America may or may not be standing with Cindy, but on Nov. 11, veterans in Berkeley definitely won't be. A Veterans' Day event in the 'zerkeley's been called off entirely, after certain veterans objected to the inclusion of speaker Bill Mitchell, who co-founded Cindy Sheehan's group Gold Star Families for Peace, arguing that the event should be nonpartisan. "They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," said Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter.
The chairman of the volunteer group that was sponsoring the event, Country Joe McDonald, of Country Joe and the Fish (who's a Navy veteran -- who knew?), has called the cancellation "censorship." Country Joe and his other organizers had thought they'd worked out a compromise last week, when they agreed that they wouldn't allow anti-war protest songs to be sung by a folk group called Annie and the Vets -- but the compromise fell through. You think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have a folk rock group too?