By Jon Wiener
Mountain View Voices for Peace found little support for its proposal to commemorate the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by hanging thousands of dog tags from the trees in front of City Hall.
The activist group had hoped to hang a blank tag for each U.S. soldier killed in the war, asking for an estimated $1,400 worth of city resources and permission to leave the display up for a month. Council members Laura Macias and Matt Neely backed the proposal, but their colleagues said they were concerned about approving any form of free speech that could not get a permit under existing city policy.
“We would be opening the door for all these different organizations saying ‘me, too,'” said Mayor Nick Galiotto. “We would have to do the same for anybody else.”
Galiotto and council member Mike Kasperzak both said they envisioned pictures of aborted fetuses hanging from trees for a month — a prospect which “scares the bejeezus out of me,” said Kasperzak.
“I like this content, but there’s a lot of content I don’t like,” he said.
It was somewhat of an anticlimactic ending for the TV news crews and other media outlets that had picked up the story.
Members of the peace group stood outside the council chambers after the 4-2 vote and tried to put aside their disappointment and focus on future plans. But some tempers were still hot over comments made by the council members, as well as the small number of active and former service members who decried the plans as an anti-war protest masquerading as a memorial.
Council member Tom Means agreed with those who questioned the activists’ motives.
“The group doesn’t have much credibility,” he said. “Just go to the Web site.”
Ken Girdley, an Army veteran and commander of the local American Legion Post, called Voices for Peace “anti-war, anti-military, and anti-administration,” and said their actions “taint the service of those that are putting lives at risk every day.”
After the meeting, Girdley argued with Wendy Fleet, the blogger and former KMVT community access director who has carried her “Teach Peace” sign for 1,127 consecutive days. Earlier, Fleet teared up when she addressed the council on behalf of her friend Karen Meredith.
Meredith, a Mountain View resident and mother of the late Lt. Ken Ballard, made the initial request to the council on behalf of the group two weeks ago. She was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, visiting her son’s grave and supporting a group of 50 veterans kicking off their campaigns for Congress this week.
“I wanted this to be a community effort and I wanted the community to be involved with this,” she said over the phone. “People have questioned my motivation and that’s disappointing to me.”
Council member Matt Pear, who expressed concern about the political content of the display when Meredith made her request two weeks ago, left the meeting early and was not there for the discussion of the memorial.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener
