YAFers Put Song in Their Heart, Frown on His Face

The Young Americans for Freedom have left San Diego after their convention, taking Ollie North and Fawn Hall with them.

But their songs are still ringing in Stephan Brown’s ears. He is not pleased.

Brown, 37, a San Diego native and owner of an energy equipment firm, and his girlfriend were at the Hungry Hunter restaurant in Mission Valley for a nightcap. So were several dozen YAFers, having a merry time and singing YAF songs.

Songs like “Fightin’ Joe McCarthy,” “The John Birch Society Hymn,” “The 12 Adulteries of Gary Hart,” “Sweet Selma Levine,” “Ode to Mary Jo” (Chappaquiddock is a big YAF theme), and “The Christmas Song of 1985,” which starts thusly:

Oh, you’d better watch out You homos and bi’s, You’d better watch out, We’re telling you guys, The AIDS patrol is coming to town.

The mood, Brown said, was ugly.

“These guys were one beer away from a lynching,” he said. “That was their mentality.”

Poppycock, said Barry Jantz of La Mesa, statewide YAF chairman. He was there. The songs are meant to be funny, he said.

“Sure, the songs are kind of wild,” said Jantz. “It’s supposed to be. We have the ability to laugh at ourselves. We find oftentimes the left wing doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

Jantz feels protective toward the YAF songbook.

He wrote two of its more lusty entries: “The Kennedy Killbilly” (“ Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Ted/A rich senator, likes to kiss the ass of Reds” ) and “Khadafy the Dirty Maggot.”

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Seems to Like the Heat

Meet the latest media celebrity: William E. Berry of La Mesa, 61, Korean War veteran, travel agency owner, and man of strong opinions.

He’s been the target of a “Gay Times” article, a Perspective by Michael Tuck and a flurry of angry phone calls to Roger Hedgecock’s radio show. His Kiwanis Club mildly rebuked him, and a man showed up at his door with a yellow rose (said to be a symbol of animosity).

“I’m not going to worry about it,” Berry says. “It’s going to blow over and the hysterics will die down.”

To Berry, he’s the victim of narrow minds who can’t stand an opposing opinion. To his critics, he’s homophobic and politically retrograde, a purveyor of what Tuck called “a little piece of trash.”

Actually, it’s called the Kiweekly, the newsletter of the Kiwanis Club of La Mesa, “the newspaper with a heart,” circulation about a hundred. Berry was the volunteer editor-reporter.

Or at least he was until the most recent edition came off the mimeograph.

That’s the edition that mentions “fags,” “thieves in Congress,” drunken golf cart drivers, politicians who give tax money to “the idle, ignorant and indolent,” and a woman who is “in the country legally and knows her place.”

The La Mesa Kiwanis issued a statement saying that Berry’s opinions “do not reflect the opinions or views” of the club. Beyond that, club president Bob Battenfield, who runs a public relations firm, won’t comment.

Berry’s not bellicose about it all, but neither is he backing down, not even from his modest proposal that more money be spent on AIDS “so the park restrooms will once again be safe for self-respecting fags.”

His journalism career now over and his 5 minutes of fame fleeting, Berry has two regrets: One, that he didn’t get to meet Tuck personally (he’s a fan). And two, that people zeroed in only on the most recent Kiweekly.

“They should have seen my edition about Iran,” Berry said. “I said there were two pieces of great news from Iran: the Ayatollah had died and they executed 12 dope-dealers.”