Berkeley, California: liberty and justice for some?
I was reading on Humbled Infidel’s blog that the US Marines’ recruiting office is going to get kicked out of town (or has already?) by the Berkeley, Calif. city council.
I don’t get it.
I don’t care if you are anti-war or pro-war, this is a legal organization which has, as far as I know, a very small number of staff, and they don’t even actively go out to hand brochures to university-age kids.
The proponents of getting them out of Berkeley are a group called Code Pink, which has engaged in some questionable activities, including painting graffiti at the office.
The talk at the council meeting included notions that the Marines were ‘bombarding’ Berkeley citizens with ‘propaganda’.
As a non-American looking in, it’s another one of those ‘I don’t understand the US’ things.
I have a cousin who is a cop in Berkeley so maybe I should ask him just what is up there.
Here’s my thought. Since this is a legal organization, it should be allowed to stay. Those people who commit crimes against legal organizations should be punished, not given full reign at council meetings.
I thought the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution protected both sides, not just one, and before you question this non-American, yes, I did study your constitution at law school.
If anti-war families are concerned their sons and daughters are being affected by TV advertising and the presence of this office in Berkeley, then the answer is really simple: talk to your children.
Talk.
You’ll find it’s easier than dressing up in pink and campaigning to run the Marines out of Dodge.
Talk to them about why you wouldn’t want to see them joining up.
Talk to them about why you think this War on Terror is illegitimate.
Talk to them about your feelings of loss if they were to give their lives for something you don’t think warrants it.
What is stronger? The word of a parent or the word of a government? I would have thought the former, but maybe I am wrong when it comes to these folks.
From where I sit, 7,000 miles away from California, this isn’t about the presence of the US Marine Corps. This is about some people being incapable parents, unable to engage in dialogue with their children all their lives. And now they are shocked that they have formed minds and opinions unaffected by parental dialogue that probably never existed.
They say they support the troops while they call them thugs and criminals.
And now they want someone to blame for their own inadequacies: the advertising agencies, the US Government, the lone Marine sitting in the recruiting office providing information to those young people who enquire.
To the anti-war groups: propaganda only works if you allow it to. Why else would you yourselves engage in propaganda of your own? In the hope that yours will work if someone allows your messages to enter.
By doing it at local level you hope to counter major advertising campaigns at a national level. That actually makes a lot of tactical sense.
But if young people are going in to this office, then it’s their decision to sign up. They have minds of their own and at whatever the age of majority is over in California state, it’s up to them. You have any time to say to your own kids or to those close to you, ‘Hey, I don’t agree with Bush and Cheney on this. Here’s why. And now you have to weigh up your options.’
Removing a single office won’t change much because the real bombardment of the propaganda you cite is coming from a national source through national media. And those kids who want to sign up, heck, this is California. They’re just going to hop in to their cars and find another office.
I prefer peace to war. But I prefer freedom to censorship.
Meanwhile, it seems that after hearing submissions, Berkeley does not understand the rule of law or the US’s own Constitution.
The message the city is telling us is this: you can come, but only if you agree with us. We don’t care if your group is legal. We don’t care if you have free speech guaranteed and enshrined by our Constitution.
If you don’t agree with us, then you are out of here. Berkeley is a dictatorship not subject to the laws of these United States of America.
That’s what I am hearing.
I know Berkeley is liberal and I have visited there many times. And I have no problem with liberal viewpoints. As a Confucianist I would probably be classed as liberal in the traditional sense. One political survey puts me as a left-leaning libertarian, to the horror of my good conservative friends.
Yet I seem to have a lot in common with conservatives when it comes to respecting the Constitution and the little matter of some Amendments ratified in 1791. It may pay to read just why these were proposed by James Madison; without the First, Code Pink would not even exist.
But the Bill of Rights should also protect the Marines. This is about liberty and justice for all. Not some. What about the Second Amendment or does that not apply in Berkeley?
Liberal does not mean closing our minds to alternative viewpoints. Actually, it means the opposite: that others are free to state their viewpoints even when we disagree with them. The principle is that through engaging opposing forces we can find better solutions.
However, many liberals have forgotten that and their finest days under FDR.
In this context, Berkeley ain’t liberal. The Council seems to be a Politburo unto itself.
Yesterday, I MCed a very fun show where I had to thank the Red Chinese Embassy. I did it. I even gave it its proper title, ‘the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.’
Anyone who knows me knows I think this is an illegitimate embassy for an illegitimate government, and that I do not believe in UN resolution 2758. I think Henry Kissinger was a dickwad for his part in being anti-freedom when it came to the Chinese people.
But this blog is my space. This is where I can say what I like and if I want to rubbish the commies and Henry Kissinger, I can.
The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China is legally recognized by the country I choose to live in, and I have to respect its status in New Zealand. I might not privately accept it, but I respect it—just as I think anti-war groups have to respect the presence of pro-war groups in their cities and towns.
Privately I can say what I like about the Reds, about their human rights’ record and about the fact that the Chinese people are in a state of war even though no casualties have been taken for a half-century. I have my right to free speech and I am going to use it.
Publicly I was there to do a job and to conduct myself professionally.
If I want the Embassy out of Dodge, I’m going to do it the proper way and campaign, but not lose sight of the freedom of speech each side has. The only way to remove an Embassy is to go to the source and convince the government of its illegitimacy. That is a near impossible task, but I still won’t shut my trap.
I can influence those around me and if I have kids I will explain to them why the flag of the Republic hangs in my office, then they can make up their own minds.
On that note, maybe I just don’t understand what the 21st century American family is like if Code Pink and Berkeley councillors believe it has little strength in the face of the US Marine Corps and an elected President who clearly stated that he would continue the War on Terror.
And maybe I just don’t understand why I should even be familiar with the US Constitution if some Americans themselves don’t seem to care about their founding document.
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Comments
It's been many years since our Constitution has been taught even in American History. What is now being taught in many of our schools and colleges is junk that is not even in our constitution - and if a student confronts a teacher or professor, then their up for bad grades.
Well said Jack. I've posted The United States Constitution at The United States Founding Fathers and Their Original Documents group here on Vox. I don't remember if I posted the Bill of Rights, but I'm sure going to check and if not, I'll post it there.
Again thank you Jack. Outsider eyes looking in can sometimes see things more clearly than we do, and this is one of those times.
For foreigners like me who do not live in the US, the Constitution is important because it is a masterstroke—the document is one of the cleverest (so far) that humanity has come up with in terms of governance.
There’s one other reason Americans should learn the Constitution: to not get shown up by foreigners like me!
I am saddened to learn that the Constitution is not taught there in your history classes. I had a very positive view of US history lessons because I see how kids pledge allegiance there and thought there was a real noble sense. I also thought kids would know things like the Gettysburg Address.
I guess I was swayed by the cinema.
However, when it comes to colleges I am less surprised that many have taken an almost anti-American stance, something that has been going on since the 1960s. Some of the forces that drove the US educational system on to its present tangent included its attempts to get numbers into the universities, regardless of the quality of teaching. That started in the 1950s and was in full force the next decade. There was also the problem of academic journals institutionalizing themselves toward certain viewpoints. Whatever the case, the whole idea about creating a group of intelligent, critical thinkers went by the wayside. Even down here I felt my undergraduate degrees (with the exception of some classes with some excellent professors and lecturers I had) were largely about regurgitation.
I’ll check out your group and learn a bit more.
I actually thought the Marine who responded to Code Pink was far more eloquent in his response than most of the right-wingers I've seen denouncing them. He made his case clearly, concisely and without lowering himself to the "anti-American" rhetoric one so often sees these days.
Jeff, thank you for stopping by. I realize I chose the wrong words when I wrote, ‘the Bill of Rights should protect the Marines.’ I was writing from the Berkeley City Council point of view, in that this is a thought that the councillors there should have had when weighing up the issues. The Bill of Rights applies equally, of course, to all Americans.
It is sad that Code Pink and others go so far in their exaggerations and insults. The overwhelming majority of Marines conduct themselves with a sense of self-respect and I am not surprised to learn that the Marine response in this case was eloquent and clear.
You know when a group gives hundreds of thousands of dollars ($600,000.00) to al qaeda in Iraq - then yes that ranks in anti-americanism.
I will stop here, I don't want to rant on Jacks website - this is not the place.
If that actually happened, I'd hope the local Attorney General gets moving on it.
The entire term "anti-American" rankles me. It seems like just the sort of thing our Founding Fathers were rebelling against. I can't imagine any of them (except maybe Hamilton) espousing some sort of "love it or leave it position." It goes entirely against the Bill of Rights you just posted links to.
The beauty and greatness of the US is not that everyone agrees (or should be forced to) it's that the government has little or no power to STOP us from disagreeing with it.
That is entirely what the Founding Fathers intended.
It's still the 1960's in Berkeley LOL but when was the left ever open minded or considerate enough to allow others to express their different political views? I'm sure that the radical left in New Zealand is just as up tight and try to shut down the opposition.
Yeah, I've been asking that question ever since they did it. I want to know why those who did this act are not in jail! We'll have to agree to disagree because in my eyes they are traitors and anti-americans.
It would not surprise me, Zak. Actually, we do have a very outspoken leftist political group operating here in New Zealand and has a lot of tentacles in our government. It’s called Red China.
I agree with you.
Be blessed.
Remember that some people have so much self-hatred that they transfer it to their country and give aid and comfort to (in this case) America's enemies. The tragic part is that that means they are supporting an authoritarian/ totalitarian régime, which represses its own subjects.
Zak, I guess some of this behaviour is commonplace among those with some sort of lack in their make-up. For example, a man of integrity will not accuse someone of theft as his first reaction because he cannot fathom that as an option he would take. But a thief may accuse someone of theft because that is normal behaviour for him.
Hence, those who have some level of self-hatred may see conspiracy where there is none.
I believe it is important to understand our founding documents. I should note that our own educational system here is pathetic in teaching kids about the Treaty of Waitangi: while not a constitution per se, it does lay the groundwork for sovereignty issues. I never learned it till I was at university, same with your Constitution and Amendments.