To Mayor Bates of the City of Berkeley

Mayor Bates,

It seems counterintuitive to me that a community would impose sanctions against the very government which allows and even fights for its constituents' freedoms of speech and expression. If Code Pink is allowed and even encouraged to protest according to their ideals and understanding, shouldn't the military be allowed (and, dare I say encouraged?) to promote its agenda within the same community?

I would love to spend a great deal of time describing why I believe your policies to be profoundly ignorant, stubborn and contemptible. Instead, I'll just ask you what you think might happen if every community in this nation chose the same course you have chosen in this matter? If the military finds its numbers diminished by actions such as these to the point that its viability is jeopardized, do you think that our government would (or should) permanently sacrifice our strength of arms and succumb to the hostility of our enemies? I think it would be far more likely that the draft would be reinstated. A volunteer military (which is inherently enabled by recruiting offices) is the strongest and best kind of military. However, a drafted army is better than no army. To come out against recruiting efforts is to show unintentional support for either no military or a drafted one. It's short-sighted and politically selfish.

I also wonder what the reaction will be among those who didn't already hate the Marines. Perhaps those sitting on the line of whether they would volunteer their service to the military and its current policies will be swayed by this sudden shift in positions. You have painted the recruiters as the underdog, which will likely encourage support they might not have otherwise had.

If you've gotten this far, I'll summarize by saying that your actions are both shameful and totally unbefitting a democratic leader in this great nation.

Yes, I'm naming this "First Post"

So I got this blog, here. I want to say something like, "I told myself I would never do this, but..."
BUT, I don't think that's true. Earlier today, one of my coworkers said, "I've been meaning to start a blog, but..."
And then I said, "Hey, maybe I should do a blog."
And he said, "Yeah, you totally should. It's way easy."
And I said, "Yeah, good idea, I will."
Now here I am. Do I feel dumb? A little. I'm reminded of my opinion of blogs years ago when they were emerging as the next great Internet revolution. I thought to myself, "Do people actually expect anyone to read or care about their stupid online journal?"
Well, no, they don't. I grew up a little since then and figured out why these things are useful. It saves me updating my faraway friends on my life over the phone.
That way, when people ask me, "So what's up with your life these days?" I can reply, with some amount of pride, and perhaps a slightly greater measure of embarrassment, "Oh, just check out my website. Friend." (Because it's likely that I will have forgotten this person's name.)
No, it's not a website, but I'll call it that because I've always been and will probably always be far too lazy to create the real thing for myself.
I'm feeling like this first post is proving to be long-winded and mostly pointless, so I think I'll go ahead and stop.