LOS ANGELES—Veterans Day for many is another day off, while for others, it’s a celebration of bravery and camaraderie. Yet others protest the Veterans Affairs establishment. Still others celebrated a rare country that fought a war amongst itself for freedom.
Celebrating Veterans Day—Visit the Battleship Iowa
Parked at San Pedro’s 93 Berth on the main waterway at 250 South Harbor Blvd. is the USS Iowa battleship. This class of ships was rated as the best in the world due to their fast speed, heavy armor, survivability, large caliber guns, etc.
Built in 1940, it served many years until its recent retirement. According to the Iowa’s website, “Seventy years ago President Franklin Delano Roosevelt secretly traveled aboard Battleship IOWA to the Tehran Conference. FDR sailed aboard Battleship IOWA to confer with British Prime Minister Winton Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in November 1943.”
“It was at this conference that the plans were finalized for the D-Day invasion the following June, and where General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander of the Normandy invasion.”
Today, it remains at berth for the public to peruse its decks and admire its sheer size and former glory.
During the Veterans Day celebration weekend, the city offered all Veterans free tickets to enjoy the Iowa. Many GIs, veterans, and their families were present. This was a day for celebration with bands playing, celebrities singing, and hotdogs and other foods to enjoy.
What Does Veterans Day Mean to You?
Many local men and women volunteer to staff this amazing tourist opportunity in San Pedro. I spoke with volunteer Mark about his thoughts on our nation’s veterans.
Mark, a devout Christian, shared his thoughts: “Personally, I’m of two different minds. One mind says to me that it’s commercial, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, every other holiday, all the rest of that.”
On the other hand, he said, “I’m one of those guys that think Christmas should be every day of the year.”
Mark takes this thought a step further about our GIs that leave everything to protect our country. “I think we should celebrate veterans every day of the year. They put their lives on the line for our country, leaving families behind, leaving their lives behind, leaving their careers and everything else to fight for this country, for what they believe in, whether we believe in what’s going on in Afghanistan or whatnot, these guys have a total conviction that they’re doing what’s best for their country, and this is how they can serve their country.”
“A lot of people sit around and watch TV and say, ‘Oh we shouldn’t be there. Oh, what are they doing?’ What are they doing to help this other country?” said Mark.
Disabled Veterans and the Los Angeles Veterans Home
President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress in 1865, shortly before his assassination, to establish permanent facilities for supporting veterans. The first National Veterans Home west of the Rockies was in California in 1888 to provide a Veterans Home at Wilshire Blvd and San Vicente Blvd. in West Los Angeles. A deed was recorded with a restrictive covenant into perpetuity requiring the site to be used exclusively for the medical care and supportive housing for disabled veterans.
The LA Veterans Home has seen encroachments of almost 30 percent of the land by public and private entities that failed to meet the requirements of the deed restrictions. These were permitted by the VA because of Congressional representatives and other parties applying pressure on the VA, according to a local nonprofit homeowner’s association website that developed a public park on the VA Home property.
An ad hoc group of Veterans, the Old Veterans Guard, have publicly protested this situation for 197 consecutive Sundays. The VA has issued citations, arrests, and otherwise harassed them, according to its spokesperson, Robert Rosebrock, for too long.
“The VA must abide the deed covenants. We engaged the LA ACLU who represented our veterans in the litigation. We won the case,” Rosebrock said.
In the Eighth District Federal Court, Judge James Otero issued a summary judgment on Aug. 29 that the VA had violated the deed restrictions and ordered all nonconforming use agreements be terminated and properties vacated in six months.
The court’s decision also allowed the VA to start an appeal of the verdict during the following six-month period. The VA, on behalf of two “squatters” who improved the properties, UCLA (Bruins Baseball Park) and the Brentwood School athletic facility, will apparently appeal Judge Otero’s decision in the Ninth District Federal Court.
When interviewed Nov. 10, Rosebrock said, “Our veterans are going without care or housing in Los Angeles. Recent surveys indicate 8,000 veterans go homeless every night in LA. We know that during cold winters it doubles, they come here from all over the country to the warmer climate.
“New veterans housing and care is needed desperately for our veterans—not public parks, schools, or baseball fields. That’s why we have protested the misuse of this hallowed ground for 197 consecutive Sundays.”
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki issued an official statement that he will end veteran homelessness by 2015. That is 13 months from now.
Proud to Be an American
There is always hope, said Ted Hayes, a human rights advocate and speaker. He spoke briefly about his experience and understanding of the Civil War. Hayes is African American and he has a very interesting take on that war.
“What country on earth has ever declared a war to free an oppressed minority group within its own borders? In my study of history, I cannot find such an occurrence, except in America,” said Hayes.
“The civil war was exactly such a war. Our nation is one of high principles. We should never abandon our sacred responsibility to each other, regardless of our social status, in preserving human rights at home and abroad.”
Ted says, that on Sept. 19, 1863, President Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and read his very brief, but powerfully iconic Address.
In it the President made it very clear “that this nation under GOD, shall have a new birth of freedom” provided that it remains “dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
This is our duty to the veterans in our partnership with them and the troops to safeguard the Union of the Republic.
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