OPINION: Letter in Support of Measure H
The following letter was sent to PCA:
As an actively involved member of the community for the past 24 years, I am dismayed at the tactics employed by the opponents of remodeling Piedmont High’s Alan Harvey Theater.
A small band of Measure H opponents has brought public discourse in Piedmont to a new low.
This group’s latest salvo is to misappropriate a quotation by a school board member – who is in fact a strong proponent of the measure – and, taking her words out of context, they have used the attributed quotation on their “No on Measure H” printed materials and website. This tactic has the effect of suggesting that the school board member in question opposes Measure H, when in fact the opposite is true. These Measure H opponents have also ignored the school board member’s request that her quotation and name not be used in their material. Further, the graphic this group is using on their printed materials, website and in an email campaign is crude and offensive. These folks seem desperate.
Piedmonters, please do not allow yourselves to be manipulated. Vote FOR Measure H. Piedmont’s arts are the centerpiece of a public education of which we can all be proud. That education ensures your property values remain strong. The aging theater needs to be renovated – both because it is in tatters (the stuffing and springs are popping out of the front row seats!), and because disabled folks cannot reach the seats or use the bathrooms. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourselves.
But whatever you do, vote YES on Measure H.
Sincerely,
Anne-Marie Lamarche, Piedmont Resident
1- Are we misappropriating a statement of Vice President Swenson? Please judge for yourself by taking a look at our web site page: http://www.nooonh.org/no-on-h. The postcard being distributed by our volunteers reflects the content of that page. We never claimed she was opposing the Measure.
2- The Board supports unanimously the Measure. However the Dec 2013 vote for putting more money behind the project on the assumption that the bond would pass was in practice 3 to 0 with 2 abstentions. President Richard Raushenbush abstained and Board Member Roy Tolles made clear that he was opposed, but voted yes out of solidarity.
3- Our students deserve better that Measure H and the process followed by the Board. The Board should have pushed the pause button once it became clear that the initial concept for the theater renovation as proposed by Mr. Becker turned out to be twice as expensive as expected (construction cost rising from $5 million to $10 million). My personal position is that we should spend the minimum needed to improve accessibility and fix what is broken in the theater (The Superintendent has set aside $500,000 in the modernization fund to fix the roof, and replace the HVAC systems, lighting, and seating ). Measure H is a waste of money!
Bernard Pech
http://www.NOOonH.org
4- Please judge for yourself if our campaign cartoon is crude and offensive: http://www.nooonh.org/home
Bernard Pech
http://www.NOOonH.org
A gentle suggestion: Clearly, you and your anti-Measure H co-chairs, Hari Titan and Alicia Gruber Kalamas did not intend for the graphic to be interpreted in an inappropriate manner, but when dozens of folks (especially PHS students) find it crude and offensive, you may want to consider changing it.
“I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see—and I don’t.”
― Georgia O’Keeffe