Stupid Grandstands and Wasted Tax Dollars

Which is more important: Marines’ training exercises or inconveniencing drivers?

I’m willing to bet that most people would choose the Marines. Yet, somehow, the Toledo, OH Mayor, Carty Finkbeiner, thought otherwise. On Friday, he ordered Company A of the 24th Marines, based out of Michigan, out of downtown Toledo.

They were conducting urban training exercises that some have deemed “key” to operations in Iraq. And it’s not even the first time that they’ve done this in Toledo; they’ve trained there several times without incident.

And, suddenly, the mayor wants them out. Why? His flimsy excuse is that “they frighten people.” Give me a break. They work in blocked off zones, and even if they did somehow frighten people, the city could put up signs, or something.

My guess is that he’s really doing it to gain support from anti-war voters in the city. This isn’t the first grandstand that cities have done to voice opposition to the war. The city council of Grand Rapids, MI, were the 24th Marines happen to be based out of, signed a “non-binding resolution” a while back condemning the war; I’m sure that that had the White House shivering. More recently, the city council of Brattleboro, Vermont passed a bill pledging to arrest and impeach President Bush and Dick Cheney if they ever enter their city, as if they ever could.

These grandstands are infinitely silly and stupid, not to mention illegal (most of them). A mayor does not have the authority to order federal troops out, and a city does not have the authority to arrest and impeach a U.S. President and Vice-President. I wish that they’d stop wasting (our) tax dollars on stupid stunts, and actually use it for something- either that or give it back.