The Opinion Pages

What’s a feminist to think? In my youth, people talked about trying to figure out the “standard liberal position” on a controversial issue. Later on, “liberal” got to be a no-no word as the hip left competed to see who could be more radical than thou. “Politically correct” was used without irony for a season or two among those who had an old left background, only to acquire a sarcastic edge among the rest of the left who distrusted the verities of previous eras. The compromise word de jour seems to be “progressive”—it’s a word even Republicans have been known to use. -more-

Nothing distinguishes America from other nations as markedly as the place held by involuntary immigrants from Africa and their descendants. -more-

The American Dream is fracturing and defragmenting: corporate consolidations, privatization and capricious war making are creating a new rich class and killing citizen soldiers daily. Fifty percent of marriages in America end in divorce. Congress is a ship of fools. Our bridges are falling down. -more-

During frequent visits to the Planning Palace on Milvia I’ve enjoyed glimpsing, just a block away from it, our very historic Old City Hall (also known as the Maudelle Shirek Building). But very recently while casually Internet surfing, I got a rude shock when I opened the “City of Berkeley Designated Landmarks” map that’s proudly on display in the “map room” part of the Planning and Development Department’s website. According to that map and its legend, Old City Hall is a landmark that’s been “demolished”! -more-