Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans,
On Thursday, the same day Pope Francis will address a joint session of Congress in Washington, “We the People” will be holding a State of Emergency Town Hall at Skid Row – from 12 noon to 4 o’clock, at 6th Street and Gladys Park, 808 E. 5th St., downtown Los Angeles — followed by a Search and Rescue crusade, This will be an attempt to bus as many war-injured and impoverished homeless Veterans from this inhumane hellhole to the Los Angeles VA for humanitarian housing and care.
Thursday is a day that We the People will unify with one voice as Good Samaritans to rescue the voiceless, disabled, homeless Veterans at Skid Row. They have been left half dead. Our goal is to give them back their life, health, dignity and human rights.
All are invited to attend the Skid Row Town Hall meeting and the Welcome Home Reception at the Los Angeles VA.
Los Angeles is our nation’s Capital for homeless Veterans.
VA Secretary McDonald and Mayor Garcetti failed to deliver on their pledge to end Veteran homelessness before the end of this year.
This is why we are holding the State of Emergency Skid Row Town Hall and Search and Rescue crusade — to end Veteran homelessness at Skid Row first, and then all of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles VA Welcome Home Reception Center, hosting a Crisis Humanitarian Relief event, from 1 to 5 on Thursday at 11301 Wilshire Blvd., West Los Angeles 90073.
More than a month ago, we asked the HOK architecture firm to hold a Town Hall meeting at Skid Row to get input for the VA’s new master plan as they have done in all other communities in West Los Angeles, HOK did not respond. They referred us to a VA official, who did not respond.
Bobby Shriver, the close personal friend of VA Secretary McDonald, was asked to help. He did not respond.
Thus, We the People have accepted this responsibility
Thursday’s events are sponsored by a consortium of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, Vietnam Veterans of America-Region 9, Justiceville USA, and the Old Veterans Guard.
More allies will be announced. We welcome all Veterans service organizations, Veteran advocates and local organizations of goodwill to join.
Every fellow American who appreciates our nation’s unique way of life and is grateful to the men and women of our armed forces who’ve made it possible, are respectfully requested to participate and join in this noble cause.
This bold venture will change the calculus of Veteran homelessness at Skid Row. We are going into the most densely populated area of Veteran homelessness in the nation. We are going to bus every one of them to the Los Angeles VA until there are zero homeless Veterans there, unless he or she voluntarily chooses to continue living in the worst hell hole on American soil.
Last January, humanitarian Rafer Johnson, America’s legendary Olympic decathlon champion and civil/human rights icon, spoke passionately before the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition. He declared that Los Angeles is in a state of emergency for homeless Veterans. He said we need to use the nearly 400 acres of land at the Los Angeles VA to house and care for them.
Jay Handal, chairman of the West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, authored a motion that passed unanimously by the 96-member neighborhood coalition supporting Mr. Johnson’s declaration.
On Feb. 19, Dick Southern, Region 9 Director of Vietnam Veterans of America, sent a letter to the VA requesting an emergency land use permit to house and care for our homeless Veterans on the VA grounds deeded exclusively in 1888 to house and care for disadvantaged Veterans.
All of these honorable gestures and requests have been denied and rejected by those entrusted to end Veterans homelessness, particularly VA Secretary McDonald’s homeless expert, Vince Kane, who adamantly denies that Los Angeles is in a state of emergency.
Considering the VA’s failure to do its job as promised, everyone knows we are definitely in a state of responsibility.
We the People accept this responsibility to do what VA Secretary McDonald and Mayor Garcetti failed to accomplish in their public promise — to end Veteran homelessness by Dec. 31.
Now they say it will be next summer at the earliest.
Homeless Veterans cannot wait any longer, nor can We the People.
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com