(Photo by Doug Oakley/MediaNews)
I waited 48 hours to write about this, hoping my anger would fade long enough for me to sound off a reasonable, articulate blog. But I'm still seeing red.
In case you haven't heard the latest bit of insanity coming from my neck of the woods, the Berkeley City Council voted this week "to tell the Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station 'is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.'" - Link to the story
Oh yes, there's more: "In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m."
The reason this story strikes a chord with me is because I was in the Marine OCS program that was run out of the Berkeley office. I began my officer selection application during my junior year at San Francisco State University, and trained with candidates on the beaches in Alameda. The officer in charge of selecting students for the program was Captain Montalvo, who agreed to let me do a multimedia story on the challenges facing military students in a liberal city. Those are MY people.
Needless to say, the story hit home. I completely support the right to protest, but I have a VERY fundamental problem with misdirected aggression. Banning the recruiting station which supports the entire Bay Area's crop of officer candidates only HURTS the people who are served by the station. Officers are not in short supply, so there was no "taking advantage" of "underprivileged youth" happening there. Each candidate was a college student, fully and willingly aware of what they were getting themselves into. The beauty of the program is that even after completing the training necessary to commission as a Marine officer, you can choose at ANY time to withdraw.
No lies, no signing on a dotted line - just pure freedom and choice at its finest.
There are far larger issues to worry about than that office. The Berkeley City Council should be angry that there are FAR more recruits (and correspondingly, more fallen soldiers) coming out of rural Central California towns than there are in the Bay Area. They need to focus their attention on cities that NEED the help of regulating recruiter abuse and misinformation.
It is a slap in the face to the people who protect the country for this to be allowed to happen, and I can only hope that the thousands of letters, phone calls, and emails from angry citizens will prompt the Berkeley council to change its mind. Then again, this -is- Berkeley that we're talking about.
6 comments:
Go Flo!
Here's the letter I sent to my councilman, Darryl Moore, on Thursday:
Dear Sir--
If I'm reading today's Oakland Tribune correctly, you voted in support of the City Council's move to restrict military recruiting in general and against the U.S. Marines specifically, with the added bonus of enabling Code Pink extra access for protests by giving them a sound permit and a parking pass.
What were you thinking, sir?
I have strongly opposed the Iraq war from its inception. I think President Bush's decision to attack Iraq was foolish, illegal and borderline genocidal.
But the City Council's move will have *ZERO* effect on that war. You and your colleagues have achieved nothing in opposition to that war. Code Pink can't stop Marine recruiting, and neither can you.
More importantly - and I can't believe this needs to be said - the Marines are *not* the enemy. No matter what you think of U.S. foreign and military policy, the Marines don't make the choice to go somewhere and fight. They are sent there by this country's civilian leadership. If a man uses a club to start attacking people without provocation or reason, you blame the man, not the club. The men and women who volunteer to defend this country deserve our respect and support, and you have offered them the back of your hand.
As far as the decision to grant Code Pink special protest access, how can that possibly be constitutional? Is the City Council now in charge of deciding which protest groups are favored and deserve special status? What about the UC tree-sitters? Will the council begin sending them care packages of food and toiletries? What if you decide that the "Brad Pitt Lady" of Telegraph Avenue has something important to say? Will the council enact special funding to buy her new hard hats and stickers? Not likely. The decision by the council to grant special favor to Code Pink is an egregious abuse of your power in service of your personal agenda.
So if attempting to kick the Marines out is wrong, and favoring Code Pink is wrong, what have you achieved, then? You have provided grist for the right-wing mill, to once again hold Berkeley up to ridicule as anti-military, anti-American, anti-whatever.
More importantly, this city has real issues that need real solutions. Continuing to advance a green agenda, minding the planned expansion of the UC campus, managing development, finding a way to get some of our city's homeless back on their feet and off our streets - these are the things you were elected to do. This mindless escapade takes up time and energy that could have been devoted to those issues. In my mind, that's a dereliction of *your* duty. As a result, I won't be supporting you when you are next up for re-election. I hope taking a meaningless stand, offending thousands of current and former U.S. Marines, and subjecting the people of this city to nationwide humiliation was worth it.
Sincerely,
Daniel Jimenez
Daniel you're my HERO!!! I agree with you 100% and you said all the things I was too blindly angry to point out. You totally just made my day.
Also, I'll be at YOUR newsroom on Monday so hopefully you'll be around. We're doing training for the new front end system and it'll probably be a mess :)
Excellent letter, Daniel. =)
Flo,
This angers me also. DH completed "juniors" of Marine OCS and decided not to come back for "Seniors". He obviously decided to go down a different path with the CG but I'm sure that this article would make him spitting mad.
What a great letter.
Abbie
I'm outraged. I'm speechless.
I'll write more later.
My first response was, do they want federal money?? You can't tell the government to get lost and expect no repercussions.
Today's California Aggie (the UCD newspaper) had my answer! They ran an article from yesterday's Daily Californian (UCB).. Marines Vote Leads to Threat on City Funds
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