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Letters to the Editor
Maine Question 1 Results; SEIU and Memorial Workers; Religious Wackos; Church and State; Historic Preservation Commission; More on Capitalism ...
Nov. 06‚ 2009
Dear Paul,
Even when we do everything just right, do our very best, losing is painful, very painful. Especially on an issue so very close to one's heart.
Doing everything just right, doing our very best is, of course, somewhat comforting. But permitting one's self to slouch down and take as much time as needed to experience the painful reality is essential to healing ... and important to future endeavors.
Importantly, I apologize to you and and all the members of the LGBT community, as well as to all the tens of thousands of volunteers and supporters of "No on 1", for the influence of the Catholic hierarchy on the Maine (and California) voters in defeating this civil and human rights issue. For shame!
All of us -- fighters for justice for all human beings-- stand in readiness for the next "Maine", the next "California."
Sister Bernie Galvin, cdp
To the Editor:
As a survivor of the Prop 8 battles here in California, I am deeply saddened to see voters make the same mistake again in Maine. These calls to vote on basic human rights, I believe, only serve to enforce the belief that one may morally choose to remove / strip / deny basic rights they themselves enjoy to others in their community.
Let's get real about this, and stop begging. If the civil rights movement waited for voters, we would not have: inter-racial marriage, black voting rights or Obama. Going back further: slavery?! Women's right to vote?!
Really now ... this is what we have judicial and congressional branches for: to guard and oversee the humanistic development of our country. Doesn't everyone remember that rather scary study where the majority of Americans asked did not recognize the Bill or Rights and said, if given the choice, would not vote for it?!!!!!
Again I say ... to the courts ... I am done with begging!
Taya Stanley
To the Editor:
It seems paradoxical to me that you praise the Maine campaign for doing everything right and continue to beat up the California folks for running an awful campaign, even though the results in Maine are slightly worse than the results in California.
Maine had every advantage ... one media market (that has been sending images of Massachusetts same-sex couples for years), surrounded by other states that allow marriage for same-sex couples, more than 4 times the money per voter than California did, more field organizers per voter than in California, etc ... but still lost.
Maybe the folks in California didn't do so badly, all things considered. Maybe we should thank them instead of continuing to harangue them.
Brian Solomon
To the Editor:
I think the point that you are missing, Paul, is that this is a fundamental issue of culture. Culture is something that people don't decide on, it's something that they grow up in and absorb unconsciously into their psyches at the risk of being ostracized.
So when you have become a voting adult and "know" what marriage is and then someone wants to change that, of course you are going to automatically reject that change. It takes an intermediate stage of intense critical thought for someone to change that ingrained belief; in the case of young people, they have never really been ingrained in that belief. The work that you are doing is giving them an alternative point of view.
Rosalyn Chatt
To the Editor:
I lived in Maine for 10 years, and I say: "Get logical". It would take at least several generations of marriages to produce enough people to even need a civil government. It's no "chicken and egg" riddle: marriage came first, civil government second. Government has no business redefining what preceded it.
So "gay marriage" is a logical impossibility (so is calling this "hate speech.") Moreover, homosexuals have done well for millenia without thinking they need to be "married." So get used to it. And if a civil government will redefine marriage, what OTHER mischievous re-inventions will it do?
James A. Taylor
To the Editor:
"The voters have spoken, the b*st*rds!" Paul Hogarth pointed out that the "No on 1" campaign "had a far greater field presence than the opposition, and superior financial resources." Then why did it lose? Have you considered the heretical idea that maybe the opposition is correct?
Look -- Everyone *needs* to love and be loved. And everyone *deserves* to love and be loved. This is because we are human beings in this universe. If we are not loved, or given a cheap imitation, then we feel empty and used. What happens if we try to fill that emptiness with the wrong thing?
Then the emptiness gets bigger and bigger, and we get more and more desperate -- often we turn to drugs and other thrills. Especially after suffering from the betrayal of adultery, domestic violence, and/or divorce, every person knows deep down that marrying the wrong person makes the emptiness even larger. But what if, because of the way the universe works, marrying someone of the same gender is simply another way of looking for love in all the wrong places?
Think of it as evolution in action. Pair-bonding, sex, and our pleasure of both evolved for a reason to perpetuate the species. What happens when you separate the procreative aspect of sex from the pair-bonding loving aspect (which enables a husband to happily sacrifice for his wife)?
About 40 years ago, it was predicted that the result would be increased adultery, domestic violence, and divorce. And that is exactly what happened (see
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/07/002-the-vindication-of-ihumanae-vitaei-28).
A generation ago, we separated the unitive and procreative aspects of sex. At the time, we thought it would bring us liberty and happiness. But liberty turned to license and it is now slavery. We have been deceived, and the price of correction is painfully high. I have talked to people who once lived the gay lifestyle, but through some very difficult work they changed their orientation.
So my heart goes out to those who suffer from same-sex orientations. As many who live the gay lifestyle have asked, "Who would choose to have such feelings?" These poignant words, uttered to defend the gay lifestyle, only prove the emptiness of their quest. Still, they think that making a flimsy legal commitment such as marriage will fill their emptiness. If only it were so.
As to why the conservatives think that gay marriage threatens traditional marriage, I really don't know. I doubt that they really know either. We do know that countries in which gay marriage has been accepted, traditional marriage is disappearing. I suspect that this is because once a thing can be defined as anything, then it means nothing.
Tihamer Toth-Fejel
PAUL HOGARTH RESPONDS: First, Tihamer offers no evidence that traditional marriage is "disappearing" in places where gay marriage has been accepted. In fact, Massachusetts -- the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 -- now has the lowest divorce rate in the country. And as a gay man who spent the first 21 years of my life doing the "very difficult work" of staying in the closet, I am a far happier and more confident person today thanks to coming out and accepting who I am. If bigots like Tihamer -- and yes, they *are* bigots despite how much they love to play the victim game and moan when we call them that (because they know it's true) -- stopped meddling in our lives, we could move past this debate and start tackling all the real problems in the world.
To the Editor:
I am a Catholic, a union member, and an activist for social and economic justice. I am extremely disheartened that the workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital have become hostage of SEIU's delaying tactics. The decision to join a union should be in the hands of the workers not union career bureaucrats from Washington, D.C. whose interests are to stay in power and to collect millions of union dues-money from members. If SEIU is an advocate for Employee's Free Choice Act, Mr. Medina's union should leave and let the workers free to join NUHW.
Andres Bonifacio
To the Editor:
The ex-farm worker and sell-out, Eliseo Medina, must be delusional. Medina knows perfectly well that the vast majority of Memorial workers are united in giving SEIU its first major defeat in its battle with NUHW.
Of course Medina, will not agree to ground rules for the election scheduled for December 17. SEIU wants to engage in a rough-and-tumble strugle with NUHW because they believe that the new union does not have the resources to sustain and win this historic battle. But Medina should be careful for what he wishes for, because he will soon see that he is dreadfully wrong in his analysis of NUHW's strength.
NUHW rising! SEIU diminishing!
Francisco Martinez
To the Editor:
The Romans should've fed all these idiots to the lions!
Randy Fleming
To the Editor:
My GOD when are you people going to get it? PLEASE. Show me where ... in ANY of our Country's chartered documents ... "separation of Church and State" is addressed, mentioned or even alluded to? Still waiting. Go ahead, I'll make another pot of coffee ... having trouble finding it? You betcha! IT AIN'T THERE.
El Marko
To the Editor:
Being a Texan and a Christian, I don't believe the Bible delivered this young man's fate. I also don't believe in capital punishment, but I do believe in self-defense.
The Bible is a guide for the living whether it is inside or outside a courtroom, classroom, etc. As for the Koran, "ditto." I'm glad religious beliefs are known to pop up here and there, where a quote from the Bible or Koran is uttered. That's freedom of choice to be able to do that. Amazing, huh?
Believe it or not, there are just a few of us Texans (maybe enough for a jury) that can actually weigh a guilty plea against a horrendous crime. As for the quote -- yes, I've heard that one as well yet I query whether smiting him in return should be done by God and not the State of Texas or any other state.
Punishment certainly should be incarceration. Oh, I didn't want to forget to tell you, in your reference to religious beliefs and our obligation to stick to "Human" laws, the Bible was written for humans unless you're one of the more intelligent apes and IT WAS WRITTEN AS LAW! It's a really good read.
Marsha Stewart
To the Editor:
Bob Planthold states that the newly formed Historic Preservation Commission "already is functioning worse than the low expectations that people with disabilities projected for it." As Vice President of the SF Independent Living Resource Center, President elect of the Access Appeals Commission, and a Certified Access Specialist, I've not heard a whisper of any such low expectations.
Being a Board member of Heritage as well as representing Historic Preservation on the Department of Building Inspection's Code Advisory Committee, I have my feet firmly planted in both communities of accessibility and preservation and know from experience they do not have mutually exclusive goals. Protecting all the citizens of San Francisco's cultural resources is a noble thing, not something to despise as how Mr. Planthold suggests.
The California Building Code, which includes the State Historical Building Code, are sensitive to finding solutions for providing accessibility for historic buildings like City Hall and they will (and must) be used to provide access for the successful adaptive reuse of buildings in the future including the libraries Mr. Planthold references.
Arnie Lerner, AIA, CASp
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Capitalism is one gene and only one gene. It is predicated upon the selfish urge to have the money at whatever means. Else it is not capitalism. You may have some wishful thinking, but alas the hydra's head will grow again.
Don't you just see what is going on right now? After the abhorrent deeds that capitalism brought us just recently, the same practices are back in force. The latest one Banks are trying to wrest 2 billion dollars from our Public Transit. The same banks that got so much money from the taxpayers that even the most staunch communists wouldn't have dreamt of such bonanza.
You can't play a double game and expect to progress. You mention longevity, but fail to say that in most third-world countries life expectancy is still horrible. In those countries they give their lives to sent raw materials and foods, manufactured goods, medicines from the tropical forest, so that the west can live longer. Do you think a kid in a San Francisco street would have walked with an iPhone, a band new shoes, a burger in his hands if others kids in other countries didn't provide for him?
Then we have the story of oil. How would you grow your food to feed the billions if you hadn't the oil and natural gas? Do you pay a fair market price for them? Of course not. We rather give that money to our fleets, our bombers, our huge military complex in short.
Capitalism is by nature a naked aggression. Henry Ford's saying was utterly hypocritical. Why didn't he allow UNIONS? He was as adamant as Wal-Mart's bosses. In his factories, people worked like slaves and had short lives. To me, it seems that you are making excuses for capitalism but in a shrewd way, almost a religious way. The system has failed, like those banks and many other corporations then let's discard it or let us relive the farce.
I won't call it a tragedy in the Greek sense, since tragedy is accompanied by glory. Here we only see a waist land of impoverished taxpayers and enriched capitalists. Like the law of gravity by Sir Isaac Newton, the laws of capitalism were well formulated and revealed by Karl Marx.
Nafiss Griffis
San Francisco
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-771-9850 (phone)
Newsom Drops Out; UNITE-HERE Conflict; Historic Preservation; More on the Film "Anti-Christ"
Nov. 03‚ 2009
To the Editor:
With the good news on this past Friday that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the race for Governor is very good. But by not having him in the races will end-up hurting the LGBT community here in San Francisco in the long run. As we all know snice he has been in office, Newsom has used our community to get what he want then turn on us. By the way, NO! AND HELL NO! ON PROP D.
Ms. Jazzie L. Collins.
Transgender Female
San Francisco
To the Editor:
As a member of UNITE HERE Local 24 Detroit and an employee of Delaware North Companies, I would like to thank Randy Shaw and BeyondChron for keeping their coverage of this (unfortunately) on-going fight between UNITE HERE and SEIU/Workers United open, honest, and unbiased from Day 1. I feel that BeyondChron is just about the only place that I can find REAL coverage of what is taking place in the labor movement. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Michael LaCoste
Detroit, MI
To the Editor:
"Waged the longest strikes ..." Come on now, Andy Stern is pretty exposed now. Could we compare him to a Sara Palin? A nut with some bite but becoming pretty transparent to all but the zombie types. Anyway, part of the victory has to go to the 150,000 health care members in UHW. Andy didn't count on them not "blinking"! $10,000,000 and a thousand organizers for 10,000+ Home care Workers in just Sanoma County. And took it with a 200 vote (questionable) margin. Those UHW hellraisers are costing Andy alot of capital both financial & Political.
John Stern
To the Editor:
I hope UNITE HERE is paying you well, because I have never once read an actual objective article from you regarding the UNITE HERE and Workers United dispute. It really is a shame that you have never done any real investigative journalism on this. Based on your articles here, I would never even bother reading your book because I really question your motives, reasearch and analysis. Only once have I even seen you speak with and interview someone from Workers United. That is not journalism!
I worked for UNITE HERE throughout the merger. Now I do not work for either UNITE HERE or Workers United. Both sides have issues they are right on and wrong on. Your blanket acceptance of everything UNITE HERE does as correct is really unfortunate. They have a lot of problems and issues that they need to face and correct. Prime among them is lack of true democracy in their union and their inability to organize effectively. They have one of the largest jurisdictions in labor movement with millions of potential members to organize - yet they have 250,000 members.
Instead of being their cheerleader, maybe you should actually analysize their failures and the real reasons why UNITE and HERE split. Honestly, if the leadership of UNITE HERE does not change its ways and face its problems it will be bankrupt again in a few years. And that will be a very unfortunate thing for the membership and workers in those industries.
Again, I believe there are problems in both unions. But I am not naive like you to believe UNITE HERE is the great savior to the labor movement and is right in this dispute. They are neither. And you really need to be a real journalist and not just write press releases and puff pieces for UNITE HERE. You are doing everyone an injustice by doing so!
Sincerely,
Esteban Wishart
To the Editor:
Would you tear down your house just to remodel your bathroom? That's the argument Bob Planthold is giving us. Has anyone who have read this article know anybody who said that once we remodel the North Beach Library people with disabilities will not have any access?
Bob, where do you get your distorted information? Do you remember the FOX THEATHER on Market Street? Maybe just in photographs? Well you seem to be missing the point of HPC. Someone somewhere has to draw a line in order to preserve some of our past. Doctors save lives, HPC saves our past. Your column will get put in an archive and you'll be remembered. Marina Library could have been torn down rather then rebuilt; it was the same as the other Apple/Wolfard libraries. Maybe after they read your article we should just toss it ... along with my response.
Sal Busalacchi
San Francisco
To the Editor:
I had a different take on the film "Antichrist." I was shocked by the torture, so much that I had to get up and leave the theatre. I don't know what your age is, but from your statement "Scenes of torture can no longer shock us," I'm guessing you're in your 20s or, perhaps, 30s. There are still plenty of moviegoers who don't fit your description. I'm guessing I'm in the generation that precedes you.
Your generation is accustomed, yes, to seeing graphic, gratuitous violence on screen, but there's also marketing and a choice involved. Because people choose to go to movies that display gratuitous, graphic violence, more movies are made that offer it. It's a simple supply and demand cycle. I choose not to watch anything that includes graphic violence. I don't understand why anyone finds such a thing to be "entertaining." I do not. While I couldn't sit through the violence in "Antichrist," I didn't think it was gratuitous, either.
Further, I don't see this film as misogynistic, and I appreciated your reluctance to go there, as well. Granted, I've only seen "Breaking the Waves" also by von Trier, but I thought von Trier treated the character of Bess as a naive innocent who was murdered by men. Similarly, I saw the character of She as a victim of a man, as well. She is psychologically fragile from grief, a death that she thinks is her fault, and the extent of her fragility is not recognized by He, even as a successful(?) therapist. When He started talking to She about "inward nature," he hit on the single most important issue, but again, failed to recognize the importance or significance of his epiphany.
Woman's nature (and this is a broad generalization, mind) is to nurture life, but man's is to take it, hence the significance of She's thesis topic and the illustrations He found in the attic. Perhaps She felt She had taken on man's nature by not preventing her son's death, and thereby believed men's centuries-long tenet that woman's nature is essentially evil, despite its life-giving tendencies.
Perhaps She snapped; she obviously was bipolar at the least.Perhaps She wanted He to feel some of her pain, yet no matter how much She hurt him, She couldn't or didn't kill him. Yet it appeared that He had no compunction about killing her; his instinct is for his own survival.
Perhaps each was unconsciously following her or his inward nature, something that I didn't find to be misogynistic, in much the same way that I didn't find Bess's naivete to be misogynistic. Both were examples of man's destructiveness, particularly towards women, that he will kill even what he loves in order to survive.
You didn't make any speculation as to why the film is entitled "Antichrist," and I'd be interested to know if you had any ideas about that. I went through several different ideas on that topic, and I finally think that, as a theologian, all of us as humans are "anti-Christ," despite being made in his image. We as a race, the human race, are destructive, cruel, and malicious, which are characteristics in direct opposition to the characteristics the Gospels tell us about Christ.
It looks simplistic now, written down, but there's a few layers to peel back in order to arrive at that point. I think you're right, that no emotional catharsis is given to the audience. I'm still so overwrought from it that I still can't sit still, and I've been home for about two hours.
As for other issues you mentioned: personally, I thought the fox speaking was a trivial thing, and I'm not sure why you made such a big deal out of it. It was a surreal event in a surreal context. I did find it interesting, though, that the three ghostly animals showed up with She at the end; at least one was female, and I wondered if all three were. Were they her familiars? Was She really a witch? Further, do all women hold some kind of witch within? Is there any truth to man's condemnations?
I thought this film was multi-layered with meanings and symbolism, and although I don't think ill of your review, I thought it was a bit shallow. You reduced the film to a series of lame images on a screen and it was more than that.
Respectfully yours,
Kathleen Anderson
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-771-9850 (phone)
SEIU's Demise; Critique of "Antichrist"; Gay-Hating Episcopals ...
Nov. 02‚ 2009
To the Editor:
As a once proud Rep/Organizer/Local President in SEIU for 23 years, I have witnessed firsthand their devolution from a progressive leader in the movement from the birth of the militant and creative tactics of the Justice for Janitors campaigns in 1986 to ... now a Greek tragedy where the DC leaders have become what they once despised. We used to crack wise about bullshit Unions who ... allowed grotesque corruption to sprout from loyal but appointed "leaders," cut deals with the boss behind the workers' backs, and made imperial IU edicts trashing worker democracy. Comes now the "new program" which prioritizes the use of the members dues dollars to try to destroy NUHW and raid UNITE HERE.
Ironically, principles which made SEIU a champ in the movement, like respect and develpment of rank and file leadership, is now intruding on their grandiose suicidal schemes: there's more of us than there are of them, and they're running out of fingers and toes to hold the dam against the waves. HERE COME THE PAIN BOYS -- just as we always said: workers with a real choice will vote out the vendidos every chance they get.
Mike Wilzoch
To the Editor:
This is NOT a well-intentioned film review from a critic who apparently didn't get it. No doubt he never had to deal with a mentally ill family member. In addition, what "feels like an empty provocation" to one, may be meaningful and thought-provoking to another. Moreover, comments such as "it makes me wonder if Gainsbourg could have found the depth in her character had von Trier's script required her to do so" are totally pointless and best omitted.
Angelina Chatziathanassiou
To the Editor:
Hate [of homosexuals] has nothing to do with it. For those of us who believe with our heart and souls in the word of God we simply love you back.
Terrence McGillicuddy
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-771-9850 (phone)
Unions Eating their Own; Land Grabs in California; South Carolina Episcopals ...
Oct. 30‚ 2009
To the Editor:
Union workers comprise 12% of the U.S. workforce. That means that 88% of all those who toil for wages are not organized. While the labor movement has succeeded in raising the living standards for everyone, union workers take home more pay than their unorganized counterparts, and have better benefits.
Rather than wrestling over the 12% that are already organized, every effort should instead go to organizing those who are being deprived of their right to join the union of their choice.
Organizing workers is basic. It is Unionism 101. Raiders and interlopers need to learn and practice that fundamental
principle.
As an aside, the 12% figure swells when retired Union members are included. There are millions of us! We are a valuable resource. "We may have retired from the job, but we'll never retire from our Union!"
Rich Austin
To the Editor:
Regarding New York being more friendly to developers due to a lack of the initiative process, I would only note the major upcoming and past projects that were definite "land-grabs" in California currently ...
The Transbay Terminal, the Bayview Hunter's Point Project, the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, Treasure Island -- and the upcoming Parkmerced "Vision" and the SFSU/CSU "Masterplan" and associated land-grabs and numerous projects that proposed only housing for millionaires, versus housing and needs of the working families, seniors, students, and disabled that are still being pushed out without the financial or physical ability to submit ballot items like G on Bayview that provides zero or very limited rental housing development.
Take a peek at the Housing Element EIR, and updates on the Historic Preservation legislation Sec. 10+11 and the concerns abound, on the influence on these issues by private development for profit versus our very deep human needs for housing in SF that have been unmet since Parkmerced was developed.
Aaron Goodman
San Francisco
To the Editor:
If South Carolina Episcopals are so set on following the sacred scripture, why not obey the law against eating shell fish, the law against cursing ones' parents, the law against eating pork or bacon, or work on the sabbath, have sex with your wife while she is having her period, curse or blaspheme the name of God, the law against adultery with another man's wife, etc. etc. When they follow all these laws then they can come back and tell me about the law not to love another man.
Andre R. Boulanger
To the Editor:
Gee, maybe they can all become judgemental, hate-filled Roman Catholics, per the recent invitation of Pope Benedict! They can all get together and have a hate-fest, all-as-one! As a proud Episcopalian, this Diocese and its bishop are a sad disgrace. If they are so unhappy, I say "adios" and "don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out ... whether it be to Southern Africa, Rome or anywhere else ..."
Brian Ksiazek
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-771-9850 (phone)
The Power of UNITE-HERE; Michael Crabtree; South Carolina Episcopal Church; Left-Wing Disillusionment with Obama ...
Oct. 29‚ 2009
To the Editor:
I couldn't be prouder of the Union I have been a member of and a Leader for these last thirty plus years of my life. This past year has been devastating for our members who have been unnecessarily torn between the Union they have been loyal members of and a Union that has tried to seduce them with empty promises and outright lies.
UNITE HERE has remained on the High Road throughout this unholy debacle. It is a crime, what Andy Stern and Bruce Raynor have done to the Labor Movement in general not to mention what they have done to the members of UNITE HERE. They should both be jailed.
Carol Carlson
To the Editor:
Today, October 27th, we descended on the Intercontinental Hotel at Howard and 5th streets in a major picketing that began at 7 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. The line was solid, loud and replenished the whole day. We drove the visiting Ophthalmologists crazy with noise. They thought we confused them with otologists.
Intercontinental and other major hotels in San Francisco are stonewalling the Union and are being refractory to our demands for a fair contract. This action, today, is one of the major pushes the Union is thrusting forward to tackle the hotels. The hotels are adamant to cash in on the economic crisis as Wall Street did by drying all the cash from the taxpayers.
Mike Casey, Local 2 President must move boldly and swiftly to give teeth to the 92% strike vote before the Media kills the attempted strike as they did with BART. Casey must explain to the employees, who are being bombarded by management with propaganda against the Union, that they stand to gain big with a strike and that a weak settlement under the guise of a weak economy is totally suicidal. Those who have mortgages to pay, who have bills, medical expenses, etc. are the ones, in the long run, at risk if we get a weak contract. They must outweigh few months of struggle with years of bad wages, heavy work load, exorbitant medical bills, etc.
Nafiss Griffis
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Unite Here is definitely on the rise. With the victory in Philadelphia and elsewhere, Unite Here has defeated the raiding tactics used by Raynor and others who strongly support cutting secret deals with the employer in order to diminish or silence the voices of union members and working families. Clearly, Unite Here members understand that SEIU's and Raynor's strategy of colluding with the bosses is not the way a union should conduct business. If that were the case there would not be a need for workers to form a union that is built from the bottom up and recognizes that the membership are the true UNION.
The majority of healthcare workes in California are poised to give SEIU other stunning defeats across the state once the NLRB rejects SEIU's frivolous law suits meant only to delay the inevitable. NUHW will be the major healthcare union in California and will begin to branch out across the country. Why you ask? It's simple. Unions are not meant to be governed by Andy Stern and his appointed Washington cohorts. Decisions at the worksite are the members responsibilty and the representatives of the union are meant to help carry out the wishes of the workers themselves.
SEIU seems to be taking the easy way out. The way to build a strong union is to recognize those members with leadership potential and to help them so that they will be able to eduate other members to become involved, to become activists.
Unite Here rising! NUHW rising!
Francisco Martinez
To the Editor:
Ha ha! It's hilarious how SEIU's raid backfired so horribly on them. From what I can tell, the workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are ready to kick SEIU to the curb in their upcoming election. SEIU can't even get any traction there!
Keyser
To the Editor:
Nice job on this column. So here's the obvious question. If Michael Crabtree can walk in off the street and play effectively without spending one minute in summer training camp, why are we being ripped off with the phony baloney practice games? Also, don't forget about Nate Davis, the third string quarterback. He should be getting more reps. He's looked consistently better than Hill or Smith whenever he gets the opportunity.
Jean Damu
To the Editor:
I was a delegate to the South Carolina Episcopal Convention. FOR THE RECORD, we NEVER VOTED on Resolution 5. The Standing Committee wanted to amend it at the last minute, and while copies were being made, several more amendments because pending, until finally no one could remember what we were supposed to vote on.
THUS, Amendment 5, was tabled UNTIL the regular Diocesan Convention in March. There was no VOTE for or against, it never got to that point. It was the last thing on the agenda, and everyone was exhausted, thus the decision to put it off, BUT, only until the next convention (in less that 6 months.)
Please make some attempt to ascertain the facts before you attack the good folk of South Carolina.
Thank you,
Gloria Reidinger
Grandmother
To the Editor:
It sounds like you're equating criticism of ("disappointment with") Obama with pessimism. But those really aren't the same. And by doing it in the way you do (by coining a derisive term, "the 'doom and gloom' camp"; suggesting that people who don't like the direction the government is going are "disconnected" with the real activists, etc.), you are discouraging criticism of Obama and of the government.
What I don't read in your articles is any critical assessment of where working people are today -- it's not a pretty situation!-- and how the Left can unite to address that. All I read is "don't criticize Obama." Leave Obama out of it -- he is neither our savior nor the source of our problems. What we need to figure out, and you don't give any help on this score, is: What should the Left do?
Chris Sturr
To the Editor:
Randy Shaw won't be getting off the Obama bandwagon unless it rolls off a cliff. Given that the President is way too smart and politically skilled to allow that to happen, Shaw will be on board for the duration of this Administration. His self-appointed role is to get progressives to stomach it.
His main argument regarding left critics of the Obama Administration is fatally flawed. It's not because we're in an unchanging protest mode that many of us oppose the policies with the Administration. It is precisely because we have a very different agenda than the President.
We want to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; Single Payer health care, real environmental action not Cap and Trade; good jobs and services not cut backs and austerity; etc.
When leftist stand for those things, they are acting correctly. When they settle for the chump change Shaw describes, they have given away their power.
Yes, Shaw can always favorably compare the President with Republicans like Bush, Cheney, and McCain, but to paraphrase my mother and the high standards she upheld, "you're comparing with that!?"
Radicals and progressives are correct to maintain their political positions in the face of the weak and floundering Obama Administration. Standing for what you believe in is an essential component of democracy.
Jonathan Nack
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Gays and the Episcopal Church; More "Doom and Gloom" on Left; On Capitalism; School Site Councils ...
Oct. 28‚ 2009
To the Editor:
Just as the flower turns to seed and falls to the ground to be born anew ... So must the Episcopal Church go through the process of re-birth or perhaps more aptly the process of pruning away the dead wood. I grieve for the faithful who depend upon these clergy for spiritual guidance and direction who are left to sort through this mess virtually on their own.
Quinton Kruse
To the Editor:
Smash the Church? Smash the State? I wonder how the author is defining "bigot?"
Jack D'Orio
To the Editor:
I must coment on this subject matter. The church must stay out of government business at times. For them to come out with their own discrimination laws is down right wrong. But ask this group about paying taxes than they will cry fold. But it's ok to support legislation to hate LGBT community member at the same time they talk about how God love us all isn't bullshit !
Jazzie Collins.
A very happy transgender female
To the Editor:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Randy Shaw has gotten this exactly right, and hit the nail on the head about this "profoundly disempowering" attitude, what I call an incurable case of "glass-half-empty-itis."
Elena Mora
To the Editor:
It's always easy to feed the established aristocracy and market fundamentalist religion, and it's always well-rewarded to pretend it's also natural and scientific.
Capitalism's roots as a "discipline" and later as an ideology were always from the elites, for the elites, and over the populace. From the self-serving nest-feathering day-trading trust-fund dittohead David Ricardo to today's corporate whore media and monotheistic economics seminaries, it's always fine sport to be an establishmentarian faux-contrarian.
Marion Delgado
To the Editor:
School site councils are mandated to develop and recommend only the categorical portion of the budget, though in SFUSD the council recommends the entire consolidated budget. With almost all categorical funds made flexible, districts can use these monies as they see fit. This means that the CDE no longer has any jurisdiction over the use of the Tier III funds, EIA and SPED excepted. This has dramatically undercut the purpose of an SSC as the members have little to no recourse with the Categorical Programs Management Unit if they disagree with the district over the use of funding.
Don Krause
San Francisco
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Palmer Court Decision; SF Entertainment Commission; the "Doom & Gloom" Left; Do Gays Smoke Pot?; and "No on D" ...
Oct. 27‚ 2009
To the Editor:
Dean Preston called the Palmer decision " ... an unprecedented and erroneous appellate court ruling that the state's Costa Hawkins Act preempts a local inclusionary housing law in Los Angeles."
My God! WHO?! writes this stuff? How many children have been left behind? I agree the result is unfortunate, but there is nothing "unprecedented" about it, and on what basis do you conclude the appellate court and supreme court are in error? It is axiomatic that where the state legislates in a certain area that law will preempt ANY local law. This rudimentary doctrine of preemption is true in ANY context. A thimble full of legal knowledge would give this publication a little credibility. Without that it is propaganda for the credulous.
John Mortimer, Esq.
To the Editor:
Good article on the SF Entertainment Commissioner, except you failed to elucidate the fact that there are 7 commissioners, and 5 of them are not from the industry. Only two are industry representatives. Can you really agree that "many" have a stake when only two are industry representatives? The commission is made up of 2 neighborhood reps, 1 police rep, 1 public health rep and 1 planning rep. If anything, it would appear as if the industry is outnumbered on the commission as it stands.
Terrance Alan
Entertainment Commissioner
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Thank you for this article. Barack Obama never said, "Yes I can." It was always "we." All our energies need to go into supporting him, and thus moving him, in the progressive directions we voted for. The question for us is - are we really committed to progressive change, or are we mainly committed to proving that we're right about how he doesn't measure up?
Patricia Sarvis
To the Editor:
On the White House and medical marijuana, you wrote, "likely because it greatly benefited a gay and lesbian constituency toward whom the Obama Administration has been justifiably criticized for inaction."
How did you arrive at this assumption, please? LGBT folks are likely to use more pot? Why? What is your definition of a gay and lesbian constituency?
Gloom and doom is all the rage, as is whining and nit-picking. The political spectrum is filled with those who prefer to complain than those who organize, educate, and empower themselves and others. There may be some truth to the inability to make much change in California, since the legislature is gridlocked by the 2/3 vote requirement and 70% of the state budget is locked into mandated spending.
The gloom and doom and screaming and name calling is likely to reach biblical proportions when and if a California Constitutional Convention is called and meeting (two different realities). Just figuring out who gets a seat much less a vote could take decades. Then there is the inevitable court battles.
My, I am becoming a very polished cynic. Today's liberal, tomorrow's conservative or worse, a cynic.
Arthur Corbin
To the Editor:
I don't trust . If you look at their materials, they are very exploitative of homeless people. I'm also discouraged by the wording "bringing arts to the area." Um, the Tenderloin has had an art movement for decades. I'm not aware of any community process that went into this, and I'm distrustful of those involved (many of whom are the same people who have advocated for other initiatives that are tantamount to gentrifying the Tenderloin.)
I agree that there needs to be a broader push for development in the area, but it needs to stop the "We need to get rid of these homeless people, etc" and it needs to begin with a community process that goes beyond condo owners and developers.
Daniel H.
San Francisco
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
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415-771-9850 (phone)
More on Parking Meter Expansion; More on Starbucks ...
Oct. 26‚ 2009
To the Editor:
The MTA, Municipal Transit Authority, is clearly out of control with little, if any, control by the Board of Supervisors. It can raise bus fares with impunity, and change bus lines that adversely impact the physically helpless and frail. It is proposing the extension of parking meter hours to raise cash that it needs to offset its deficit. Yet, it stood by a few months ago as Gavin Newsom raided Prop A money to featherbead his administrative staff.
So, what does a bullied agency do? It bullies the public, and never goes after the big kid on the block - the corporations, and will create less demand by consumers. Oddly enough, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, considering itself a progressive force, supported these proposals. I wonder if they would be willing to shore up the deficit by agreeing to fees for licensing their bicycles. They wish to have the same rights as automobiles, and paying for a license would be a step in that direction.
I do take public transportation for the most part, using my car only when I have to. I would not be adversely affected as other drivers. But it is starkly unfair to impose these new regulations.
Yes, there is a deficit - MTA management which is overpaid with many incompetent personnel. It would seem wise to sack them, take their salary, and use it for desperately needed funds for public transportation. They should also be penalized for fiascos, as delayed runs, by docking their salaries, and using the money for transit services.
Their motto is: "Transit First. Passengers, Residents, and Drivers Last"!
Herbert J. Weiner
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Starbucks can't be redeemed whatever they do. To refuse unionization of its workforce is a symptom enough to classify it as a bad corporation.
Coffee culture in America is truly a genesis of the 80's, like the drinking of wine, so recent. Therefore many independent coffee houses would have offered a good cup in response to the demand if they had survived the onslaught of Starbucks. Just in North Beach you couldn't drink a true cup of coffee but in Trieste. In the 90's you could enjoy a good cup in many other houses like El Greco, Coffee Roma, Royal Ground at Polk and Sacramento, etc.
Starbucks hides very well behind the Fair Trade and Organic, since they know that they are paying a paltry sum to the growers, a fraction of a penny more than say Nestle. But if they were to pay a true commensurate price to a grower in Guatemala then they would show their true color, red, not green.
And how do we know how much they pay for their coffee in a foreign land? We do not even know the books of a simple corporation in Wall Street, in this land, a total secrecy. Is not Starbucks quoted on Wall Street?
Speaking of a good cup, I think Starbucks destroyed the meaning of a good cup of coffee. They came up with the idea of roasting their coffee till it is pitch dark, supposedly to lower the caffeine content. In so doing they destroy the flavor, the aroma that is the signature of coffee. But many Americans who grow accustomed to Starbucks do not know what a true cup of coffee is. Coffee when roasted beyond the intense brown color loses its aroma and its benefits. It contains molecules that are fragile and have an extremely high tannin content that are good for the heart and the brain if drunk in moderation.
What people do not like about Starbucks is their proliferative character. Wherever you turn your eyes they are there. Coming down Geary street between Taylor and Mason is Starbucks, after two blocks another Starbucks at Cyril-Magnon and O'Farrell, half a block later another Starbucks at O'Farrell and Powell, ad nauseum.
Progressives can't do a differential calculation to absolve certain corporations for being less evil than others. They are on the same wavelength and they are there to destroy our social fabric to make a buck, and they star in doing it. We should be like Marx in refusing to tolerate sham and deception. Marx was unable to accept dishonest rationalizations, he was incapable of insincerity. Marx contrary to many refused to think in fictions about matters that affect us.
Nafiss Griffis
San Francisco
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
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415-771-9850 (phone)
Gavin Newsom's Record; School Site Councils; Picking on ANSWER; A Catholic Speaks Out ...
Oct. 23‚ 2009
To the Editor:
Mayor Gavin Newsom is nothing but a Republican. Now he talked about federal law, but was he thinking about state law when did same sex marriage? And now he got a brain this is B.S and Gavin know it. Do he really think that he's going become Governor of our state? It's time to hold a big rally outside his office. And call this damn Republican out.
Jazzie Collins
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Note that School Site Councils do not make the decisions entirely on their own! Generally, two community meetings a year with the entire parent population are held, with translation provided by parent liaisons and the District. At these meetings, the general parent body provides input and informal vote- do they rank the value of a computer teacher above a paraprofessional for kindergarten? Does the main office need both a secretary and a clerk (taking into account that one speaks Spanish and the other, Cantonese) Should the site cut its funding to an outside agency sports program?
This discussion was accompanied by descriptions of how many, and what type of students were served by a particular program of staff. This parent input also can be garnered through surveys taken at PTA meetings or sent home in weekly newsletters. Of course it is difficult when parents know the specific staff whose positions may be cut; it does get emotional. But at the elementary level, where the school is small enough for most parents to be familiar enough with most of the staff and programs, I found it to be a very fair process.
Sue Weaver
Dear Editor,
All right, where's the link to the REAL Beyond Chron article on the MTA parking meter hearing? Judging from Carl Bloice's and Marc Norton's complaints, I was expecting a flurry of anti-leftist slurs that would have made Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck cream their pants.
Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the alleged anti-ANSWER language was limited to one sentence in the lead paragraph. Even then, Paul Hogarth merely pointed out that ANSWER appeared to have a peculiar standard for classifying something as an assault on the proletariat. It appears that when it comes to reasonable criticism, ANSWER possesses the hide of a grape skin.
But seriously, Marc Norton raises a valid point that meeting the transportation needs of San Francisco should not be a one size fits all solution. Bicycling and public transportation makes sense for some San Franciscans while driving cars will make sense even for less wealthy San Franciscans. The trick is to find the right mix of public support that will meet as many San Franciscans' needs as possible. MTA, though, has a notorious habit of going for the easy but inappropriate solution of hiking Muni fares up the ying-yang. San Francisco deserves a far better public transportation policy.
Peter Wong
San Francisco
To the Editor:
I believe that need to get along, fighting will not make the situation better. I am Catholic, I believe that we all need to gather together and love each other. Many of us are against each other. Peace and love is the solution to the all the problem we are facing in this planet. We must understand and realize that our life on earth is only temporarily. We must love each other no matter what religion we belong to. I am a very peaceful person, I love peace and I am willing to promote peace to anyone that is willing to receive love and caring emotions.
Bibiana Basilio
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Beyond Chron
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Pelosi and the Public Option; ANSWER and Parking Meters; Sanctuary Law Amendment; More on Starbucks Employees ...
Oct. 22‚ 2009
To the Editor:
It's about time that the Speaker of the House take a stand for the little people. No, I don't always agree with her, but she is in the right. The health care reform act need to be change here. There are way to many Americans who can't good health care. The Republicans will fight like hell to make sure that the public option isn't part of the overall cover. What isn't being said nor has been adressed is gender discrimination base on one gender. So many times, people like me and other transgenders isn't covered because the legislation don't say so, and this is the problem that I have with the affordable health care reform.
Ms. Jazzie L.Collins
Transgender Female
San Francisco
Dear Paul:
I wasn't at the MTA meeting on the parking meter question, and don't know all that was said, but your opening bit attacking ANSWER left a bad taste in my mouth. ANSWER is a consistent defender of poor and working class folks, and believe it or not many poor and working class people in and around this town -- especially those with families -- are dependent on their cars to get around. Muni works for somethings sometimes, and other times it just doesn't.
Of course, Muni needs more revenue -- millions and millions of dollars more. But no matter how many quarters you squeeze out of drivers, it won't be near enough. We need the courage and the political moxie to go after the guys who do have the money, i.e. Tax the Damn Rich.
What will get more people out of their cars and into public transportation is a safe, comfortable and affordable public transportation system. Until then, this city can beat up on drivers all it wants, but that won't get people where they want and need to go.
Marc Norton
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Despite Paul Hogarth's attack on ANSWER and his not-so-subtle red-baiting, the proposed changes in the city's parking meter regulations is an affront to working people.
So the MTA study is "37 pages long" and constitutes "the most exhaustive analysis done since the City installed its first parking meters in 1947." So what? The idea that working people don't drive cars is just silly. They do - to work, to school, to shop and for a night out. To speak of "political pressure of angry motorists" sound more than a little elitist to me.
Here, as elsewhere, working people are being battered by the economic crisis, declining real wage and job insecurity. The last thing medium or lower income people need right now is to be nickel and dimed to death by politicians that can't figure out how to get more income from those who are raking it in hand over foot.
But that's exactly what's happening. The recent decision by the politicians to institute "stepped up enforcement" (as one of them put it to me) of parking regulations is just making it hard for neighborhood people, especially those who aren't fortunate enough to have garages.
From Hogarth, we learn that somebody has decided "transit policy is so intricate that we need some apolitical professionals to make the decisions." Gosh. And that: "Despite opposition to expanding parking meters, how the MTA Board handles this will show if it can really value policy decisions above political pressure." The same can be said of the Obama Administration and Afghanistan.
Carl Bloice
To the Editor:
Obviously, yet another travesty of our Immigration laws. What a laugh. We have no enforcement? It's all a facade, specially in SANCTUARY CITIES like San Francisco and Los Angeles. We cannot expect even any enforcement from Dems or, to be truthful, Republicans.
A few honest politicians try, but once the majority they reach Washington they either succumb to greed or the un-limitless corruption there. Even the state assemblies, particularly in Sacramento is overflowing with corruption and sleaze. Top of the corruption in our capitol is Senator Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Janet Napolitano who run the roost, for the rest of the gang. It's a joke they represent the American people. They have been brought and paid for the open border morons. Harry Reid is unlikely to be re-elected in 2010?
Anybody want to take a guess why one of the major reasons, California is still teetering on the edge of insolvency? The illegal alien occupation and the abuse of massive government handouts? See NUMBERSUSA.
Dave Francis
To the Editor:
8 USC 1373(a) - "Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual."
I don't think one needs to be an immigration attorney to figure out that the SF Board of Supervisors cannot issue any rule prohibiting city officials from reporting known illegal aliens to the ICE. (See also Article 6, paragraph 2 of U.S. Constitution).
My guess is that the Supervisors who voted for the Campos proposal recognize that it is obviously unconstitutional, but opted to pander to the immigrants rights community anyway. If the current immigration system is as bad as the Chinese exclusion laws of a century ago, or the anti-Semitic quota system of seventy years ago, then why didn't the Supes protest at Obama's fundraiser for the Democratic Party at the Fairmont Hotel last week? Doesn't the ICE, which is still continuing to conduct immigration raids, answer to the President?
Colin Gallagher
To the Editor:
Dunkin Donuts employees earn MORE than the cited wages of Starbucks employees. Please recheck your sources. They are lying to you.
Boston Bob
You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to:
Beyond Chron
126 Hyde Street
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415-771-9850 (phone)
Nov. 02, 2009 -- Abortion Foe Urged Faithful to Burn Pelosi and Reid
Nov. 02, 2009 -- Disability Perspective: The Historic (Self) Preservation Commission
Nov. 02, 2009 -- SEIU's Demise; Critique of "Antichrist"; Gay-Hating Episcopals ...
Oct. 30, 2009 -- OUR MAN IN MAINE: Organizing the Last-Minute Push
Oct. 30, 2009 -- "9500 Liberty" Comes to the Sundance Kabuki
Oct. 30, 2009 -- Von Trier’s “Antichrist” Shocks, But Fails to Move Us
Oct. 30, 2009 -- November “Remarkable!”; Mrs. Whitley “Love Bites”; Creature “Riveting!”; Bronson Movie “Raw, Scary!”
Oct. 30, 2009 -- Unions Eating their Own; Land Grabs in California; South Carolina Episcopals ...
Oct. 29, 2009 -- Maine Question 1 Going Down to the Wire
Oct. 29, 2009 -- School Beat: The Nation Should Listen to Youth Voices from Chicago
Oct. 29, 2009 -- Repeal the Insurance Industry's Antitrust Exemption
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November 7, 2009
