.Letters for March 18

Readers sound off on Measure Y, AK Press, Brita recycling, and our theater reviews.

“Measure Y Is a Bad Law,” Full Disclosure, 2/18

Talk to Me

I can’t believe you feel you can write an article like this without
even bothering to talk to me. I am no “political gadfly.” I’ve been to
exactly one city council meeting in my entire life. I’ve had no
involvement in Oakland politics ever, with the exception of this
lawsuit. You have no idea who I am, what I am hoping to accomplish with
this lawsuit, or why I filed it in the first place. In addition, you
did not go to the hearing and you did not hear what the judge had to
say about the Oakland proposal of using rookie cops to fill PSO
positions. Specifically, he indicated that Measure Y allows funds to be
used for training only in community policing techniques; he did not
think academy training for any officers at all would be permitted
— Measure Y or otherwise.

I urge anybody interested in this issue to check out my new blog at
DefendingMeasureY.blogspot.com.
I’ve tried to lay out the issues very clearly so that the types of
misinformation that you are perpetuating will stop.

Marleen Sacks, Oakland

Blame the Council

Technically, any proposition is “legislating from the ballot box.”
Measure Y, though, was not an initiative by a group doing an end run
around the city council. The council wrote the blasted thing. Some of
us were castigated during the 2004 campaign for warning that Y would
not guarantee a single additional officer, community policing or
otherwise. We were right.

Yes, City Hall needs to work out a plan to get to 1,100 police and
commit to it, instead of ignoring the basic need while offering
micro-managed fixes.

Charles Pine, Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods,
Oakland

Suggest a Plan

Robert Gammon’s opinion, “Measure Y Is a Bad Law,” rings true in
many ways, especially with his call for a new tax measure to pay for
more police. Unfortunately he doesn’t suggest how that tax plan should
be written, and complaining without suggesting a solution is not
constructive. Perhaps a solution can be found in defining a benefit
assessment district under Proposition 218 and let the folks in high
crime areas of Oakland tax themselves for more police protection. In
2003, the property owners in Oakland within a well-defined high fire
danger area agreed to pay additional property taxes to pay for
additional fire protection, perhaps the folks in high crime areas could
do the same. The results of this sort of election will determine what
the people of the high crime areas are willing to do about the
condition.

John Batcheller, Oakland

“Beyond Anarchy at AK Press,” Culture Spy, 2/18

We’re Not Technophobes

I’m a bit puzzled by Rachel Swan’s depiction of AK Press as a
cantankerous crew of technophobic, political purists holed up in a
warehouse in Oakland. I know a far different AK Press: A week prior to
the appearance of Ms. Swan’s article I bought a copy of their latest
DVD, Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the
War
, and as an author with the press I’ve been encouraged to
participate in their blog, Revolution by the Book. AK Press carries a
wide variety of works including novels, DVDs, and other media that
— much to the horror of some of their more doctrinaire colleagues
in the anarchist movement — don’t fit neatly into anarchist
political thought. I would encourage your readers to visit AK Press’s
web site to learn more about one of the Bay Area’s most vibrant
resources for creative thought and action.

Terence Kissack, Oakland

Voluntary, Not Coercion

PM sounds like a good idea. Being outvoted is why our collective
business works on consensus instead of majority rule, dialoging until a
satisfactory resolution is reached, sometimes over months, if it’s not
immediately resolvable. The whole idea of anarchism is VOLUNTARY
association, therefore if Kanaan gets fed up with the collective for
whatever reason, he can leave and begin a new collective with
likeminded folks. In a non-capitalist world, this is common sense.

But in our capitalist world, this is an impossible decision for most
people, as bosses control most wealth and access to jobs. This is why
Kanaan has to start PM as a volunteer project at first, to build
capital. This setup is NOT voluntary association, this is coercion.
This is the big difference, and this is why collectives are better,
especially if we lived in a society where most wealth was not hoarded
by a select few. Unfortunately, there is no way to get to be able to
voluntarily associate with others other than to just do it within the
system we have, at least until enough of us do it that a new system
arises. Until then, we will work harder to work freer.

Dylan Barr, New Orleans

A Spoiled Democrat

An interesting story might have been written about Ramsey
Kanaan (“Beyond Anarchy”), if its author had talked to anybody besides
Ramsey Kanaan. He now says — or Rachel Swan says — he
is beyond anarchy, but his anarchist critics have long contended that
he never even got that far. He tried to peddle democracy as
anarchism, and with family money to play with, he bought himself a
place in anarchist circles, where a little money goes a long way, as
there is only a little money to be seen there. He’s a
class-struggle social democrat, not an anarchist. 

But it turns out he is not much of a democrat either. He
founded, financed, and dominated AK Press for many years, and is even
your staff writer so naive as to believe that he took his turn sweeping
out the warehouse while Crusty the Bicycle Messenger took his turn
deciding whether to publish yet another collection of Noam Chomsky
ephemera? (Actually an easy call, because Chomsky pays for it,
using AK Press as a vanity press.) Unlike Ms. Swan, Bay Area
anarchists have heard of the high turnover/burnout rate in the
supposedly egalitarian AK collective, which is of course a
gerontocratic oligarchy. When the collective made some decisions
he disagreed with, he decided he did not care for majority rule after
all. He started over — again the founder, again the
financier — because, as he says, a collective is ever so much
better when it always agrees with you! 

Ramsey Kanaan, with mom’s money to be sure, has achieved the
American Dream, but how did he manage that, as he is not an American,
and it is illegal for foreign anarchists even to enter the United
States? How is it he operates businesses here, although I am not
aware that anarchist (or whatever) publishers are one of the categories
of workers deemed admissible because there are not enough Americans for
such work? Has the Citizenship and Immigration Service given him a
pass? 

Bob Black, Albany, New York

“The Blogger and the Bleach Company,” Eco Watch, 2/11

We Upcycle

The reference to Preserve as “a company that downcycles No. 5
plastics into toothbrushes and other personal care products” is
inaccurate. Downcycling refers to recycling a material into a material
of lesser quality. In fact, recycling Brita water pitcher filters,
yogurt cups, and other common #5 plastics into Preserve toothbrushes,
razors, and other products, is upcycling. Upcycling is taking something
that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use.
Preserve products are high quality, high performance, and stylish
— and made from 100 percent recycled materials. Additionally, all
Preserve products are recyclable. To learn more about recycling Brita
water pitcher filters and other #5 plastics via the Preserve Gimme 5
program, visit

PreserveProducts.com.C.A. Webb,
marketing director, Preserve

The Power of One

Once again you’ve featured a story that demonstrates “the power of
one.”

Bravo to Ms. Terry and East Bay Express. I’m very
encouraged.

Linda Forde, Oakland

“Rabbit Hole,” Theater, 2/18

Save the Arts

I’ve just finished reading Sam Hurwitt’s Feb. 18-24, 2009, review of
Rabbit Hole. His final paragraph sounds like the East Bay
Express
is going to stop including theater in its pages. I
certainly hope this is not true. The arts suffer enough in our
semi-shallow, media-driven culture. For a quality, community-based and
supportive paper like East Bay Express to kill its theater
section makes the paper seem, not so much.

Personally, I would be very distressed. The East Bay Express
is my primary newspaper.

Jerry Metzker, Oakland

Editor’s Note

While we did have to cut our budget for theater reviews, we will
continue to run them. The reviews are now being written by staff writer
Rachel Swan.

“Nights of Death Rock,” Music, 2/11

Dead in the East Bay

I ran “Ain’t Dead Yet” in Alameda between 2000 and early 2003, a
monthly goth/deathrock/industrial event, first at the Driftwood (now
closed, now Hobnob) then the Minnow/Rooster’s Roadhouse. I was the
goth/deathrock DJ while my husband was the ’80s/new wave/synthpop DJ
and we used to have a third DJ that was Industrial, but he left so we
rotated the third slot out. The old web site is no more and an archive
of it is not up yet.

Just pointing out that there was something in the East Bay since
Twilight Zone, actually House of Usher was in the East Bay at just the
tail end of the Twilight Zone’s life, before it moved to San
Francisco.

Christine Ledo, Oakland

“Encounters with Dangerous High School Girls,” Culture Spy, 2/4

A Gem of Sass

I was lucky enough to do game testing for this. It was a lot of fun,
and the article is right about there being a lot of different options,
for characters, plot, and dialogue. Every twist and turn reveals
another gem of camp, wit, and sass. I didn’t need to know all the depth
of meaning and symbolism to enjoy the game; but, reading between the
lines reveals a whole new level to the mystery in the game itself. I’m
looking forward to the next game from Mousechief!

Lincoln Anderson, San Francisco

Corrections

Our March 11 article “Separate and Unequal at Berkeley’s Small
Schools” included several errors. Student Body President Ronald Pernell
was incorrectly identified as Ronald Purnell. Berkeley High Jacket
editor Megan Winkelman was incorrectly identified as Megan Coleman. PTA
President Mark van Krieken was identified as Mark Van Kriegan and
incorrectly referred to as a supporter of small schools. On several
references, the small school Communication Arts & Sciences was
incorrectly identified as Community Arts & Sciences. An old quote
lifted from the Berkeley Parents Network web site incorrectly stated
that students at the Community Partnerships Academy small school can’t
take advanced placement English; in fact, they can. Finally, our
article incorrectly stated that a recent article in the Berkeley
High Jacket
“provided substantive evidence” for a series of
accusations recently leveled by three Berkeley High science teachers.
While the Jacket story did indeed document some of the letter’s
assertions, it was not the conclusive proof that our story may have
suggested it was.

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