- TALLAHASSEE -- A group of
30 military veterans critical of the war in Iraq hoped to use Tuesday's
Veterans Day parade to call attention to the increasingly deadly conflict
but instead found themselves fighting for something much more fundamental.
-
- Members of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against
the War were yanked off a downtown Tallahassee street, directly in front
of the Old Capitol, while marching in the holiday parade they had legitimately
registered in.
-
- As organizers allowed the parade to roll on -- including
veterans from various wars, several high school marching bands and even
a group of young women from the local Hooters restaurant -- the anti-war
veterans were ordered onto sidewalks where they passed out leaflets and
displayed a banner reading, "Honor the Warrior, Not the War."
-
- "There's a war going on that's based on lies, just
like Vietnam," said veteran Tom Baxter, an Army equipment maintenance
officer in Vietnam for 16 months in 1967-69. "They were lying then,
and they're lying now."
-
- Parade chairman Ken Conroy, a Korean War veteran, said
he ejected the anti-war veterans because they were offensive and because
Tallahassee police also wanted them removed. He offered to refund their
$10 registration fee and said he was not suppressing the group's free speech
rights.
-
- "They can have their free speech, just not in the
parade," Conroy said. "They belong on the sidewalk."
-
- The six-block parade circling downtown Tallahassee was
sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3308.
-
- Baxter said about 12 of the 30 anti-war members at the
parade were walking in line when they were kicked out about 20 minutes
into the hourlong event. He said the parade applications were filled out
fully and correctly but must have gone unnoticed by organizers.
-
- "They said we were offensive, but we heard no boos
or anything," he said. "A few harsh looks from some of the active-duty
guys, but that's about it."
-
- Tallahassee police Sgt. David Folsom denied police played
any role in the situation and said Tuesday was the first time he could
recall anyone being excluded from the parade.
-
- "We don't police the participants," Folsom
said. "We don't have an opinion on who's in it, as long as they're
not walking around naked or drinking in public. It's just not a police
decision."
-
- Parade spectators were surprised to hear the anti-war
veterans were ejected.
-
- "I don't think it's right," said LaToya Jackson,
a JROTC member from Rickards High School. "They said they were supporting
the troops, just not the war."
-
- Marc and Khristina Munday of Tallahassee suggested the
veterans have earned a special right to have their voices heard.
-
- "They were in Vietnam, which may or may not have
been a just war," Marc Munday said. "And quite a few people feel
the way they do about the war in Iraq. They shouldn't have been kicked
out of the parade. America is about free speech."
-
- But others said the anti-war veterans simply didn't belong.
-
- "We don't care where they are, as long as they're
somewhere else," said Charles LeCroy, an Air Force personnel superintendent
in Vietnam and second vice commander of American Legion Post 13 in Tallahassee.
"It's disrespectful, that's what it is, and I just can't stomach or
tolerate or conceive of it."
-
- According to casualty records from the Associated Press,
a total of 393 Americans have died in Iraq since March 20.
-
- Col. Michael Spak, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army
reserves and professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, noted the U.S.
Supreme Court considers free speech less protected at privately sponsored
events than those that are held publicly.
-
- "The court has held they can't stop you from picketing,
but they can stop you from marching in a private parade," Spak said.
"There's a difference. If it's a city event, that's one thing, But
if it's private, they have a right to bar a group."
-
- http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111203/met_14020003.shtml
-
-
- Comment
From Diane Harvey
merak@sedona.net
11-13-3
-
- To Charles LeCroy:
-
- "We don't care where they are, as long as they're
somewhere else," said Charles LeCroy, an Air Force personnel superintendent
in Vietnam and second vice commander of American Legion Post 13 in Tallahassee.
"It's disrespectful, that's what it is, and I just can't stomach or
tolerate or conceive of it."
-
- Oh really? It is "disrespectful" for some veterans
to express their honest and factually justifiable opinion on such an urgent
and heart-felt topic? And it is not "disrespectful" for other
veterans to express unthinking support for this war, because you happen
to agree with it, and therefore care nothing for the admitted series of
lies that started it?
-
- You had better start learning to stomach, tolerate, and
conceive of opinions utterly opposing your own in this matter, since a
growing and significant proportion of the American population holds exactly
the same opinions as the veterans you wish to muzzle. That you personally
don't agree is hardly of the slightest importance, in comparison to the
moral right of all veterans to express their views in public ceremonies
celebrating their own sacrifices.
-
- The Founding Fathers would deplore your profoundly anti-American
sentiments, as their own words amply demonstrate. You really ought to read
the works of these great men, so that you might gain a faint understanding
of the political climate they sought to establish here. A great many people
have died to uphold the very basic point that you have so entirely failed
to grasp.
-
- A large number of citizens of this nation who have read
your mean-spirited little words today equally deplore them, and you, for
uttering such fascistic thoughts in the context of a celebration of veterans.
-
- Thomas Jefferson said: "Dissent is the highest form
of patriotism." And anyone who thinks otherwise is no American patriot.
-
- Diane Harvey
-
-
- Comment
- From Davis Johnson
- 11-14-3
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- I am outraged at what happened to the protesting veterans
in the Tallahassee
- Veteran's Day parade, and below is my reaction, as sent
to the American Legion
- Post 13 web address.
-
- Thank you for all your time and efforts to keep your
many readers informed.
- Such efforts are key to the continued survival of our
democracy.
-
- Davis Johnson
-
-
- "We don't care where they are, as long as they're
somewhere else," said Charles LeCroy, an Air Force personnel superintendent
in Vietnam and second vice commander of American Legion Post 13 in Tallahassee.
"It's disrespectful, that's what it is, and I just can't stomach or
tolerate or conceive of it."
-
- To American Legion Post 13, Tallahassee, FLA
-
- Is this what all you brave men and women have gone to
war to fight for? Is now to simply hold an opinion different from another,
to be seen as treason, as your "leader" seems to to be intimating?
Are we now in the face of perceived monstrous wrongs to get into lock
step/goose step with the wrongdoers-- just shut up, go along? Is this your
conception of America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave? Is this how
you treat your fellow veterans who sacrificed every bit as much as you,
and probably more, to uphold their idea of the American Dream? (Yes, it
may differ from the likes of your Vice Commander LeCroy's).
-
- A society that will not tolerate dissent is a society
edging towards the abyss. A society increasingly dominated by leaders who
lead by propaganda and falsehood and go to great lengths to fool and cajole
the people towards destructive policies both domestic and foreign,
- is a society edging towards the abyss.
-
- But I suppose we have only ourselves to blame, that majority
of "We the People" who don't get out and vote. Ignorance and
apathy, most notably among your Florida electorate, but yes, an all too
sad reflection of the same nationwide, is a big reason why we are where
we are today, and why intolerant ignoramuses such as your Vice Commander
increasingly hold sway in this land.
-
- God willing, may this waxing tide be stemmed.
- Davis Johnson
-
- Comment
- Alton Raines
11-13-03
-
- It's rather sadly predictable, eh? That the very men
who served and fought for freedom have no concept of it, no regard for
it at all... unless it's THEIR freedom. Just blind, mindless, nationalism
and so-called patriotism driving the bodies forward, like automatons or
zombies of the new world order. Sheer symbolism over substance. At every
turn, we seem to reveal ourselves to the world as massively ridiculous
hypocrites and fools, and yet, we're johnny on the spot to roll the ole'
war machine into other countries now, guns a blazin', teaching the rest
of the world a lesson in democracy and freedom. Sheesh. It just gets worse
and worse.
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