Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans:
Yesterday was our 299th consecutive Sunday Rally to “Save Our Veterans Land” and to “Bring Our Homeless Veterans Home.”
No, we didn't have 5,000 attending our Sunday Rally, but that is the estimated number who attended yesterday’s rally to pay tribute to the actor Paul Walker at the Santa Clarita site where the “Fast & Furious” actor died in a high-speed car crash.
Only four fellow Veterans attended our Sunday Rally, and when we arrived, there was a disabled homeless Veteran sleeping outside the locked front gates where we hold our protest. His “walker” was lying beside him.
Consider that on the very same Sunday afternoon that 5,000 could pay tribute to a wealthy celebrity who used poor judgment that cost him his life, a living human being who served his country with honor and is disabled and homeless, is completely neglected by our own government and society.
There are four times the number of homeless Veterans in Los Angeles than the number who attended the Paul Walker tribute. Yet guess what the major media considers more “important.”
And it is our Veterans who protected the media's right to Freedom of the Press.
Charlie Sepulveda got a blanket out of his car, and we got a hot meal inside the VA grounds from the Veterans Holiday Celebration so that our fellow Veteran had some humane offerings while he is forced to struggle alone and homeless outside the locked gates to the very land deeded exclusively in his behalf.
There 10,000 members of the American Legion living in Los Angeles County and 20,000 war-injured and impoverished Veterans who are homeless and hungry in Los Angeles County.
There are twice as many American Legionnaires in L.A. County as homeless Veterans, and not one member of the American Legion showed up yesterday to protest the misuse of Veterans land and the abuse of disabled and homeless Veterans.
But don't find fault in their membership when the local Legion's “sole voice” of authority, Larry Van Kuran, ordered members a couple years ago not to exercise their Constitutional Right to Free Speech and Assemble at these Sunday Rallies.
This same so-called American Legion “leader” is aggressively opposed to the ACLU lawsuit and supports the UCLA baseball diamond over providing shelter for homeless Veterans, declaring: “These available property resources far exceed the needs of any homeless or other Veterans needs in the area.”
We wonder why impoverished Veterans are locked out to their rightful “home,” and are forced to live in back-alley squalor.
It's a sad day in American history when Veterans Service Organizations (VSO's) are in cahoots with the VA, politicians and non-Veteran special interest groups and order their members not to exercise their Constitutional Right to assemble and protest the land fraud and human rights violations against disabled Veterans.
With this type of banana republic dictatorial “leadership,” we can expect the homeless Veteran population to explode with more and more disabled Iraqi and Afghanistan War Veterans who are unable to cope with the debilitating effects of their combat injuries and further unable to get the necessary supportive housing that they seriously need.
Next Sunday will be our 300th consecutive Sunday Rally.
This has been a steady stream of Rallies that led to two ACLU lawsuits and Judgments against the VA “leadership,” which proved why were protesting and that is the “enhanced sharing agreements” that the VA had negotiated with non-Veteran special interest groups are “unauthorized by law and therefore void.” There are nine such illegal contracts, and that includes the UCLA baseball stadium, Brentwood School's athletic complex, a local homeowner groups plan to build a public park, and others.
Do the right thing and exercise your Constitutional Right to protest in support of those who pledged their lives to defend our U.S. Constitution.
Attend the 300th consecutive Sunday Rally, from 1 to 4 p.m., northeast corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, west of the 405 Freeway, adjacent to the community of Brentwood. Guest Speakers, music and refreshments.
God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com