Feb 8, 2008

A city opens Pandora's box

Editorial

The flap over the Marine Corps recruiting station in Berkeley has entered the realm of the absurd. It started with the city council taking a cheap shot at the Marines for public consumption and moved into the halls of Congress and the state Capitol where Republican lawmakers are exploiting a conservative outcry to dump on Berkeley.

Two wrongs don't make a right, which is why we urge officials in Berkeley, Washington and Sacramento to cool all the grandstanding.

The military and its supporters understandably were dismayed by a city declaration that proclaimed the Marine recruiters are "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

Many voters may be opposed to the war in Iraq but responsible war critics know how to protest the politicians and the policies that lead to war without demonizing those in uniform.

In an effort to defuse the hostility, two council members this week proposed dropping the statement calling Marines intruders and the mayor has also apologized to those service members who may have taken offense. That's a step in the right direction.

Rescinding some of the verbiage in the council declaration may be meaningless, however, because the council made it clear the Marines are unwelcome in other ways. In its resolution, the council also invites the anti-war group Code Pink to demonstrate at the recruiting office with a free weekly parking space and sound permit.

The council's ill-advised actions prompted six Republicans in the U.S. Senate to make their own bold statement. They propose to seize $2.3 million headed for Berkeley, including funds for ferry service, school lunches, disability organizations, public safety and the University of California at Berkeley. Their revenge legislation would redirect those funds to the Marines.

The showboating senators' legislation targets the wrong people. Do the senators propose to show their patriotism and support for the Marines by hindering regional transit service and hurting lunch programs for schoolchildren? And what does UC-Berkeley, a state institution, have to do with any of this?

In the California Legislature, Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon intends to punish Berkeley by threatening to withhold $3.3 million in state road funds until the city council rescinds its "war on the U.S. Marine Corps." Though his legislation at least would be directed at the city, Houston knows he doesn't have votes to get it passed and is simply playing the role of a demagogue.

We think the council should show some of the tolerance for different opinions Berkeley once used to have and the lawmakers should get back to the more difficult task of trying to right an economy that is taking its own kind of toll on human lives.