Active SRIs

In an otherwise excellent piece on socially responsible investing ["The Peace Portfolio," 4/9/03], Michael Stoll did not do full justice to those who invest in socially responsible investments. While it is true that these investments are primarily passive in that they screen out companies which fail certain social screens such as weapons contractors, they also have an active dimension which Stoll neglected to discuss.

Many SRIs are proactive as well. They file and support shareholder resolutions on a broad variety of social issues including the military. Over the years, SRIs have played a key role in limiting foreign military sales, nuclear weapons production, curtailing contracts for Star Wars, and preventing military technology transfers.

Our clients have also worked with SRIs to limit rain forest wood sales, increase wind and solar power, and promote the hiring of more women and minorities. We are currently working with a local SRI to phase out the sale of tobacco by drug store chains.

Ron Freund
Duncan Meany
Social Equity Group
Berkeley

Another late-night restaurant

Thank you for your excellent compilation of Superlists (4/23/03), but you have left us out of your list of restaurants doing late-night business.

Fallon's Café at Fifth and Harrison is open 24 hours on both Friday and Saturday nights. We serve an eclectic menu with something for every taste and pocketbook, and are within walking distance of most of the SoMa dance clubs.

Marcus Newbury, Owner
Fallon's Café
San Francisco

Newman's shtick

In her report on Vetiver at Bottom of the Hill [Local Live, 4/23/03], Deborah Giattina refers to musical ironies and mockumentaries like "This Is Spinal Tap" and "A Mighty Wind," but misses an opportunity to connect some ironic dots when she describes the band's cover of "[Randy] Newman's shtickless song about a red moon rising on the Coyote River." The song is "Burn On" and isn't about bucolic imagery. The red moon is rising on Cleveland's Cuyahoga (not Coyote) River which became so polluted that in 1969 it actually caught fire. The insanity of a burning river was a rallying cry for the passage of the Clean Water Act. Well-crafted irony has always been Newman's shtick in trade.

Mark Cass
San Bruno

GOP up the butt

Why is it that Mr. Santorum objects to gay consensual sex in the privacy of their own homes, likening it to criminal behavior, but he doesn't seem to mind the Republicans sticking their values up our ass any time they want?

Meg Brizzolara
San Rafael

Unjust dismissal

Thank you for your recent article on the Chron's mistreatment of tech columnist Henry Norr following his arrest during the antiwar protests [" 'Chron' Fires Norr," 4/30/03]. His firing seems not only unjust, but ridiculous as well for a number of reasons. For starters, a journalist's job is to report the news in a fair, balanced, and accurate manner, a task that can be accomplished regardless of most personal biases. Heck, the Hearst Corp.'s founder was notorious for news coverage shaped by personal biases.

And how are a person's antiwar sentiments going to affect their coverage of technology of all things? If a company in any other industry fired an employee in a similar fashion, it would undoubtedly garner scrutiny from media outlets – including the Chron – for apparently violating the employee's rights. I hope the local and national media – and the public – won't let the Chron off the hook on this one until Norr has an opportunity to have this seeming injustice against him rectified.

Rob Bhatt
San Francisco

Is it art?

I have to say, the review of "House Salad: Optimism Between the Cracks" is truly one of the most inane things I have ever read [Art Critic's Choice, 4/23/03]. Describing L.G. Williams's latest work as intriguing based on "the relative utility of duct tape-covered things" is not only an attack on the intellect, it legitimizes what is obviously a public relations stunt worthy of a high school dropout.

This work is not only bad – it is arguable that we should not label it "work" at all.

James Kidd
San Francisco

For the record