On Jan 31, 2008 I wrote a letter to the Mayor of Berkeley stating my position regarding his and the City Counsel's position on the USMC recruiting station.
I passed that letter along to a couple of Marine handball buddies. They passed that email/letter to the guys who play in the Semper Fi handball tournament at MCRD, who passed it along to, who passed it along to, etc.
In my wildest dreams I never envisioned the response I have received. I now spend ALL DAY answering my cell phone acknowledging that yes, I really did write "THE" letter, and receiving personal thank yous from Generals, Majors, Colonels, SGTs, PVTs, CEOs, COOs, talk show hosts, and average everyday American Patriots.
Likewise I spend the balance reading emails from the same sort of people.
I am humbled to a degree that is hard to state clearly. I am emotionally overwhelmed with the positive response to my letter and want to thank everyone who has called me or emailed me to state their support.
My intention was never to shine the spotlight on me, it was to cause, to whatever degree I could, great fiscal discomfort to the city of Berkeley in retaliation to their un-American, cowardly and despicable stance that the US Marines are unwelcome, and uninvited intruders in their city.
If in my small way I helped light a fire that now appears to be blazing across the nation, I am proud of that, but I am more proud of the fact that I could , at a time when our heroes are fighting against those who would destroy us, help focus some attention to the vast debt, and undying respect, that we as a nation owe to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Respectfully,

Brian G Dennard

Dear Mayor Bates, Jan 31, 2008

In that you and your city have chosen to gravely insult the brave men and women, who have indeed bought you that right with their blood, I am informing you that my company will no longer do business with any of our current suppliers located in the Berkeley,California metro area.

In that my company is in international resort real estate development, and do business with and am associated with, developers and investors worldwide, I am informing all of my contacts, associates and patrons that we will no longer do any business of any sort with anyone living in the Berkeley area.

In that we/MDG Resorts are currently building a state of the art mega-yacht marina, all of the suppliers of Marina equipment, all owners of Yachts , all suppliers of Yacht materials & supplies, all yacht brokers and all tangential yacht business purveyors will likewise be informed that we will not do any business whatsoever with anyone from the Berkeley area.

Likewise all suppliers of building materials, both interior and exterior, currently associated with any of our several resort developments (Brisamar 300+ villas and 200+ condos: Porto Hussong, http://www.portohussong.com 500+ condos, 180 slip mega-yacht marina) both of which I might add have international recognition by virtue of glowing reports in Robb Report, Wall Street Journal, Yacht World, Forbes.

I will likewise inform all of our investors, most of whom are very wealthy yacht owners, casino owners, high net worth international businessmen, of our decision to essentially boycott all products and providers located in, or associated with in any way whatsoever,Berkeley, Ca.

Trust me when I say that having been in the real estate development business for over 35 years, our list of contacts and associates is long and very, very impressive. We, and I personally, are going to recomend that they ALL along with us boycott your city, its purveyors, suppliers, and businesses and CHARITIES of every kind.

You have every right to choose to take the obnoxious anti-military stance you have taken, and as stated, that right was bought for you with the blood of better men than you.

I too have every right to do all that I can to insure that your city suffers consequences arising from that obnoxious, sickening stance.

Cordially,

Brian G Dennard

Principal

Director
Meridian Development Group, LLC
619 807 2444
http://www.mdgresorts.com
http://www.portohussong.com

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Awesome site Ms. Reece. I think it is great that you donate your time to run do this. I am a Navy vet and am very proud of our troops. I ran across your site by accident. I was listening to Neil Cavuto on FOX News while I was doing some homework and heard something about Marines and Berkley. I immediately knew that whatever it was it couldn't be positive with the word Berkley associated with it. So, I googled it and found your site. I am impressed!

Mr. Dennard: Thank you for writing that letter to that idiot in Berkley. It is nice to see people make their voice heard when our troops are being unfairly persecuted for doing their jobs.

Hats off to both of you!

Jim Nelson
Carbondale, IL

Awesome letter!!! Your raw honesty and clarity didn't skip a beat! Now if that doesn't get some attention and gain insight into the issue, I don't know what will!!

Semper Fi

Thank you Pamala, I love your web site,and to Mr. Dennard for take the stand .Thanks again.

Mrs. Reece,

Thank you for your principled stand and your reproduction of Mr. Dennard's letter.

We absolutely love your eagles with the flag on your banner. We are prepping graphics for our new plane, and would dearly love your permission to use them on it.

Sincerely,

Al King, Owner
Linda King, Photographer
Sky King Aerials
Olympia, WA
888-875-9798
360-280-5450 C

If you think that all of the snow is an indication that you are not being affected by global warming then you really need to get a grip on reality. Global warming models predict more such massive winter storm events. A warmer climate causes more evaporation and puts more moisture in the atmosphere. When temperatures are below freezing all of this moisture precipitates as snow - a lot of it! Global warming models also predict disruptions in the movements of air masses from their normal trajectories around the planet. The Arctic blast that you are now experiencing is normal for regions further north at this time of the year. Global warming can account for the unusually southern movement of this air mass.

Global warming is a documented fact! There is no scientist on earth who doubts that it is occurring. Any disagreement that you may read about is not about whether global warming is real, but is instead about whether human activities are worsening the trend and whether we can do anything to stop or reduce its effects. Sticking your head in the sand and denying the reality of global climate change will not make it go away. During this century the planet will experience some of the most dramatic and radical changes that it has ever seen. Over the past few centuries Human society has adapted to a certain set of weather conditions. These conditions are rapidly changing and unless we start quickly and radically adapting to them we will experience major disruptions to our way of life. The costs of adapting now (energy use, land use, water use) are minor compared to the costs of not adapting and experiencing these climatic changes unprepared.

This weak-kneed response was sent to me by the CEO of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce:

"The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce has heard from individuals far and wide regarding recent Berkeley City Council actions and we appreciate that the American spirit is alive and robust.The business community was not notified of pending city council action, nor asked for input.We ask everyone to try to separate the actions of the City Council and not harm the good, hard-working small business owners - most of whom do not live in Berkeley and therefore cannot vote in Berkeley.Additionally, we believe that the Berkeley City Council owes an apology to the community and others, whether they be a Marine or a hard-working business owner, folks that are just trying to do their job in this terrible economy, and which is now more difficult because their actions. We feel that granting a parking space in front of the Marine's office is harassment for them and their neighbors, and should be rescinded."

"We're the only group that is opposing council actions"
Berkeley Chamber of Commerce

Here is my response:

Brian Dennard

Berkeley Chamber of Commerce:

I would beg to differ with your opinion that you are "the only group opposing the city counsels actions".
You might want to start by reviewing the multitude of addresses CC'd in this email in re-assessing that stance- well over 350. Next if you would like I could forward some of the 13,000 emails I have received from Americans all across the nation, Iraq and Afghanistan who have asked me to continue on with my/our boycott until Berkeley understands clearly that we will not stand for them calling the USMC (or any other branch of the armed services) "war criminals", "murderers", "assassins", etc.
YOUR high schools supplied (let them take off from school if they wanted to demosntrate against the Military) the foul mouthed children who I witnessed verbally assault elderly women by screaming "you Nazi c***t, get out of Berkeley", I watched two of their radical, hate filled teachers, whom your city pays to teach these kids, direct these indoctrinated charges to surround and verbally assault elderly veterans screaming the most vile profanities. Where were you while this abomination was going on. Where exactly were you voicing you opposition to the City Counsels position, from underneath your desk? You most certainly were not anywhere near the City Hall.
If you do believe that the City of Berkeley owes the military an apology then write a letter to them clearly stating that position on Chamber of Commerce stationary and cc everyone on this list, otherwise I am afraid that I and most of these other patriots, will come to the conclusion that you have simply written this wimpy, undecipherable gobbledygook in the hopes that we would feel sorry for the poor people of Berkeley and go away.
You have sorely misjudged your opponents. We stand in defense of our warriors, those men and women who are willing to die for us and our way of life. We owe them no less than to stand up to any and all who mistreat and besmersh their good name, and include in that group those who stand on the sideline rather than firmly, tall and proudly in their name with us.
No, Mr. Garret ( I see that you finally had the courage to add your name to the message below, in that when you first contacted me, you simply went by the name "assistant"), this is far from over.
In fact an appropriate way of phrasing this email should have been:
Now that we have your attention…

I have been contacted by Fortune 500 & 400 companies that wish to join in the boycott, in that they too are disgusted with the un-American antics of YOUR elected officials. They are two of the newest additions which already include three vintners, a Fortune 500 Head Hunter recruiter, restaurant suppliers, clothing manufacturers,
and a day labor provider. The list is growing as I recieve an additional 100-150 calls a day and an additional 500 emails. Further I am being interviewed on numerous prominent radio programs wherein I will ask for more companies to join us in the boycott.

YOUR city seems to be hell bent in repeating the sins of the past when you spit on and cursed those returning from Vietnam. WE are hell bent on teaching you that you and your city will never again be allowed mistreat and besmirch the heroes of the United States Armed Forces.

Good People Sleep Peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Cordially,

Brian Dennard
IFO
MDG, LLC
619 807 2444

The war is wrong. Nothing has been achieved after the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, a nasty monster who was funded by the CIA and former US administrations, but who didn't have weapons of mass destruction and was never a direct threat to the US, as it turns out. It was Bush-Cheny's weapon of mass deception that put us over there in the first place. What was the motivation beind this? Forge a new empire? Find an enemy to fear? Attack blindly? Start a new cold war and a weapons race? Thousands of soldiers have died for nothing. 10's of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died. The US can't even find Bin Laden, because he's hiding in Pakistan/Afganistan, he's not even in Iraq! The war is costing us billions. We are heading into a recession due to the fiscal lack of restraint and responsibility of the Republican administration. So that's why we want the military out of our town. We are the moral minority, but we know the war is wrong, and we don't want any more young men to die in a senseless war. The soldiers are not protecting us from anything, because Iraq is not the problem, now that Saddam is gone, we should get out and go find Bin Laden, the real problem. The hatred toward the US that is felt by many nations around the world is hatred, pure and simple. To borrow the words of Michael Franti, do you think we can bomb them into peace by bombing them into pieces? Who is really deluded? It's not about patriotism. I am glad to be an American, to have been born into this privileged society with all of the rights and freedoms. And freedom of speech is one of them. Why can't the conservative right respect the freedon of speech of all Americans even if they are from this bizarre town of Berkeley? I wouldn't trade this country for any other. I am glad to be an American, but I am not proud of our American government.

Berkeley citizen since 1986
US Citizen since birth