Shay Totten of 7 Days provides us with the following tidbit in his Fair Game blog (Switch and Bait, 7 Days, 06/02/10):
Battle Scars
More than 100 people gathered in Battery Park on Monday to take part in Burlington’s annual Memorial Day ceremony hosted by the VFW Post 782.. . .
Missing in action was Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss, who was not formally invited to the event.
“Why?” asks Totten; and then answers with:
A Kiss surrogate upset vets and their families with an antiwar speech delivered at a November Veterans Day ceremony. Kiss never vetted the speech, and after it created a firestorm of public criticism, he apologized – more than once – to local VFW Commander Bob Colby.
So that’s what it takes to talk to those who’ve served in the military and their families? A deep devotion to and appreciation of the brutality of war? Well f**k you too.
Personally I think it was extremely selfish of the complainers involved. They don’t, after all, have a lock on how the public – military service or otherwise – views organized slaughter and destruction.
Oh, and according to an earlier posting regarding the event of the non-patronizing to war speech on a former Veterans’ Day:
Hausrath is a veteran and conscientious objector.
It really cheapens the title to call Mr. Hausrath a conscientious objector. Conscientious objector is a formal status earned through a detailed process, it is not simply a matter of stomping your feet and pouting “I don’t wanna anymore”. The conscientious objector process is necessary recognition of the import of the decisions involved in such cases, balancing oath and obligation to one’s nation with one’s individual moral obligations. While individuals applying for CO status are immediately removed from combat oriented billets and placed in duties in which they will not have to defend themselves, the full process involves numerous interviews and attestations in order to ensure the individual in question has some actual level of commitment to his claimed moral objections and is not merely shirking his duties out of cowardice or selfishness. Having been a conscientious objector Mayor Kiss certainly knew this and he knew that Mr. Hausrath didn’t merit that classification by being simply an individual who was incapable of following a basic rule that is applied not only in the military but in police departments, fire departments, schools and even Walmart; don’t do drugs or we will boot you.
As for the VFW, they displayed a remarkable amount of class by inviting the Mayor in the first place knowing his background. And while it is certainly understandable if the Mayor could not attend it is unfortunate that with the hundreds of Vermont veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan available he chose to send in his place an individual who wouldn’t even qualify for membership in the VFW having served less than a year before abusing drugs without ever having left San Antonio, Texas. Fortunately the Mayor realized the exceptionally poor judgment he displayed and demonstrated he had matured by offering an apology to the VFW, though it is regrettable the Progressive Party members of the Burlington City Council couldn’t quite follow his example. I certainly hope the apology was accepted in the spirit in which it was given. I also applaud the VFW, however, for understanding there is a difference between being forgiving and being a sucker and refusing to risk playing “Charlie Brown” to Mayor Kiss’ “Lucy” again. Hopefully after a period of demonstrated good faith by Mayor Kiss the VFW will once again consider inviting him to events they host.