current event
by A few weeks ago, the city of Berkeley announced that a Marine recruiting station was no longer welcome because of the military's stance on homosexuality. That matter roused debate regarding the city's future entitlement to federal funds and position to make policy regarding federal institutions. The media attention has drawn proponents from multiple pro-military and anti-war camps to descend into the issue's current limelight. Berkeley held a three hour council meeting allowing citizens to speak and debate the matter before rescinding the earlier edict against the recruiting station. With both groups avidly supporting their stances, minor scuffles took place and an American flag was burned. Some of the Code Pink protesters told CNN, "We're not against the Marines per se. We're against this war. We're against the mechanisms that support this war and send our young people over there."
Add a Comment (54)
Email This
Message Author
Statistics
Iraq war
So what do you guys feel about this?
Berkeley Marines Protest
Zombietime has up pics from the big one. Please, could one of you Berkelyites explain to me how a big chunk of these people depicted are a: not virulently anti-American and b: smarter and better educated about the issues than your average American? Also, do you really find the behavior of the local school kids encouraged by the attending adults to be at all appropriate?
Apropos Quote, Somehow...
Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside. Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten. For the love of God, can't we love one another just a little - that's how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.
Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in winter
RSS
Untrue by Anonymous :: NR0 :: Show
This statement is untrue:
A few weeks ago, the city of Berkeley announced that a Marine recruiting station was no longer welcome because of the military's stance on homosexuality.
The city of Berkeley used that as another reason to get the office removed. The city of Berkeley's stance has always remained consistant. They are in opposition to the war and the system, not the soldiers or anyone in the military fighting for our country...the blog that VnutZ posted before was misleading because he mis-read the article and the city of Berkeley's stance on the military. Everyone keeps saying the "The City of Berkeley is back-peddling when in fact that really are not. They are just making their stance (which was clear to everyone within the city of Berkeley) clear to everyone else that has gotten involved...the city of Berkeley has never said anything against the individual soldiers and men and women who sacrifice their lives in service of this country.
Here is Vznut's statement in the other blog:
California city council voted 8-1 to tell their local Marine recruiting station they are unwelcome because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy
he then linked an article that says the following:
First sentence:
Second sentence:
As you can see the city of Berkeley was smart enough to know how to use a policy of "anti-discrimination" to fulfill a different purpose (removing the Marine office from the city of Berkeley on the grounds that we don't have a moral foreign policy and should change before recruiting more officers)
If you chose to become inflamed about the city of Berkeley, be clear on what you are getting inflamed about. The protests in Berkeley including those of Code Pink (which is a separate entity from the city of Berkeley, although they have strong ties) had nothing directly to do with "don't ask don't tell" or homosexuality in the military.
This is a great example of how media can be misleading and thereby add intensity to a situation that really need not be there. Everyone has complained about how the city of Berkeley has no business participating in Federal Affairs, but Berkeley has done EXACTLY what it planned to do and thats bring light to the severity of the issues with our foreign policies...in the end Berkeley continues to be the city it's always been, and people are talking more about the important issues like the fact that hundreds of people a month are dying on both sides of a war...your advocacy or opposition of the war is really of no consequence, its not the point, the point is that real people are dying, everyday...and the people within the city of Berkeley care...don't try to make it more then that, stop trying to make it that the people of Berkeley are un-American, or impractical, or arrogant...it has nothing to do with that.