israeli government's policies in the Middle East is therefore an anti-Semite. In fact, many Israelis share the opinions that these belligerent individuals characterize as anti-Semitic.
The signatories also vary in their opinions of the Daily Planet's local news coverage and editorials. Some support its editorial positions and editing decisions; others do not. What unites us is our admiration for the newspaper's dedication to free speech in the face of a campaign of bullying, hateful deception that jeopardizes its economic survival.
Many of us have participated in commercial boycotts in the past, and we respect the right of consumers to demonstrate their disapproval of a business's practices through such boycotts. But there is a significant difference between boycotts and bellicose personal confrontations that frighten small business owners and their clientele. And there is a difference too between boycotts based on credible injustices and those based on shameless misrepresentation.
The tactics employed by these few individuals have no place in Berkeley. We are grateful to the Daily Planet for championing the spirit of free speech for which this city is renowned. We have great admiration for the businesses that have courageously advertised in the Daily Planet despite the belligerent pressures to which they have been subjected. We urge our fellow citizens to join us in demonstrating support for free speech in Berkeley journalism by supporting and celebrating the businesses that resist this hateful intimidation.
Current Open Letter Signers
Claudine Drame, Director of the International Film Festival against Exclusion and for Tolerance
Jeffrey Kaplan
Dr. Fred Foldvary, Director, Civil Society Institute at Santa Clara University
Margot Harrison
Peter Rasmussen
Bruce Africa
Estelle Jelinek
Ralph E. Stone, retired Bay Area attorney
Daniel A. Alpert, education consultant
Daniel A. Snyder
Marjorie P. Lasky, Emerita Professor of History
Barbara Michel
David Eifler
William E. Woodcock
Dorothy Snodgrass
John Feld
Richard Fabry, publisher
Dolores Helman, teacher, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, civil libertarian and Berkeley Daily Planet advertiser
Tony C.Hill
Betty Lou Bradshaw
Terry Rillera
Lisa Sangita Moskow
Glen Kohler, manager, Bishop Berkeley Apartments
Carol David
Marilyn McMahon
Matthew Taylor, wordsmith/mediator
Teed Rockwell, Philosophy Dept, Sonoma State University
Sydney Carson, PhD
June Brumer
Victor Herbert, mediator of Berkeley community disputes, devotee of First Amendment
Norma Lee Myers, LMFT
Dorothy Bryant
Martha Nicoloff, co-author Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance
Alex Nicoloff, sculptor, artist
Rick Ayers, UC Berkeley
Anne Bernstein
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
Richard Phelps, Attorney/Mediator
Henry Norr
Leon Wofsy, professor emeritus, UC Berkeley
Bonnie Hughes
Peter Y. Sussman, journalist/author
Chandra Ahuva Hauptman
Judith Berlowitz, PhD
Karen Platt, community college instructor
Carol Sanders
Douglas J. Hill
Wendy Kaufmyn
Mary Erwin
Janet Kobren
Nancy Polin
Kathleen Lilley
Joy Hilden, teacher & author
Wendy Hallinan
Daniel Hallinan
Eleanore Lee
Esther Mohler Ho, retired educator, Hayward
Jeanie Shaterian
Gene B. Herman
Pat Cody, cofounder, Cody's Books
Susan J. Parker
Mal Singer, educator
Heather Merriam
Mal Burnstein, Vice Chair CDP progressive caucus and retired attorney
Gar Smith, Free Speech Movement veteran
John Curl
George Salzman, professor emeritus, Univ. of Massachusetts at Boston
Matt Cantor, BDP advertiser, contributor and Bar Mitzvah boy
Bruce Haldane
Alan S. Kay
Judy Ann Alberti
Erma Wheatley
Tobey M. Wiebe and Richard P. Wiebe
Jack Sawyer, Ph.D., President, Parker Street Foundation
Carolyn S. Scarr, Ecumenical Peace Institute
Michael Katz
Roger & Jean Moss
Bob Burnett, writer
Ellen Hahn, Community Leader
Dena R. Thaler
Kazuye Suyematsu, ceramist
Bruce Harris
Ms. Sally Sommer
Diane Tokugawa
Charlene Mayne Woodcock
Brenda Revsen, Retired Berkeley Teacher
Jean Tepperman
Alison Porter Thomas
Wendy P. Markel, PreSchool Teacher
Terri Compost
Mary Berg, Producer of "A Musical Offering"
Sarah Cahill, pianist and radio producer
James Branson, Managing Editor (Retired), KTVU News
Blane N. Beckwith
Marilyn Pon
Austene Hall, 30-year resident of Berkeley
Carol Denney, musician
Roger Hahn
Annette Herskovits
Ronnie Gilbert, living in Mendocino with $$ and car still tuned to Berkeley
Beverly Voloshin, Professor and chair, Department of English Language and Literature, San Francisco State University
Rita Maran, Ph.D.
Jane and Christopher Adams
Sally Nelson
Sara R. Diamond, Attorney, Berkeley
Zipporah Weiss Collins
Theodore Roszak, Professor Emeritus, California State University East Bay
Ann Hallatt
Glen Hauer
Anne Richardson
Cindy Shamban
Marcia Poole
Mary C. Ford
Marty Schiffenbauer, Ph.D.
Phil McArdle, writer
Karen T. McArdle, writer
Paul Slobodny
Naomi Puro. Trees of Hope
Jack Kurzweil, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
Pamela A. Drake
Susan Harman, Ed.D., Oakland reader of Planet, member of JVP, AJJP, and CodePink
Jacqueline Riskin
Harry Wiener
Richard Graham
Tom Lent
Linda Halpern, Educator
Dave Blake, Rent Stabilization Board, Arts Commission, Design Review Committee, former Zoning Adjustment Board chair (affiliations are for identification purposes only)
Chris Gilbert
Louise C. Brown, retired fundraiser
Peter Seidman
Bonnie Benard
Martin B. Friedman
Sophia Ritchie, Middle East Children's Alliance
Claire Kahane, Professor of English Emerita, SUNY-Buffalo, Visiting Scholar, Dept. of English, UC Berkeley
Joel Isaacson
Helen Isaacson
Barbara Roose, WWII Holocaust survivor
Jeanne Pimentel
Victoria Nelson, Senior Lecturer, U.C. Berkeley Rhetoric Dept.
Stephen DeGange, Writer
Ruby Bernstein
Judith Newton
Suzanne Rogalin
Elliot Halpern, Berkeley Citizen, ACLU Board Member
Elizabeth Horowitz
Chana Bloch
Richard Reynolds
Fran Haselsteiner
Jaime Robles
Tom Miller, General Counsel, Global Exchange
Antonio Rossmann, Attorney at Law, Lecturer in Water Resources Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Patricia Carson Sussman, healthcare consultant
Bob Heaney
Susan Shawl, Oakland
Thomas Lynch, 40 year resident of the Elmwood District
Patti Dacey, Berkeley Planning Commissioner
Norma Armon, PhD
Bob Baldock
Stan Sprague
Maxine Hong Kingston
Daniel S. Beagle
Rebecca J. Kurland, Attorney at Law
Gray Brechin, Visiting Scholar, U.C. Berkeley
Art Goldberg
Sharon Maldonado, retired public school teacher
Carol Thornton
Adrianne Borgia, Oakland
Elena Servi Burgess
Adam Sussman
Carmen Rezendes, retired community college instructor
Wendy Bloom, RN
Ann Higgins
Sandra Yolles, Richmond
Marlene Griffith
Ignacio H. Chapela, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
Ruth Maguire
Robert Vavasour
Ben H Bagdikian, former Dean, UC Graduate School of Journalism
Judy Belcher
Myrna Schnur, Grey Panthers
Wendy Oser
Dan Robbin
Matthew Hallinan, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
Penny Rosenwasser, Ph.D.
Tom Taussig, psychologist
Carole Howard
Lew Levinson
Bruce Jacobs
Susan Tait
E. Kay Trimberger, visiting scholar, UC, Berkeley
L. Carol Christopher
Joan Levinson
Jan Elise Sells, M.F.T.
Conn Hallinan, Daily Planet columnist, Foreign Policy In Focus analyst, former provost at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Lisa Thompson, writer, designer
Lewis Burgess, UC Berkeley
Michelle Peticolas, Ph.D.
Flora Schultz
Sasha Futran, chair KPFA Local Station Board
Peni Hall
Powell DeGange, Organizer, UNITE HERE Local 30
Cyril Drame, Researcher
Alan Gould, Curriculum Developer
Robert Kanter, Emeryville
Loralee Windsor
Arthur & Martha Luehrmann
Sandy Sher
Rob Browning, Talavera Ceramics
Hope Coffin, architect, Berkeley resident since 1959
Kate Frankel
Steve Martinot
Carol Pitts
Steve Lustig
Robert Blau
Cynthia Papermaster, National Accountability Action Network, CODEPINK
Carol Sklenicka, writer
Carl Friberg
Daniel Knapp, Ph.D. CEO, Urban Ore, Inc.
Bernard Marszalek, www.jasecon.org
David Mundstock
Asa Dodsworth, Berkeley Born and Raised
Annette R Floystrup, Oakland Community Activist
Irving & Linnea Gershenberg
Eric C. S. Dynamic, Social Justice Advocate
Hassan Fouda, Ph.D.
David Isaac Tam, Zero Waste/Anti-Sprawl Advocate
Deirdre English
Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, City of Berkeley, District 4
Bruce Joffe. Piedmont
Debra Golata
Alice Diane Kisch
Charles Siegel
Alison Weir
Helene Knox, UC Berkeley PhD, Free Speech Movement veteran, Fulbright lecturer, poet, editor, MDiv from Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley
Rachel O'Malley, Associate Professor, San Jose State University (for identification only)
Dave Weinstein, El Cerrito
Jane Powell, author, once and future BDP columnist
John H. McManus, founder of GradeTheNews.org
Cynthia Stokes Brown, author
Elliot Cohen, former Peace and justice Commissioner
Andrew A. Stern, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley
John Burnsides, Albany resident
Professor Keith Miller (Emeritus, Math, U.C. Berkeley)
Jacqueline Beth
John T. Selawsky, Director and Clerk, Berkeley Board of Education
Theodora Crawford
Mal Singer
Harry Brill, labor activist and retired faculty member, University Of Massachusetts
Ethel Ruymaker
Jane and Tom Kelly
Roger Van Ouytsel, Berkeley and Cochiti Lake, N.M., neighborhood activist and artist
Mary Lou Van Deventer, Operations Manager, Urban Ore, enthusiastic Daily Planet advertiser
Raymond A. Chamberlin, retired electronics engineer
Michael Parenti, Ph.D., author and public speaker
Arlene Giordano owner of Le Bateau Ivre
Karen Wells
Peter Byrne, investigative journalist
Nancy McKay, former Berkeley business owner, San Francisco business owner, Oakland resident
Lincoln Bergman, educator/poet
Nancy Van Zwalenburg
Louis Tondu, mechanic
Larry Bensky
Peter and Carole Selz
John A. McMullen II, Telemarketing For the Arts
Ruth Rosen, historian and journalist
Dick Bagwell
Judy Nakadegawa
Jerry Landis
Mal Warwick, Founder & Chairman, Mal Warwick Associates
L. Boutelle
Ingrid M. Kollmann, property owner
John Geluardi, journalist
Osman Vincent, retired
Paul Rabinow
MaryAnn Hayden, Oakland
Shirley Barker
Marvin Chachere
Jane Stillwater
Joanne Kowalski
A. M. Kandarian, MPH
Jesse Townley, Rent Stabilization Board, Disaster & Fire Safety Commission, KALX Radio (for identification purposes only)
Merrilie Mitchell
Gale Garcia
Richard Walker
Victor Garlin
Virginia H King, CFP
James Delaney
Eliza O'Malley, musician
Fred Dodsworth, writer and activist
John Feld
Mark Liolios
Karen Folger Jacobs
Don Macleay
Meaveen O'Connor
Avis Worthington
Herbert L. Strauss
R.G.Davis Ph.D. founder and first director of the SF Mime Troupe
Juliet Lamont, Ph.D., Environmental Consultant
Rizwan A. Rahmani, Oakland
Madeline Duckles
Gail Brown
Fredrica Drotos
Hank Chapot, UC Berkeley Gardener
Stephen Wollmer, Cartographer
Sherry H. Smith, lawyer
Sheila Goldmacher, peace and justice activist
Virginia Rich
Richard Bermack
Sharon Hudson, Daily Planet reader
Anne Griffiths, RPT
Gar Smith, Editor Emeritus, Earth Island Journal, Free Speech Movement veteran
Roy Nakadegawa P.E., former publicly elected Transit Director to BART & AC Transit - served 32 years
Eleanor Walden
Mark Gorrell
Esther Green & Michael Jones
Samuel R. Peterson, Ph. D., Middle Eastern Studies
Romina Di Gasbarro
Lewis Dolinsky, journalist.
Sharon Rudnick, Rudnick Consulting, Berkeley
Nancy Carleton, neighborhood leader; former Chair, Zoning Adjustments Board
Judith Epstein, Ph.D.
Larry Rothe
Mary Prophet
Daniel Stone
