Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans:
Please read following link by Jeff Hall, the Publisher/Editor of the Brentwood News.
We certainly appreciate his forthright analysis and his support for this noble cause to provide seriously needed shelter for homeless Veterans at the Los Angeles VA.
Dog Spas vs. Justice for Homeless Veterans http://www.brentwoodnewsonline.com/
Yes, our discussions have become somewhat heated at times over the years, but never close to blows as our mission over the past five years has always been to follow the example of Mahatmas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King's non-violent and peaceful protest for our cause.
As Jeff's editorial points out, dogs are often treated more “humanely” than our disabled homeless Veterans are treated by our government.
Life of a Dog Ain’t Bad
In fact, the VA, in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles, has provided a two-acre public dog park where dog owners are allowed to have their dogs publicly defecate, urinate and fornicate on Veterans’ property … all unlawful for any human being to conduct on VA property. While dogs are privileged on Veterans’ property, Veterans are considered as outcasts. They can be seen rummaging through trash cans for survival right outside the gated dog run.
Moreover, in 2007, the City of Los Angeles vacated a previous Animal Shelter and Care Center on the corner of Bundy and Missouri in West Los Angeles and moved into a new luxurious Animal Shelter on Pico Boulevard. Dog kennels increased from 26 to 101 at a cost of more than $25 million.
Waxman, Feinstein and Building 209
Meanwhile, the federal government, under the leadership of Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Westside/South Bay), U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca), along with the support of local Los Angeles politicians, agreed to rehab Building 209, a vacated, rat-infested and prison-like fortress on Veterans property, and spend $20 million to provide 55 beds for chronic homeless Veterans.
It will not be available until the summer of 2014, seven years after the completion of the new West Los Angeles Animal Shelter. It will have half the space available to provide shelter for Veterans as the City's animal shelter has.
An estimated 20,000 homeless Veterans in Los Angeles need shelter now!
If the City of Los Angeles could prioritize vacating an obsolete animal shelter and build a new one, why can't our federal government tear down the atrocious rat-infested relics and build a new Home for our disabled and disadvantaged Homeless Veterans?
As President Obama flies nearly 5,000 miles to vacation in warm and sunny Hawaii for the holidays, more than a hundred thousand homeless Veterans across America will be left out in the cold.
Even in normally sunny Southern California, it is near freezing in the evenings, and 20,000 disabled and destitute Veterans are homeless.
Why can't any of the local politicians demand the President of the United States declare Los Angeles to be in a state-of-emergency and provide immediate humanitarian relief for our 20,000 disabled and disadvantaged homeless Veterans?
Why can't the Los Angeles City Council show some leadership and support the ACLU lawsuit by voluntarily rescinding its privileged two-acre dog park lease and another 10 acres of Veterans ‘property being used for a public recreation park?
Contact your local politicians. Demand action!
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com