This past Sunday it was raining, but the Old Veterans Guard still gathered outside the locked front gates of the Los Angeles National Veterans Home.

We were protesting the most immoral and biggest land-fraud scandal in American history. It was perpetrated at the painful expense of tens of thousands of war-injured and impoverished Veterans. They have been forced to live homeless on the dangerous streets of Los Angeles. VA bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and wealthy special-interest groups have conspired to illegally use Veterans’ land for non-Veteran use.

An Inside Job

While disabled homeless Veterans struggle to survive outside the largest VA in the nation, on the inside of these sacred grounds, the VA and Veterans Park Conservancy (VPC), a powerful neighboring homeowner group, have been working non-stop to build an open-air “Hollywood Canteen Amphitheatre,” albeit illegally. 

Mega-millionaire Jerry Oppenheimer is the chairman of the Hollywood Canteen Foundation as well as a board member of VPC. He was instrumental in generating the major donation to fund development of this totally unnecessary and illegal project.

As a matter of priority, an open-air theater on VA property ranks 8,970th on a list of important Veterans’ needs.  There’s already the transportable open-air Shakespeare annual Summer Theatre held on VA property.  It is open to the general public, just as the illegal Hollywood amphitheatre would be open to the public.

Shakespeare theatre on VA property

This Shakespeare event is held at the VA “Japanese Meditation Garden” between Brentwood School’s private, illegal athletic complex and the VA golf course which is open to the public. It is directly across from MacArthur Field, used exclusively and illegally for a private kid’s soccer organization.

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There is no need for another amphitheatre on VA property. They  can convert the illegal UCLA baseball diamond into a huge amphitheatre, if there were such a necessity for Veterans.

Two large enclosed theaters are on VA property – the Wadsworth and Brentwood theatres — operated by another non-Veteran entity. They  are used for public entertainment.
While the VA has been hell-bent on violating every federal law imaginable to aid and abet in the illegal building of the Hollywood open-air amphitheater, the VA refuses to legally build a kitchen for the $265 million, 396-room Cal-Vet Home that remains half-empty and veterans remain homeless.

Comedy vs. Tragedy

Center stage on the inside of the VA, the bureaucrats, U.S. attorneys and politicians continue to make a mockery. They an play a joke on disabled homeless Veterans living in the “open air” outside the VA by defending wealthy illegal occupants on the inside so they can stage even more laughter and joy.

This past Sunday while the Old Veterans Guard protested this tragedy outside the locked front gates to the “National Veterans Home,” a short distance away a homeless Veteran built his own makeshift shelter to protect himself from the cold rain.

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Shakespeare wrote: “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances …”

It’s time for the curtain to come down. All of the illegal players on the inside must exit so that all the disabled homeless Veterans on the outside can finally enter.

God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!

Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com