File this under “We support our troops…by refusing to honor their service.”

Via Knight-Ridder:

Berkeley’s Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.

At issue was a proposal by the chairman, singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald, to have Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan’s organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, as the keynote speaker.

Mitchell’s and Sheehan’s sons were killed in Iraq the same day.

Some committee members worried that Mitchell would inject an unwelcome note of partisanship into the event, which has been scrupulously non-political in years past.

“If you want to have an anti-war rally, count me in,” said Linda Perry, an aide to City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. “But not on Veteran’s Day. It’s neither the time nor the place.”

Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter, which has participated in past Berkeley Veterans Day observances, threatened that his group would pull out.

“They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point,” he said. “This one hour should be reserved for honoring veterans, period.”

McDonald, backed by other members of the committee, disagreed, saying that not permitting Mitchell to express his point of view would be tantamount to censoring free speech.

“Their position was that no matter what he said, because he was a member of Gold Star Families, he wouldn’t be allowed to speak,” McDonald said. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and this is the first time content and affiliation ever came up for discussion. I was shocked to find this kind of narrow-mindedness in my own hometown, in Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement.”

Oh, we’re not shocked by your narrow-mindedness at all, Mr. McDonald.

Hat tip: Reader John in San Diego, who writes:

One thing I find interesting about the left and its desire for “all sides to be represented” when they feel it should be so is that they seem to have no sense of decency or maturity and are unable to realize that there is a time and a place for certain things. On occasion, it’s simply inappropriate to voice comparative ideas or points of view. They fail to maintain a civil discourse on many issues, especially their double-speak on supporting the troops.

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