gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Army  - Camerone)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2008-02-01 04:56 pm
Entry tags:

Time for a Boycott!

The City of Berkeley has gone too fucking far. A USMC Recruiting office opened on Shattuck Avenue in December 2006. It's mission is to attract recent college graduates to serve as officers.

"Code Pink" one of the shriller anti-everything groups in the area, went nuts.

The Berkeley City Council just passed two resolutions: One gave Code Pink a designated parking spot, right in front of the station. The second?

The other resolution more directly criticizes the presence of the center in Berkeley. The city manager was directed to send a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps saying they are "uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in the city.

In addition, the city attorney has been directed to investigate whether the city's anti-discrimination laws can be enforced at the center, based on the military's consideration of sexual orientation in hiring.

The United States Marine Corps. Morons, if the Marines were coming to your town as "unwelcome intruders" y'all would currently be either dead or learning to love life as an EPW. Marine recruiters are complete professionals, and I say this as an old Army grunt!

But things get better.. Betty Olds, member of the Politburo for the PR of Berkeley actually said the following:

"I'm ashamed of my vote," said Councilwoman Betty Olds, who helped approve the parking spot but not the condemnation. "The protesters should have free speech - this is where Free Speech was born, after all - but to tell the Marines they are not welcome is shameful. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't even go for the parking spot."

Free Speech in this country was born at a place called Lexington and Concord. The rights enshrined in the First Amendment were won by force of arms, including those first Marines.

Amazing.

So, until both these resolutions are withdrawn and the City Council of Berkeley issues an apology to the USMC, I will not be spending a freaking dime in that city. That includes companies based in the den of weasels.

Let Bezekely know how you feel about this:

Contact information for the Berkeley City Council
2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
Tel: (510) 981-6900, TDD: (510) 981-6903
Office Hours: Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., E-mail: clerk@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Mayor - Tom Bates
2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
Email: mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us
TEL: (510) 981-7100
FAX: (510) 981-7199
TDD: (510) 981-6903
Office Hours: Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

You might also contact your national representatives and suggest that if Berkeley hates the federal government so much, they can do without federal money.

To be clear, I support Code Pink's right to be idiots in public. What is appalling is a city government attacking a branch of the military.

[identity profile] caerbannogbunny.livejournal.com 2008-02-02 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Feh! In a generation or two when we have a military class and the liberals loose a lot of the access to it due to cultural differences then realize that the people in the federal government and law enforcement tend to come from the "military class"...

Maybe they will realize the error of their ways.

It's the mindset of people that are willing to assume responsibility and handle power in an orderly fashion that is an enabler for power...

...and that's what most soldiers have and many of them don't.

that could be ugly.....

[identity profile] redc1c4.livejournal.com 2008-02-02 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
good thing i'll be dead before it's an issue.....

unless i should get excited now? %-)

Re: that could be ugly.....

[identity profile] caerbannogbunny.livejournal.com 2008-02-02 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude! It's been happening for a while already...

...I mean, quick poll:

How many of us vets have a father, uncle, grand-dad or more who are also vets?

Re: that could be ugly.....

[identity profile] gridlore.livejournal.com 2008-02-02 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
A great number, but only my paternal grandfather was career, and that was in the British Army.

Re: that could be ugly.....

[identity profile] caerbannogbunny.livejournal.com 2008-02-03 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
Some of the character traits that promote the ability to serve in the military sucsessfully are heritable and probably more common in people descended from soldiers...

Should be interesting.