Examiner – by Renee NalToday, the Examiner spoke with one of the founders of “Million Vet March on the Memorials,” who are remaining anonymous.
The founders of the initiative describe themselves as
“a group of 5 military brats that decided to take action. We have been close friends for over a quarter of a century. We are Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans and Libertarians. We support and love our Veterans.”
On Sunday, the group will be holding rallies in Washington, D.C., and across the country. The initiative has touched people who are fed up with the closure of the war memorials seemingly for political purposes. As previously reported by the Examiner,
“According to mounting sources, President Obama has been hard at work trying to make the public feel the ‘shutdown,’ despite the fact that eighty percent of federal employees are still working.”
As stated on the Million Vet website,
“The Administration has closed down war memorials that are normally open 24/7 and that do not have any staff to guard them under normal circumstances.”
Their point is well-stated, as Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice said “The memorials normally are open 24 hours a day without round-the-clock staffing, so it’s unreasonable to restrict access because of the shutdown,” as reported by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette yesterday.
The Twitter page says,
“Veterans should never be pawns in this government shutdown crisis!”
Their hashtag is humming along on Twitter, #1MVetMarch.
At the time of this writing, their Facebook page has over 50,000 “likes.” The group also has a main Facebook invitation, but invitations for each state are also posted.
One of the founders of the movement said,
“We would like everyone to make very careful travel decisions for their safety. We want as many people to come to the march on the Washington memorials. However, if Americans cannot make it to Washington DC, we would hope that they would go to one of their local rallies.”
The local rallies can be found here. The group also posted a petition “to reopen the war memorials.”
The group is not accepting donations. Just as with the “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” group and the “Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment” groups, the Million Vets have experienced some political resistance. They reported today that “Unfortunately, an idea that started as an unbiased show of support for Veterans has now turned into something political activists are exploiting.” They explain,
“…several political groups are piggy-backing off our momentum and have interjected hatred, racism and even the possibility of violence into our efforts. We have also had extremists post threats on the page.”
This is to be expected, as groups like the Tea Party are also portrayed falsely as racist and extremist by some, even (sickeningly) by President Obama, as previously reported by the Examiner. Americans of all political stripes, including the President, should not attempt to suppress every American’s First Amendment right to speak freely and openly, and patriots should not allow themselves to be intimidated.
As eloquently spoken by Mahatma Gandhi,
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Godspeed, Veterans!
Follow Renee Nal on Twitter @ReneeNal and Facebook.
Check out her news and political commentary on Liberty Unyielding, Gather and TavernKeepers.comfor news you won’t find in the mainstream media. Renee is also a guest blogger for the Shire Blog.