Enough to Arouse a Reclining Vet
Widely publicized after being attached to the Gateway Plaza wall early last spring, the creative “Beauty” trilogy was ordered by the Brentwood-based Veterans Park Conservancy. The publicity ignited a firestorm among veterans, and especially the 64-year-old Mr. Rosebrock. “Beauty Honor Country” motivated him to become an activist for the first time in his life. For half a year, he has crisscrossed the Westside. He has been buttonholing all influential people he can find. He is seeking to stir up interest — that is, opposition to the Conservancy — and shift the emphasis on the grounds back to the veterans. Aroused enough to fight for the first time in 40 years, Mr. Rosebrock said the powerful Veterans Park Conservancy has ambitious plans to steadily steer the upgrade emphasis at the V.A. from the needy men to beautification of the land. “With the Conservancy,” he said, “it’s about the land rather than the facilities, which badly need improvement.”
A New War Coming
According to Mr. Rosebrock, the Conservancy offered an alternative proposal if “Beauty Honor Country” would not work. “They wanted to replace those three words with ‘Honoring Veterans And Cherishing the Land,’” he said. Veterans were outraged by the so-called replacement phrase, Mr. Rosebrock, “because once again the Conservancy was distorting, was diminishing the meaning of the veterans property. After they said ‘honoring veterans,’ the Conservancy wanted to make a statement that they, the Conservancy, cherish the land, That is outrageous.” If the Conservancy would dare to mount those words, vowed Mr. Rosebrock, “the fight will continue.” For sustenance in his fight against what he believes is a misguided Conservancy, Mr. Rosebrock leans heavily on the words of Douglas MacArthur, one of the most celebrated Army generals of the last century. Mr. Rosebrock’s research took him to a historic speech entitled “Duty Honor Country” that the general delivered to West Point cadets in 1962: “Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: To build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, and to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker and, I am sorry to say, some others of entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.”
Postscript
Mr. Rosebrock is engaged in a stout fight that appears far from concluding. His opponents in the Veterans Park Conservancy, he said, “include some of the wealthiest people in Brentwood.” By his account, the Conservancy raised $1 million to engineer prominent and fundamental changes at the V.A. that reflect its agenda. “We need everyone’s help in this fight,” Mr. Rosebrock said, “to do what is right for the veterans.”
Robert L. Rosebrock can be reached at DutysCalling@aol.com.
