Is This Your Mayor, Berkeley?

Tom Bates, Mayor of the City of Berkeley, California, protesting what he thinks is a Marine Corps recruiting office (it isn't). He's wearing a pink beret and standing proudly in front of a pink banner that reads "No Military Predators". If you live in Berkeley, is this your mayor? Is this what you call supporting the troops?

Okay, it's time to post the warning letter. With Code Pink and their little buddies getting as raucus as possible, it's only reasonable to expect such insanity here in Houston, where political campaign offices are bedecked with Che Guevara flags, but their staffers can't tell me the difference between a liberal candidate and a conservative one. Make Out, Not War. Pretty friggin' weak, folks.

So anyway, here's the letter.
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To the Houston offices of Code Pink:
I respect your initiative and your drive to speak your mind about President Bush and Operation Iraqi Freedom (which you call “Bush’s War”). While I disagree with much of your content, I do support your right to say it. Disagreement, in my opinion, is the cornerstone of truly free speech, and while we may stand on opposing sides of the aisle, we’re all Americans at the end of the day. In many ways, these differences are worth celebrating.
That said, I’ve been watching the debate that’s been raging in California lately, in which Code Pink and the Berkeley City Council have decided to wage a campaign against the United States Marine Corps. Even in this action, I must support the right of Code Pink and Berkeley to speak their mind, even if I disagree with the message.
While the City Council of Berkeley does indeed have the legal right to make any proclamations the Council deems appropriate, it should be recognized that even persons or organizations operating within their legal rights can overstep the bounds of decency and societal normalcy. Such is the case with some of the disgusting, hurtful and misleading statements the City of Berkeley has made recently about the United States Marine Corps, as an extension of Code Pink’s vitriolic anti-military campaign.
Beyond my insignificant opinion about what’s been said, there’s a more important issue at work here. The right to free speech stops at the willful hindrance of US military personnel in the performance of their assigned duties. The actions of some protestors in California have crossed that line many times over, and have given your organization a bad name in the eyes of many Americans who held nothing against you before.
This is the reason for my letter.
Houston has always been a great place to get the message out, regardless what that message is. We can often protest here with little threat of violence, and people are generally supportive of the exercise of free speech. I’ve even seen opposing demonstrators lay down their signs and have lunch together to discuss their differences. Don’t try this in California, folks.
Houston is also home to a number of Armed Forces recruiting offices, Reserve Component training facilities and armories, and military families. Members of the United States Armed Services recruit, train, consolidate, and in fact live here in the Houston area. It is their right and sworn duty as service members to conduct their business efficiently and effectively. Further, these activities of the United States Armed Forces are responsible, at least in part, for the freedom of speech that is enjoyed by all Americans, including Code Pink and other psycho-fringe protest groups.
Members and Veterans of the United States Armed Forces, their families and loved ones, and the vast majority of the People of the United States, are justifiably proud of their service. This includes the majority of Houstonians, who believe that the United States Armed Forces should be honored by all citizens, and not villainized by a handful of leftist anti-war hippie throwbacks, whose warped little word view holds these heroes responsible for their own personal failures.
You may see your comrades in California as heroes and their actions as heroic examples to be emulated here in Houston. But while you plan your typically anti-American, anti-military operations here in our town, remember that people here will not stand for the nonsense that your whacko fringe group is up to out there in Granola Land, and that we will defend our military establishments here. The kind of efforts to show vitriolic hatred for American military personnel that we've seen from Code Pinks and its supporters in California and elsewhere, to include protests and signs with hateful, divisive slogans, is a cause of further suffering in this world. Your actions have done more harm than good, because not a single person has refused to serve his country because of your tirades. Not a single terrorist, soldier or innocent civilian has been spared in this war or any other because of the actions of people like you. You're not alleiviating suffering, you're adding to it.
We, as private citizens of the United States, will consider it our duty as peace-loving Americans to thwart any and all attempts on your part to interfere with our Armed Forces in the conduct of their official duties. This includes, but is by no means limited to, recruiting and all recruiting-related activities.

Treason is not a protected right under the Constitution of the United States. Consider yourselves duly notified.

NEXT UP: Even more from Code Pinko