The opinions expressed here are those of the author and should not be taken as medical advice. If you are having a crisis, you must reach out for professional help.

Going inpatient for a little while can get you temporarily out of a hard situation so that you have a bit of time to regroup, to reassess, to rest, to recuperate, and to reevaluate. Yet an inpatient stay at the hospital usually won't solve your problems.

A 72-hour hold won't get you out of a hard situation. When you get out of the hospital, you'll face the very same challenges you did before you went in.

For someone acclimated to help from the psychiatric care system, when life gets too hard it might be tempting to head for the nearest inpatient care ward. It is nice to think we could just be helpless and have the hard work of life done for us. It's never as simple as that.


You will have to relinquish some of your rights. Hospital staff will often make decisions for you. If you need the help, you should certainly go. But it can be hard to ask for help.

Speaking to a family member and/or a psychiatric advice nurse could be an effective way to determine whether you need an inpatient stay. If it is too difficult to do simple self-care, such as going to a store and getting food or other necessities, or cleaning up after yourself, it might just mean you should get a helping professional to help you with some of it. Or, if it gets bad enough, you might need to get a greater amount of help.
 

If your life seems unbearable, or if you feel that you are having a crisis, it is a good idea to get some form of professional help rather than trying to go it alone. Even if it feels physical, it could be worth it to at least talk to a helping professional. 

I was recently in a moderate crisis, and I was disappointed to find that there were no phone resources for someone in my situation. The focus is on the bad-off people and not on people who are merely anguished and who would like to speak to someone. I'm not happy about this deficiency. If people in a moderate crisis have someone to talk to, it could avert escalation of symptoms into something worse. 

It can be hard to be alone. Yet at other times, being alone is just what we need. Since I am an introvert, I thrive on being alone most of the time. However, I am best off if I can get some level of people contact, and not take alone time to excess. A hospital psych ward is one way to be around people. In the case of a hospital, there probably isn't anyone there who's going to judge you. Usually, a psych ward is going to be physically safe and should not have assaultive people. If people, including staff, do harm to you at a psychiatric ward, it is a crime and it should be reported. Unfortunately, when going inpatient, sometimes it is the luck of the draw. 

Patients' Rights organizations were founded to create some pushback against the abuses done to patients in hospitals. You won't know what you're getting until you get it. That's reason not to go inpatient unless you really need to. 

I am reminding you again that the forementioned are my opinions and do not constitute medical or psychiatric advice. For that you must seek the expertise of a mental health professional. 

Jack Bragen is author of "Instructions for Dealing with Schizophrenia: A Self-Help Manual" and lives in Martinez, California.  

My sister recommended the book Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights by Samuel G. Freedman. The New York Times review called the book, “Riveting… A superbly written tale of moral courage and political courage for present day readers who find themselves in similarly dark times.”

Riveting is the best word to describe Freedman’s writing. The Berkeley library has one hard copy and the Oakland library has the ebook.

My memory of Hubert Humphrey is his support of the Vietnam War, the disastrous 1968 Democratic convention, and losing the 1968 presidential election to Nixon, who promised to end the war and then continued it for four more years until after he was safely re-elected.

Humphrey’s pivotal role on civil rights was completely lost under the weight of Vietnam.

I knew nothing about Humphrey’s early political life, especially how he addressed racism and anti-Semitism in Minneapolis as mayor, or how he changed history with his firm stand on civil rights in 1948. I associated the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Act signed by President Johnson in 1964. Humphrey’s place in civil rights starts long before becoming Johnson’s Vice President on January 20, 1965.

The book title comes from Humphrey’s speech on July 14, 1948, at the Democratic National Convention. The issue was not whether the delegates would nominate President Truman for a second term, but whether the Democrats would include civil rights in the official party platform. Humphrey had 10 minutes to speak for the minority and convince the delegates to support the platform on civil rights. Here is an excerpt:

“To those of you, my friends who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them, we are 172 years late.

To those who say, to those who say that this civil rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this, that the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” 

President Truman is described as not wanting the Democratic minority to win on the civil rights platform. He wanted to bury civil rights, but the party platform on civil rights forced his hand. Twelve days later on July 26, 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9980 integrating the Federal workforce and Executive Order 9981 banning segregation in the Armed Forces. 

. . . 

Sunday evening, I attended what I thought would be a talk on the book Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe at Revolution Books. The organizers were thinking in terms of starting a book club. The book sold out, and most of us either hadn’t read it or barely started. I was the oldest person in the room and the majority in the group were less than half my age. which was exactly the mix I was looking for. 

The discussion quickly strayed. 

When I added voting to the conversation, and observed that half the country is nuts, it went as might be expected. While probably most of the people in the room were self-selected to be prone to vote third party or wondering whether to vote at all, they were not buying the necessity of voting for President Biden to keep Trump out of office, though one person brought up Project 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 

I’ve been watching the polling that Biden is losing the support of voters under the age of 35 and Muslim and Arab Americans over his handling of the Israel – Hamas War. 

Even before reading Into the Bright Sunshine, I’ve been thinking about the election of 1968 and the impact of the Vietnam war on that election. If people sit out voting, go for one of the third parties or vote only down ballot and skip the presidential vote as they did in Michigan in 2016, we could be in big trouble. Trump could be reelected, and this time around he will be surrounded by sycophants and using the Project 2025 blueprint to eviscerate the government. Things could change very quickly. 

I thought a lot about Trump and Netanyahu as I took notes from Jason Stanley’s book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. They both fit the fascist description: Trump with his grievance politics pledging, “[F]or those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution” and Netanyahu calling up Amalek, a war of genocide in the Bible, citing Deuteronomy 25:17 on October 28, 2023. https://www.christianpost.com/news/netanyahu-compares-hamas-to-amalek-rival-of-the-israelites.html 

The death toll in Gaza surpassed 20,000 several days ago. Over 8000 children have been killed. 

Israel’s blockade of food, water and power started weeks ago in October. The UN reports that more than half a million people in Gaza are starving. The entire population in Gaza is in a food crisis as Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war. There is not safe drinking water. Sewage systems were destroyed, leaving sewage untreated. Gazans are squeezed into refugee camps which are under attack from bombing and ground troops. There is no safe place for the 2.2 million people of Gaza. 

I read Deuteronomy 25:17 and the entire book of 1 Samuel in the 1952 Revised Standard Version of the Bible (writings on remembrance of Amalek appear in several Biblical texts). I wrote a friend after reading 1 Samuel that it was about killing, jealousy, calling up mediums to speak to the dead and sacrifices (animals on altars). The genocidal command from “The Lord” on Amalek is clearest in 1 Samuel 15:3 (Chapter 15 verse 3), “’Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’”. 

This is really something to wrap your head around. 

President Biden, his administration, the State Department are aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is using passages from the Bible calling for genocide and total destruction in his rallying cry in the Israel Hamas war. 

For anyone who is paying attention, there should be no doubt of the intent of Netanyahu, the Knesset and advisors. They state it openly. Whatever President Biden is credited as saying to Netanyahu to protect the civilian population is obviously brushed aside through speech and action. 

When agreement in Congress couldn’t be reached on Biden’s $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and national security, the Biden administration bypassed Congress on December 9, 2023 “selling” 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $106,000,000. There is no reporting of any conditions placed on Israel in the furnishing of weapons in the Israel Hamas war. 

History did not begin with the horrific attack on October 7, 2023. 

The world sees Israel as committing war crimes and those crimes grow each day as the U.S.blocks meaningful action at the U.N. 

It is in this atmosphere the Berkeley City Council couldn’t bring itself to join neighboring cities in a call for a ceasefire before they all left on their winter recess. 

In Bethlehem the celebration of Christmas was canceled. The nativity scene depicted the figure of an infant Jesus with a keffiyeh surrounded by rubble. Reverend Munther Isaac in Bethlehem gave this message (read or listen): https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/26/christ_in_the_rubble_christmas_sermon 

I received another email from Mayor Jesse Arreguin at 9:14 this morning, titled Happy Holidays, asking for contributions to his run for State Senate. 

There was only one City meeting in the last week before the City’s Christmas holiday. I kept checking the Design Review Committee (DRC) webpage, hoping for the word cancelled to appear. It didn’t. I was the only member of the public to attend. 

There were only two projects on the agenda: 2018 Blake, the six-story, multi-unit project for students in the formerly redlined block, and 2587 Telegraph, an eight-story 52-unit project. Both were SB 330 density bonus projects, which, of course, means building bigger taller buildings than allowed through the Berkeley zoning ordinance. With new Southside zoning, the project on Telegraph could actually be bigger. 

I remember the Asian couple in the little house next door to 2018 Blake who appealed the project that would tower over them. They lost their appeal. What is left of the buildings at 2018 Blake still smells like smoke more than three years after the April 2020 fire. 

Big tall dense housing is what the Berkeley mayor and city council, the California State Assembly, the State Senate, Buffy Wicks and Nancy Skinner champion. 

As I was nosing around on the internet to confirm that the mid-block 2018 Blake project was in the formerly redlined zone, I found the website Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/ 

It was back in February 2021 when the Berkeley City Council declared it would eliminate single family zoning because single-family zoning is inherently racist. Council declared Berkeley was the first city to establish the inherently racist practice of single family zoning in 1916. If the Council had actually done their homework, they would have noticed it was not single-family zoning that created the protected white neighborhoods. It was the covenants written into deeds restricting the sale of a property to nonwhites which were first introduced in Minneapolis in 1910. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map/MN/Minneapolis/context#loc=12/44.9726/-93.2631 

Covenants didn’t fit the narrative of upzoning Berkeley to make way for multi-unit housing, mid-rises and hi-rises. Calling single family housing racist made a better story. On the evening of the council action there were many who declared their abhorrence to single-family zoning as racist and their support for multi-unit housing as the answer. 

Interestingly, the YIMBYs, who are vocal supporters of high-density housing, are listed under YIMBY Action as one of the financial supporters of the website. 

There is an icon of the U.S. that brings up a U.S. map with links to cities and documents. 

The D4 zone in Mapping Inequality where 2018 Blake sits comes with this description from 1937: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map/CA/Oakland/area_descriptions#loc=15/37.8681/-122.2661 

“14. CLARIFYING REMARKS (3) This area of modern type bungalows was originally put on as a white subdivision. However, now Negroes have crowded in until there is only a small percentage of white remaining, most Italians. District known as ‘Negro Piedmont’. This district will never recover its original pre-Depression values. Zoned for restricted type residences except about ten blocks in the center, which are zoned for two-family residences and duplexes. This is a high grade Negro area and good loans can be made here if care is exercised.  

INHABITANTS: 

e. Infiltration of: orientals 

c. Foreign-born: Latin & Nordic; 15% 

d. Negro: yes; 50% 

f. Relief families: many 

a. Type: store-keepers, professional Negro white-collar workers, etc. 

b. Estimated annual family income 1,000 – 2,500 

3. FAVORABLE INFLUENCES 

Modern type cottages and bungalows prevail; homogeneous types. Convenient to recreational facilities, schools, local and San Francisco transportation and local shopping district 

4. DETRIMENTAL INFLUENCES 

Predominance of Negroes and Orientals. Also mixed classes of wage earners and colored professional people 

2. DESCRIPTION OF TERRAIN 

Under SB 330, projects are held to the standards in place at the time their applications are complete. Neither of these projects is required to comply with the Bird Safe Ordinance, though 2587 Telegraph said they were including bird safe glass for the first 36 feet of the building. 

I among others felt the Bird Safe Ordinance languished at the bottom the Planning Commission to-do list for years for the exact purpose of allowing developers to get their applications in before it was considered.  

The architect presenting for 2018 Blake quoted the bird safe ordinance standard as 2 feet by 4 feet and said he wasn’t sure if they were required to follow it. The 2 feet by 4 feet was another deliberate slip from the Planning Department. The standard was inches, 2 inches by 4 inches. However since birds are able to fly through tiny spaces, the final ordinance passed with 2 inches by 2 inches. 

Anything coming from the Planning Department requires attention to detail, as DRC committee member Finacom pointed out at the start of the meeting. Finacom told the DRC that his reading of the signage ordinance and project plans for 600 Addison was correct, and that staff admitted at the appeal to the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) that the presentation to the DRC was in error. The DRC unknowingly approved signage for 600 Addison using flawed analysis by staff that the proposed signage fit within the City ordinance. The ZAB decided after being informed that the signage was not in compliance with the Berkeley Signage Ordinance to approve it anyway. 

After citing the Bird Safe Ordinance as being 2 inches not 2 feet, and asking that the project use bird safe glass, I said that I know gray is a popular color, and asked if we have to have gray buildings, that look like they are from East Germany. 

The DRC did not approve the final design for 2018 Blake and asked the developer to return with a more colorful proposal and more windows. 

The second project, at 2587 Telegraph, was approved to move on to ZAB with many suggestions for improvements. The DRC asked the project team how the neighborhood responded to the project. Mark Rhoades spoke for the project, saying the neighbors weren’t happy, but his developer clients were working with them. 

Eight, ten and twelve story buildings are the future for neighborhoods near commercial districts. Former Mayor Shirley Dean often relates how unhappy people were during her term as mayor with five story buildings. These days having only five stories next door looks like a gift. 

After seeing so many really awful projects, 2587 Telegraph was a major improvement over what usually comes to DRC. The balconies on the Telegraph side were designed into the bulk of the project rather than hanging off the outside of the building, visually breaking up the long linear building. It is a design that might work at North Berkeley BART. All the bedrooms had windows. 

All of these projects come with bicycle rooms and it wasn’t clear where the increasingly popular e-scooters fit or what was being done to reduce the fire hazard from the scooter lithium ion batteries. The developer said that the Fire Marshall is now requiring bicycle rooms to be fire rated with sprinklers and scooters are not allowed in living spaces. 

If you drive and haven’t been down MLK lately between Dwight and Ashby be ready for swerving lanes, pedestrian islands in the middle of the street with the rectangular rapid flashing beacons and curbs in unexpected places in the middle of the street. The flashing beacons and islands are nice for pedestrians, but it looks like there should have been better planning than traffic lanes that swerve in and out in each block. Watch out for the curbs in left turn lanes. They might cause some serious damage if you happen to be unlucky enough to hit one. 

2023 is ending as the hottest year on record. It is hard to deny the impacts of climate change though some still try. 

I have a protest sign in my kitchen, “Public Response Matters”. Let’s hope we heed it and 2024 turns out better than the pundits predict.

In my previous article posted on December 2, I outlined a proposal for a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine. Now I wish to show why now is the right time for such a two-state solution to be considered by both Israelis and Palestinians. First, the popularity of Benjamin Netanyahu is at an all-time low in Israel. The man who posed as Mr. Security for Israel has been seen as ignoring or otherwise failing to heed warnings that Hamas was capable of mounting such an attack as they did on October 7. Compound this failure on Netanyahu’s part with Israeli citizens’ enormous opposition to their prime minister’s assault on Israel’s judiciary, and you have a situation where Netanyahu may finally be toppled from power. In recent polls, 41 per cent of Israelis want Benny Gantz to be the next prime minister, as opposed to only 21 per cent who want Netanyahu to remain in office. Finally, Netanyahu’s current extreme right-wing coalition can be toppled by any of its coalition members withdrawing their support. People close to Benny Gantz have been urging him to withdraw his support and thereby topple the Netanyahu coalition. 

Second, the overwhelming outburst of international criticism of Israel’s genocidal bombing of Gaza has made Israel a pariah nation in world opinion. This has even begun to undermine the support for Israel within its closest ally and military funder, the US government. Even the Biden administration, which has continued to embrace whole-hearted support of Israel, is now reportedly behind the scenes recommending that Israel scale down its war on Gaza. Moreover, the Biden administration continues to announce support for a two-state solution, which Netanyahu vehemently opposes. 

Now is the time when Israelis recognise that the militaristic policies of Netanyahu have not worked and have only brought endless cycles of increasing violence,. If Israelis want to be considered a respectable, peace-loving nation, they need to demonstrate that they are prepared to live side-by-side with Palestinians in a peaceful way. 

Regarding the “right of return” guaranteed to Palestinians forcibly displaced in 1948 or later in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza may satisfy Palestinian refugees that they do not need to return to their original homes in Haifa, Jerusalem, or wherever, but that they now will have a Palestinian homeland they can return to. Thus, the millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan might agree to return to a Palestinian state instead of insisting on their right of return to Israel and thereby weakening, through sheer numbers, Israel’s identity as a Jewish state. 

Finally, even Hamas may be willing to support Marwan Barghouti as leader of Palestinian negotiations with Israel, since this would counter world opinion’s condemnation of Hamas’ murderous October 7 invasion of southern Israel. Further, my assertion that a Benny Gantz-led coalition should release Marwan Barghouti has precedents. In running for election as President of Israel in 2007 Shimon Peres vowed to release Marwan Barghouti, though, once elected, he reneged on that promise. During his 21-year imprisonment in Israel, Barghouti studied Hebrew and is now a fluent Hebrew speaker. This could be a plus in face-to-face negotiations. In short, Israel is at a turning-point, and the question is in which direction they will head. If calm, reasonable voices are heard now, negotiations for a two-state solution may just well be possible. 

There is one further, and particularly crucial, element in the current prospects for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine. That element is the situation of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under severe criticism from the families of those held hostage for not doing nearly enough to obtain the release of the hostages. In fact, Netanyahu is accused, often quite vehemently by the hostages’ families, of demoting hostage release to a second or third priority in his war campaign in Gaza. 

If Benny Gantz, as leader of Israel’s opposition, couched his withdrawal of support for Netanyahu’s coalition primarily in terms of Netanyahu’s failures on the hostage issue, Gantz would receive enormous popular support in Israel. If Gantz then was asked by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to form a new governing coalition, he could immediately declare a ceasefire as a prerequisite for hostage release negotiations and then win overwhelming Israeli support if he succeeded in obtaining release of all the hostages held in Gaza, even if to do so he agreed to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, including Marwan Barghouti. 

Thus, Gantz would achieve at least grudging support, and maybe much more, for beginning negotiations with Marwan Barghouti over the possibility of creating a two-state solution that would bring lasting peace to Israel-Palestine. 

Of course, bringing an end to Israel’s occupation could not be achieved overnight. It would have to involve good faith steps by both parties at various stages. Ending Israel’s war on Gaza would have to come first, coupled with allowing desperately needed humanitarian aid to flow freely into Gaza., In the West Bank, Israel would have to agree to dismantle some settlements and follow up by doing so, while Palestinians would have to agree to allow some settlements to remain. Then restrictions on Palestinian travel, both within the West Bank and Gaza, and also into Israel, would have to be eliminated. Next, the vast infrastructure of Israeli apartheid would have to be gradually eliminated, starting with separate roads for Jews and Palestinians, then including demolition of the separation wall. All of this will take time. But there is a chance it could happen if Israel can change its course and embrace a high moral ground in accepting Palestinians’ rights for a sovereign state. In the days when Teddy Kolllek, then Mayor of Jerusalem, used to sit down at Palestinian cafes in Old Jerusalem and talk amiably with Palestinian friends, all this seemed possible. Now is the time to return to those possibilities.

Worth Noting:

This is the last Activist’s Calendar for 2023.

The Design Review Committee meeting on Thursday, December 21, 2023 is the only scheduled public meeting until after the New Year’s Holiday.

City Council is on winter recess through January 15, 2024.

Reduced City Service Days, Tuesday, December 26 through Friday, December 29, 2023 follow the Monday, December 25, Christmas Holiday.

Check the City website for announcements and any emergency meetings posted on short notice at: https://berkeleyca.gov/

December 31, is the deadline to complete the Survey of adults 55 and older from the County of Alameda Area Agency on Aging to plan county services to assist older adults to age in place. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CABERKE/bulletins/37d724c

Free Yoga Classes every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30 – 5:30 pm at the West Berkeley Family Wellness Center, 1900 Sixth Street, Register by phone 510-981-5350.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS 

Thursday, December 21, 2023 

DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE at 6:30 pm 

In-Person: 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Gooseberry Room 

AGENDA: 1. 2018 Blake (between Shattuck and Milvia) - DRCF2023-0004 – Final Design Review for east and west elevations on a 6-story, multi-family residential building with 12 dwelling units (51bedrooms) as a Use Permit Condition. This is a SB 330 project. 

2. 2587 Telegraph (between Parker and Blake) – DRCP2023-0009 – Preliminary Design Review – to demolish a 2-story retail building and construct an 8-story (95 ft) 112,562 sq ft mixed-use residential building with 52 dwelling units, including 6 very low-income density bonus units, 2903 sq ft of ground floor commercial and 73 long term and 6 short term bicycle parking spaces. This is a SB 330 project. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/design-review-committee 

+++++++++++++++++++ 

LAND USE CALENDAR PUBLIC HEARINGS: 

• 2924 Russell 2/27/2024
• 1960 San Antonio 645 Arlington Avenue 2/13/2024
• 3000 Shattuck Avenue (Construct 10-story mixed-use building) – TBD

• To be rescheduled (previously December 5, 2023) – Re-Imagining Public Safety Update and Gun Violence Prevention Program
• January 23, 2024 - Draft Waterfront Specific Plan (tentative – rescheduled from November 2, 2023)
• February 6, 2024 – Office of Economic Development (OED) Dashboards Presentation

• Fire Department Standards of Coverage & Community Risk Assessment
• Dispatch Needs Assessment Presentation
• Presentation on Homelessness/Re-Housing/Thousand-Person Plan

• May 16 - Fire Facilities Study Report, Wildfire Prevention Plan https://berkeleyca.gov/city-council-special-meeting-eagenda-may-16-2023-6-pm
• June 20 (WS) - Climate Action Plan & Resilience Update, Berkeley Economic Dashboards Update reports available https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas/city-council-2023-06-20

* * * * * 

Kelly Hammargren’s summary on what happened the preceding week is posted on the What Happened page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/what-happened.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ 

The Activist’s Calendar of meetings is posted on the What’s Ahead page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html 

With City Council on winter recess and most of the meetings for the year over, I turned on the audiobook version of McKay Coppins’ book Romney: A Reckoning and finished it in 2 ½ days while I put off writing and cleaned the house; which tells you where housing cleaning fell during the months of attending City meetings and writing about them. 

No matter how we view Romney the closing comments from the author center on what I so often consider when I observe and write about our local politics and elected officials. What drives their actions, and where do their actions fit with what they professed to stand for when we voted for them? 

From McCay Coppins: 

“Romney tells me he has been thinking about a question I asked when we first started meeting, I wanted to know if he thought there were any lessons in his story that future political leaders might take…he knows no one emerges from politics free of regret. These days when he speaks to student groups his frequent piece of advice is to not sacrifice their integrity at the altar of ambition. It’s not worth it he tells them. Believe me. 

I once asked him if he would have taken the same lonely principled vote to convict Trump if he had been put in the same position thirty years earlier. He answered, I don’t know the answer to that. I think I recognize now my capacity to rationalize decisions that are in my self-interest and I don’t know that I recognized that to the same degree back then. 

At a moment when courage is in vanishingly short supply in politics it is worth considering what made Romney finally choose to do the right thing instead of the convenient one and whether the phenomenon can be replicated. Romney tells me he thinks the key is to get political leaders to think more deeply and more often about how they’ll be remembered when they are gone. You can rationalize anything when the only thought is how it will play in the next election…” 

As of December 16, Mayor Arreguin and four Berkeley City Councilmembers are running for something. The council terms of Terry Taplin, Ben Bartlett, Sophie Hahn and Susan Wengraf all expire November 30, 2024. Wengraf announced she is retiring. Hahn is running for mayor as are Harrison and Robinson. Bartlett is running for Alameda County Supervisor against eight others. If Bartlett doesn’t make the top two in the primary, he can run to retain his council seat in November. The closing date to declare being a candidate for mayor or city council is August 9, 2023. Arreguin is running for State Senate against four others. Ernesto Falcon dropped out four days ago. 

By the end of Sunday, December 10, 2023, Councilmembers Bartlett, Robinson and Taplin had backpedaled and withdrawn their resolutions from December 7. Bartlett and Robinson called for a ceasefire and Taplin called for an end to hostilities in the Hamas – Israel war. Hahn had sent her email that none of these resolutions “…will ever - appear on a Council Agenda prior to Tuesday’s meeting…I am calling on my Council colleagues to stand firm and refuse to place any resolutions on our Agenda as Urgency Items…” and then called for us to write emails and attend the December 12th council meeting to oppose a resolution. 

While I’ve been staring at this Diary, the number of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in the Hamas - Israel war has grown to 97.  

I’ve been into records online reading through letters sent to council on the Hamas – Israel war. The emails sent to take no action on a ceasefire resolution far outnumber the emails for a ceasefire resolution. It is the opposite in the people showing up to the council meetings. The vocal in-person attendees support a ceasefire resolution in overwhelming numbers. 

I’ve been thinking about the City of Berkeley’s Land Acknowledgement Statement: 

The City of Berkeley recognizes that the community we live in was built on the territory of xučyun (Huchiun (Hooch-yoon)), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo (Cho-chen-yo)-speaking Ohlone (Oh-low-nee) people, the ancestors and descendants of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to all of the Ohlone Tribes and descendants of the Verona Band. As we begin our meeting tonight, we acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of Berkeley, the documented 5,000-year history of a vibrant community at the West Berkeley Shellmound, and the Ohlone people who continue to reside in the East Bay. We recognize that Berkeley’s residents have and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this unceded stolen land since the City of Berkeley’s incorporation in 1878. As stewards of the laws regulating the City of Berkeley, it is not only vital that we recognize the history of this land, but also recognize that the Ohlone people are present members of Berkeley and other East Bay communities today. The City of Berkeley will continue to build relationships with the Lisjan Tribe and to create meaningful actions that uphold the intention of this land acknowledgement. 

Would we see Gaza and the Palestinians differently if “the City of Berkeley” was replaced in that Land Acknowledgement Statement with ‘Israel’ and the inhabitants of the land was replaced with Palestinians? That is the Nakba, the catastrophe, the 750,000 Palestinians removed from their homes, their land to create the nation of Israel in 1948. 

History gets complicated overridden with myths, religious beliefs, guilt and fear over the Holocaust, what is erased and revised, and power. History did not start with the horror of October 7, 2023. 

What is not complicated is that all the killing must stop. The genocide must stop. The ethnic cleansing must stop. The liquidation of Gaza must stop. The murder of Palestinians in the West Bank must stop. The killing of Israelis must stop. 

It wasn’t the deaths of over 20,000 Palestinians, of whom more than 7000 were children, that brought Germany and the UK to change their minds to call for a sustainable ceasefire, it was the IDF (Israel Defense Force) shooting and killing on Friday three shirtless unarmed October 7 hostages bearing a white makeshift flag calling in Hebrew for help. 

Masha Gessen still received the literary Hannah Arendt Prize in Germany, but her comparison of Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto in her article in the New Yorker “In the Shadow of the Holocaust” was viewed as so controversial in Germany that two sponsors withdrew their support of the large ceremony. The literary prize was awarded at a private dinner ceremony as possible venues slipped away. 

Gessen’s article is long and at this time when feelings are so hot over the Hamas - Israel war, it should be at the top of your reading list. https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust 

On December 5, 2023 The House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring “anti-Zionism is antisemitism” in a vote of 311 to 14 with 92 Democrats voting present and 95 supporting it. 

The Land Acknowledgement is the work of Councilmember Sophie Hahn. 

The recitation of the Land Acknowledgement has turned into a ritual that carries little with it. There might eventually be a Turtle Island Monument placed on top of the fountain in Civic Center Park. 

When I suggested at a meeting of the Community for a Cultural Civic Center (the group coordinated by John Caner, on restoring the Maudelle Shirek and Veterans Buildings and revitalizing the Civic Center Park) that the Lisjan should have space in the Maudelle Shirek Building that suggestion fell flat. 

I chose to stay home and sign in on Zoom for the Tuesday City Council double header, expecting a late night. The special meeting on the Objective Design Standards for the North Berkeley BART Housing project started at 3 pm followed by the regular meeting at 6 pm with the Annual Appropriations Ordinance (AAO#1 aka the first midyear budget adjustment). 

Of the twenty speakers on non-agenda items at the regular meeting nineteen addressed the Hamas - Israel war. One asked for a dialogue, five opposed a resolution and thirteen asked for a ceasefire. 

In a change from previous meetings, Arreguin allowed forty-five minutes for public comment by in-person attendees on the consent calendar. All but three speakers wrapped their call for a ceasefire into items on the consent calendar (the City Clerk counted 36 commenters). The forty-five minutes ended with a roll call vote on the consent calendar and adjourned at 7:39 pm. The Annual Appropriations Ordinance had been moved to consent without discussion. The City Manager withdrew the item on Berkeley High School staff parking. 

At the 3 pm meeting on the North Berkeley BART Housing project the neighbors requested that Council approve the original objective design standards. They used the word betrayal over and over in describing what happened after all the community meetings including the September 11 open house and what was now before Council for the final vote. There were other speakers who asked council to approve the standards as proposed by staff and the Planning Commission. 

When it comes to the large housing projects the divide is stark between the YIMBYs and like groups that push for maximum density everywhere and neighbors next door to the large projects who want projects which blend into the neighborhood, not towers. 

On September 11, 2023, I attended the presentation and open house with City staff and the project developers North Berkeley Housing Partners on the proposed design for the North Berkeley BART Housing project. There were some people who were unhappy, but I thought the plan looked terrific especially after seeing so many projects at the Design Review Committee which are designed for students with bedrooms without windows. 

The pictures showed an open parklike space in the center, setbacks from the sidewalk for plants and trees, major breaks in the long facades giving the units light and air plus a more pleasing blending into the setting of surrounding single family predominately one-story homes. 

By October 18, when the objective design standards came to the Planning Commission, North Berkeley Housing Partners had a turn-around, with the support of the commission for big boxy buildings with smaller setbacks from the sidewalk and maximizing density. 

Commissioner Alfred Twu suggested the visual breaks through ornamentation. That was set at 5% of the wall on 200 linear feet. The major breaks that guaranteed lots of natural light into living spaces were gone. 

Whatever is built at the North Berkeley BART site will be here for decades. Unlike so many projects, the housing at the BART stations is on public land. The developer is not buying the land. 

Harrison and Hahn made a substitute motion to bring back these separations at least in the market- rate buildings. Wengraf joined. Wengraf’s concern was the setback, the distance from the sidewalk to the ground floor units. They lost. The vote to accept the Planning Department / Planning Commission recommendation with the big boxy buildings with reduced setbacks for maximum density won in an eight to one vote. Harrison abstained. 

Berkeley is on a building binge. I often wonder who is going to occupy all these buildings. California’s population is in decline and given the current stand on immigration it is likely to stay that way. 

Berkeley’s population is bolstered by the ever-increasing UC Berkeley student body. And the elected are pinning their hopes on expansion in West Berkeley into research and development. Those jobs are seen as the kind of work that can’t be done remotely. 

Monday morning was double booked with the Budget and Finance Committee finalizing the Annual Appropriations Ordinance (AAO#1 aka mid-year budget adjustment) and the Health, Life, Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee meeting on two different proposals for the Chess Club. 

Arreguin’s proposal for the AAO#1 looked reasonable, the best outcome given the limitations. There were a few things added, Harrison’s request for $6,000 for mentoring Berkeley youth and violence prevention, Harrison’s request for $450,000 of the TNC tax for traffic calming, $50,000 for a prevailing wage study for the Southside and an increase from $2 million to $3 million for COVID hero pay for City staff working through the pandemic. Harrison and Arreguin approved the amended AAO#1. Kesarwani abstained. 

The Health, Life Enrichment Committee with members Hahn as chair, Humbert and Bartlett blended the two proposals for the Chess Club. Humbert stated he was opposed to any fee reduction and opposed directing the City Manager to do anything. Hahn had to explain to Humbert the difference and use of “refer” and “direct” in the committee recommendation and why a permanent installation was less work and less expensive for the City. 

The recommendation which in the end was approved by all three committee members included a referral for citywide chess and game facilities program, to explore the development of a parklet at or near the Telegraph and Haste intersection and to direct the City Manager to pause additional fees and to achieve an agreement on maintenance and improvements at 2454 Telegraph in exchange for a reduction/waiver of accumulated fees. The fees (penalties) are somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000 for the Chess Club using the open plaza in front of the former Cody’s books to gather to play chess. 

The Telegraph Triangle at the intersection of Dwight and Telegraph keeps coming up in conversations as an alternative site. The Chess Club opposes that site referencing the amount of traffic. 

I took a look at the Telegraph/Dwight Triangle. It was larger than I remembered it, but the thought of sitting there for a couple of hours while traffic whizzes by is definitely very unappealing. Thankfully, it was not listed in the recommendation. 

The Zoning Adjustment Board was the last City meeting of the week on my schedule. I didn’t record what time it ended, but I think it might have been around 7:30 pm, certainly well before 8 pm. I was attending the Citizens for East Shore Parks where I am a board member and glanced at the captions often enough to see that three lone projects all passed on consent. 

The 1287 Gilman to establish a wine bar passed with a continuation to date uncertain, 2573 Shattuck will become a veterinary clinic and 2800 MLK Jr Way will be converted into a duplex. 

2800 MLK Jr Way is not new construction as it is an addition to an existing single-family home and is therefore not subject to the Natural Gas Ban. This is so unfortunate. The project essentially guts the existing family home to turn it into a duplex. It is the perfect time to convert it to 100% electric.  

At the last Berkeley Neighborhoods Council (BNC) we heard the presentation on the Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO) from City staff. I am always frustrated after sitting through these presentations. They never seem to go any further than flowery talk. I’ve heard way too many times how the BESO surveys/assessments at time of sale are going to improve and then the next time it is the same story. 

That was followed with an introduction to the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan. When someone asked the presenter from the City how this plan fit with San Pablo as an evacuation route, he responded back that San Pablo wasn’t a fire zone so therefore San Pablo wasn’t an evacuation route. 

City staff would do a lot better if they came to BNC better informed. San Pablo is an evacuation and emergency access route plainly visible on the Berkeley City map, which several members posted in the chat. 

Enough for this sitting. There will be more next time, but it might not appear until after the holidays. 

When Indigenous Land Notes Are Not Enough
A recent email from a doctoral candidate in the UCB College of Environmental Design concluded with the following end-note:

UC Berkeley sits on the territory of Huichin, the ancestral and unceded Lisjan territory of the Chochenyo Ohlone.

For those critics who find these Indigenous declarations little more than "tokenism," there was another closing line:

A land acknowledgment is not enough, you can start by paying your Shuumi Land Tax. 

Musical Pole Call
Meet the bands. Among the performers listed on a weather-beaten poster stapled to a local power pole, the musicians holding forth on the stage at September's Santa Cruz Mountain Festival included the following: Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals; Railroad Earth; Samantha Fish; The Nth Power; Earth, Wind & Power; Kbong & Johnny Cosmic; Jive Machine; The Coffis Brothers, Wreckless Strangers; and the China Cats. 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town.
MR HFJ
AUTEMPO
HOPEWON
RTRECK
LILARRY: (Little Larry?)
PCNLUV: (Peace and Love)
iSA [heart] BIL: (Isa Loves Bill?)
BAGLMN: (A man who loves bagels)
MOCHA MD: (Chocolate's a good medicine)
WACANDA ("WAKANDA" was already taken)
BLU OX: (Wondering if the driver drinks Red Bull)
SABHI: (The Hindi word for "all," it appears in lots of Indian movies)
GORILL: (Spotted by phiil allen, who writes: "I saw this plate this morning, on a big gray scarab. I took it to represent a woman you don't want to mess with.") 

Bumper Snickers: Wisdom Above the Tailpipe
Don't Do It!
I Brake for Worms
Go Truck Yourself
I Brake for Wildflowers
Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus
Get Lost in Nature and Find Yourself
Below the Knee Is Fine with Me: Small Dog Lover
If the Earth Were Flat, Cats Would Have Pushed Everything Off By Now 

Saturday Night Livid: A Gag to Gag Over
The December 16th Chistmassy edition of Saturday Night Live featured a traditional Weekend Update stunt called "Joke Swap" where co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che devote the closing minutes of their satirical newscast by exchanging outrageous examples of fake news that neither has read or previewed prior to airtime. 

In one exchange, Che slammed the work of Jost's moviestar wife, Scarlett Johansson when Jost was forced to read the following: 

“New York state now allows movie theaters to serve alcohol, which is how I’m finally able to enjoy my wife’s little art movies.” (Johansson is perhaps best known for her starring role as a superhero named "Black Widow.") 

Jost winced and buried his head in his hands. He then resumed to reading the rest of Che's script, concluding with the statement: “I’m kidding, honey. I love all of your movies. And If you ask me, you’re an even better Black Widow than Coretta Scott King.” 

Urk! Turning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the suffering of his wife Coretta into a tasteless gag just might be a firing offense. 

Two Approaches to a Rubbish Warning
Everyone who rents a space at the building where I have an office, recently received a message from our new office manager that reflected a certain tough-male enforcement attitude. It read as follows: 

"It has been brought to my attention that some of you are ‘”MISUSING ” the trash and recycling area!
"I would like to remind you guys that there is No Dumping on the property at all.
"This is violating your lease agreement and can result in a (WARNING)
"If this belongs to you, please remove it from the property ASAP!!! ….
"A Warning Will Be Issued On Your Account NO EXCEPTEIONS!!!
"Please have the items removed before 12/13/23 10am sharp or a dumping warning will be issued and your account will be charged a minimum of $500.00 to get your items junk hauled away." 

Compare this message with a similar plea from the property's former female office manager who responded to the dumping problem by posting a sign that warned the dumpsite was under video surveillance and added the caveat: "Don't make me call your Momma!" 

Big Pharma Strikes Again 

A single-dose of a promising new cancer drug from China is expected to cost 31 times more to buy in New York than to purchase in Beijing. 

The drug is called Loqtorzi (Toripalimab) and its projected single-dose wholesale purchase price in the US is $8,892. Compare that to a tab of just $280 in the Peoples' Republic. In China (unlike the capitalist US, where powerful pharmaceutical companies rule) drug prices are decided by "communist overlords."i 

Making Good Trouble
Former US Labor Secretary—and recently retired UCB Economics Professor—Robert Reich now has more time to devote to championing liberal causes through his activist organization, Inequality Media. One of his tutorial missions is explaining one startling fact: "The top 1% of America holds 40% of the wealth." 

In a recent dispatch, Reich wrote:
"One of the biggest cases currently before the Supreme Court is called Moore v. US, and it could hand a massive $350 billion tax windfall to corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Goldman Sachs. And we’ve now learned that Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts personally own stock in 17 of the corporations that stand to benefit if the Court rules in their favor." 

And there's more: Justice Clarence Thomas has received tens of millions of dollars’ worth of gifts and luxury vacations from billionaires who have major stakes in the case, and Justice Neil Gorsuch has close ties to billionaire Philip Anschutz, who could also collect a major windfall." 

For the latest updates and outrages, bookmark Inequality Media. 

Bernie's Vote Saves Lives and $10 Billion
Our Revolution writes: "Thanks to your surge of support, Bernie Sanders was successful at blocking $10 billion of unconditional aid to Israel’s extreme right-wing government!" The aid vote failed 49-51. 

"Sanders was the only non-Republican in the Senate to vote against unconditional aid and will be the target of enormous pressure to change his mind…. Thank Bernie for refusing to give billions in unconditional support to Netanyahu while he continues to kill innocent civilians in Gaza!" 

Does Your Bank Invest in War?
This is a question that bothers many peaceniks with paychecks. One way to answer this question is to click into the American Friends Service Committee's Investigate database. This is a go-to site featuring more than 250 in-depth profiles of "companies complicit in war crimes, human rights violations, and other forms of state violence." The website also enables users to scan "mutual funds or any list of holdings for these companies and identify divestment targets." 

A case in point: Click on this link to see what weapons giant Boeing is doing with its money:
The Boeing Company, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, designs, manufactures, and sells military weapons, including attack helicopters, combat aircraft, missiles, bombs, battlefield laser systems, and intelligence and surveillance systems…. As of 2022, it is the world's third-largest military company, with $35 billion in annual revenue, 56% of which derives from its defense sector. 

People who don't have a mental illness diagnosis are nonetheless susceptible to delusions. In the case of a neuro-non-divergent person such erroneous beliefs might be termed misconceptions, errors, mistakes, or illusions. And people don't judge it as sickness, and the individual isn't seen as weird. Everyone gets some things wrong, and this is often due to a bad assumption. 

Often, people will view everything in the form of a projection. People with or without a divergence think they see their surroundings and see the truth, but really, they see a product of their minds. Human beings live in another kind of "virtual reality." And this applies to everyone and not just neurodivergent people having "symptoms." 

When my perceptions are clogged with too much delusional material, I can't see the truth about most things. When I've been acutely psychotic, I've been able to fall back on senses other than intellect, senses other than belief. The material that my psychotic mind generates must be offset a bit by very simple and basic observations. This is like having a failsafe mechanism. 

When I am more recovered, the delusions are subtler. But they never go away completely. I always have some level of paranoia to contend with. And because of how society has deteriorated so much, my paranoia has turned out to be a valuable survival tool so long as it doesn't go too far. 

When we feel hopeless, we might perceive the world as heartless and uncaring. While sometimes this is so, it is not always so. When feeling hopeless, we view everything through a damning filter. We see all things as dismal. That's how human consciousness works, and this is so whether you have received a diagnosis of "mentally ill" or not. When hopeless, this emotion could lead to self-destructive or careless actions. 

It matters that we have something to live for. When we come out of hopelessness and feel optimistic, the world doesn't seem hostile anymore. 

The world as we perceive it is interwoven with our assumptions and our filters. If we view something and make assumptions about it, our minds will find ways to prove the assumptions correct. The human mind proves and reinforces its assumptions. And really, this isn't ideal.  

But what if we didn't assume anything? --I don't think that exists. Without some level of assumptions about the world, we would be unable to function. The key is where we must not let too many assumptions ruin our ability to understand what's happening. 

No one is truly objective. Our minds are restricted by what the nervous systems, encased within the human body, will allow. This makes for an inherent distortion. 

The takeaway you can get from this essay is: "We're all in the same boat." People's minds distort. If someone openly disrespects you because supposedly, you're "delusional," it is an unjustified attack that uses your disability against you. Unfortunately, we receive far too much of that. If we can find some methods of pushback, so much the better. One of them could be saying something like, "There you go again, attacking me for a disability..." Whatever you can conjure up. You could just say, "That's rude and I take offense to that." Just remember that your response should be appropriate for the situation. 

You can't force another person to respect you or to take you at your word, but you can decide to respect yourself. We're all in the same boat, everyone has illusions. Some of us more than others. 

In the program notes for San Francisco Opera’s current production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore  

(aka The Elixer of Love), Director Daniel Slater states that “Designer Robert Innes Hopkins and I 

wanted to pull the story out of its nineteenth-century rustic roots and find the perfect period in which to replant it.” What they gchose was the 1950s Italy of Felliniesque “Dolce Vita,” so they set their production of The Elixer of Love at a beachside hotel terrace on the Italian Riviera. In place of the original village of rustic farmers, Slater and Innes Hopkins populated the onstage chorus with a variety of characters — tourists, hotel staff, locals, and Vespa-riding military men. Adina is proprietress of the aptly-named Hotel Adina, and shy, vulnerable Nemorino is a waiter who is hopelessly in love with his glamorous and seemingly unobtainable boss. 

The role of Nemorino is sung by tenor Pene Pati, who infuses his character with bumbling innocence. As Pene Pati puts it, “He’s like.’I may not be the most nice-looking guy, but hey, I’m a good guy.’” This is a Nemorino Pene Pati identifies with, since, as he says, “I’m not particularly chiseled, with the six-pack abs or anything.” In the role of Adina, Vienna-born Slávka Zámećniková was ever the part of a trim, well put together girl who knows she’s beautiful. And in addition to good looks this Adina has a sparkling intelligence that enables her to manipulate to her advantage the romantic advances of a suave, sophisticated Sergeant Belcore, who is sung here by baritone David Bizic. 

Vocally, all the principals, including the quack magic potion peddlar Doctor Dulcamara, sung here by baritone Renato Girolami, were in top form. As Nemorino, Pene Pati’s opening morsel was the brief cavatina “Quanto è bella,” in which he rhapsodizes over the beauty of his beloved Adina. As Fred Cohn points out in program notes, “The upward leaps of the opening phrase could be aural metaphors for Nemorino’s longing.” Midway through this two-and-a-half minute cavatina, Nemorino abruptly slows down the musical pace and eliminates the upward leaps, singing that he is a complete fool who only knows how to sigh. Cohn also notes that when Nemorino repeats the opening phrase, the flute and clarinet double his voice, “adding to the plaintiveness of his outpouring.” 

As Adina, Sláka Zámećniková sang beautifully, in a voice full of strength and rich in color. Whrn Adina first tells Nemorino to forget his unattainable love for her, she does so in a firm but caring way. Later, when she mistakenly thinks Nemorino has indeed gotten over his love for her, she begins to realise that she truly loves this guy and may lose him. So she changes her tune and finally admits she cares for him, that indeed she loves him. Nemorino, believing that the magic elixir given him by Dulcamara has worked, is overjoyed. When Adina informs Sergeant Belcore that she won’t marry him after all but will marry Nemorino, the swaggering Belcore pulls out a photo gallery of girls he’s loved and left, and he vows to pursue hundreds more. Incidentally, although Director Daniel Slater states that he wished to make Belcore a more believable contender for Adina’s hand than is usually the case in other productions, I don’t think he truly succeeded in this effort. Belcore is still a boor from beginning to end, even when as well sung by David Bizic. As for Doctor Dulcamara, sung here by baritone Renato Girolami, he indeed becomes a more sympathetic and sensitive figure than the usual money-grubbing charlatan seen in most productions. Girolami sang the role beautifully and managed a portrayal of Dulcamara as beginning to have genuine sympathy for Nemorino. 

Finally, soprano Arianna Rodriguez was excellent as Gianetta, friend and confidante of Adina. Conductor Ramön Tebar led a brisk reading of the score, and the Chorus performed splendidly under the direction of John Keene. Tim Clayton was Associate Director/Choreographer; and the aforementioned Robert Innes Hopkins was Production Designer. Lighting Designer was Simon Mills. The Elixer of Love continues through December 9.