GUEST COMMENTARY-During the entire coverage leading up to Tuesday's mid-term election, the Los Angeles Times never made Veteran homelessness, or the crime, corruption and malfeasance at the Los Angeles VA an issue.
But one hour and 40 minutes after the election polls closed in Los Angeles, the Times posted an editorial on its website titled "End Veteran Homelessness in LA". Today's hard copy title is "The VA's Urgent Problem."
Clearly the Times does not consider Veteran homelessness and the corrupt VA an important issue that politicians should be discussing and resolving.
Even more disappointing is that Times columnist Steve Lopez did not interview Ted Lieu or Elan Carr, the congressional candidates that sought to replace Congressman Henry Waxman.
Both candidates are Veterans and after 40 years of non-Veteran Henry Waxman's deplorable failure to responsibly oversee the largest VA in the nation in our nation's capital for homeless Veterans, neither candidate was asked, and neither candidate offered how they would be different.
Two years ago Mr. Lopez featured a compelling interview between Henry Waxman and his opponent Bill Bloomfield regarding the local VA and homeless Veterans -- before the Federal Judgment and GAO report on widespread management
Henry Waxman shamefully admitted that after spending nearly four decades as the entrusted steward of the Los Angeles VA, he still "had no vision."
Sadly, Mr. Lopez remained silent in what should have been the most vocal debate in modern times between LIeu and Carr.
Henry Waxman endorsed Ted Lieu and Ted Lieu won Henry's seat, so expect more of Henry Waxman's failed stewardship at the expense of disabled homeless Veterans over the next two years.
And expect more of the Times silence on homeless Veterans and the most corrupt VA in the nation.
Nevertheless, the current Times' Editorial suggests concerns, but offers no common-sense solutions.
Why is there even talk about "settlement" of the Federal Judgment?
How difficult is it to "settle" a Federal Judgment for the illegal use of Veterans land?
There are nine illegal occupiers on the inside of these sacred ground that belong on the outside, and tens of thousands of disabled homeless Veterans on the outside that belong on the inside. A class of first-graders could tell you that's the legal and moral way to "settle" this.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has promised to end Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles in 13 months, yet he has never, ever mentioned the Los Angeles VA as a solution. That's because the City of Los Angeles has a squatter's lease (no agreement) using 12 acres of VA land for a public dog park, public baseball diamonds, public soccer fields and a big public parking lot -- all to accommodate the wealthy Brentwood elite.
If he's to be taken seriously, the first thing Mayor Garcetti needs to end is the City's illegal occupation of these 12 acres on VA property and demand that it be converted into emergency shelter for homeless Veterans.
Until there's full acknowledgment by the LA Times, President Obama, VA Secretary McDonald and Mayor Garcetti that Los Angeles is in a "State of Emergency," the homeless Veteran population will continue to grow.
Moreover, using welfare rent to warehouse homeless Veterans in ramshackle apartments in seedy neighborhoods run by slum lords is not a solution. It's an insult that only compounds the problem -- but it "ends Veteran homelessness in the eyes of self-serving politicians."
Nor is it a solution to spend tens of millions of dollars to rehab an antiquated, vacant, rat-infested building at the VA for a few rooms as Henry Waxman and Dianne Feinnstein have done. This is also is an insult and a disservice to the greater good of helping all homeless Veterans. With the amount of money squandered on Building 209 ($20 million for 65 rooms) we could hold a major emergency program on these grounds that would shelter thousands of homeless Veterans
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It's time to take action! We need to begin with an emergency Humanitarian Relief Project much like the Vietnamese Refugee Tent City at Camp Pendleton after the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War in 1975, then build from there.Then we need a new overall vision that begins with demolishing the numerous archaic and obsolete buildings at the VA and rebuild this sacred land into a modern-day National Veterans Home for today and future generations of disabled Veterans so that they do not become chronically homeless like our Vietnam War Veterans.
Equally important, we need a big broad vision to rebuild the disgraced Los Angeles VA, similar to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II.
But don't count on the LA Times, Ted Lieu, Dianne Feinstein, Robert McDonald or Barack Obama to "think big" when it comes to taking care of thousands of war-injured homeless Veterans in Los Angeles.
(Robert Rosebrock is Director of The Veterans Revolution, Captain of the Old Veterans Guard, and Director of We the Veterans.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 90
Pub: Nov 7, 2014
