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Berkely cancels Verterans Day
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - Berkeley's Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.
Really, politics in Berkeley?
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.
That pretty much sez it all right there
Mitchell's and Sheehan's sons were killed in Iraq the same day.

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."

Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter, which has participated in past Berkeley Veterans Day observances, threatened that his group would pull out. "They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," he said. "This one hour should be reserved for honoring veterans, period."

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."
Some speech being more free than others
Last week it appeared that a compromise had been reached, with McDonald agreeing to drop another proposal to include anti-war songs by the group Annie and the Vets. But on Monday, McDonald, a U.S. Navy veteran, 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."

This would have been Berkeley's fourth annual Veterans Day ceremony, but the event has its origins in a memorial ceremony nine years ago, when McDonald and then-Mayor Shirley Dean sponsored a visit of the traveling Vietnam Wall - aka "The Wall That Heals" - to Berkeley. "There was no dispute over political content back then," said Perry's husband, Tim, another committee member. "But you have to consider the context: There was no war in Iraq going on back then."
Sure, you were still living in your glory days of protesting Lyndon Johnson's war.

Posted by: Steve 2005-10-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=132520