February 9, 2011
General Eric K. Shinseki (USA Ret.)
Secretary, Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Washington, D.C.
Re: Discrimination Against Veterans’ Veteran-to-Veteran Summit Meeting
Dear Mr. Secretary:
It’s time to bring an end to the mismanagement, malfeasance and flagrant discrimination against America's Military Veterans by the Los Angeles Dept. of Veterans Affairs.
Here are the shameful facts: The largest VA in the nation is unilaterally administered by non-Veterans in cahoots with self-serving community and non-profit organizations, which also are headed by non-Veterans.
These entities have proven to be overly zealous, overly prejudicial and overly disrespectful towards Veterans as they pursue their unified mission of turning the Los Angeles National Veterans Home into their own fiefdom for public amusement and entertainment, including other misappropriation, at the expense of America’s Veterans.
This repulsive misconduct, aided by VA civil servants, must cease, posthaste.
As respectfully requested since the day you took office, please do the right thing and immediately terminate the privileged public park agreement that the VA has with Sue Young, the executive director of Veterans Park Conservancy (VPC).
Ms. Young, who is not a Veteran, and VPC, which is not a Veterans’ organization but a wealthy homeowner cabal, has openly declared that their mission and purpose, among other outrageous claims, is “to forever hold the Veterans Administration land for the use and benefit of our veterans, and for the enjoyment and education of the entire community.”
Under what authority was Ms. Young ordained to “forever hold” Veterans’ land for her own selfish wants and pleasure, and under the ruse of “honoring our veterans?” Veterans do not need to be honored at their own Home. They simply request that the Deed to their Home be honored, and then they will be properly honored.
While non-Veterans like Sue Young dictate what is to be done with Veterans’ property at the National Home, it is an indisputable fact that Veterans are never invited to the table to have a say about their own deeded property.
Meanwhile, 20,000 of our fellow Veterans have been exiled and dispossessed from their rightful Home. They are forced to survive, hungry and homeless, on the dangerous streets of Los Angeles while the very people who have exiled them live in multi-million dollar mansions.
This insatiable appetite for Veterans’ property is always consummated in back room wheeling-and-dealing with “unprecedented compromises” between non-Veteran residents, non-Veteran bureaucrats, and non-Veteran politicians.
On March 23, 2009, Ernie Hilger, Legislative Chairman of Disabled American Veterans, San Fernando Valley Chapter 13, sent a letter on behalf of 12 fellow Veteran leaders to request a summit meeting with Ms. Donna Beiter, executive director of the Los Angeles National Veterans Home, aka VA Greater West Los Angeles Healthcare System. The letter was respectfully submitted to discuss serious issues of fellow Veterans that we determined were four prevailing “Statements of Priority.”
1. Recognition of and honoring the Congressional Act of 1887.
2. Recognition of and honoring the Grant Deed of 1888.
3. Recognition of and honoring the Thirteen Articles of the “Declaration of Enforcement” to protect, preserve and defend the Grant Deed of 1888 and the Los Angeles National Veterans Home.
4. Establish prompt and effective timelines for implementation of the above requests with top-level executive staff members of the VA Greater West Los Angeles Healthcare System.
Ms. Beiter summarily dismissed this meeting, declaring: “I welcome the opportunity to meet with you personally to discuss the concerns you have raised in your letter, as your feedback is important to both me and GLA. However, I do not believe that a Veteran’s summit meeting is warranted to address these issues at this time.”
Mr. Hilger responded to her rejection letter with: “As veterans, we feel that you, a non-veteran, do not understand the gravity of our concerns.”
And that, Mr. Secretary, is the essence of this letter to you.
In her rejection letter, Ms. Beiter went on to say: “As you are aware, GLA regularly hosts quarterly stakeholder meetings which offer the opportunity for group discussions with veteran service organizations, elected officials, and community leaders. This forum has worked well in providing information about GLA, and receiving constructive feedback for our stakeholders. Many of the points you have raised have been addressed in such forums, and GLA's position on these matters is well known.”
Mr. Secretary, never, ever, has the VA issued a public “position” on our aforementioned “Statements of Priority,” other than Ms. Beiter’s unilateral rejection of them in her response letter. This falsified declaration by Ms. Beiter is a horrific insult to fellow Veterans and is grounds for her immediate termination.
And these so-called VA's quarterly stakeholder meetings that Ms. Beiter alludes to are not open to Veterans except for selectively invited VSO officers. Moreover, these sham meetings are overrun by non-Veteran “community leaders.” The meetings are always stacked against the greater good of Veterans.
Even worse, the Q&A session is always met with the VA saying they “can't answer” because it is supposedly confidential, or they really don’t know. More often than not, their answers to Veterans’ questions are just flat-out lies.
At a previous stakeholder meeting, non-Veteran politician Bobby Shriver dominated the meeting with questions and puffery about VA funding for vacant buildings.
He also conducted disruptive discussions with his own allies while the presentation continued. When asked for the same privilege that Mr. Shriver had of engaging questions during the presentation, Mr. Tillman, director of public affairs and asset management, gloated and gestured … “This is Bobby Shriver,” to emphasize his subservient role that Mr. Shriver’s life of privilege should supersede the interests of America’s Veterans.
In spite of this unilateral shutdown of Veterans’ voices being heard within the VA, it is no secret that the Old Veterans Guard has been holding public, peaceful protests against the VA's malfeasance and gross mismanagement of Veterans property …. said Sunday rallies being held at the busy corner of Wilshire and San Vicente Boulevards outside the VA … and for nearly three years.
Our message against the abuse and misappropriation of Veterans sacred property, including the dispossession of 20,000 homeless Veterans, has been very clear in our large banners and signs: “Save Our Veterans Land” and “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME.”
In spite of 151 consecutive Sunday rallies expressing our grievances publicly, not once during the past three years has anyone from the VA’s administrative staff ever come out to meet with us and discuss our issues.
Instead they maliciously ordered the VA police to issue false citations and arrests when we legally and rightfully hung the American flag in “distress” because we were sending the honest message that the lives of our fellow Veterans and our property are in extreme danger.
Associate director Lynn Carrier openly declared that she “ordered police to the scene when she drove past and noticed another motorist shaking his fist angrily at the flag display.” This is sheer fabrication, a preposterous claim unless she is clairvoyant and can read the minds of thousands of motorists at one of the busiest intersection of West Los Angeles.
Moreover, she is absolutely clueless about the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Flag Code. She never should be in charge of such a responsible position. Nonetheless, it was still Ms. Carrier’s responsibility and duty to consult with us about our grievances since several in the Old Guard are disabled Veterans. Most all are out-patients at the VA West Los Angeles Healthcare System.
Instead, she ordered VA police to issue falsified citations against me even if they didn't see me at our protests or didn’t even investigate the situation.
As you know, Ms. Beiter and Ms. Carrier are the top two administrative executives at the largest VA in the nation. Like Sue Young, who is the top homeowner advocate in one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the nation, none of these three are Veterans.
Correspondingly, this threesome has deliberately and disrespectfully disenfranchised America's military Veterans from the decision-making process by imposing the will of the neighboring community that wants this land for their own personal benefit.
The reason Veterans are ignored is that we long have known what Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio / Annenberg Position Paper legally confirmed — that there's been a serious breach of fiduciary duty by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs in failing to honor and abide by the restrictions imposed upon it as the trustee of the Land Grant Deed of 1888 … a public charitable trust … that is “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.”
Because of this proven knowledge, Veterans are persecuted and ostracized from the decision-making process and falsely arrested when we take this knowledge public in a peaceful demonstration.
Equally disturbing, Ms. Bon’s “Strawberry Flag” project that was approved by Ms. Beiter to help rehabilitate Veterans, and proved to be extremely successfully, was nonetheless discriminatorily and spitefully terminated by Ms. Beiter when Ms. Bon began exposing the truth about the VA’s malfeasance and violation of the Deed of 1888. Mr. Secretary, this prejudice and mean-spiritedness of Ms. Beiter is unacceptable by any government employee. Based on her high expectations of professionalism, her petty actions are grounds for you to immediately terminate her VA employment.
Ms. Bon is one of the few non-Veterans who have shown unwavering support to ensure that this land will be permanently maintained as it was benevolently and patriotically deeded 123 years ago by Arcadia B. de Baker and Senator John P. Jones, as a National Home for America’s Veterans.
Ms. Bon has been a real hero in championing Veterans’ causes, particularly for our disabled and disadvantaged Veterans. We need more non-Veterans like Ms. Bon who clearly understand the price our Veterans have paid on behalf of our unparalleled way of life. The Veterans Home is but a small reward compared to their many sacrifices. Nobody should dictate otherwise when it comes to their sacred property.
(To be continued)
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com