In the Bay Area, anything to do with the U.S. military is equated to support for the evil Bush administration and brings the full force of the nutty fringe down on it.

Last month, San Francisco supervisors rejected a new WW 2 / Cold War museum on the battleship Iowa (which was to be brought to SF) because a) those were wars, and b) the Bush administration is fighting a war, thus, c) remembering WW 2 is like voting for George Bush.

The latest evidence of Bay Area anti-military foolishness: activists want to prevent the Navy from co-sponsoring a radio station’s outdoor concert. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Anti-war activists are asking San Francisco radio station KMEL-FM to remove the U.S. Navy as a sponsor of the annual Summer Jam concert in Mountain View, saying the station is “using hip-hop to promote the military to young people of color.”

… The protesters allege in a letter they sent Clear Channel and KMEL last week that the Navy’s sponsorship of the concert was an attempt to “promote the Bush administration’s pro-war agenda.”

… “For many people in these communities (of color), the military is an escape from the violence they see in their neighborhoods,” said Jen Low, an organizer for the protesters (… and? - ed.). With several branches of the military not reaching recruiting goals and with public opinion polls turning against President Bush’s handling of the war, activists see an opportunity to show “the Navy is attempting to use any and all means to meet its goals,” according to the activists’ letter.

They want KMEL to sever its “ties” with the Navy or grant “counter- recruitment groups equal access to the 2005 KMEL Summer Jam as that granted to the U.S Navy.”

(Clear Channel spokeswoman Gabby) Medecki said counter-recruiters were welcome to have a booth at the event at Shoreline Amphitheatre for the same price other sponsors paid — $5,000 to $10,000. …

CodePINK, one of the co-sponsors of the protest is horrified at the … ecological insensitivity of military recruiters?

The military is desperate for young people to fight in Iraq and they are doing everything they can to pull in young people: promising them a college education, big cash bonuses, and trying to guarantee that new enlistees won’t get sent to the Middle East. Recruiters roam the halls of high schools luring students into conversation with free goods, rock climbing walls, war simulation video games, and, worst of all, fancy Hummers.

The activist’s letter to the radio station is similarly muddled (download it from this page):

… It’s clear that since military enlistments are down, the Navy is attempting to use any and all means to meet its recruiting goals. Yet, with more jails and fewer jobs (fewer jobs? in this economy? - ed.), there must be a very good reason why youth throughout the United States are more hesitant than ever before to join the US military … (we need some help following that jails-jobs-recruiting connection. Anyone? - ed.)

… Given the growing anti-war sentiment across the country, and especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, why would KMEL allow the U.S. Navy to prey on Bay Area youth, especially the young people of color who represent over 50% of your station’s listeners? (can someone connect those two for me? Why the ‘especially?’- ed.) … Having the U.S. Navy sponsor a major hip-hop concert in the San Francisco Bay Area flies in the face of our community’s strong anti-war sentiments and our efforts to give the military less, not more, access to our young people.

… Our organizations and the overwhelming majority of San Francisco Bay Area residents support jobs and justice for our youth, not the Bush administration’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Hey! I support jobs for kids and the war! how is that possible? - ed.)

… (after a list of demands) If these issues are not resolved to our satisfaction, we will join the efforts of other community groups to challenge the licenses of Clear Channel’s Bay Area radio stations. (As a Clear Channel spokesperson noted for the Chronicle, that includes the local Air America affiliate!)

Wait — the activists themselves admit that Navy recruiters offer these kids an escape from the violence of their communities, a cash bonus, a job, money for further education, and a no-Iraq guarantee (the Navy, after all, doesn’t have a lot of ships in Baghdad)? That’s not a bad deal.

These activists are entitled to object to administration policy, but they should confront it head-on, and not attempt to ban the U.S. military from venues it has legitimate access to.

Technorati Tags: protest, clear channel, San Francisco

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2005 at 7:57 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Loons, California Schemin', Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.