VENTURA : Green Party Will Boycott Parade

The Green Party, a local ecology and peace group, has announced it will boycott Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Ventura because party members “find the military theme of this year’s parade deeply offensive.”

Green Party members decided to withdraw from the parade when they learned that the event’s organizers were dedicating the parade to the troops who fought in the Gulf War, spokesman Ed Shacklett said. The parade will include Navy Seabees recently returned from the Gulf and its grand marshals are members of veterans organizations.

“It’s becoming a big hoopla to welcome home the troops,” Shacklett said. “We support those people who fought, but we don’t support our country’s aggressive foreign policy based on violence.”

Parade organizer Jim Monahan, a Ventura City councilman, said the Green Party was welcome to participate in the parade to advocate their beliefs and concerns. “We’re not opposed to them using the parade to prove their point,” he said. “This is a free country.”

But in a statement, party members said: “We do not wish to lend the least support to the cause of war or the concept of resolving political problems through the force of arms.”