.Letters for the week of August 29-September 4, 2007

Readers comment on the late Yusuf Bey's clan, colony collapse disorder, the Paramount, and Tom Bates' relationship with the homeless.


“The Killing of a Journalist,” Online News, 8/8

The race card
Oakland is a mess. I am very tired of so-called “black” leaders playing the race card. Majority prejudices such as “Black good, Whitey bad” undercut our — yes, I mean black people — internal culture of habits that include industriousness, thriftiness, family solidarity, and reverence for education, which play a greater role in our success than anything the so-called Beys of this world have to offer. Don’t believe me; ask Malcolm “X” — but we can’t.

As Thomas Sowell once stated, people like the Bey family and their followers are no different than the Klan, “Black Rednecks.” Look at the violent machismo, shiftlessness, and disdain for schooling. But don’t challenge them, because they will only threaten your life and tell you that they represent the Authentic Black Identity, or True Asiatic Black Man.

The Beys and their ilk are directly responsible for part of what is wrong with Oakland. They are not the only reason, but they didn’t help, perpetuating cultural pathologies that hold blacks back. Good riddance, for now. God bless Mr. Bailey and his family.
Stephen Lee, Vallejo

Human frailty
I must condemn both the Beys and the complicit city officials and law enforcement officers who allowed their reign of terror. But I must also condemn the reactionary views expressed by another commenter. The civil rights movement is not at fault for the problems that still plague the lives of many black people. Indeed, but for the successes of the civil rights movement, circumstances would be much worse than they are. A combination of societal indifference, unjust policies, and, yes, human frailty explain the problems in places like Oakland. Until all three are addressed, the suffering will continue.

Chris, my most unsettling time as a reporter was when I covered a mass murderer. Your experiences with the Bey organization are truly frightening.
Joy Gray, Seattle

Blaxploitation
I can not believe what I am reading. This sounds like some blaxploitation movie of the ’60s. You mean people get away with such nonsense in 2007? THIS IS A SHAME. This is fiendishly evil and I feel so badly for the good people who try to save these communities. These communities don’t stand up and fight for themselves, but instead worship at the altar of Satan. Women sacrificing children to the demons. What a disgrace. And the police are allowing this lawlessness to continue. And when one good man stands up, he is murdered like a dog in the street while the community that he is trying to help watches and then returns to its darkness. That place is Sodom. Jehovah will deal with the likes of these people.
LaWanda Johnson, Washington, DC

Edge and honesty
I just wanted to say thanks for existing. I really enjoy your paper and you’d be surprised to learn I’m actually a “REPUBLICAN.” Seriously, you guys tell it like it is and I really appreciate that. I love the edge and honesty. Keep it up. Sorry if getting a compliment from a conservative was hard to take, but I speak from the heart.
Tony M., Oakland

“Are Bees Too Busy?” Feature, 8/1

Call blocking
Declining bee populations in the UK have been attributed to the increasing number of mobile (cell) phone masts. The phone signals interfere with the bees’ navigation — they get lost.
Robin Wallis, El Cerrito

Bee accurate
Thank you for your well-written and informative article about colony collapse disorder. Overwork certainly may be a factor. Hopefully the cause will be found or, in any case, the bees will carry on anyway.

Nitpicker that I am, I am compelled to point out a couple of factual errors in your piece. It is not a new queen, but rather the old queen that takes off with about half of the worker bees in the hive, i.e., not “a thousand or so,” but perhaps as many as thirty thousand. The new queen, created by the worker bees by feeding royal jelly to selected larvae, will fly out one time to mate and then will return to the home hive.

When the swarm clusters on a tree or what-have-you, it will wait for the scouts to find a new home — several days, perhaps — and then relocate, i.e., the bees do not remain at the cluster site “if they don’t find a good spot” elsewhere. They inevitably do.

You wrote that, in the spring, “the combs drip with honey.” What a mess that would be! When the bees build up comb structure they cleverly slant the cells slightly upward so that the nectar (that will become honey) can’t leak out. When they are satisfied that they have honey, not unripe nectar, they cap the cells off with beeswax. So there is little, if any, dripping.

Again, congratulations on your efforts to educate the public about Colony Collapse Disorder and the interesting life of the honeybee.
Russell Bruno, Oakland

Susan Kuchinskas responds
Yes, it is usually the old queen who takes off with the swarm — I wrote of the bee pioneers led by the “experienced queen.” There’s frequently a second swarm, however, led by one of the new queens. It’s highly unlikely, meanwhile, that a swarm would have as many as thirty thousand bees. Swarms go out in late spring, before the colony is up to full strength, typically forty thousand maximum. According to Dr. Eric Mussen, author of Beekeeping in California, swarms range from a thousand to, at most, fifteen thousand bees. The swarm Fortin picked up was around one thousand.

The swarm does not “inevitably” find a good spot. The workers, without the hive’s resources, have limited time to begin secreting wax and lay down new comb. If they don’t find an appropriate location, and time is running out, they’ll take a wild shot and begin to build in an unprotected spot, as did the swarm that Fortin captured.

You can attribute “dripping with honey” to poetic license.

Droned out
I appreciated your article. I’d like to clarify a few points: Queens do not “fly out with a batch of drones to mate.” Those drones are her brothers — a poor genetic choice. Drones hang in groups in the air called drone congregation areas. The queen flies under her brothers, then up to meet another DCA.

The drones are not “called drones because they do nothing but hang around and eat.” They are called drones because of the sound they make, and lazy people are called drones after male bee behavior. Neither grapes nor tomatoes are pollinated by honeybees; grapes are wind-pollinated, and tomatoes need vibration from larger bumblebees. But plenty else needs bees, and your attention to the plight of the bee is commendable.
Mea McNeil Draper, San Anselmo

Susan Kuchinskas responds
I was wrong about the tomatoes, and only some species of grapes need bee pollination. Most commercial grapes are wind-pollinated. So we’ll still have wine and spaghetti sauce, even if the bees all die.

Buzzworthy
From the wilds here in central Pennsylvania, it was with great pleasure I read the recent bee article. On March 10 the Chronicle published my article, “Could genetically modified crops be killing honeybees?” The response was quite favorable, with a large number of correspondents coming from California.

I read more CCD stuff than is good for me, but your article was refreshing. My own project this summer is to compare the results when bees forage in an agricultural area compared with a non-ag region. I have four hives in each place. I originally suggested that this be done to determine if bt [???] corn or soybeans might be the cause of the die-off since those crops carry insect toxins.
John McDonald, Spring Mills, Pennsylvania

“Outfoxed?” Feature, 7/25

Bad management
I was not at all surprised to read Rene Boisvert’s comments that the Paramount Theatre is mismanaged. After all, many things in Oakland have been poorly managed for a long time now and graft is rampant in city government. The schools are barely functional and were so mismanaged the state had to step in when they “lost” how many million dollars was it? It was such a large number my brain still can’t process how this much graft occurred.

The city council also has its problems. Several of the members are in bed with various developers, and who can forget the nonprofit PUEBLO that many council members supported and funded with public money. How much money did they steal from local taxpayers? Mr. Boisvert mentions that the mayor has not responded. I guess Mr. Boisvert does not live in Oakland, but someone should tell him that our mayor does not respond to very much. Oakland is the eighth most dangerous city in the US; why should we be surprised that it is one of the worst managed cities as well?
Mary Becker, Oakland

“At Least It’s Not Theft,” Water Cooler, 8/1

Former radicals
I think I recognize you now from several places. I have tended to think of you as a sweet person. Is it abuse to point out that the mayor of a city has a huge opportunity that almost none of us have to make a statement and even “give some love” to his community? You may have more of that opportunity than some, as an employee of KPFA. But nothing like what Tom Bates has. He chose to use that position to globally insult Street Spirit vendors in essence.

I had a dear friend who died almost a year ago. He knew Dylan Thomas like you wouldn’t believe. He was sweet, incredibly smart, and sensitive, and had to work harder than I can even really imagine just to survive. Though he was schizophrenic, he kept trying to fit himself into the square hole that might be called the workaday world. He probably had and lost more jobs than anyone I’ve ever met.

I wished many times he had not been too afraid to stand out there and sell the Street Spirit. I always thought maybe something like that could have saved him, but he said to me, “Virgie, you have _________ [my own phobia], and I have people.” He just couldn’t do it.

I don’t think what I said to Tom Bates was abuse.

Some people of his — call it class? — group, like some I know well, still consider themselves to be radicals because they braved at least something during the ’60s. Now they mostly just want to be comfortable. They wouldn’t THINK of sacrificing a plane trip or two a year or renting a spare room — or taking the bus — even just occasionally — to lessen their own carbon footprint, but they’ll throw twenty or thirty or more renters out onto the streets and justify it by saying the new buildings (which deplete “lumber,” by the way) are absolutely required to save the planet. Even if they tear down perfectly sturdy and beautiful housing to do it.

Unfortunately, the world still needs some very brave souls and some love. It seems to me that’s something Tom Bates doesn’t get. That seems obvious to me. I don’t have more time to say why. Tomorrow’s gonna be another working day; I gotta get some rest.
Virginia Browning, Oakland


Letters policy
Please provide your full name, address, and daytime phone number, although we’ll only print your name, city, and affiliation. Send letters to [email protected] or Letters, East Bay Express, 1335 Stanford Ave., Emeryville, CA 94608. Letters are edited for length and clarity.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

East Bay Express E-edition East Bay Express E-edition
19,045FansLike
14,611FollowersFollow
61,790FollowersFollow
spot_img