Taking a Revolutionary Stand

By Robert L. Rosebrock

During the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement (Negro Revolution), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) recently took a stand on the Senate Floor and delivered an historic 13-hour long filibuster challenging the Obama Administration for its policy to use military drone strikes against American citizens on U.S. soil without due process, which would be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution.

The Obama Administration caused this upheaval when, in a letter from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Sen. Paul, Mr. Holder declared the Administration technically could use military force to kill an American citizen on U.S. soil in an “extraordinary circumstance,” but, “it has “no intention of doing so.”

A Great Revolution

There’s an interesting parallel between Sen. Paul’s revolutionary stand against the Obama Administration and its Department of Justice (DOJ), and the revolutionary stand of the Old Veterans Guard challenging the Obama Administration and its Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the DOJ (U.S. government)

Thomas Jefferson left behind this responsible advice: “Every generation needs a new revolution.”

Mark Twain noted: “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Correspondingly, there’s a paralleling stand with Dr. King’s peaceful Negro Revolution more than a half-century ago.

Our stand is against the prejudice and corruptness of the U.S. government and its disrespect and neglect of our disabled and homeless Veterans.

March 9^th was the Fifth Anniversary of the peaceful and non-violent “Veterans Revolution,” which was established to bring an end to the rampant mismanagement, malfeasance and misappropriation of Veterans property at the Los Angeles National Veterans Home, and to stop the discrimination, abuse and maltreatment of our fellow Veterans who are disabled, disadvantaged and homeless

On March 10^th, we held our 260^th consecutive Sunday Rally, or 780 hours of public protest outside the largest VA Home in the nation at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in West Los Angeles.

Our stand is consistent with the forthright assertion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): “A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.”

Breaching the U.S. Constitution

In spite of “extraordinary circumstances” with Los Angeles having the largest VA Home in the nation and Los Angeles also being our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans, there’s a legal Deed requiring the U.S. government to construct and permanently maintain housing for disabled Veterans on these sacred grounds, but the VA has “no intention of doing so.”

Public servants of the U.S. government intentionally violated the U.S. Constitution when Donna Beiter, the executive director of the Los Angeles VA and her chief of police, Ronald Mathis, took assertive action to silence our public stand protesting their misappropriation of Veterans property and suppressed my First Amendment Right to Free Speech. This is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution and a Judgment was entered against them in Federal Court.

The ACLU represented me when it filed and prosecuted the lawsuit in 2010, and Defendants Beiter and Mathis were defended by U.S. Attorneys of the DOJ.

On May 26, 2011, Judge S. James Otero of the United States District Court rendered his decision, ruling in my favor: “Plaintiff’s First Amendment right was violated as a matter of law when Defendants committed impermissible viewpoint discrimination.” …. “Therefore, Defendants’ selective enforcement was an effort to suppress the Plaintiff’s activity due to disagreement with his view.”

Breaching Their Oath of Office

Nearly two years later, Ms. Beiter is still employed by the U.S. government pulling down a hefty six-figure salary as director of the largest VA in the nation, even though she desecrated the U.S. Constitution, which is also a breach of her oath of office to support and defend the Constitution.

There are 20,000 homeless Veterans in Los Angeles, of which 8,000 are chronically homeless. This was the foundation for our Constitutional Right to assemble and protest the VA’s malfeasance and misappropriation of Veterans lawfully deeded property and the maltreatment of disabled homeless Veterans.

In spite of repeated requests to VA Secretary Erick K. Shinseki, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman, calling for Ms. Beiter’s termination, all three refused to respond or take action.

As a result of their refusal to terminate Ms Beiter, but instead support and defend her, they also have each breached their oath of office to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, any federal employee who takes orders from these three public servants is now in violation of his or her own oath of office.

Judge Breaks Life’s Moral Law

More than twenty months ago, the ACLU filed another lawsuit. This one is also against Ms. Beiter and includes Secretary Shinseki as a co-defendant, for the actual misuse of Veterans property and abusing disabled homeless Veterans.

Incredulously, the Obama Administration’s DOJ is fighting this lawsuit with a vengeance while President Obama continues to talk hollow about a “sacred trust” that our nation has in providing housing and care for Veterans who are disabled and homeless.

Judge Otero is also overseeing and ruling on the second ACLU lawsuit.

However, in an extraordinary act of defiance and dishonor, Judge Otero is siding with the Obama Administration’s DOJ and U.S. Attorneys and ruled against disabled homeless Veterans and their right to housing and care on U.S. soil that was exclusively deeded in their behalf.

The Judge infamously ruled: “The government had not assumed an enforceable fiduciary duty to create housing for veterans when it accepted ownership of the land, despite explicit provisions for housing in the deed.”

According to Judge Otero, there is no law or authority for our U.S. government to assume an enforceable fiduciary duty to honor an 1887 Act of Congress and a legal Deed of 1888 to provide permanent housing for disabled homeless Veterans.

Judge Otero had his law clerks search through volumes of legalese looking for a loophole for the U.S. government to abscond from its lawful responsibility, instead of searching his own heart to find and enforce the universal moral law of “doing unto others ….

Henry Waxman’s Dereliction of Duty

In a letter dated September 11, 2007 to the Wall Street Journal, Congressman Henry Waxman, whose District includes the Los Angeles Veterans Home, declared:

“Here are the facts: After the Civil War, the federal government began to construct national soldiers’ homes for disabled and homeless war veterans. Soon after Congress enacted legislation in 1887 to authorize construction of the first soldiers’ home in the west, a patriotic Californian family donated 388 acres in Los Angeles for this purpose. But there was a catch – the legal deed requires that the federal government maintain the property permanently for veterans. Today that 388-acre campus houses the largest VA health care center in the nation and serves more than 300,000 veterans.”

Let there be no misunderstanding: Congressman Waxman is the elected public servant who has the full authority to enforce the Act of 1887 and the legal Deed of 1888, but he has “no intention of doing so.”

While Mr. Waxman reports that the VA serves more than 300,000 Veterans, it does not provide housing for disabled homeless Veterans, even though it is stated five different times in the legal Deed of 1888 that this land is to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Soldiers.

To add insult to injury, Mr. Waxman was a draft-dodging protestor of the Vietnam War. While his peers were serving in the Military, he was getting a law degree and became a politician, being elected into Congress a few months before the fall of Saigon. As the elected steward to provide housing for disabled and homeless war veterans in his District, he has failed shamefully in this noble and entrusted duty.

Today, 38 years after the end of the war that he protested against, nearly half (47%) of all homeless Veterans are Vietnam War Veterans.

Let the record reflect that during eighteen terms in Congress subsequent to the war, Mr. Waxman never appropriated one dollar for one blanket for one homeless Veteran.

On the other hand, he facilitated a “rent-free” public park on a billion-dollar parcel of Veterans property while Veteran housing is fully neglected. Correspondingly, he facilitated the transfer of Veterans property from the VA to the Department of Interior’s National Park Services.

The Congressman and Senator Feinstein recently cobbled together $20 million to rehab a 70-year old rat-infested vacant building to house 55 to 65 homeless Veterans, and it will not be completed for another 18 months. This pittance came after a decade of the two approving more than a trillion dollars to fight two wars.

As chairman of the Commerce and Energy Commission, Mr. Waxman recently facilitated $60 million to construct a solar panel project on Veterans property that will take more than 60 years to recoup taxpayer’s money.

Mr. Waxman’s alma mater, UCLA, has the exclusive use of a state-of-the art collegiate baseball diamond while homeless Veterans sleep outside along a multi-million dollar fence built with VA money to “beautify” the entryway into Brentwood to appease his super wealthy constituents.

This is the tip of the iceberg and there needs to be full and immediate Congressional, FBI and Federal Grand Jury Investigations into Mr. Waxman’s dereliction of duty that turned Los Angeles into our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans.
In sum, Mr. Waxman is responsible for allowing the biggest land-fraud scam in American history including some of the most heinous crimes against humanity ever committed on American soil — against our disabled, disadvantaged and homeless Veterans.

When Will It End?

Every day across the United States, on average, 22 American Veterans commit suicide and some of those are right here in Los Angeles as they surrender their lives out of depression and frustration because they are neglected, abused and exiled from their legally deeded Home.

How many disabled and homeless Veterans have died unnecessarily since the second ACLU lawsuit was filed because these trusted public servants are not strong enough to prevent their deaths from happening?

How long does it take a federal judge to rule on behalf of disabled homeless Veterans who’ve had their lawfully deeded Home pillaged and plundered for non-Veteran use?

How many homeless Veterans committed suicide, were killed or maimed by street thugs while waiting for help?

How many disabled and homeless Veterans have died over the years because entrusted public servants have refused to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves and have taken land that was legally deeded as their permanent “Home” on U.S. soil and misused it for non-Veteran use, such as a public dog park, a private school playground, a public park “for the enjoyment of the entire community,” and other prohibitive use?

The Answer

In Sen. Paul’s stand challenging the Obama Administration’s right to kill an American citizen on U.S. soil, he forced Attorney General Holder to concede in a letter:

“Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an

American not engaged in

combat on American soil?

The answer to that question is no.”

In the Old Veterans Guard stand against our U.S. government, we challenge:

“Does the President and Congress have the authority to construct and

permanently maintain a

National Veterans Home on American soil in Los Angeles?

Rest assured, the answer to that question is yes.”

Where Do You Stand?

When there are 20,000 homeless Veterans in Los Angeles and the VA has empty buildings, this is an “extraordinary circumstance,” and it’s also an extraordinary opportunity to defend the defenseless.

Sen. Paul stood with a few colleagues on the Senate Floor with a victorious message on behalf of America’s citizenry while other Senators met behind closed doors with the President.

Do you stand with the Old Veterans Guard and their victorious message to “Save Our Veterans Land” and to “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME” on behalf of 20,000 disabled and disabled Veterans who are homeless and hungry?

Or, do you stand with those who meet behind closed doors with Los Angeles VA executive director Donna Beiter, Los Angeles VA bureaucrat-in-chief Ralph Tillman, Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and VA Secretary Shinseki to subvert the Congressional Act of 1887 and legal Deed of 1888 that requires the U.S. government to build permanent housing in Los Angeles to house and care for our disabled homeless Veterans?

During the Negro Revolution, Dr. King declared: “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”

Dr. King also proclaimed: “In this Revolution, no plans have been written for retreat.”

Join the Veterans Revolution and support the Homeless Veterans Humanitarian Relief Project

God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!

Robert Rosebrock

U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.