Uppity Wisconsin

It is never easy to publicly take a stand and reverse an earlier decision -- not to mention facing down the military.

Summerfest found just how hard it is after a right-wing radio talker, crazed by the decision, spent hours urging his listeners to call the festival and complain.

"The decision to reopen “America’s Army” was announced late Wednesday afternoon in a joint news release from the Army and Summerfest faxed to the Journal Sentinel on Army stationery," the newspaper reports.

On its face, the decision may seem reasonable. It allows Summerfest to save some face while caving in. But if there's any doubt that this was a nearly total surrender to the power of the military, read this boot-licking excerpt from Summerfest's statement:

Summerfest has the utmost respect and honor for our armed forces. In no way did Summerfest intend any disrespect to our country's past and current cherished servicemen and women and their families with the recent modifications that were made to the virtual reality activity within the U.S. Army exhibit at Summerfest.

Summerfest maintains strong partnerships with many of our armed forces, like the U.S. Marines, U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard and U.S. Army, and will continue to partner with these valued entities in the future.

Unfortunately, some consumers are under the impression that Summerfest had asked the U.S. Army to close their entire exhibit and leave the premises. This is simply not true and is not accurate. At no point did Summerfest ask the U.S. Army to close their entire exhibit and leave the premises. The exhibit is currently functioning and operational onsite at Summerfest in the same area footprint that it has been since the very first day of Summerfest. The U.S. Army exhibit is operated in a very professional manner and offers a quality interactive experience for patrons. The exhibit continues to generate solid traffic and patron interaction.

Overall, this situation was a minor modification to a very high-quality exhibit at Summerfest. During the entire time, Summerfest and the U.S. Army personnel maintained open and positive dialogue regarding the situation and worked cooperatively together on this marketing program. Summerfest greatly values its relationship with the U.S. Army and will continue to work cohesively with its personnel.

None of this is terribly surprising. What's more surprising is that someone at Summerfest had the courage to do the right thing to begin with, when Peace Action-Wisconsin launched a campaign asking that the game be shut down.

If you'd like to tell Summerfest what you think of its latest decision, the phone number is 414-273--2680.

Jim Rowen says Sykes is throwing a tantrum. so maybe we did win something.