"To err is human but to really screw up it takes the Berkeley City Council"

[Squatch]

Link

(02-13) 01:33 PST Berkeley -- After a day of enraged confrontation outside Berkeley City Hall between anti-war and pro-military demonstrators, the City Council backed down early Wednesday from its controversial decision to tell the U.S. Marines they are "unwelcome intruders" for operating a downtown recruiting center.

Council members conceded that they had erred in passing a resolution Jan. 29 that condemned the Marines - rather than the war in Iraq - and some council members added that they felt they owed U.S. troops an apology as well the many Berkeley residents who were ashamed and offended by their position.

"To err is human but to really screw up it takes the Berkeley City Council," said council member Gordon Wozniak. "We failed our city. We embarrassed our city."

In the end, however, the council voted against issuing a public apology for its January action.

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Here's a link to a video showing the confrontations in the story. What's cornfusing is the postion the police took...namely, that of "neutrality". :crazy:

Video Link

[bryant69]

1. That is a werid ending - or more likely a weird transition to the next bit of weirdness

It's hard to know exactly what the Berkely Town Council thought they were accomplishing.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Berkely isn't what it used to be. The council caved to the right wing militarists.

Berkeley's critics included six Republican U.S. senators who have vowed to cut federal funding for several Berkeley programs, such as the Chez Panisse Foundation, which provides school lunches at Berkeley's public schools, and the Robert Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at UC Berkeley.

Council members maintained that they were not caving in to pressure from right-wing bloggers or radio-show hosts in backing away from their January vote.

[TooBigaTent]

3. The entire country is not what it used to be. I am thinking that it never will be again. nt

[ReformedChris]

4. They stepped on a RW hornets nest, they should have known when they first made the decision..

Why back down after taking that first step? If your going to express your principles and take a stand that will not be univerally popular, you have to stand by it. I won't call it cowardly, but they really need to defend their ideas and decisions or nobody will take them seriously.