From: Scherrer, Tim (scherrert@missouri.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 01 2005 - 13:25:31 PDT
For all of you who liked to flame me for the issue of the Columbia, MO
airshow and parade excluding military vehicles and reenactors from the
parade, a judge ruled on the side of the argument that I made against
the organizing committee. There was a lawsuit filed against the parade
by a group unrelated to me, the local MV group or anyone I know in fact.
The committee claimed this event was a private event with the city
supporting it as a contractor. The judge ruled this argument was false
and they had no right to exclude people's freedom of speech on public
land, which the event is held entirely.
While I have no love for the ACLU which brought the suit, or the peace
protestors that brought the suit, but the same arguments were used
against those of us who wanted to support the event and veterans with
our pro-military groups. Their were a house of cards waiting to be
collapsed and it has happened. I suspect this will then open the door
for reenactment and MV groups to now participate.
I am sure the reenacting and MV groups will very quickly become friends
of the committee when they have to deal with the local peace nuts.
Tim A. Scherrer
CO, 84th ID Reenacted
Columbia, MO
Patriot earns space on tarmac by defending the Bill of Rights
By TONY MESSENGER
Published Sunday, May 29, 2005
A tragedy is going to unfold today at Columbia Regional Airport. Or it
might have happened yesterday.
At some point, Bill Wickersham is going to hand the wrong person a
yellow bookmark with the Bill of Rights printed on it. The person will
recognize Wickersham as one of the two people who, with the backing of
the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the city to preserve their
right to stand on the tarmac and hand out their bookmarks.
Wickersham won the suit.
Somebody will be offended by his actions. Or maybe several somebodies.
They'll label him an out-of-control peace activist who should mind his
own business. They'll tell him to leave them alone and back their damn
war.
It will be a tragedy because they know nothing about Wickersham or his
causes.
It will be a tragedy because in suing the city of Columbia, Wickersham
defended one of the most basic of rights. He stood up for free speech,
one of the most important tenets of the freedom our country famously
fights for.
Wickersham stood up for the right of the person accosting him to grab
the bookmark, toss it on the ground and step on it as he cusses out the
peace activist in front of his wife and kids.
Wickersham knows this is going to happen, but he's going to the airport
anyway, to stand up for what he believes.
"Guys like me are never going to solve the big problems," he says with a
humility that isn't a put-on. "But we do like to wake up the herd. We
lose most of our battles. The best we can hope for is a glimmer."
This time, Wickersham produced a shining victory.
He and Maureen Doyle were arrested at the Salute to Veterans Airshow
last year - Wickersham for circulating a petition, Doyle for passing out
leaflets. They were arrested because the city ceded total control of the
airport to Salute to Veterans Corp. Military recruiters were allowed
their free speech rights, but nobody else was. The problem was that the
city was a major partner in the event. It tried to argue that it leased
out the airport for a private event, and yet the city was involved in
the event from Day One.
That's what federal District Judge Nannette Laughrey said in rightly
issuing an injunction that allows Wickersham and others to pass out
leaflets - but not petitions - this weekend.
"The Defendants cannot have it both ways," Laughrey wrote, "assuming all
the benefits of a partnership but accepting none of the burdens. They
act like partners; they are perceived to be partners; and therefore they
cannot avoid the consequences of their choices by simply giving the
Corporation exclusive, contractual control over the tarmac. They are
both state actors when they implement and enforce the Corporation's
rules concerning speech at the Air Show."
Laughrey ruled the way any reasonable judge - Democrat or Republican -
would have ruled in this case. But that won't matter to the demagogues
who will paint Laughrey and Wickersham with the same broad brush: "She's
an activist judge. He's a liberal, unpatriotic peace activist."
In fact, Wickersham is much more than that. It's what makes this
particular debate so interesting to Columbia.
Wickersham is in a different world than the peace activist who punched a
woman holding up a banner supporting our troops. He's not about to take
a shovel out to the tarmac and symbolically dig graves for our soldiers.
Wickersham was a soldier. He spent two years in ROTC and trained at Fort
Benning Military School. He was a reservist and spent six years training
soldiers, including some time in the Pentagon.
"I believe in the Constitution of the United States," he says. "I've
sworn to it twice."
For most of his adult life, he's also sworn to do everything in his
power to promote peace. He believes in his cause so much that it once
got him fired from his job as a professor at the University of
Missouri-Columbia. Later, he was hired back. He stood in protest to the
Vietnam War and was a key peacemaker as divisive issues drove students
and others to the brink of violence.
Once again, he's standing up for what he believes in and listening to
folks who are quick to label without getting to know the man. Wickersham
and I disagree on the war, but we talk about it like adults. His
arguments take over a little bit more of my brain matter every time we
talk. He doesn't expect to win; he just wants me to listen.
I do. And the folks who would begrudge him a little tarmac space for a
couple of days should listen to the words of Tribune Publisher Hank
Waters from an editorial written 35 years ago as Wickersham orchestrated
a peaceful agreement between students protesting a war and an
administration hellbent on squashing their voices.
"One of the tragedies in situations like this is that so many members of
the general public are unable to grasp the central problems involved and
the roles individuals play," Waters wrote on May 14, 1970. "They tend to
support or condemn out of hand using only their ill-founded
preconceptions as guides."
Disagree with Wickersham if you will, but remember this: He defended
your right to disagree with him on public property, and he did so with
class and decorum.
People have died defending the Bill of Rights. Remember that when
Wickersham hands you a little yellow bookmark.
Shake his hand, and thank him for serving his country.
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org] On
Behalf Of SGM PANTANO
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 2:48 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: [MV] HENTZEN PAINTS
I spelled it wrong before..
Here it is..
www.hentzen.com/history.asp?o=5&s=1
Gene
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