“A Savage Dance,” Culture Spy, 5/28
Show a Little Love to OSA
Thanks for the great article about Ray Savage’s dance company. You did a great job of capturing the spirit of a man who is already an Oakland institution. However, I was surprised to read an article about him that made no mention of the amazing work he is doing as director of dance at OSA (Oakland School for the Arts). Considering that he’s there five or six days a week mentoring and teaching, it is hard to believe that he didn’t mention it to the writer and in fact after speaking to Ray myself he was equally as surprised it was left out. Is this another example of anti Jerry Brown-ism (OSA was and still is his baby) that seems to be so prevalent in the local press? Probably not, but I would encourage anyone to attend a performance by OSA students and witness for themselves the incredible work that Ray Savage (and others) is doing with middle schoolers and especially the high schoolers. I guarantee you will be moved to tears. This seems to me such a huge part of what Ray Savage is about that I’m perplexed by its omission and can only wonder if it was in any way deliberate.
Small rant coming up: As a parent of a teen who attends OSA I for one am tired of the negativity directed to the school. My sophomore daughter loves OSA dearly and Ray Savage is the reason pure and simple. Furthermore, talk to any of the kids about him and you will get the same response. So please show a little love to OSA. It’s part of the new face of Oakland. Now all we have to do is wake Dellums up from his coma.
Stephen Duffy, Oakland
“Proposed Budget to Gut East-Asian Languages at Cal,” News, 5/28
Cut Ethnic Studies Instead
The fact that 45 percent of the students are from East-Asian groups seems irrelevant to cutting these departments. I hardly think Chinese students are going to Berkeley to learn how to speak Chinese. They’re more likely going for business, computer science, and engineering. The number one target on any cut list ought to be that intellectual wasteland known as “ethnic studies.” The various programs in that department allow for the least rigorous forms of scholarship and writing you will find at Cal. I personally mentored a young student who shared her senior paper with me. I hit the alarm button, trying to tell her the writing needed major improvements before submission. She ignored my advice and submitted this simply awful paper. To my shock, she got an “A.” I seriously doubt any other department that still respects academic rigor and quality needs would have given her anything above a “D.”
Manuel DePiedra, Castro Valley
The Language Caste System
As a lecturer at UC Berkeley for seventeen years, teaching language and literature courses, I would like to correct a remark in Anna McCarthy’s article on the cuts in East-Asian languages at Cal. “Many language lecturers at UC Berkeley are forced to become lecturers instead of tenured professors because they don’t have Ph.Ds.”
This is not quite the case. I have a Ph.D, as do quite a few other lecturers. Before the last three decades or so, people could be and were hired into tenure-track positions to teach languages and literatures. Since then, tenure-track faculty has ceased to teach languages, and language lecturers, with or without Ph.Ds, comprise another, distinctly disadvantaged class in the university. Lecturers are paid per course, rather than on a regular salaried basis. Three courses per semester equals “full time,” but when departments need to cut their budgets, language courses are cut, because they can be, and lecturers’ salaries plummet overnight from already meager levels. Lecturers enjoy no sabbaticals, few of the perks of regular faculty, and retirement benefits that are considerably less generous. Lecturers do occasionally voice dissatisfactions to their superiors, and invariably are told, “Well, you knew the system when you took the job — and no, it isn’t fair, but there’s nothing I can do about it.” All true.
For years, I have kept a list of all the things I love about teaching at UC Berkeley; the wonderful students; colleagues I respect and like; the stimulating environment of a top university in which impressive scholars do outstanding work on important subjects. The list is lengthy, but the status of lecturers, whether in language or other subjects (a status which is little different at other universities, by the way), doesn’t appear.
To give only one example of the general attitude toward lecturers at Cal, a friend (with Ph.D) who came as a visiting scholar to teach a literature class several years ago, and offered to teach a language class as well, was told by one of the tenured faculty members, “No, no — faculty members never teach languages. We have language lecturers to do that.”
This fall, we will have fewer of them.
Susan F. Kepner, Kensington
“County’s Top Cop Is a Scofflaw,” Full Disclosure, 6/4
Do More Research
Mr. Gammon should do more research before he blasts the district attorney’s office. People, like Ms. Backers’ witnesses, who have problems with “Muster Magic” should have disclosed what they called the “Skirts” parties. That was where the women got together outside of the office and did not invite the men, giving them access to the female supervisors in the office. As for women being promoted because of this lawsuit, nothing could be further from the truth. Tom Orloff made it a goal to diversify this office from the moment he became district attorney. I should know. I am a female prosecutor in Alameda County who has been treated only with fairness by the man Mr. Gammon chooses to slander in his article. I am proud to be a member of this office. We dispense justice fairly and with great integrity. That is something the office strives for and it starts at the top — with Tom Orloff.
Joni Leventis, Oakland
I Expect More of the DA
Robert Gammon’s article on Assistant DA Angela Backers’ sex discrimination case against DA Tom Orloff was extremely distressing. Considering the unflattering, sworn testimony of six prosecutors presently or previously working in Orloff’s office, I find it hard to believe that the DA’s office, under Orloff, is not a sexist and racist environment. But even if we, like Judge Zika, conclude that there isn’t sufficient evidence of unlawful discrimination, Orloff’s own admission about his own cigar smoking habits is enough to prove that illegal activity does occur in Orloff’s offices. As DA, Orloff has the ultimate authority in this county to invoke the death penalty. I expect more respect for the law from a man with the power to make literally life-or-death decisions.
Thomas Gregory, Oakland
A Distressing Pattern
This article is an interesting look at how things are done in the DA’s office, but I wish the Express would tie its great article on Don Perata’s many violations of state campaign finance laws to DA Tom Orloff. Orloff has apparently done nothing at all to investigate Perata, and as far as I can tell by reading all the local press, he is not even questioned about this inaction by any media. Ditto for the Oakland city councilwoman who ripped off the public by paying a friend’s kid to be on her full-time staff, when the kid was going to school back east, and last but not least, the special treatment of Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who was given only an infraction for attacking free speech? (Bates’ kid Christopher “Cash” Bates is a DDA, so Orloff really should have recused his whole office, but if he had done that, how could he protect Bates?) All these actions, or inactions, prove that Orloff will not take action against politicians, unless it’s some very low level person like that Berkeley rent board guy, who frankly does not matter. Him they can rake over the coals. Also, as far as the “good old boys” network goes, why has no one brought up Orloff’s long membership in the Pleasanton Masonic lodge? I don’t think they are a particularly sinister organization, but they have been accused of having an official policy of racial and sexual discrimination, until perhaps very recently. I was hoping the plaintiff’s attorney would ask Orloff about that, it seemed to tie in very well with the claims in the lawsuit, but apparently they pulled a lot of punches.
Steve White, Oakland
Good Grief
Your exposé about the DA (“County’s Top Cop Is a Scofflaw”) reads like a satire. All I know about him is what you wrote in your piece, but there you state that his office “has earned a strong track record for convicting criminals and behaving ethically in court,” and that Orloff has “a history of promoting women to top spots.” In the discrimination case against him, a judge found in his favor. With those charges out, the worst you can pin on him is that he smokes cigars in the courthouse and curses? Good grief.
Tom Leimkuhler, Oakland
Unsafe Individuals
The recent exposure of Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff’s unethical office practice leaves one to question his authority. His disreputable behavior is more than cause for alarm, given his high-ranking position in Alameda County law enforcement. Orloff’s position as district attorney gives him the authority to make wide-ranging decisions including those pertaining to death penalty laws. The controversy regarding the influence of race and socio-economic status in the application of the death penalty begs further question as to Orloff’s ability to remain unbiased in his support of the law. Orloff, as well as the rest of the District Attorney’s office, have shown that the law enforcement of Alameda County lies in unsafe hands. An office conducting illegal acts should for no reason be in control of the legal decisions for Alameda County. There is too much on the line regarding the death penalty to let it sit with biased individuals.
Abby Ridley-Kerr, Albany
“Rebirth of Cool,” Events, 5/28
Y’all Rock
Thank you so much for a great article and exposure for the work of Mind Power Collective. Just a little editor’s note, likely due to the brevity of our conversation: MPC actually focuses our work on the adult supporters of our youth, aka educators, and our Sunday Salons are actually intended to be for educators, teaching artists, youth and cultural development workers, and other interested community members. We absolutely love our youth, and the festival is one way we are providing direct service to them; however, our core emphasis is on replenishing and stimulating the spirit of the educator to keep fighting on the front lines of our community. Please check out our web site: MindPowerCollective.org to find out more about upcoming events and to sign up for our e-news list.
Thank you East Bay Express for being a true community voice for the good work that happens here in the Bay Area. Y’all rock!”
Jayeesha Dutta, Oakland
“The Torture Professor,” Feature, 5/14
Render Him to the World Court
Since John Yoo was working for the Justice Department at the time he wrote the torture memos, and could not have been paid at the same time by the University of California, which is against its employment regulations, then it seems the issue of academic freedom does not apply to him. Therefore, he cannot hide behind this issue now, nor can the University of California, Berkeley. See University of California Policy and Procedures Manual to verify, please. These are open documents regarding hiring and retention policies.
Could he not also be prosecuted for failing to uphold the US Constitution at the Justice Department, especially Amendment VIII to the Bill of Rights which unequivocally prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment”? By what stretch of anyone’s imagination could the torture Yoo espoused be considered “usual”? Yoo eschewed only “organ failure,” presumably not ripping nails off hands, for example. This inhumanity seems prosecutable. Render him to the World Court if necessary.
Philomena Burkhardt, Richmond
Clarification
Our June 4 article about the tightening in home equity loans (“Dear Customer: It’s Over. With Love, Your Bank”), may have left a false impression about the capabilities of the web site Zillow.com. While we stated that banks such as Citibank are using automated appraisal systems such as Zillow.com to track declining home values, a Zillow representative subsequently indicated that her company’s web site is meant solely for consumer, and not commercial, use.
