Berkeley and the Marines - semper screwy

Anti-war protesters chained themselves together in an attempt to block the entrance to a Marine Corps recruitment office in Berkeley, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 1, 2008. Several scuffles ensued when people attempted to enter the office. Ran on: 02-10-2008 Many readers were outraged over Berkeley protesters' tactics at a Marine recruitment center. less Anti-war protesters chained themselves together in an attempt to block the entrance to a Marine Corps recruitment office in Berkeley, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 1, 2008. Several scuffles ensued when people ... more Photo: PAUL CHINN Photo: PAUL CHINN Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Berkeley and the Marines - semper screwy 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Despite all the excitement focused on Super Tuesday, one of the most read and most commented stories throughout the week was not Hillary vs. Obama, or McCain vs. Romney and Huckabee. It was, instead, Berkeley vs. the Marines. More precisely, Berkeley's City Council and the anti-war group Code Pink, seeming to gang up on a Marine recruitment office on Berkeley's Shattuck Square. The Marines were "unwelcome intruders," the City Council declared in a letter. Code Pink members - given a special parking spot outside by the council - chained themselves to the recruitment center's doors, blocking the entrance.

The reaction has been incendiary, and not just from what Chronicle stories and columns have variously labeled "the right wing blogosphere" and "right wing zanies" - so much so that two council members want to rescind the declaration and another council meeting on the subject is scheduled for Tuesday.

Among the more than 1,300 comments posted (so far) on SFGate, few have been in defense of the City Council or Code Pink. The vast majority, from far and wide - as well as from liberal Berkeley itself and people who otherwise consider themselves anti-war - have been along a continuum of outrage. Below is a sample, edited for space, of those comments.

- Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle interactive editor

65 years ago I was a paper boy for the Chronicle. In 1950 I was with PHIBPAC [Amphibious Fleet, Pacific] and helped carry in I Co., 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines for the assault at Inchon (Korea). Seventy-eight days later, only 20 of those 200 Marines were still standing. I am a 1964 MSEE grad from UC. My wife also graduated from UC with a music major. I never thought Berkeley would insult us, our sons, brothers and fellow Americans who put our lives on the line for the freedoms the city council so blatantly misuses.

- Birchard (Bert) Kortegaard, 78, Berkeley

I forwarded this article to my son, a lieutenant in the USMC, but I am still going to discourage him from working at the recruiting office on Shattuck this summer. The notion that some Berkeley resident would call my son a "murderer" or "baby killer" would really tick me off! Then I would have to come down to Shattuck Avenue ....

- Vickie Darnell, 54, Corning, Tehama County

("mother of Midshipman Lt. Jess Darnell USMMA/USMC")

As a graduate of UC Berkeley and a Marine veteran I am appalled. The Marine Corps is not responsible for the decision to go to war. If the council seeks to place blame for the war they should look to the president who made the decision to go to war, to the Congress who appropriated the funds to carry out the war, and to the American people who freely and legally elected them. To compound the council's hypocrisy and illogic the city freely accepts federal funds from the very system they denounce.

- Booth Myers, 65, Brentwood

As a current Army officer, former Marine, and former San Franciscan, I am glad so many of you are sounding off on this Berkeley madness.

- Steve Lai, 45, Mililani, Hawaii

Berkeley's position did not "ignite the anger of the right wing" (as one Chronicle story wrote). It ignited the anger of every decent, thinking American. From what I can see, even the majority of the lefties in the Bay Area really know what free speech means.

- Carl Baker, 62, Mission Viejo, Orange County

I am requesting, with a mother's heart, that you put federal marshals out in front of that recruiting station so that these fine Marines are protected and they can do our government's business. Immediately, please.

- Beverly Perlson, 51, Oak Lawn, Ill. ("Very proud mother of soldier, 82nd Airborne, 4th Deployment, Bronze Star Recipient.")

I'm a veteran. Code Pink and the majority of the City Council do not speak for most of the Berkeley residents I know. I'm against the war, but this is the wrong way to protest against it. If someone wants to join the Marines, that's their right. I'll be at the next council meeting.

- Michael Roberts, 47, Berkeley

I am starting a group to support the USMC office in Berkeley.

- Heather Jacobsen, 50, Berkeley

Recruiters for cannon fodder are the shameful ones here, not the citizens who want them out or the members of the [City Council] who have the courage and morals to kick the warmongers out of town. Keep recruiters out of our schools while we're at it. "No child left unrecruited" is the Marine, Army, Navy and Air Force way. I refused to serve in '70 when I lived in Berkeley and it's the smartest and most honorable thing I ever did. I was convicted and served probation at Sonoma State Hospital teaching deaf-blind kids how to communicate and tie their shoes, which was a helluva lot better than goin' to 'Nam and killing people I never saw. OUT with the recruiters - all of them!

- Alan Moore, 59, Fairbanks, Alaska ("native San Franciscan")

Why did someone put a Marine recruiting center here? They must have known something like this would happen. Perhaps they wanted to see the City Council humiliated in a fight they had chosen to start? I disapprove of the original ordinance, and I don't think Code Pink needed its own parking space, or a special blow- horn permit, but if you are going to go that route, stick with it.

-Steve White, 50, Oakland

The recruiting station has every right to set up shop there. If the lefties don't want to enlist, don't enlist.

- Peter Udell, 54, San Francisco

I can understand opposition to the war, but the arrogance and hatred that emits from this proposal is just unfathomable to me. Peace loving? They show their peace loving by giving a permanent parking space in front of the recruiting office to a group that abhors the Marines?

- Kim Parigoris, 52, Lodi

The [City Council] should be commended for admitting they erred in judgment and leave it at that.

- Sharon Jones, 58, San Francisco

The real issue here is not the war in Iraq or the Marines. The real issue here is the blatant hypocrisy of a city where the Free Speech Movement began. Imagine if a pro-life group wanted to get a permit similar to the one given to Code Pink to protest an abortion clinic in Berkeley. Do you think the City Council would grant them a permit? Of course not.

- Frank Sullivan, 48, San Francisco

Code Pink is the Operation Rescue of the left.

- Sherman Lewis Jr., 38, Alameda

Safe to say that these individuals who wish to disrupt Marine recruiting would be the first to hide behind one if their life was threatened. And the Marine would not think twice about his duty to protect that individual regardless of his or her disdain for the man in uniform. I think that's what we need to remember here and ask yourself who you'd trust and rather be in a foxhole with. I'll take the Marine every time.

- Mark Dale, 44, Damascus, Ore.

The most disturbing part of this whole thing though is that the council voted to give a parking space to a group of people whose sole purpose was to harass and badger another human being. Freedom of speech and assembly is fine, but the government should not be openly endorsing one organization in such a way.

- Thomas Kotris, 32, High Point, N.C.

Watch them back down when they have to make a sacrifice for their beliefs - in this case the possible loss of federal tax dollars.

- Robert Reinbold, 48, Swarthmore, Pa.

We can choose to stay out of Berkeley with our wallets, refusing to spend one dime within the city limits of Berkeley until the City Council backs off on this insulting position.

- William Thompson, 64, Walnut Creek

As an "out -of stater" I'm very happy to see these comments from the "locals." All of your comments give me faith.

- Ray Schroeder, 45, Pukalani, Hawaii

Well, in the three-way race between San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Monica for spewing out insipid, drooling, leftist drivel, Berkeley has pretty much taken the trophy for 2008, and so remarkably early in the year!

- Jeffrey Griffith, 57, Newport Beach

Long live Berkeley's values!

- Sandy Bauman, 42, Wyomissing, Pa.