Summerfest still deserves our thanks for standing up to the Army and talk radio

Summerfest’s decision to allow the army to set up a virtual target-shooting range rather than a virtual human shooting range represents at least a partial victory for the reality-based community in Milwaukee.

Unfortunately, it also seems to prove that radio squawkers Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling—whose companies are Summerfest sponsors—can get results when they choose to start whining about any particular issue and activate their followers.

Still, Summerfest officials should be congratulated for forcing the Army to make modifications to this tax-payer funded, traveling atrocity. If you haven’t yet called Summerfest to thank them, please do so at 414-273-2680.

And, maybe I missed it, but it would have been nice to hear from some elected officials on this matter. Summerfest does operate from city property after all. The silence from the mayor’s office and from members of the common council on this matter has been very disappointing.

Sykes and others have suggested that some of the activists working on this issue are hypocritical for failing to protest the availability of the Grand Theft Auto game on the Summerfest grounds. Just because Sykes deems someone a hypocrite doesn’t make it so, but banning the Grand Theft Auto game from Summerfest is a certainly a good idea in my book.

Even with the modifications, getting Summerfest to act on this issue is a real victory. Peace and anti-violence activists, including Peace Action Wisconsin and many others, should be giving themselves a well-deserved pat on the back.

In the meantime, Whallah is wondering if John McCain would consider Charlie Sykes to be a fool.

Update: I posted the above before the release of the Summerfest statement, which Bill Christofferson correctly notes amounts to little more than bootlicking.

Bootlicking squared I’d say.