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Vets’ Day Observance Back on Track By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday November 08, 2005

Berkeley’s on-again off-again Veterans’ Day observance is back on, thanks to the withdrawal of a controversial participant. 

Berkeley’s “Country Joe” McDonald, the organizer of the event, had invited Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, to speak at Friday’s event. Mitchell's son, Army Sgt. Michael Mitchell, was killed in action in Baghdad’s Sadr City on April 4, 2004—the same day and place that the group’s more famous co-founder Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Army Spec. Casey A. Sheehan. 

Mitchell’s invitation rankled members of the Berkeley chapter of Disabled American Veterans (DAV), which responded by pulling out of the event. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he had talked to Mitchell, who informed him he had withdrawn from the Berkeley event to attend another event the same day in Santa Monica in which participants will carry caskets to mark the deaths of soldiers killed in Iraq. 

“Here the emphasis will be on honoring our veterans more than on protesting the war,” Bates said. “It’s a time to honor the dead and put politics on the back burner.” 

The program will still address issues involving the veterans’ community, he said. “We will speak to some of their issues, especially those facing homeless vets,” Bates said. 

Mitchell’s withdrawal was greeted with relief by Ed Harper, president of DAV Chapter 25 in Berkeley. 

“Now we’ll be able to honor our veterans the way we should,” Harper said. 

The Veterans’ Day commemoration will begin at 11 a.m. Friday at Civic Center Park, located off Martin Luther King Jr. Way between the old and new City Hall buildings. If rain intervenes, events will move indoors to the Veterans Memorial Building at 1931 Center St.