I try to steer away from politics but this one simply takes the cake. The city of Berkeley, Ca, has voted to tell the Marine Corps Recruiting Center that they are unwelcome in the city “and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” Read about it here.
But if that’s not crazy enough, they are also giving free parking to the protesters who are picketing in front of the Marine Corps Center. Before you go off the deep end, remember that I was on the municipal side when the Marines didn’t pay their parking tickets. I said their cars should be towed and sold.
However this is a different matter. The city is taking parking spaces away from public use to be used by private politically based organizations that just happen to have the same beliefs as most of the city council.
I noted in the article that one organization commented that Berkeley is the home of the Free speech Movement. Of course it isn’t a "Free Speech Movement." Its a "If you believe the way I do Free Speech Movement."
If you note, most all the people quoted were aging sixty’s protesters who just haven’t been able to grow up. I’m all for protest, and I grew up in the 60s, but I’m for everyone being able to put forth their view, not just the one’s who happen to believe as I do.
Any other alternative is an horrendous step down a road we don’t want to travel.
JVH
Oh, I just loved the councilwoman who said that during the Vietnam war they had found a local psychiatrist who would say that her children were all crazy…so they didn’t have to go. What’s that all about?
One Response
Anytime you see the words “Berkeley” and “Politics” used in the same sentence you should expect “crazy” to be the result. However, the irony is that they may have opened a Pandora’s Box wherein other protest groups now have a precedent for demanding equal treatment. Let’s see if the ACLU steps in to defend the rights of the next group that comes in asking for similar treatment.