Berkeley Gives “Veterans Day” The Finger
Very sad, but never surprising.
The City of Berkeley, California is cancelling this year’s Veterans Day celebration over concerns that it may be negatively politicized by the anti-war movement.
Considering the proposed keynote speaker, such concerns are more than justified: it’s predictable.
Knight-Ridder reports: “Berkeley’s Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.
At issue was a proposal by the chairman, singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald, to have Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan’s organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, as the keynote speaker.
. . .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.“
One would hope. But this is the People’s Republic of Berkeley we’re talking about. Protests have no exceptions.
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.”
. . .But on Monday, McDonald circulated an e-mail among the committee reading, “The disagreement over the participation of Gold Star Families, with their anti-war reputation, in our 2005 ceremony has made it impossible to continue. Without consensus we have no program. The event is cancelled.â€Â
As we can see from recent protests, liberal “anti-war” activists have no sense of decency and cannot be trusted to respect Veterans Day. Consequently, the public must be deprived.
Spoilers.
RELATED:
Michelle Malkin weighs in, and has additional links.
CalPatriot asks, “Putting aside your feelings on the war, what do you make of this decision?”
Angry in T.O. dissects the story, and offers this conclusion:
“One wonders if either Casey [Sheehan] or Michael [Mitchell, another soldier who lost his life in battle] would be disappointed to know that politics being practised in their name has resulted in veterans not being honoured.”
God bless. May they rest in peace.
October 18th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
Berkeley Schmerkley
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October 18th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
BERKELEY CANCELS VETERAN’S DAY
Michelle Malkin points out another example of how Berkeley and its neighbor cities really are nuts…. Can’t stifle free speech….
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October 18th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Do you guys think the entire Northern California area needs a massive collective slap upside the head?
October 18th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Country Joe sucked in the sixties. Why should he have changed? He loves the smell of dog shit on freshly starched uniforms in the morning!
October 18th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
And a kick in the ass.
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Impeach Saddam
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November 20th, 2005 at 1:48 pm
[...] “I never wrote anything more than a note to excuse my kids from school before Casey was killed, so to see something I wrote in print with my name on it is amazing,” Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone from her home in Berkeley, Calif. Oh. Please. Seeing her name in headlines seems to be an ongoing motivation. She’s not camera shy, either. Sheehan shares details about Casey, her oldest child grew up to be an Eagle scout who considered becoming a priest. He enlisted, Sheehan said, to give something back to the country. [...]
November 29th, 2005 at 9:14 am
[...] RELATED: Michelle Malkin’s Unhinged Berkeley’s Famous Free Speech Berkeley Gives “Veterans Day†The Finger Safe In The Ivory Tower: UC Berkeley Abuses The Memory of 9/11 More on Berkeley [...]