Posted on 10/18/2005 10:43:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Veterans Day commemorative has been canceled after disagreements over whether an anti-war activist should speak at the event.
Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace along with "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan, was scheduled to speak. But some veterans objected, saying the day was supposed to be a nonpartisan memorial, and the local Disabled American Veterans chapter threatened to pull out.
"They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," said Edwin Harper, adjutant of the chapter.
Event chairman "Country" Joe McDonald, the songwriter known for the anti-war anthem "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" and a U.S. Navy veteran, said not allowing Mitchell to speak was censorship.
Berkly is Ithica West.
The Veterans won't need "Country" Joe, and the others to support or organize. The Veterans don't need a parade on this day. The Veterans don't need an OPTION! to take the bully pulpit, or the soap box, or the stage to do what it is that they do.
The NATION needs it. Veterans Day, as it is now, isn't REALLY about the Veterans, the Veterans are the participants and the focus. Veterans day is for the NATION! so that we can see all of the things that we have, and see WHAT it is that made it possible.
It is the Veterans that made it possible, it isn't for the veterans to show it, they KNOW! It is for the PEOPLE! to see it. That is why there is a Veterans Day. Those men (and women) have seen worse than the fools who want to turn it into a war thing, but it is in fact an America thing, and the Vets are prolly more in touch with America, the American serviceman, the American dream, the American ideal, and the freedoms of America than those who abuse the results of their actions.
The Vets know who they are, and I don't believe for an instant that minute percentage regret what they have done. Veterans day is meant to remind those who think that the ABUSE of Freedoms is a tribute to freedom can think so while seeing, the faces, the deeds, and the sacrifices of those who gave them that freedom.
How the heck did Country Joe McD get to chair a Veteran's Commerative event? Oh, I forgot, this is Berkeley.
--snip:
“The American Gold Star Mothers, Inc., Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., Sons and Daughters In Touch and American WWII Orphans Network object to ‘American Gold Star Families for Peace’ misusing the term ‘Gold Star’ in its political demonstrations
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