Tomorrow, February 12, the City of Berkeley’s City Council will again hear arguments regarding the removal of a recruiting station run by the United States Marine Corp Recruiters, within their city limits. Before they make their final decision, I suggest they look into their own past.
Berkeley City Officials have heard from citizens across the country denouncing their decision to pass two items condemning a Marine recruiting center that opened a year ago within their city limits. The first item called for the city clerk to send a letter to the Marines telling them they are unwelcome. The second was to grant Code Pink, a known anti-American Radical Group permission to park in front of the recruiting office every Wednesday afternoon and allow them to disrupt access to the recruiting station and other businesses in the area with their Anti-American onslaught of degrading slurs against those in our military.
Throughout this past week, I have received thousands of emails regarding their decision. I was just as outraged to hear that elected officials within the borders of the United States of America would denounce members of our own military forces as being unwelcome in their city. How had we become a communistic country and I not know anything about it. My first thought was to contact the President and Governor Schwarzenegger demanding that no National Guardsman or military units in and around the City of Berkeley be activated now or in the future should they warrant emergency assistance. Logic took over and I began thinking about their federal funding.
Apparently, I was not alone in my thought process; Senator DeMint announced the next morning, he would begin lobbying to remove federal funding earmarked for the City of Berkeley. Then I received a message that a very well connected executive, Brian G Dennard, sent a letter to Mayor Bates informing him that he will no longer do business with anyone in the Berkeley area. Bravo to Mr. Dennard for his take charge initiative. I wonder if any other American business will take his lead and do the same thing. As I put together the triangle on the fiscal aspect of this city, I began to also think about the history and its origin. What I found was very interesting to say the least. First, let me start with the fiscal information I found.
Since fiscal year 2000, the city of Berkeley has received in excess of $73,541,486 in federal funding to help fund various programs in their city. According to their current budget, the City is to receive federal funding in excess of $1,678,280 in support of their disability, employment training, healthcare, homeless, housing and rehabilitation, advocacy and youth programs. These amounts do not factor in state funding received from the Federal government that has filtered to the City by ways of State Grants from Homeland Security funds. However, it does show that the city receives approximately a third of its budgetary requirements from the Federal government.
The history of this city is quite another matter. Berkeley has always been associated with its radical uprisings and anti-military behavior, but little do they realize how much their roots are entrenched in military history. If city leaders would take a history lesson into their own past, they would not be so ungrateful towards our armed forces today.
According to their own website, they describe themselves as “The city of Berkeley rests in a natural amphitheater, sweeping down from the coastal hills to the shores of San Francisco Bay. You can see out to the far Pacific horizon, framed by the Golden Gate; you can see the distinct skyline of San Francisco; and the gentle peak of Marin County's Mt. Tamalpais.” What they don’t revealed in this description is that if it were not for the United States Military they would be nothing at all, just a blip on the map with nothing to show for its efforts. So soon, they forget in this sleepy little town how grateful they should be to the United States Military.
It was an emotional rollercoaster in the early 1900s for the Bay area. An earthquake hit nearby San Francisco in 1906. A huge fire destroyed over 640 structures in the city of Berkeley in 1923 and then the crash of 1929 brought this city to its knees. The University of California at Berkeley struggled financially throughout this same timeframe; only to be brought back to life with a grant from the United States Military towards its Gilman research and development in the fields of physical, inorganic, and nuclear chemistry. It would only be a few years later that this same University would receive millions of dollars in Military grants and gain the recognition as a historical landmark in our history books.
There would not be an increase of economic development or growth in the City of Berkeley until the 1940s when Pearl Harbor was attacked and World War II began. The United States Military brought the town back to life when it leased 12.56 acres of land in order to established Camp Ashby, in 1942 as part of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation and its garrison. With Camp Ashby came the United States Army’s 770th Military Police Battalion with over 645 soldiers and officers for training. During the war, Kaiser Shipyards brought thousands of jobs into the local area with its Shipbuilding contracts from the War Department in nearby Richmond and San Francisco Bay area.
According to National Archives Records, in 1942, even the University of California at Berkeley was very much involved in the war effort. Gilman Hall’s top floor, the famous Room 307 known as the “Attic” was where Glenn Seaborg and his fellow team of scientists conducted classified testing for the War Department. Seaborg later took the knowledge learned to the Manhattan Project and helped develop of the Atom Bomb. When the war was over Camp Ashby’s lease ended in 1946 and its soldiers transferred to other units. Kaiser Shipyards and their employees had successfully built over 4600 ships in the war effort.
Today the City of Berkeley seems to have such disdain towards our armed forces, even though it is because of our military that they are not just a blip on the map of California. I implore the members of the city counsel to think about the history of your own town. Remember who rescued you from ruins and how your ancestors stood proud against communism while helping this country win a war against them. Do not allow the communistic behavior of Code Pink and its followers to destroy your very existence and future economic well-being. Should you decide to continue an alliance with Code Pink and what it stands for, do not be surprised if your city does not go bankrupt in the very near future. Heed this warning, City of Berkeley; if you continue on your present course, recommendations will be forthcoming to remove your charter from the rolls of famous American Cities. If you wish to be your own little dictatorship country, withdraw from American boundaries and create your own country. All eyes of America are watching you. Economic destruction is only a click away.
No comments:
Post a Comment