Berkeley Follow-Up
February 14, 2008
Berkeley council won’t apologize
U.S. lawmakers say they will pull funds
Article Created: 02/14/2008 02:37:21 AM PST
BERKELEY — The council’s decision early Wednesday to retract a statement calling U.S. Marine recruiters “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” has not stopped lawmakers from moving forward with plans to pull millions of tax dollars earmarked for school lunches, ferry services and more.The Berkeley City Council voted 7-2 to clarify one of its Jan. 29 motions with new language that recognizes “the recruiters’ right to locate in our city and the right of others to protest or support their presence.”
The new statement — written by Mayor Tom Bates and council members Max Anderson, Linda Maio and Darryl Moore — said the council opposes “the recruitment of our young people into this war,” yet emphasizes that “we deeply respect and support the men and women in our armed forces.”
Council members Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak cast the opposing votes at 1a.m. Wednesday after a 24-hour protest outside Old City Hall, which drew an estimated 2,000 people from pro- and anti-military groups.
But a separate motion to formally apologize to the Marines — and the 25,000 people who wrote to city leaders expressing their anger and disgust over the council’s anti-military stance — failed.
The lack of an apology further angered Republican lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento, who last week introduced legislation to pull millions of tax dollars headed to Berkeley for such things as school lunches and police communications equipment.
Jim DeMint, R-S.C., introduced the Semper Fi Act on Feb. 6 to rescind more than $2 million earmarked for Berkeley in the 2008 fiscal year Omnibus Appropriations bill. The bill would transfer the money to the Marine Corps.In a statement Wednesday, DeMint said he had no intentions to pull the legislation.
“It’s a national embarrassment that these officials refuse to apologize to our troops and their families and continue to support actions against military recruitment,” DeMint said. “It’s time for Berkeley to realize that actions have consequences.”
Still, the act has stalled in the Senate, DeMint said. On Tuesday night, Republicans asked to pass the act by unanimous consent after no Republican member opposed its passage, but DeMint said Democrats have placed an anonymous hold on the bill, DeMint said. The bill is co-sponsored by 10 senators.
The council’s vote also did little to appease pro-military supporters.
“I’m not shocked, surprised or amazed,” said Melanie Morgan, who heads Move America Forward, the largest pro-military group in the country. “The Berkeley City Council only changed public relations strategy and not public policy. (The council) got caught. They got the light shined on their crazy, kooky policy and now the rest of the country is as embarrassed by them as we are here in the Bay Area.”
The group today is “countering Berkeley’s shameful conduct,” by sending 3 tons of candy, cookies, hot cocoa, coffee and beef jerky to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, she said.
The Marine Corps opened its recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Ave. in downtown Berkeley in late 2006, and a spokeswoman said they have no plans to leave. The council’s actions are purely symbolic; the city cannot force the office to relocate.
Meanwhile, the council’s action continues to reverberate in California and beyond.
Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine, has introduced a companion bill to the Semper Fi Act in the House of Representatives; that bill has 71 co-sponsors.
Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon said Wednesday that he is not dropping plans to push forward with a bill to punish Berkeley’s stance against Marine recruiting by withholding $3.3million in state funds from the city.
“You’ve embarrassed the country, you’ve embarrassed the city of Berkeley,” Houston said.
Programs facing cuts, under the federal proposals, include $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation to provide organic school lunches to Berkeley schools. Another $1 million is earmarked for the University of California, Berkeley, to create a new endowment and catalog congressional papers.
In an effort to forestall the cuts, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau sent a letter Tuesday to 52 lawmakers in Washington stressing that the university has no connection to actions taken by the Berkeley City Council.
Birgeneau called the council proposals “ill-advised, intemperate and hurtful, particularly to the young men and women and their families who are sacrificing so much for our country.”
The council let stand four items it passed at its previous meeting.
, including one encouraging “all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station and applaud residents and organizations such as CodePink” that “impede, passively or actively” the work of military recruiters.”
The council reaffirmed a separate item giving CodePink a free weekly parking space and sound permit to protest at the recruiting station.
“We are really proud of the Berkeley City Council for not buckling under intense pressure from the pro-war ’swift-boaters,’” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink.
The City Council’s vote came after more than 100 people on both sides of the issue spoke to the council.
Even with a national backlash, some city leaders are not wavering on their stance against Marine recruitment.
Bates said the city supports men and women of the armed forces, but wants recruiters to go away.
“The Marines have the right to be in Berkeley,” Bates said. “It was bad judgment for them to come here. We wish they would leave. We support their right to be here, but we wish they would move on.”
He said Berkeley supports the troops by paying full salaries, family benefits and retirement contributions to city employees in the military reserve who are called into service.
Anderson refused to support an apology to the Marines.
“We spoke truth to power and power reacted as they always do,” he said. “It was the right wing bloggers and talk show hosts who fed this frenzy. We never called for their eviction, we asked them to leave voluntarily.”
But Wozniak, who cast a dissenting vote, said city leaders need to apologize to the Marines.
“This issue is not the war,” he said. “It’s what the City Council did. Individuals have the right to choose and we should not impede that. We’ve embarrassed our city.”
“To err is human, but to really screw up, it takes the Berkeley City Council.”
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Speaking as someone who lives in Berkeley (save me), the only good thing about protests like this is that I get to see more conservative individuals around here.
For those Eagles living in Illinoios, please note:
Dick Durbin was instrumental in stalling this Semper Fi legislation that would have punished the City of Berkeley for their shameful treatment of our brave Marines!
This reckless man, who likes to tell Illinoians how much he does for our mililtary, is the same man who called them “Nazis” on the floor of our Senate!
Like his support of the Berkeley City Council’s messge to our Marines, to “get out”, let’s tell old Dick to “Get Out!” in November, by voting for Steve Sauerberg for Senator, Illinois.
A vote for Sauerberg is a vote for our Soldiers!
Please spread this message throughout Illinois.
Thank You
Proud Mother of One Tough Soldier!
Beverly Perlson
Founder, The Band of Mothers
i have contact my local Congressman to ask for their support in getting the funding removed from this and any town that wants to remove our military. In an election year this is a good time to keep pressure up
Ol’ Dick Turban at it again.
CDBULL; my condolences to you.
“We support their right to be here, but we wish they would move on.”
Tell you what, sweetie, wish in one hand, sh*t in the other. See which hand gets full first.
USMC, fortify that station like it’s Khe freakin’ San.
Waching this video bmakes my blood boil.Damn how i wish i could be present at a time when something like this occurs.Shoving or touching my ass.I would have knocked the shit out of anyone,man or woman, that blocked my way.Anyone that claims to support the troops and was anywhere near this occurance and did nothing should hang thier head in shame.