Archived News Item

As Patriotic as You

Berkeley High is a darling of the public, whether to love it or hate it, revile or praise, mock or laud — it’s a place of unrest and contention, and that always makes for good viewing.

Our latest effort to entertain interested parties has put our usual work to shame.

Some background: Back in “the day,” the daily bulletin — a packet of announcements and edicts that goes out to every first period class and is meant to be read — featured a brief quote from a person of some notoriety. It ranged from the humorous to the mildly insightful, and came from sources as diverse as the school itself.

Some of the quotes were a bit silly. But I liked it.

Fast-forward, months ahead, to a newer era. Some things are the same. Some have changed. One thing that has changed is the quote — it’s now reborn as the Patriotic Quote of the Day.

Why? As the Jacket reported several weeks ago, it’s primarily because of a resolution passed by the California Board of Education requiring… ready? ... requiring one patriotic act a day in order for public schools to receive funding.

This is our concession.

The concept may sound absurd, but the execution is more so, basically along the lines of what you might expect at BHS. The quote’s patriotism seems to stem mainly from the fact that it’s called a “Patriotic Quote of the Day.”

For some time, the quote seemed to actually be descending from vague unrest to outright sedition, and remarks from Gandhi and the likekept showing up. Now they have a more broad range, but regardless, if it weren’t for the name, it would not be discernable as any kind of patriotism.

And now we’re reaching more and more eyes and ears, as is our wont; a week ago, Annie Nakao, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a piece on the issue. Apparently, she’s a Berkeley High parent (something I did not know), but in any case, it demonstrates once again our preponderant ability to make noise.

If uninformed political beliefs are damaging to the concept of public opinion, then force-fed political beliefs are lethal. The day our school began institutionalizing mental cereal is the day it betrayed itself

Bill Mertz writes:

East Bay Peace Rally
Bringing the struggle to down town Oakland.

Join Team Barbara Lee for the East Bay’s first major peace rally, this Saturday, April 5th.

We will be marching down Broadway, and tabling at Civic Center.

10:30am—Meet at Mosswood park (West MacArthur & Broadway) to march with Team Barbara Lee t-shirts and buttons.

11:30-1:30—Come to Civic Center in Oakland to help staff our table and make banners.

1:30—The Rally starts.

If you’re interested in helping out please contact Chloe Drew chloe@leeforcongress or Bill Mertz williammertz@hotmail.com (510) 663-1207

My sadistic little mind may have holes the size of baseballs in it, but it at least has a remarkable talent at divining reciprocity.

After the AP Bio fiasco, nothing struck me as more appropriate than to do the assignment… but print my answers in 1 point text on two sides of a single sheet of paper.

Too bad that my printer can’t handle text that small, and turned it all into a single blurry smudge. Not my problem, right?

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the assignment in entirely, thus proving that my career as an ironic instigator will always be overshadowed by my role as a moron. The point was lost, but frankly, I feel very little remorse; after all of that, my desire to take the class had largely evaporated anyway.

— Brandon