Props to Caosblog for her blogs on this story.  Her coverage has been great.

Like me, she has been surrounded by Military people her whole life, and this a personal issue to her.

So it isn’t just me.  And more and more comments are coming to me from people who feel the same way, both military people and civilians.

We start with her story:

My son and the recruiter, Debbie Lee, Gold Star Mom & Berkeley

My son is in the Army, not the Marines. But my dad is a former marine, my Uncle is a former marine, and my younger son went to the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, slept in a barracks, trained and had PT with former marines and was an officer in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC there.

I love my men in uniform, and I have to say - with all my friendships with current and former military personnel, I love the culture, the people, the sense of family, the sense of duty, honor, country. I love the pomp and circumstance, the ceremonies, the recognition. And they know how to turn a kid around. They should; they’ve been doing it for over 100 years.

There is a good point there that is oft overlooked, that being that while it is obvious that the Military needs people, we tend to forget that some people really need the Military.

I can say from experience that I am not the same person I would have been had I not served as I did.  For one thing, I appreciated my freedoms…like the freedom to quit my job.  When I worked at a retail store, I heard the younger people complaining about the job and the bosses…and suddenly I laughed, because I realized that they had the choice to quit and go somewhere else at any time.

I compared that to all the disgusting jobs I got to do when we had to clean barracks, scrub toilets, walk around picking tiny bits of rubbish in the rain…and all along we had no choice but to do as we were told, for these were lawful orders.  When you enlist it is not just a job, it is a real commitment.  And failure to keep that commitment could send you to jail.  (Lt Watada, are you listening?)

I got out in 1995 I immediately felt foreign because I regarded that ability to quit as a grand luxury.

This is just one more way that some people simply do not understand the military.  But I digress.  Back to Caos:

My experience with the Army Recruiter was - they wanted to make sure my son was making the right choice and got us all involved in helping him make his decision to serve. We met, we talked on the phone, and we helped him make his choice.

There you have the secret to a successful recruit:  Parents who parent.  Parents who cast their kids out into the world and ignore them, who sit back and passively watch them make bad choices invariably end up with bad results.

But parents who are engaged and help their children make good choices have a better chance of see the results pay off.  That’s a grossly simplified view I admit, but in practice it works.

Next we have another parent, one whose child made the choice to serve, and in turn lost his life.  There are typically two ways that parents in this situation tend to react:  First, there are those like Cindy Sheehan who ignore the meaning of their adult child’s sacrifice and service, and let their sorrow consume them, looking for someone to blame.  They cannot accept that their child was grown, and made a grown up’s choice.  They want their baby back, even to the cost of denying their child’s decision and sacrifice, and in doing so they dishonor their child’s memory.  (Read more about that here.) 

But there are also those like Debbie Lee, who work tirelessly to protect and honor their child’s memory, service and sacrifice, and who work to support their child’s comrades in arms:

And so here comes Debbie Lee, Gold Star Mom. Her tremendous courage pales in comparison to my experience. Her son, Marc Alan Lee, was the first Navy Seal to lose his life in the Iraq War in 2006. This is the email she sent to the Mayor of Berkeley who, along with the City Council, is trying to drive the Marine Recruiting Office out of Berkeley:

I was appalled at the decisions that your City Council made at your last meeting, telling the Marines they were not welcome in your city and then granting Code Pink a parking place in front of the Recruiting office free for six months along with a free noise permit. I called and left a message last week for you to call me, a Gold Star Mother whose son gave the ultimate sacrifice. It doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t return that phone call. Trust me I won’t just go away!

My son Marc Alan Lee laid down his life 8-2-06 for American’s to have all of the freedoms that we enjoy. He voluntarily went to his recruiter to find out what opportunities would be provided to him and what would be required for him to be a Navy SEAL. He was treated professionally and never once regretted his decision to become a Navy SEAL. He was honored to serve his country. He was stationed in California along with half of the SEAL community. I’m sure you’ve heard of the elite of the elite, as President Bush calls them. My oldest son Kristofer went to a Marine recruiters office in July 2000 and signed to be one of “The few, the Proud, The Marines.” He also never regreted his choice and was also treated professionally and was proud to serve his country for 5 years. My son-in-law Christopher also visited an Army recruiter and proudly served his country for 3 years. I wish that you served as a Mayor with the same pride and love for this country and those men and women who would defend you unconditionally! Our military defends your freedoms and has written a blank check to you and your city and every American and they have told you to fill in the cost of that freedom up to and including the cost of their lives and you are telling these people they are not welcome in your city? How dare you!

I’m sure you continue to enjoy those freedoms that every man or woman who has served in our military has fought for you. Who do you think would defend you if the terrorists attacked your city? Who do you think would come if an earthquake devastated your city? Who do you think would come if their were riots in your city? How dare you try to legislate and change the laws of the land. I am demanding that you publicly apologize to the Marines and to our troops, and to their families and that you resend the legislation that you passed last week giving special rights to Code Pink.

Demanding Respect for our Troops,

Debbie Lee

Proud Mother of Marc Alan Lee

First Navy SEAL killed in Iraq 8-2-06

I hope someday to meet her and thank her in person for her son’s service.   You see, my son who is in the Navy is also named Kristofer.

Debbie, as it turns out is also part of Move America Forward, the group who has come out the strongest against Berkeley, and whose petition was so popular it crashed its server the first time it was posted.

Here is a press release I got today From Melanie Morgan:

 Berkeley Mayor - Free Speech Thief  

BERKELEY – Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, convicted of stealing 1,000 free newspapers from the Daily Californian newsstands in 2002, is at it again.

Huh?  I definitely need to check out that story…(found it here)

The Mayor is attempting to steal the free speech rights of the United States Marine Corps by harassing the recruiting center into abandoning its lease.

Move America Forward has launched a petition drive denouncing the Mayor and the Council, while demanding an apology to the USMC at its website www.moveamericaforward.com 

The response was so overwhelming it crashed the site within minutes after launching, fueled by intense coverage from bloggers, talk radio, Internet, television reports and pro-troops organizations like the American Legion and Vets for Freedom.

Move America Forward plans to deliver the protest petitions at the Berkeley City Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting on February 12th.

“We are looking at all options to stop Berkeley from issuing gifts of public funds, such as free parking spaces, and violating the Constitution,” said Catherine Moy, Executive Director of Move America Forward. “We have contacted all branches of our government to redress these issues, and will explore all legal, legislative and executive avenues to stop the injustice perpetrated by the Berkeley City Council.”

A national backlash erupted last week over Berkeley’s attack on Marines.  Mayor Tom Bates was forced to reconsider resolutions telling America’s heroes they are “intruders.”

Bates has taken a further steps to shutter the doors of the Marine’s recruiting station.

Bates told the Contra Costa Times that he would broker a deal to release the Marine’s from their building lease. But the Marines said they will stay.

“Mayor Bates, in his arrogance, has crossed the line by trying to steal the Marine’s First Amendment Rights, and we will not stand for this treasonous behavior. His stunning offer to “broker a deal” to release the Marine’s from its building lease shows the depth of his contempt for our military men and women,” said Melanie Morgan, chairman of Move America Forward. “Our group will stand with the Marines until their attackers stop.”

The Berkeley council on Tuesday passed two resolutions condemning the Marines as part of a campaign by anti-war activists to shut down the recruiting center. The council also gave Code Pink, a leftist group that daily harasses the Marines with hate speech, a free parking place and noise permit.

Move America Forward (Move America Forward), initiated a campaign for people to call and email the rogue City Council. Thousands of e-mails, calls and letters of denunciation have poured into the offices of Bates and other council members who support the efforts to drive the USMC out of town.

Move America Forward applauds the proposed legislation by U.S. Senator Jim DeMint to strip Berkeley of all pork barrel spending, amounting to $2.1 million dollars.

A companion bill in the House is now being prepared.

So as noted earlier, the battle lines are drawn. 

One final note, also courtesy of Caosblog.

The name of the City Commission that developed this crap is The Peace and Justice Commission.  It seems interesting to me, that there is an anti war group with the same name, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).

Now, the terms in the name are relatively neutral on their own, and peace and Justice are certainly worthy goals, so there isn’t necessarily a connection form one to the other is there?  This must be a conincidence…

Except that I noticed that UFPJ is noted for this:

United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is an anti-war coalition consisting of more than 1,300 local and national groups joined together “to protest the immoral and disastrous Iraq War and oppose our [American] government’s policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.” The coalition’s Unity Statement denounces “the ‘pre-emptive’ wars of aggression waged by the Bush administration” in its “drive to expand U.S. control over other nations and strip us of our rights at home under the cover of fighting terrorism and spreading democracy.”

That is somewhat reminiscent of the Commission for Peace and Justice’s resolution:

The United States has a history of launching illegal, immoral and unprovoked wars of aggression and the Bush Administration launched the most recent of those wars in Iraq and is threatening the possibility of war in Iran. These wars have produced catastrophic loss of human life, both civilian and military, as well as physically maiming and deforming and psychologically destroying countless numbers of civilians and military personnel.  

Coincidence?  Or infiltration into a sympathetic government?

You make the call.

Previously:

The Marines vs Berkeley: The Peace and Justice Commission behind the actions - How bad is it? Read it here

Berkeley: The backlash against City and Code Pink begins, and local reaction is split

Here we go again: Berkeley California against the Military: Marines are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” : Updated

Code Pink vs Patriots in Berkley

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