Tilting at broken windmills is a hard-fought Berkeley tradition.

The Editor

The Berkeley Daily Planet

Berkeley, CA

To the Editor:

Two of your recent stories (The Berkeley Daily Planet, July 15-17) deserve short comments. The page one story, "Bates Suggests Ordinance To Curtail Newspaper Theft" elicits my comment: Mr. Mayor: shut up, grow up or resign or seeking counseling. We know that you are a juvenile thief, so why do you have to keep reminding us, what exactly is your problem?

The second article that interested me was the story entitled, "Berkeley Radio Pirates Broadcast Despite FCC Intervention, Threats." Why are these losers still fighting a battle that has already been won? There is free speech galore available on the Internet. Just get a computer, a phone line, a modem and hire an ISP and create your own Internet Radio Station. You can broadcast whatever you want, from obscure music to political rants, twenty-four hours a day and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can't and won't say boo. But I guess that tilting at broken windmills is a hard-fought Berkeley tradition. How much "diversity" do we need anyway? We already have KPFA-FM and KALX-FM, plenty for me, thank you. Maybe these guys could also trying growing up a little, along with the esteemed Mayor.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

17 July 2003