I grew up in Berkeley and it often disappoints me to read news of my hometown because the stories are inevitably about symbolic actions that result in spectacle over substance. Most recently, the Berkeley City Council was on the verge of sending a letter to the local Marines recruiting office telling them they are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders”.
For the past several months, Code Pink has been holding protests which have gradually escalated to the point where sympathizers have defaced the recruiting office with “traitor” and “U.S. Marine Corps Officer Assasination [sic] Office”. In addition to voting on the letter, the Council also voted to give Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office and a free sound permit.
As they say, this is what democracy looks like, and Code Pink advises that “Resistance may involve writing a letter in the morning and making a phone call or two, then hitting the streets in the afternoon with a clenched fist and fits of rage. It’s all good.” Of course, it’s even more appealing when the mau-mauing can be scheduled to take place equidistant from the Berkeley Bowl, a fantastic supermarket, and the Cheese Board Collective, located in the heart of Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto. It makes for an efficient use of time on a busy day.
The result of the Council votes was a well-choreographed and predictable dance, another chance for the right wing and left wing to have a smackdown both online and in downtown Berkeley. All the usual suspects are involved, most having been in the same argument since at least the Summer of Love. There are ample media opportunities for everyone from Medea Benjamin to David Horowitz, and the current crop of Cal students get some nice souvenir photos to send home.
Then they came for Alice Waters, and I did not speak up because I had never eaten at Chez Panisse.
The true horror of war came to Berkeley when Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced the Semper Fi Act of 2008 which hits at the heart of Berkeley liberals by going after the prize program of its most influential chef. The legislation would pull $243,000 in federal funding for school lunches and give it (the funding, not the lunches) to the Marines. For most American schoolchildren, there would be much rejoicing as the creamed spinach went by the wayside. But in Berkeley, the federal funds go to the Chez Panisse Foundation, established by legendary chef Alice Waters. Waters also co-created The Edible Schoolyard, a truly visionary school lunch program and food curriculum at my old junior high school that puts most schools to shame.
What we are calling for is a revolution in public education — a real Delicious Revolution. When the hearts and minds of our children are captured by a school lunch curriculum, enriched with experience in the garden, sustainability will become the lens through which they see the world.
Of course, one hopes there is room in the revolution for It’s-Its, which I first ate in ridiculous quantities at the same junior high school.
The tip of the spear met the tip of the asparagus spear and the legislation was too much for Berkeley to bear: Council Members are reconsidering the letter and the Mayor (a retired Army Captain) has apologized. In the end, the posturing backfired and the resulting arguments have more to do with long-standing ideological feuding than positions on the war itself. After all, the most recent polls show that the majority of Americans (67 percent) oppose the war and stand united in feeling that Congress and the President are not doing a good job.
Caught in the crossfire were the Marine Captain who heads the recruiting office and wrote an excellent letter to Code Pink in a local paper, and Berkeley children such as Christopher who has enjoyed the Edible Garden: “Yesterday we went to the garden and harvested chard, amaranth, and joi choy. Then we went into the kitchen and cooked noodles with them. It was delicious!” These two voices of reason rose above the din of protesters and counter-protesters camped downtown, each side only interested in plotting the next opportunity to insult the other.
One Response to “Hearts and Minds”
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Hi Mitja! Really enjoying the new blog so far — your BlackBerry to-do list made me howl. I, too, am cringing at our hometown right now. Not even so much at the protesters as at the City Council… how completely witless. Hearts and minds indeed.