Berkley City Council disses USMC
The following agenda item is from the January 29, 2008 meeting agenda for the City Council of Berkley, California. This information is reprinted here on Fungazi strictly for the education of the masses.
City Council agenda for Berkeley, California
January 29, 2008
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Peace and Justice Commission
Submitted by:Steve Freedkin, Chairperson
Subject: Marine Recruiting Office in Berkeley
RECOMMENDATION
(1) Direct the City Attorney to investigate and report back to Council within 60 days on City options for enforcing Chapter 13.28 of the Berkeley Municipal Code, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, with respect to military recruiting offices in Berkeley; (2) direct the City Manager to send letters to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station at 64 Shattuck Avenue and to General James T. Conway, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, advising them that the Marine recruiting office is not welcome in our city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders; and (3) encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.
FISCAL IMPACTS OF RECOMMENDATION
Staff time to research the City’s options for enforcing Chapter 13.28 of the Berkeley Municipal Code, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, with respect to military recruiting offices in Berkeley.
CURRENT SITUATION AND ITS EFFECT
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.
The United States Marine Corps is being used as one of the means of perpetrating and prolonging illegal, unconstitutional and unnecessary wars of the United States. Military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits. Many enlisted persons never see the benefits they are promised and find out they are not eligible for the educational benefits due to loopholes and they did not receive the training promised or it did not qualify them for jobs outside the military.
The United States military discriminates by refusing to hire gays, lesbians, or bisexuals. By ordinance (BMC § 13.28.030; Ord. 5106-NS § 1 (part), 1978), the City of Berkeley prohibits such discrimination; requires employers to post a notice that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited by law; and provides for a fine of up to $50 per offense for failure to do so.
BACKGROUND
At the meeting of January 7, 2008, the Peace and Justice Commission approved the following motion: M/S/C (Meola/sorgen) that the Council of the City of Berkeley approve the following recommendation:
WHEREAS, the Peace & Justice Commission advises the City Council on all matters relating to the City of Berkeley’s role in issues of peace and social justice [Berkeley Municipal Code (BMC) Chapter 369.070]; and
WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, the United States armed forces, including the Marine Corps, explicitly refuse to hire openly non-heterosexual individuals, and will discharge an individual in their employ “who engages in, attempts to engage in, has a propensity to engage in, or intends to engage in homosexual acts” [10 USC § 654(b)(2), “Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces”]; and
WHEREAS, Berkeley Municipal Code § 13.28, “Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation,” provides that “It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire, or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment on the basis of such individual’s sexual orientation” [BMC § 13.28(A)(1)], and applies the same standard to employment agencies and job-training programs [BMC § 13.28(A)(3), § 13.28(A)(5)]; and
WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, the people of the City of Berkeley have long voiced their stand for peace and against unnecessary wars; and support people following their consciences to do what is morally and ethically right to resist illegitimate authority; and Marine Recruiting Office in Berkeley
WHEREAS, the United States Marine Corps is being used as one of the means of perpetrating and prolonging illegal, unconstitutional and unnecessary wars of the United States; and
WHEREAS, military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits; and
WHEREAS, many enlisted persons never see the benefits they are promised and find out they are not eligible for the educational benefits due to loopholes and they did not receive the training promised or it did not qualify them for jobs outside the military; and
WHEREAS, the people of Berkeley should want the Marine Corps present near Berkeley High School, Berkeley City College, and University of California no more than they would want other violent influences downtown.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Peace & Justice Commission recommends that the Council of the City of Berkeley direct the City Attorney to investigate and report back to Council within 60 days on City options for enforcing Chapter 13.28 of the Berkeley Municipal Code, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, with respect to military recruiting offices in Berkeley.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Berkeley direct the City Manager to send letters to the Marine Corps Recruiting Station at 64 Shattuck Avenue and to General James T. Conway, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, advising them that the Marine recruiting office is not welcome in our city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Berkeley encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.
Ayes: Unanimous; Absent: Brody, Cohen, Litman, Seaton, Sherman.
CONTACT PERSON
Steve Freedkin, Chairperson, Peace and Justice Commission, (510) 595-4626
Robert Meola, Peace and Justice Commission, (510) 644-1102
Manuel Hector Jr., Secretary, Peace and Justice Commission, (510) 981-5110
While I will be keeping an eye out for any further information that follows on this matter, I do not, at this time know if General James T. Conway, the 34th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps has been contacted by the City Manager of Berkley, or how the hard charging former commander of the 1st Marine Division might have responded to the news that his recruiting offices were no longer welcome in California’s modern version of Sodom. Personally, I would pay hard cash to hear that response because I am certain that it flowed with the true talent of a modern day poet. If the individual on the receiving end was not already severely brain damaged as a result of the massive infusions of liberally biased nonsense he received shortly after the Berkley city fathers jerked his spine out and pumped him full of jelly, the shock of CMC Conway’s response might well of fractured the gentle liberal’s thin little skull. We may never know the final outcome of this escapade and that is fine with me. The less I hear about that embarrassing enclave of socialist tweaks the better off I will be.
The Berkley city council agenda is freely available online at the official web site for the city. There is actually quite a collection of them and they provide hours of truly enlightening reading.
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