berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=09-07-07&storyID=27961
Next Article Letters to the Editor A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE Editors, Daily Planet I am from Tennessee and just returned home from a wonderful experience with the fans and citizens of the Bay Area. We would have enjoyed a victory, but your team played better. Those of us in the Southeastern Conference could learn some lessons on sportsmanship from your fans. God has truly blessed you to allow you to live and work where you do. I will be pulling for you to win the rest of your games this year. Phil Saylors Tennessee o UNNERVED BY TREE-SITTERS Editors, Daily Planet I flew from Tennessee to California to attend the UT-CAL game this past Saturday. Although I wore the most obnoxious orange clothes and shoes I had, everyone I met was exceedingly friendly and gracious. Except for the fact that my team lost the game (the better team won) everything else about my time and experience in Berkeley and on campus was exceptionally positive. I was, however, slightly unnerved by the people in the trees. Everywhere I went I heard people saying they had high-powered rifles and could be snipers. Although I didn't take such talk seriously it did create a slight sense of uneasiness. I asked a police official stationed at the base of an occupied tree overlooking the football field if there were any truth to the "rumors." His half-smile while saying "no" was not very reassuring. The attitude of the authorities and people in California is cavalier and dismissive as if a Virginia Tech or University of Texas Bell Tower incident couldn't happen there. I know this is very unpleasant, uncomfortable, difficult and even painful to contemplate for some of you but it could happen. Perhaps they have conducted background checks and psychological tests to ensure the people they allow in the trees are emotionally and psychologically healthy and stable. Robert W Overman Memphis, TN o UC AND THE OAKS: WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL STAKES? Editors, Daily Planet The ongoing controversy over the oak grove is about much more than several dozen trees; The campus' architectural design of classical Greek and Roman arcs and lines was to embody principles of learning and democracy, and the current battles over its layout are simultaneously battles over the future of our public university. When John Galen Howard finished plans the university in 1922 he oriented what was to be a "City of Learning" on an east-west axis, drawing a stark line from the Strawberry Creek Canyon headwaters, through a central glade, and on out through the Golden Gate. The very geographic layout was designed to embody in this "Western Acropolis of Learning" ideals of public interest (but also racist imperialism, which, until recently, we had mostly moved past). Since then, much of the canyon and creek have been built over and polluted. The university's idealist layout is being corroded and cornered on all sides by financial and military interests (Bechtel to the North, Haas and Lawrence to the East, in the West the Department of Energy and Shing bioterrorism center). Down go testaments to great figures of public interest such as Earl Warren Hall--named after the Berkely alum and Supreme Court justice key in forming landmark civil rights rulings--and up come glass-and-steel engineering complexes named after the highest bidder. True, the UC has throughout history embodied a contradictory mix of corporate and public interest. Yet, the university's mix is being shifted in unprecedented ways by the deliberate international projects of free market idolatry and militarization waged by groups such as the Mont Peleran Society and the neo-conservatives. The campaign to save the oaks and stop UCBP are not in essence about these particular trees or that edifice, but about whether we seek to replace Fiat Lux with secretive deals with abusive corporations and eschew difficult public fundraising for short-term sports advertising gimmicks. The oaks and BP campaigns are rightly part of the Phoenix Coalition to free the UC--"democratize, demilitarize, divest" is their slogan--that ultimately requires reforming the Regents and Proposition 13. The blunders of UC pay scandals, back room dealings with BP, and now the heavy-handed oak fencing indicate an increasingly out of touch and arrogant UC administration. The chancellor has called the proposed BP-Berkeley collaboration "our generation's moonshot." We would do well to remember the numerous errors and threats to human life that plagued that mission and that its slim success relied heavily on chance, open communication, and flexibility. Clement S Calado o EAST BAY-MARIN TRANSIT Editors, Daily Planet In his Aug. there has never been any direct public transit between Berkeley or Oakland and Marin County." For many years Golden Gate Transit (GGT) has been running a bus service from El Cerrito Del Norte BART station to San Rafael. Aside from arriving on BART, the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station can be reached by the 72 Rapid bus on weekdays from most locations on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley within 15 minutes. Len Conly o O'MALLEY'S FACTS Editors, Daily Planet As a longtime Berkeley resident who recently moved to New York, I read the Planet to catch up on some of the little quirks that make Berkeley so unique and utterly bizarre. However, it seems that recently the Planet has deemed it fit to publish columns that contain obviously false statements. Has Ms O'Malley ever watched the video she cites in her column? I can read through columns detailing the erosion of First Amendment rights, the expansion of the police state and the overall collapse of western civilization brought about by the cutting down of a small grove of trees, but when your own statements are completely contradicted by the video evidence that you cite as proof, it is too much. All the video shows is several police officers restraining two individuals without using excessive force, no use of clubs or other foreign objects, and, unless my eyes deceive me, not a single gas mask or skinhead in sight. I will grant Ms O'Malley a certain amount of creative license, but each of her statements is loaded with additional meaning. Using them, without any sort of corroborating evidence, is both irresponsible and unprofessional--let alone completely wrong. Tomas Holmes o HOUSING BID Editors, Daily Planet Please pass my e-mail address onto Becky O'Malley. If she does live in Berkeley I'd love for her to give me her home after she moves out of this horrible country we live in. I love the city of Berkeley, I can't think of a better place to live than in a great city in the greatest place in the world, the Bay Area. I can't afford to live there and would love it if Becky would offer me her home when she moves to Canada or maybe Switzerland because she can't stand the United States. It must be a fact that Michael Vick is exactly like every other athlete in the world and it also must be a fact that athletics are what is wrong with the world. Becky can you please leave me all your wisdom, so I can live a life like you, as you exit the USA. How about Becky you come back to reality, stay here in the US, vote against the Republicans in the next election, help push for sustainability and environmental understanding across the world, and quit worrying about a grove of oak trees between a city street and an athletic stadium. Many organizations in the Bay Area are pushing to save real wilderness lands and I'm a part of one of them/Save Mt Diablo. If you don't come to your senses please remember me, a contributing member of society who lives in an active earthquake region but who is not afraid, loves the country but knows there are many things that should change about our government. Please remember me Becky as you exit the United States, I'd love to take your spot. LARRY CRAIG Editors, Daily Planet Mr Allen-Taylor's opinion piece regarding Sen. Craig was unusually empathetic and thoughtful amid the current media circus on the topic It was the best of Allen-Taylor's writing thus far. Bob Gable o BUS RAPID TRANSIT Editors, Daily Planet A few recent letters have said that AC Transit should provide more bus service instead of building Bus Rapid Transit. ...
|
http://csua.com/feed/