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| Fifth Column | ||||
| Berkely cancels Verterans Day | ||||
| 2005-10-18 | ||||
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - Berkeley's Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.
Some committee members worried that Mitchell would inject an unwelcome note of partisanship into the event, which has been scrupulously non-political in years past. "If you want to have an anti-war rally, count me in," said Linda Perry, an aide to City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. "But not on Veteran's Day. It's neither the time nor the place." Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter, which has participated in past Berkeley Veterans Day observances, threatened that his group would pull out. "They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," he said. "This one hour should be reserved for honoring veterans, period." McDonald, backed by other members of the committee, disagreed, saying that not permitting Mitchell to express his point of view would be tantamount to censoring free speech. "Their position was that no matter what he said, because he was a member of Gold Star Families, he wouldn't be allowed to speak," McDonald said. "I've been doing this for 10 years, and this is the first time content and affiliation ever came up for discussion. I was shocked to find this kind of narrow-mindedness in my own hometown, in Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement."
This would have been Berkeley's fourth annual Veterans Day ceremony, but the event has its origins in a memorial ceremony nine years ago, when McDonald and then-Mayor Shirley Dean sponsored a visit of the traveling Vietnam Wall - aka "The Wall That Heals" - to Berkeley. "There was no dispute over political content back then," said Perry's husband, Tim, another committee member. "But you have to consider the context: There was no war in Iraq going on back then."
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #11 and its one two three four what are we fighting for... I guess he will never know... (old dogs and all that) |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-10-18 21:35 |
| #10 My son is in the NROTC unit out of Berkeley. They get a real kick out of group runs, calling cadance, and inciting the LLL. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2005-10-18 21:31 |
| #9 In all honesty there are two very different sorts of people in Berkeley. The first and largest group are middle-of-the-road Democrats. These are not all that different from the ones you would find in, say, Iowa City. Yeah, they believe in higher taxes, unions, and whatever; but they aren’t actually traitors to America. Many of them have served in the military, for example, and fly American flags in their yards. These people are identical to that relative who annoys you over turkey every Thanksgiving with his idiotic, half-informed banter. Wrong, but not actively evil. Then you have the OTHER group: radical Democrats, Greens, actual Marxists of various stripes, weak-ass pretend anarchists, ACLU lawyer types, and college professors. These are genuine, real life enemies of your nation. Although they are only 10-20 percent of the population they are very loud, very determined, and often quite naked. It’s an ugly, harsh thing; but they dominate the city’s government and culture. It’s institutionalized. Most of the other inhabitants are like Syrians: they simply shrug and deal with it because they aren’t going to be able to change anything. In reality most people in Berkeley aren’t all that political.... just like most Americans. It’s a nice place to live. The public schools are pretty good, you can have a lawn party late into the Autumn, people are friendly, the city’s economy is pretty healthy, and there are lots of good-looking young people walking down the streets on a Saturday night. The crime rate it low and the restaurants are excellent. Except for the fact that Berkeley is run by wackos it’s a nice place to live. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-10-18 19:22 |
| #8 Looks to me that in Berkley 'Veterans day' is "shit on a veteran day".... That is what Shithan and her supporters have been doing all this time.... Damn Vampires... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-10-18 18:40 |
| #7 Maybe they could break the political logjam by just honoring North Vietnamese veterans and John Kerry -- oops, redundancy alert. |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-10-18 17:15 |
| #6 The veterans there should hold there own parade, spontaneously, without anyone invited to speak at all. They should prearrange a start point and an end point, with veterans joining the parade en route, and if someone should attempt to get up on a podium to speak, they should as a group turn around and disperse. Any freak attempting to join the crowd will just be shouldered out. If left to their own devices, once they arrive at their destination, one pre-designated person should loudly say, "let us pray". And then have a minute of silence before dispersing, each in their own direction. With a few acting as road guards, the very orderliness and quietude of the event should be shocking to a corrupt city, used to shameful displays and screaming loudmouths. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-10-18 16:50 |
| #5 Too bad there's no way for the military to defend the whole country except for Berzerkley. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-10-18 16:46 |
| #4 It's like some has-been retirement community. |
| Posted by: macofromoc 2005-10-18 16:28 |
| #3 C'mon folks. Berkeley's been celebrating Veterans day for four whole years! There was bound to be burnout from such a maximum effort. And speaking of burnout, it's good to see that Country Joe is still around wasting perfectly good oxygen... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-18 16:09 |
| #2 Time to blow up Berkley. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-10-18 15:50 |
| #1 Plz, Plz, Plz, Al Q..consider Berkeley next time. |
| Posted by: Whomogum Shenter2703 2005-10-18 15:43 |