The few, the proudget out of town! By Amanda VanDerBroek 02/08/2008 Here#8217;s one to ponder. This country is so great that you can tell military recruiters to get out of your townand not get shot. Y

Published 12:00 am Friday, February 8, 2008

Here’s one to ponder.

This country is so great that you can tell military recruiters to get out of your town…and not get shot.

Yes, believe it or not, the Berkeley, Calif. local government approved a measure last week urging U.S. Marine recruiters to leave their downtown office.

According to an article posted on CNN’s web site, the item the council approved states: “If recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

It goes on to say the council applauds residents and organizations that “volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.”

Of course, this brought out groups like the anti-war group Code Pink, which members wear pink and ironically, they don’t look good in it.

Yep, right here in the United States.

You see, I say right here in U.S., because if these California nuts were in Cuba…or North Korea…or Iran, they surely would have been massacred by the military with orders coming from a dissent government.

But, no, they live here where we are allowed to voice our opinion, no matter what it is. Amazing isn’t it, and those people who have protected that right? The Berkeley City Council? Nope. Code Pink? Nah. That duty goes to the military.

Ah, all the mockery and hypocrisy one nation can hold.

To be fair they’re only talking about military recruiters. But in the name of all that’s reasonable, the last time I checked our military is voluntary…therefore we need recruiters to keep our country safe.

I believe what this all boils down to is these people not wanting a military at all.

I can almost understand and support Code Pink’s position—after all they’re protesters…they’re not policymakers nor do they represent everyone in their city, but one thing that is the “WHAT?” factor here is the fact this council have completely abused their power.

What kind of weak moral fiber is required to make this even an issue?

In my opinion, if you are couth enough to kick the military out of your town, perhaps you need to do the same with your police officers and fire fighters and every other entity that provides security for your citizens.

And while you’re at it why don’t you destroy every other authority figure in Berkeley…like the council, department heads and the mayor position. Heck, why not even give the University of California-Berkeley the old heave-ho.

One order of hot, steaming, complete chaos coming up…just like you wanted.

To make this topic just a little more interesting, the CNN article reports a group of Republican lawmakers in Washington D.C. have introduced a bill (Semper Fi Act of 2008) that would annul more than $2 million of funds for Berkeley and transfer it to the Marine Corps.

I’m not one for Republicans (or any political party), but bravo.

While they’re at it, I encourage them to begin the effort to make Berkeley its own country that has no military and is completely vulnerable to those “intruders.”

Better yet, why don’t we offer these council members as the newest Marines…and then ship them all off to Iraq.

This is embarrassing…the men and women in our military are not and should never be treated as “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” After all, they are our people doing a job no one else has the guts to do.

Amanda VanDerBroek is a Staff Writer for the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. For comments and column suggestions email: amanda.vanderbroek@r-cnews.com or call (252) 332-7209.