FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 12 Our Town Strawberry Bulletin Volume I, Number 6 Serving the 500,000 Veterans Living in Greater Los Angeles November 2011 This regular feature of the Strawberry Bulletin generally records current events that occur in the lives of some of the citizens of the place we claim as Our Town: the West Los Angeles Soldiers Home held in trust as a home for veterans in perpetuity. It is currently managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second largest cabinet department in the United States, smaller only than the Department of Defense. In this special Veterans Day issue, distributed in Washington D.C. as well as the Los Angeles area, we devote this space to an overview of events concerning veterans, housing, and Los Angeles since World War Two. Sep 1, 1939: World War Two (WW2) begins in Europe. Mis-ter President you Can Can Dec 7, 1941: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the U.S. enters WW2. Jun 22, 1944: GI Bill provides WW2 veterans Give them back their Land Land with college funds, unemployment insurance, Guy Hatzvi, of the Metabolic Studio’s Optics Division, on Governor’s Island. The Liminal Camera is pointed at lower Manhattan’s skyline on 9/11. housing, and a new VA mortgage program. If you order change: it’s simple to arrange 1945: Germany surrenders in May and Japan 1 1 in September. 16 million U.S. citizens serving in the military begin to return home. A Homecoming Strategy Enforce the Deed of 88 and Nov 1, 1945: Homeless Marine corporal There is no question in my mind that the we manage for veterans on the campus. By being David Mizrahi (23), his wife Sophie (23), and thirteen empty buildings located on well- here we have continued to learn about the VA their son Bobby (2) camp in L.A.’s Pershing irrigated lawns on the north side of the West of WLA, about how the property is managed, You can change their fate and Square. Los Angeles campus of the Department of where the water systems are, what happens Jan 5, 1946: Army trailers for homeless Veterans Affairs (VA of WLA) will once again, to which buildings when it rains—all the very You will be a first rate Head of State! veterans are delivered to a Burbank site. in the not too distant future, be a home for practical things that large, centrally managed Feb 7, 1946: U.S. government: “2,900,000 veterans. bureaucracies operate. married veterans will need housing by the end Strawberry Flag was a deployable aquaponic The Garden of Defiance has been the wildest Court Focuses on Breach of Trust October 7 filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, of the year.” strawberry farm operated by a team of of the mavericks in our Metabolic Studio stable. claiming that the plaintiffs have no legal standing The federal judge hearing the class action suit activity of the Annenberg Foundation, led 1946: Government-guaranteed mortgages veterans who worked for the Metabolic Studio “Maverick” because its presence has been a and the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. challenging land use at the West Los Angeles VA by artist Lauren Bon, entitled ‘Preserving a prompt private commercial builders to start as part of the VA of WLA’s Compensated Work key unlocking the gates of the north side of the This motion argues that even if the plaintiffs’ has directed the parties to file additional briefs Home for Veterans.’” “allegations about discrimination, breach of 937,000 new homes. Therapy (CWT) program. A whole culture campus, a place we at the Studio call “Our Town.” “pertaining specifically to the arguments about The complaint seeks an injunction trust, and procedural error” are all true, “this Feb 15, 1946: California validates use of grew to surround the object of the farm. Daily Co-managed by Andrew Douglas and Korean the creation of a charitable trust.” The court directing the VA to provide permanent case must be dismissed.” Although the motion public parkland for temporary housing. “Tea at Three” and a vibrant kitchen were keys War veteran Bobby Shelton, who also managed continued the pending hearing on the VA’s supportive housing on the West L.A. VA says the VA “has as a top priority the resolution of Apr 27, 1946: Rodger Young Village (RYV) to de-alienating the site. A Veterans’ Print intensive care for our weakest strawberries motion to dismiss the case, Valentini v. Shinseki, campus, an order mandating the VA to the housing needs of homeless Veterans,” it also opens in Griffith Park to house homeless Studio was created and became a go-to place at Strawberry Flag, the Garden of Defiance has faithfully execute its obligations under the says that actually providing that housing is not its from November 14 to December 5 to allow for the veterans. 750 Quonset huts each house two for veterans in treatment on the VA campus turned a median strip between the western edge 1888 deed to use the donated land solely to responsibility. filing of the additional briefs. families, with over 5000 people at peak. and others who came through word of mouth. of the property and the back roadway of the new provide a home for disabled veterans, and a In opposition to the motion, plaintiffs’ This follows the first round of briefing in which Feb 4, 1952: RYV residents ask L.A. to keep Stories were told around the kitchen table, on CalVets Home into a productive garden. declaration that the land transferred under lawyers argued that federal district courts “have the court received written arguments not only RYV open. It remains until Feb 1954. The site is the farm, and in the Print Studio, and we put Like Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, our the 1888 deed created a charitable trust and jurisdiction to review challenges, like Plaintiffs’, from the parties, but also from the Metabolic now the L.A. Zoo. them into a newspaper. The very paper you story is influenced by the ghosts of the past. the VA is in breach of that trust. to ‘systemic failures’ in [VA] service-delivery Studio and the City of Santa Monica who filed Oct 28, 1952: McCarthyism positions are reading emerged from the conversations Through the vigil her family members continue While the case was still in its infancy, systems, and that the limitation on federal- friend-of-the-court briefs in support of plaintiffs’ Judge S. James Otero pushed the VA court jurisdiction … on which the Government public services as socialist. The L.A. Housing we had at Strawberry Flag and our desire to keep for their ancestor Arcadia, we touch the claims against the VA. toward settlement talks, appointed a relies here, applies only to attacks on ‘individual Authority’s (LA-HA) Frank Wilkinson refuses to to communicate with the more than half residual heyday of the National Soldiers’ Home. The suit was filed June 8 against VA personnel mediation officer to handle the case, and Continued on page 4 testify before the Committee on Un-American a million veterans who live in Los Angeles Over a century ago Arcadia intended that the by the ACLU of Southern California and other ordered government lawyers to name a VA Activities, and he is fired and jailed. County. land would provide a home for veterans, and by prominent lawyers, including Harvard Law official with the authority to participate Sep 1971: West L.A. VA property’s function Since our second Memorandum of “home” she meant a real home with color and in settlement negotiations. Judge Otero 11/11/11 (a.k.a. 11-11-11); Friday, November 11, 2011: Mathematics School professor Laurence H. Tribe, on behalf of changes. Chief of Staff for VA Extended Care: Understanding (MOU) with the VA of WLA warmth. Her family has tried to steward the land ignored protests from the VA’s Justice The number eleven is the sixth prime number. disabled homeless veterans in order to enforce “The original intention of the donor…was ended in October last year and we were denied along Arcadia’s vision, but real contingencies Department lawyer, who argued that the 1888 deed restrictions. The plaintiffs in the The base numeric number system lends itself to some to establish a home for disabled veterans. a third, Strawberry Flag has had to leave the relating to the immense financial value of the appointing a mediation officer and having case have charged that “the VA has eliminated interesting peculiarities as relates to the number eleven. However, now as an actual hospital, the quad between WLA-VA Buildings 205, 208, property have arisen. settlement negotiations at this early stage of permanent housing for disabled veterans, many admission requirements … [are] not only and 209. However, while you can take away Several generations of VA asset managers the litigation was premature. In response, of whom now literally sleep outside its walls, and Base 10 for example: that he be a veteran, but he must have an an MOU, you cannot take away the spirit of have not, for example, always served the deed’s Judge Otero said that he was not going to it now leases portions of the property to private let the federal government hide behind (2 digits) 11 x 11 = 121 identifiable medical condition which needs Strawberry Flag and the culture it stimulated. requirement that the land now occupied by (6 digits) 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 companies.” bureaucracy, stressing the case’s potential attention in a hospital … ” The form that spirit has taken can be read, in the VA of WLA be used for the sole benefit of (9 digits) 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321 A statement issued by plaintiffs’ counsel importance to needy veterans. May 1, 1983: LAPD Chief Darryl Gates: part, in these Bulletins. Staying connected has veterans. It is, for example, often inappropriately credited the Metabolic Studio for bringing these Settlement discussions are confidential, “Most…homeless are ‘drop outs’ who should been an important target in this past year. We leased to non-veteran-related commercial Base 16 (hexadecimal) for example: issues to the forefront, stating that “the misuse but plaintiffs’ lawyers have told the Bulletin be jailed and put to work.” lost our MOU but we didn’t leave the work, or concerns. The President himself has articulated (2 digits) 11 x 11 = 121 of the West Los Angeles campus is documented simply that the parties are complying with Jan 31, 1984: President Ronald Reagan: “the the place, behind. the importance of “home” for the American (6 digits) 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 in detail in a Position Paper issued in January the judge’s order in this regard. homeless…are homeless, you might say, by Our strategy, known internally as The Dream; but here, in this place that was deeded to (9 digits) 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321 2011 by the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable In the meantime, the VA’s lawyers on Continued on page 8 Gopher Plan, is to stay put and tend the garden Continued on page10 OPINION IN THE BULLETIN Page 2 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 11 Editorial Mechanical Engineer Kenneth Rippetoe, MBA, also wrote in late September concerning his termination Home Fires :R^Zkh_@khpbg`=^ÛZgm Why is Veterans Day not observed in the by the VA. Continued from page 10 This month marks the one-year anniversary This year, the Garden evolved into a veritable United States as universally as Armistice Day about the “Blind Postman.” of the Garden of Defiance. In reflecting upon community garden for the entire campus. is observed in many European countries? Why To the Editor: Granddad met his second wife in 1936 its evolution and what it means to so many, an Various programs have adopted days of the week is the holiday here not as widely recognized As a very young child, most kids are frequently at a bus stop on the Hastings sea front. A expression of gratitude seems in order. There at the Garden or planned their own satellite now as it was in years past? asked, “What do you want to be when you grow widow with three young children, she and are so many veterans, clinicians, Metabolic gardens. What fiendish fun it was to behold the The distinctive numerology of this year’s up?” At the age of eight, my response was, “An the kids were sheltering from the rain. On Studio artists, CalVets staff, and ambassadors campus-wide vegetable anarchy. Everyone should Veterans Day – 11/11/11 – may give it a one- engineer for the government.” You can imagine the breadline and living in lodgings, the from the community who have lovingly experience the joy felt from doing so much good. time-only boost, but by and large it is just the confusion this caused, frequently prompting family had to be out of the house during the ushered the Garden into a life of its own that There is certainly a special debt of gratitude another day on the calendar except, maybe, the follow-up question, “Why is that?” Oddly day, which was tricky when it rained. He was there are literally too many to count. to be paid to Bobby Shelton. Thomas Jefferson that it provides an excuse for a Veterans Day enough, my interest in math spurred the response, lonely, she was desperate. He had a pension. The moment comes to mind when Lauren once wrote, “Cultivators of the land are the most Sale. Most everyone goes to work as usual “I am going to make a difference in the way tax Mum, their only child, was born the following Bon, smiling, led the way to a patch of dead dirt valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the (if they still have a job), and there is no dollars are spent.” June. and said, “Hey, why don’t you put a few plants most independent, the most virtuous, and they discernable national moment of silence at 11 Although I initially dreamed of turning my During World War Two the Home Guard here?” Those words were music to my ears are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty o’clock. engineering skills into those of a NASA astronaut, wouldn’t let him join and neither would the then, and they remain so today. and interest by the most lasting bands.” No Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that as fate would have it, I was destined to be in hospital ARP (Air Raid Precautions). So, when the Also what comes to mind is the trepidation I person I’ve ever met embodies these words more Armistice Day celebrates peace, while Veterans facilities management. I gravitated toward the Luftwaffe flew overheard, he’d shake his stick felt while constructing the first cinder-blocked than Bobby Shelton. An Arkansas sharecropper Day celebrates veterans. And veterans have an VA, perhaps following in my family’s footsteps, at them instead. garden bed. It seemed so big at the time; it and Korea combat veteran, Bobby is a pillar of image problem. as my grandfather was the first Merchant Marine These days I sing his songs to my son. seems absurd in retrospect, but there was a lot humanity. His dedication and love of the land Veterans, as a class of people, present a to receive a burial in his local Federal cemetery, Bertram Henry Martin, crack shot, singer, of personal concern that it would be too much, has taken the Garden to levels never previously problematic image to the public. At best, vets my uncle is buried in the Pu’owaina Crater pipe smoker, loving Dad, eyeless wonder, too over-the-top to last. These experiences of bureaucratic negation and rejection were conceived. Stories and laughs shared between us are heroes who have defended the Republic “Punchbowl” in Honolulu, and my father and postman: 1881-1965. “Bonsoir, old thing, certainly pronounced, but life has a way of are among the multitude of gifts harvested from and preserved the American Way of Life; but Letters youngest brother are veterans. cheerio, chin-chin, napoo, toodle-oo, good- growing sometimes and, in that growth, fear the Garden. even in that image, the violence with which My service to the United States was not in the bye- ee.” becomes secondary. So here we are, a year later, strong as ever and they accomplish this feat makes them a little Elayne Mackey, president of Associates form of military duty. This November 16, 2011, of Vietnam Veterans of America California not going anywhere. Soon, the Grove of Defiance scary. At worst, vets are the homeless whackos would have been my 11th anniversary as an will be installed. It will provide fresh orange juice you see on the streets and pray that they Association, wrote in late September to comment engineer for the United States Department of on a letter from Lane Anderson in Bulletin No. 3, or a revenue stream at CalVets for decades to don’t approach you for bus fare or, worse yet, Veterans Affairs (VA). In February 2011, I received come. Horticultural projects have now extended May 2011. conversation. a commendation for outstanding performance. to almost every entity on the West L.A. VA campus, Certainly, the perception of veterans has In fact, for each of my ten years of work as a VA some with permission and others with none. changed over time. The high respect accorded To the Editor: engineer, I received outstanding ratings on my For this defiant gardener, it has been the most World War II veterans is now legendary. The I have had the privilege to join the Sunday performance appraisals. I am truly proud of my fulfilling endeavor imaginable. The Garden has veterans of The Greatest Generation not only rallies, at the corner of Wilshire & San Vicente, service and dedication to the VA. Unfortunately, grown, the Home has grown, and we’ve grown had fought in a popular and just war, and one for some time now. We would like to think on August 12, 2011, my VA career suffered a tragic together. Thank you all so very much, especially that we had clearly won, but everyone knew that the dedication of those that rally has turn of events. the veterans (you know who you are). the vets – personally. Military service was so an impact on some of the decisions that I started working at the Greater Los Angeles nearly universal that, if you were not yourself have been made for future housing of our Healthcare System (GLAHS) hospital as a project a vet, your husband, father, brother (maybe disadvantaged Veterans. Continued on page 3 Adm. Mullen Retires even sister), or next-door neighbor was. I do have a thought about Mr. Anderson’s Admiral Mike Mullen retired as chairman of statement that he made: “When I asked key Vietnam was different. Not only was that In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30 after people doing the protesting … whether they an unpopular and controversial war, and eleventh day of the eleventh month, the four years in that chair and more than forty years had talked to people like Assets Management one that we had clearly not won, but military Armistice came into effect and World War in the military. National Public Radio called his Director [Ralph] Tillman, they said, ‘Hell no, service was far from universal. One ended. In 2011, for the first time in U.S. years at the helm of the Joint Chiefs “some of why should we talk to them?’” Those now transitioning from active duty history, Veterans Day falls on 11.11.11. the most consequential in modern U.S. military I am having a problem with this response as to veteran status are once again the objects of This issue of Strawberry Bulletin is history.” I don’t believe I have ever seen, met or heard respect, but it is much more an arm’s-length released in conjunction with Veterans Day. Mullen was outspoken throughout his tenure. of Mr. Anderson being at any of the rallies. If I respect than an embrace. Because, like the Bringing West L.A. VA land use issues to During his confirmation hearings in 2007, he am wrong please correct me. I believe that any Vietnam veterans and unlike the World War II Washington, it travels to D.C. with Lauren said the troops in Afghanistan were not getting of those “protesters” would be glad to speak vets, they are not part of an almost universal Bon and the Metabolic Studio as part of the the resources they needed; he pushed for a troop with Mr. Tillman and Mr. Anderson. In fact, military experience. Liminal Camera Tour. surge, and it happened. The refrain from a lot of veterans coming I believe that there have been conversations He testified before Congress in support of back from Vietnam was, “We never got our with Mr. Tillman. ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy parade,” but even when you get a parade, the Anyone that has ever stopped by the rally toward homosexual servicemembers – testimony parade is often a way of keeping everyone in can tell you these are peaceful rallies and Inside This Issue that President Obama called the “tipping point” the motorcade at arm’s length. I myself have never heard anyone using Ron Kovic and West L.A. VA on CNN Page 4 in the debate. Obama said, “Mike, your legacy will offensive language to anyone. This past endure in a military that is stronger but also in a Sunday, September 25, 2011 was the 185th High Court to hear Stolen Valor case Page 4 nation that is more just.” consecutive rally. This dedication shows a Strawberry Bulletin Veterans Day holidayt Page 4 Adm. Mullen and his wife traveled across Published by the Metabolic Studio, Los Angeles true spirit to gather and inspire. America in support of returning troops and all 1888.metabolicstudio.org We have a shared belief and would welcome Strawberry Gazetteer: mapping veterans Page 5-7 veterans, speaking out for employment and Mr. Anderson to actually stop by and see just housing needs. Lauren Bon, Editor-in-Chief what we might actually have to say. A Liminal Camera Tour conversation Page 5 Terence Lyons, veterans correspondent Mullen is almost certainly the last chairman One last thought, I also do not understand Lawrence Flaherty and Jen Curtis, production design Buffalo Soldier story concluded Page 8 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served in the John Pecorelli and Lisa Marr, copy editors Mr. Anderson’s reply: “Perhaps it is time Vietnam War. He is succeeded as chairman by Contributing writers: Dorian Bon, Andrew Douglas, for protests then?” Going on No. 186 with Richard L. Fox, Rick Holland, Janet Owen Driggs Anatomy of the Strawberry Flag Page 9 Army General Martin Dempsey, a veteran of the Contributing Artists: Lauren Bon, Rochelle Fabb, renewed spirit and dedication. Are you wars in the Middle East. Hannah Krut-Powell, Sarah McCabe interested in joining us, Mr. Anderson? Pages of History: Granddad remembered Page 10 Thank you, Edition of 2000 Elayne Mackey Garden of Defiance after one year Page 11 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 10 OPINION IN THE BULLETIN Page 3

Homecoming Letters, cont. VA employees that I had been looking for Building Continued from page 12 evidence against the company. Ironically, construction manager in January of 2008. the message was written using the parent be a home for veterans in perpetuity, there is a It was not long afterward that I began company’s email address and signed as the fundamental breakdown in accountability to witnessing what seemed to be favoritism company that was not listed on the VETBIZ veterans. toward several contractors not listed on the website. This evidence was used against me It is the opinion of this writer that, moving VETBIZ web site of eligible service-disabled for dismissal, which I turned around and forward, we need to plan what we will do veteran contractors [a site maintained by the reported to the OIG. when the property becomes a home again— Center for Veterans Enterprise, a program All of the harassment and letters were because that is inevitable. Rather than over- office within the VA’s Office of Small and Watchdog retaliatory and aimed at restraining my right identifying veteran homelessness with a Disadvantaged Business Utilization]. In to report what I had observed and believed housing problem, we need to start building December 2009, I reported to the VA Office Once again, we must report that the first were violations … of [Title 5, United States a vision for the future now. The solution as of Inspector General (OIG) that a project hammer has not yet hit the first nail in the Code section] 2302(b)(8). Instead of removing I see it is in a graduated approach. As a first had been taken away from a service-disabled long-promised rehabilitation of Building 209 to the threat of dismissal, the facility made the step the Executive Branch – the President – veteran and awarded to a company that was provide housing for homeless veterans. But at decision, issued to me on August 11, that must enforce the deed of 1888. Then a land not a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small least it is heartening to know that we are not the August 12 was my last day. use agreement or an MOU should be drawn Business (SDVOSB). only people watching over what does or does not Since my dismissal, I have started a up for a land easement on the north side of In March 2011, I discovered that several happen at Building 209. nonprofit organization, One with the Water™ the campus, clearly delineated by Wilshire companies that were not SDVOSB were being On October 25, Santa Monica Human Services (www.onewiththewater.org), in which I am Boulevard, to be known as the Reintegration awarded contracts, even though the Federal Administrator Setareh Yavari presented the City’s teaching veterans and service-disabled Zone. government required these contracts be given annual review of the Santa Monica Homeless veterans, and children with special needs, What needs to happen is no less than the to a SDVOSB. Furthermore, the awarded Plan to the City Council. In a familiar refrain, she such as Autism Spectrum and Asperger’s development of a new working paradigm non-veteran companies were not listed on said that Santa Monica and its local providers Syndrome, how to swim. at the VA of WLA, one that reincorporates the VETBIZ website. … I continued to witness bear a disproportionate amount of the burden After the March 21 filing of Whistleblower’s the veterans themselves into the land that that these non-veteran companies were still for caring for the homeless, and she argued that a Pages of History protection, I still have not received notice is in fact theirs. Providing a pilot for other receiving contracts set aside for SDVOSBs. broader, regional response was needed. that it has been granted. I was dismissed locations, the new paradigm would operate a I reported this to the OIG and my The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that while on sick leave granted to me under home for veterans by veterans. Adding a whole Keep the Home Fires Burning supervisor, and filed for Whistleblower’s Yavari said advocacy at the federal level is the Family Medical Leave Act, due to the new dimension to such existing VA programs medals and Army papers, a small brass box, protection. However, instead of verifying necessary but quoted her as saying that is a This month’s “Pages of History” is both more harassment and anxiety they were causing as CWT, the Reintegration Zone would position the eye. It is always Sunday evening. The room the allegations I made that potential fraud “long, slow, frustrating process.” The newspaper distant than usual and at the same time closer to me. The Merit Systems Protection Board has veterans as assets rather than patients, while always smells of damp washing. We sing. was happening at the VA, my supervisors observed: “That spoke to council members, home – more distant because we reach across the six months to make its decision of my appeal giving them a greater stake in their own From the Boer War: terminated my Contracting Officer Technical particularly Bobby Shriver, who have spent sea, and closer to home because it is a personal of the dismissal. In the meantime, I continue property. Cash would not be necessary here, “Goodbye, Dolly, I must leave you, though it Representative (COTR) duties on March 30, the last seven years trying to get the Veteran’s account. Our Bulletin contributor relates what to fight for the change necessary to allow for we would accept time. After all, as a soldier breaks my heart to go, Something tells me I immediately following my report. No one told Administration to rehabilitate a building for she knows of her Granddad, a British Army service-disabled veterans the fair competition exchanges a set period of his or her time when am needed at the front to fight the foe.” me why my duties were revoked. Even after therapeutic housing on its West Los Angeles veteran who died the year she was born. they deserve and the sole-source contracts they join the military, so time can be a form of From World War One: this reporting, VA employees continued to campus. “That’s the tobacco pouch I made for him Congress intended for them to be awarded. currency that redefines purposeful work in a “Brother Bertie went away to do his bit the defend the contractors I had reported. I was “Los Angeles is the veteran’s ‘homeless capital’ when I was six. It’s thin now, but that leather’ll The Congressional hearing of July 28, 2011, Reintegration Zone. other day, With a smile on his lips and his harassed and moved to an office away from of the nation, according to homeless advocate rot long before the zip falls out.” indicated that change would be forthcoming. After President Obama’s 2009 call to lieutenant pips upon his shoulder bright and my co-workers. New Directions, which is based at the West L.A. Mum was proud of her sewing and so proud The VETBIZ deletion of 70 percent of its citizens to “grab a mop,” Lauren Bon and gay.” Two weeks after the initial report, I was VA campus. Veterans comprise 31 percent of of her Dad. “He had his eyes blown out in the database the week of September 20, 2011, was the Metabolic Studio put together the Print “Aaaa-ll the latest songs a penny,” calls informed on April 6, “We’re trying to figure the county’s ‘chronically homeless’ population, trenches,” she’d say, handing me his glass one. a step in the right direction, but we still have Studio in Building 209, and veterans working Mum, launching into his favorite tune, “Tiptoe out if you should be fired.” I was given a letter according to LAHSA [Los Angeles Homeless Brown and delicately painted, it lives in the more to do. And how do the service-disabled on Strawberry Flag felt compelled to simply through the Tulips.” It was written for the movie that same day (dated March 25) from another Services Authority, a City/County joint powers pouch now, inside a custom-made box, snug as veterans recoup the approximately $13 billion clean the empty buildings up. (Viewed as an Gold Diggers of Broadway in 1929, by which time VA contracting office that recommended my agency]. an engagement ring. that went to those 18,800 companies now effort by people to reclaim their governments, Granddad had been almost blind for fifteen COTR duties be revoked, instead of thanking “Advocates succeeded in pressuring Congress Born in 1881 and too small to become a deleted from the database? the current occupation movements can also years. Did he like the talkies? Could he see me for bringing up all the wrongdoings I was to release $20 million to pay for the rehabilitation blacksmith like his Dad, Granddad enlisted in Stand up! Fight with the freedom the be seen as a response to this injunction.) them? I never thought to ask. observing and/or suspecting were occurring of one of three buildings on the campus, referred the local regiment, the Royal Sussex. Posted to Veterans have provided us! That simple cleaning action by veterans was He and an officer were in No Mans Land at the VA. to as building 209, but the effort ‘falls far short’ of India with the Second Battalion, he earned his Kenneth Rippetoe, MBA profound enough to change the direction of during the Battle of the Marne, 1914, when a On May 19, I was issued a Proposed the VA’s commitment, Yavari said.” education certificate and became “Marksman, Mechanical Engineer their lives while simultaneously transforming First Class” before sailing for South Africa and bomb blew Granddad’s eye out and the officer’s Removal letter, and on May 26, I was issued The newspaper warned, “Pressures on service the use of a building in transition. Once the Second Boer War in 1900. legs off. With the officer on his back directing a letter barring me from the facility. This NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK providers for homeless veterans will only cleaned, Building 209 had light, working He was fifty-six when his only child was born. them, Granddad crawled back to the British was prompted by several VA employees, OBAMA, President of the United increase in coming years as over 100,000 male States of America, do hereby plumbing, furniture, and, for less than two “I can see him now,” says Mum, pulling a shirt trench. witnesses to the same observations that I and female soldiers return from the warfront in thousand dollars, a working Print Studio. Apparently his deed was mentioned in had made, supporting the non-SDVOSB by proclaim November 11, 2011, Iraq, advocates said. Service providers are gearing taut on the ironing board. “In his corner, filling as Veterans Day. I encour- It is only a matter of time before the up his pipe, tapping a matchbox on the arm of dispatches, but when he got home his wife said, informing them that I was reporting on them. up for the challenge, but with little idea of when it women and men coming home from Iraq and “What do I want with an eyeless wonder?” and age all Americans to recognize the chair, singing the old songs.” One of the contractor’s employees wrote to  
 

 


will emerge or how severe it will be.” Afghanistan need a place to mend. Strawberry slammed the door. He got divorced – scandalous In the shadow of the Nazi death camps, VA management that he had heard through veterans through appropriate Clearly, the stakes are building – pardon the Flag was about salvaging lives; Reintegration it is rarely remembered that the term in those days. public ceremonies and private pun – as time continues to pass and Building 209 Zone would enable institutionalized “concentration camp” was first used to describe “We think she went to Canada,” says Mum. The Strawberry Bulletin invites letters from readers on prayers. I call upon Federal, continues to sit without any physical progress individuals a place to come to confront the British prisons set up in South Africa. Aiming “What happened to Granddad?” I ask. any subject. All letters must include the writer’s name 


   

toward the promised renovation. and a phone number and address through which the challenges they face, and a place to come to sweep the country bare of any sustenance for “He became a postman, riding all round   
 


 
 
In other news related to both Building 209 “home” whenever they need to. For, as Robert Hastings on his bike,” she replies. writer can be reached. Address and phone number will States and to participate in the Boer guerilla fighters, the British military not be published; name may be withheld upon request. and the City of Santa Monica, on November 3, Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when patriotic activities in their imprisoned women and children. More than “How did he know which letters belonged Letters are subject to editing by the Bulletin for reasons Santa Monica Police Department officers in communities. I call on all you have to go there, they have to take you in.” twenty-five thousand died in the camps, many where?” including length or questionable expression. Views full gear were observed conducting exercises Americans, including civic and from starvation. “Someone at the sorting office put them all in expressed in Letters to the Editor are not necessarily the in and around Building 209 and the quad it views of the Strawberry Bulletin. fraternal organizations, plac- I’m sitting at the blue-topped kitchen table the right order.” fronts on, which includes the wellness center It must be true. I once saw an article clipped es of worship, schools, and looking through Granddad’s things. Some Mail: 1745 No. Spring Street, No. 4, Los Angeles, CA communities to support this and occupational therapy facilities in Building from the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer all 90012 day with commemorative expres- 208. We are not sure how welcoming a sight that Continued on page 11 Email: [email protected] sions and programs. presented to veterans receiving treatment there. NEWS IN THE BULLETIN Page 4 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 9 Our Town Kovic Calls on VA to A Day of Peace Anatomy of the Strawberry Flag Continued from page 8 For the Veterans The newspaper you are holding is one of weekday afternoon at the Flag. (The kitchen Jun 14, 2007: Further land sale proposals lead House Homeless Vets the products of a remarkable artwork that was also a great place to hang out – they even to legislation by Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Waxman Veterans Day, November 11, is a day to honor occupied the lawn framed by Buildings 205, brought an upright piano in.) to prohibit disposal of West L.A. VA land. Ron Kovic, the paraplegic Vietnam veteran with the October 23 airing of a segment of CNN American military veterans of all wars, living and 208, and 209 near the northernmost reaches Political and community leaders joined Jan 8, 2008: “Project 50,” a multi-agency and author of Born on the Fourth of July, told Presents, in which Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported dead. of the West Los Angeles VA property. veterans, clinicians, and artists at more-or- collaboration, houses the 50 most chronically CNN, “If that land [the West L.A. VA] was given on the Valentini v. Shinseki class action lawsuit The November 11 holiday was originally called From June 2009 until October 2010, Lauren less-monthly High Tea events, with proper homeless people on Skid Row, including nine to veterans and if we were able to put at least involving the use of the West L.A. VA land. Armistice Day and grew out of the World War I Bon and the Metabolic Studio installed an linen and tableware. Veterans gathered at the veterans. a small percentage of what we’re spending Gupta interviewed plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, aquaponic strawberry farm in the shape of a Flag on some evenings to join Studio artists Apr 16, 2008: HUD and VA announce HUD- on these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward Rosenbaum of the ACLU and Carolina Barrie, between the Allied nations and Germany that very large American flag – nearly a thousand in play readings. One evening, Bon and the VASH as a joint initiative. Eligibility is extended to building a facility for homeless and disabled grandniece of one of the 1888 property donors, went into effect on the eleventh hour of the strawberry plants sat in horizontal white Studio staged a Samuel Beckett play with all veterans. veterans, I think it would be one of the most who joined in the suit. He also interviewed VA eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. pipes mounted at chest height. major-league talent in “theatre space” cleared 2008: LA-HA is awarded 840 HUD-VASH honorable things we could do as citizens and chief of staff Dr. Dean Norman who said the Originally, Armistice Day as it was celebrated The plants were salvaged from a farm in by CWT vets in Bldg. 205. vouchers. one of the most honorable things that the VA VA had added 700 emergency housing and in many countries was to be a day observed Rosemead where they would otherwise have In the diagram below, artist Lauren Bon Jul 14, 2009: A 273-city survey names L.A. could do to make up for the mistakes of the transitional housing beds. “I think we have with parades and public meetings and a brief been plowed under after bearing only one has sketched out some of the progeny to “Meanest City” for laws targeting the homeless suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m. past.” the resources, with the community, to end crop. The water that nourished the plants which Strawberry Flag has given birth as it by making it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public The United States Congress in 1926 said that CNN described Kovic as a “former Marine homelessness for veterans in Los Angeles,” was salvaged from the Los Angeles River and has moved from object to mythology. Weekly spaces. November 11 “marked the cessation of the most [who] has been working to improve VA Norman said. stored on the site in a large military water Print Workshops are still ongoing, now in 2009: LAHSA reports 5,939 male and 601 female destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war treatment of returning troops since his own bladder. The pumps that drove the water Bldg. 208. The Flag’s community newspaper, veterans homeless in L.A. in human annals and the resumption by the homecoming in the late 1960s” and said that through the pipes were powered by batteries the Strawberry Gazette, has evolved into Nov 3, 2009: VA Secretary Shinseki: “President people of the United States of peaceful relations he “is calling for an occupation protest of the charged by veterans who pedalled stationary the Strawberry Bulletin, which you are now Obama and I are personally committed to ending SUPREME COURT TO HEAR with other nations, which we hope anniversary West L.A. property, not unlike the current bicycles under the shade of solar panels. reading. The strawberry farm is gone, but a homelessness among Veterans within the next of this date should be commemorated with Occupy Wall Street movement.” The Strawberry Flag farm was tended by plentitude of vegetables are growing in the five years.” thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed The story was posted online in connection STOLEN VALOR ACT CASE artists and by veterans employed through Garden of Defiance just down the hill from the Jan 2010: HUD-VA reports: 76,329 people are to perpetuate peace through good will and the VA Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) Flag location. homeless in the U.S. on any given night, and The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to mutual understanding between nations.” hear a First Amendment case presenting program. But the Flag was not just a living As Bon and the other Studio artists 144,842 experience homelessness over the course In 1938, Congress made the 11th of November sculpture to be observed and admired. It inhabited the West L.A. VA property, they quite of a year, with 11.5% of the homeless being FREEDOM the question of whether the constitutional in each year a legal holiday to be dedicated to guarantee of freedom of speech includes a became the nexus of a community of veterans, naturally became curious about the history veterans. the cause of world peace and to be thereafter clinicians, and visitors. and geography of the place and its people. Jun 16, 2010: The VA allocates $20 million BARBER SHOP right to lie about military honors. celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” By The justices voted on October 10 to hear the Bon and the Studio refurbished a kitchen in And that nurtured a similar curiosity among to convert West L.A. VA Bldg 209 into veteran OPEN DAILY 1954, we knew that “the war to end all wars” Bldg. 208 so that harvested strawberries could the veterans living there and participating housing. government’s defense of the Stolen Valor Act, 9AM-7PM had not done that – World War II had required be cooked into preserves by CWT veterans. in the community fostered by the Strawberry June 22, 2010: The nation’s first comprehensive a 5-year-old law that makes it a crime to falsely the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Other CWT vets cleaned out space in Bldg. Flag. strategy to end homelessness – for veterans by claim to have earned medals for service in the Marines, and airmen in the Nation’s history, 209 for the Print Studio where labels could Out of that curiosity and the combined 2015, for all by 2020 – is presented to Congress. U.S. armed forces. and then American forces had again fought be printed for the jam jars. And the Print talents and intelligence of the artists and Oct 22, 2010: LA-HA receives 505 HUD-VASH A Pomona man pleaded guilty to violating aggression in Korea. Studio printed not only jam labels but also veterans was born the Metabolic Studio vouchers. the act after having claimed to be a 29-year Congress that year, at the urging of the art prints and custom t-shirts at weekly print position paper, titled “Preserving a Home for Feb 16, 2011: Based on the Project 50 model, Marine Corps veteran who was awarded the Breach of Trust veterans service organizations, amended the Act workshops. And the kitchen was also used to Veterans.” Project 60 is announced at West L.A. VA. The 60 Medal of Honor, when in fact he had never Continued from page 1 of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and bake pastries that were served with tea every Art begets change. veterans involved will be housed at locations served in the military at all. inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” And so benefits adjudications,’” citing Veterans for other than West L.A. VA property. But the federal Ninth Circuit Court November 11 became a day to honor American Feb 17, 2011: L.A. Times: “7,400 of the more Common Sense v. Shinseki in which the Ninth of Appeals struck down the law as veterans of all wars, living and dead. Circuit ruled that VA delays in providing mental than 48,000 people…homeless on any given night unconstitutional on free-speech grounds and (Veterans Day is sometimes confused with in L.A. County are veterans.” health care constituted a denial of veterans’ said the government cannot act as the “truth Memorial Day. While November 11 is celebrated due process rights under the Constitution. Jul 14, 2011: HUD and the VA allocate $10.5 police” to punish lies that cause no direct in many countries, Memorial Day is a distinctly million for California public housing agencies (Strawberry Bulletin No.3, May 2011) harm. (Strawberry Bulletin No. 2, April 2011) American holiday with its roots in the Civil War. The Metabolic Studio’s “amicus curiae” brief for permanent housing and case management for If it were a crime to lie, said one of the Ninth It began to be observed in 1868 as Decoration 6,790 homeless veterans statewide. L.A. receives concentrated on the charitable trust issues Circuit judges, “Phrases such as ‘I’m working Day, a time for the nation to decorate the graves and argued that the 1888 deed established $1,851,912. late tonight, hunny,’ ‘I got stuck in traffic,’ of the war dead with flowers. After World War Oct 5, 2011: President Obama authorizes $1.2 such a trust to maintain the property as a and ‘I didn’t inhale’ could all be made into I, the day was expanded to honor those who billion to improve VA medical facilities, including permanent home for veterans in perpetuity: crimes.” have died in all American wars. It was not until the $20 million for converting West L.A. VA Bldg “The 1888 Deed created a charitable or public But U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli 1971 that Memorial Day was declared a national 209. trust under which the National Home assumed Jr., in his appeal, said that “knowingly false” holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still Oct 17, 2011: “A sudden influx of transients” to a legally imposed fiduciary duty as trustee to statements deserve little protection under the sometimes called Decoration Day; it was then Venice prompts L.A. to open an emergency cold- permanently use the donated land solely and First Amendment. He pointed to laws against placed on the last Monday in May.) weather shelter 6 1/2 weeks early. Approximately a exclusively as a home for the benefit of disabled fraud that punish those who make false The connection between Armistice Day as quarter of the residents are women. veterans.” promises to obtain money and to laws against a celebration of peace and Veterans Day as a Dec. 1, 2011: 16 cold-weather shelters offering After the filing of required briefs by the defamation that punish those who make false celebration of military veterans is fundamentally a total of 1,487 beds will open in L.A. County to parties and the “amicus” briefs by the and hurtful claims that damage a person’s sensible. Notwithstanding fictional Dr. serve approximately 51,340 homeless people, 16% Metabolic Studio and the City of Santa Monica, reputation. Strangelove-like characterizations, no one of whom are veterans, per LAHSA in Jan 2011. 160 the court issued its order requesting further He said that banning false claims to medals appreciates, honors, and celebrates peace more beds are located at the West L.A. National Guard briefing on the charitable trust issues, saying and decorations is crucial to “safeguarding than a veteran. Armory adjacent to VA land. LAHSA’s Winter that it “has determined that it would benefit the military honors system.” Shelter Hotline: 1-800-548-6047, www.lahsa.org. from additional briefing pertaining specifically The court said it will hear the case of United to the arguments about the creation of a States vs. Alvarez early next year and rule by charitable trust.” the summer. FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 8 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 5 Our Town A Buffalo Soldier Tells His Story Continued from page 12 The Strawberry Bulletin here concludes its “That was the scariest day of my life,” said choice.” Strawberry Gazetteer interview with Jesse James Mosley, a man who Mosley. “You been fightin’ these cats for Dec 19, 1984: UCLA study finds that almost bravely served his country in World War II months, and to see them come from behind half of all homeless people are veterans. as a proud “Buffalo Soldier.” Part One of the trees and bushes yelling, ‘Don’t shoot!’ I Sep 2, 1987: President Reagan orders interview appeared in our last issue (No. 5, thought it mighta been a trick or something. identification of “programs…not ‘properly’ the Mapping Veterans September 2011). ‘Cause don’t let nobody tell you different – responsibility of the federal government or that In this interview, we have done our best to dem German soldiers was some bad boys! can be performed more efficiently by the private capture the language with which he spoke, They could really fight and they didn’t care sector.” The context of privatization prompts In the United States following the practice of author Rebecca Skloot nothing about dying. They just didn’t care.” VA asset reappraisal and land sale proposals, The map depicted on the following two pages in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. As one Jim Crow was on the run but not quite done. including West L.A. property. is the work of Metabolic Studio artist Rochelle of Henrietta’s relatives said to Skloot, “If you In the last month of the war, the worry became: Feb 12, 1988: VA investigates hosting 15 city- Fabb, using information supplied by veterans pretty up how people spoke and change the What happens when we move into barracks? owned trailers for a Salvation Army homeless and others, in preparation for a cross-country trip things they said, that’s dishonest. It’s taking It was unthinkable that blacks and whites veteran program at West L.A. to visit Soldiers Homes and homeless veterans. away their lives, their experiences, and their would share the same barracks. That worry Mar 15, 1988: Local opposition to West L.A. Where are the homeless vets? How did they come selves.” proved to be displaced. After two months in an VA trailers mounts. Sue Young of Brentwood to be there? Where do they get their information Mosley, aged 90, concluded our first integrated barracks, a battalion commander Homeowners Association: “We know there about available resources and services? installment by saying, “I’m gonna tell y’all in the 78th Division said that he had no is a homeless problem out there, but the VA The images on the map include pineapples something: I’ve been married twice, and I’ve problems of any kind, explaining, “White men property is not the place to solve it.” The trailer (traditional symbols of hospitality) designating survived cancer twice.” That’s amazing, we and colored men are welded together with a plan is replaced by outreach, increased places the eleven original Soldiers Homes, band-aids said: You have survived World War II, two deep friendship and respect born of combat for elderly and mentally ill veterans, and veteran showing the location of closed facilities, and cancers, and two wives! We laughed – amazing! and matured by a realization that such an placement off the West L.A. campus. various colored dots identifying concentrations We then asked, seeing and participating in association is not the impossibility that many May 20, 1988: Land sale proposals lead to of homeless vets, major military bases, GI a war with so much violence – how did the war of us have been led to believe. When men passage of the Cranston Act, which restricts coffeehouses, and other veteran-related change you? undergo the same privations, face the same transfer/development of 109 acres of the West information. “Oh I don’t know,” replied Mosley. “I guess dangers before an ‘impartial enemy,’ there L.A. VA property. White dots with images of the American flag in after awhile I was just thankful for being alive! can be no segregation. My men eat, play, 1991: L.A. City and L.A. County join to form L.A. World War I veterans marched on Washington in 1932 demanding promised bonuses. The Bonus Army a “distress” position show potential locations for was disbanded when President Hoover turned the Army against the Army.They did however receive I was married before I went in, and when I got work, and sleep as a company of men – with Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) “to end their bonuses in 1936. raising the Metabolic Studio’s giant (fifty feet by out my wife had to tie me to the bed. I’d be no regard to color.” the finger-pointing” over which government’s eighty feet) flag. hollerin’, cussin’, and screamin’ ‘Shoot him! Two years after the war ended, President actions have most increased homelessness. A Liminal Camera Tour Conversation Although the trip never took place quite as it was Shoot him!’ she said. I really had to get myself Truman signed an order to desegregate the 1992: Seeds are sown for HUD-VASH when the originally envisaged, the map has proven useful together. My wife, poor thang, I’d like to drive U.S. armed forces. Unfortunately, despite the Department of Housing and Urban Development In 1888 George Eastman invented the Kodak production have been as fully integrated as Studio personnel visited five of the original her crazy. I really took her through a lot. That victory, the more than one million African (HUD) allocates $17.9 million to fund 750 Section camera in Rochester, New York, and photographic into a totalitarian mode of production Soldiers Homes this past summer (as reported woman went through a lot with me. I can’t even American men and women who served still 8 vouchers to pay private rents for veterans with mass production was born. Contemporary as photography. And the home of that in Strawberry Bulletin No. 5 in September) and imagine.” faced segregation back in the United States. severe psychiatric or substance abuse disorders Rochester was a recent stop on the Metabolic production was here in Rochester!” also made trips to veterans’ centers in Florida, Looking at the world and military today, what They had won the hearts and minds of those who are case managed by the VA. Studio’s Liminal Camera Tour, which is crossing We pondered the subtleties of the Montana, and Washington D.C. do you think? Any advice for the youngsters? in Italy, yet they couldn’t get the same respect Dec 8, 1999: The U.S. government reports America from Flag Day 6/14/11 until Veterans visual metaphor for another complete Moreover, the Studio’s Liminal Camera has Mosley paused in deep thought and said, “I of most here at home. that veterans comprise 23% of the homeless Day 11/11/11 photographing locations that circumnavigation before Tristan asked, “And traveled the country and photographed giant flag- see the young men and women in the military population. have suffered devastation. An image-capturing the second reason?” raisings in the Owens Valley in California on Flag today, and I don’t like seeing the women Dec 21, 2001: HUD-VASH is codified when a and perceptual tool, the Liminal Camera is a “Aura,” I replied. Day and in New York City on the anniversary of fightin’. I think a woman’s place is at home, New Directors at government allocation of $1 billion for veteran repurposed shipping container mounted on the In his 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age 9/11. The Liminal Camera will again photograph raising her family. As far as the men, all I can relief includes funds for 500 additional Section 8 back of a truck. The large-scale photographs of Mechanical Reproduction, Benjamin noted a giant flag-raising on the National Mall in say is – they are blessed that they didn’t come vouchers annually from 2003 through 2006. that the Camera produces are both shot and that “even the most perfect reproduction Washington D.C. on Veterans Day, and its images New Directions developed inside the container. of a work of art is lacking in one element… along when we did. I’m tellin’ you, we had it New Directions, Inc. announced the 2005: Local interests propose conversion will be shown at the Hirshhorn Museum the The following is a loose dramatization of its unique existence at the place where it rough! The situation today is a lot better than it election of Chuck Hurewitz and Jennifer of three empty West L.A. VA buildings “into following weekend. events described by Dorian Bon of the Metabolic happens to be.” was back then. You aint gotta take what we took Kim to the agency’s Board of Directors in late long-term therapeutic supportive housing Fabb calls the map “a work in progress” as Studio’s Optics Division. In other words, a traditional artwork back then. When I came along, a white man September. for homeless veterans” to VA Secretary James the Studio continues to gather information and We were in Rochester yesterday, sitting has an “aura,” which is a product of the could do anything he wanted. They wouldn’t Mr. Hurewitz, a veteran entertainment Nicholson. refine the associated images. inside the Liminal Camera, the world’s largest understanding that when we stand with, say, even arrest him. But these days they don’t care attorney, represents clients in the music, film, 2005: HUD’s first report to Congress on Pocket Instamatic. We’d just driven round the a Rembrandt painting, its existence is unique what color you are, they’ll arrest your butt. This television and publishing industries at the Los national homelessness since 1984: On an in less than a decade, Hitler had been Chancellor Kodak factory for the third time when Tristan to this particular moment and this particular world has changed. I think a lot for the better. Angeles-based firm of Isaacson, Kaufman & “average day…between 235,000 and 434,000 of Germany for three years, and Spain was about to asked, “What would Walter Benjamin have location. The object and our experience You just don’t know what we went through.” Painter, P.C. (IKP). people” are homeless, with approximately 18.7% erupt in civil war. With art shorn of its traditional, thought of this project?” of it are “authentic” and “real,” and any By the end of the war, more than one million New Directions and its Board of Directors being veterans. ritualistic value, Benjamin outlined a theory of As we swung round a wide turn, I considered reproductions are clearly just that: copies African Americans served on land, air, and will be the beneficiary of Mr. Hurewitz’s Jan 14, 2006: L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa: “This is art that would be “useful for the formulation of the question. “Benjamin would have valued that merely serve to enhance the aura of the sea. Despite some of them not being able to more than 30 years of experience leading, the capital of homelessness in America,” when revolutionary demands.” it highly for two reasons,” I finally said. original. read or write, and the lack of training, many overseeing, and assisting public and private a survey finds 88,345 homeless in L.A. County, “Ah,” said Tristan. “So photography strips “First, because we are dealing with ruins. The aura is destroyed, however, when black soldiers distinguished themselves as very community service organizations in the Los almost double the next highest location, New images of their authenticity and the Liminal We’re taking images of the ruins of a means multiple duplicates replace the original, as capable military men – some would say with Angeles area. York City. Camera, a pinhole camera, in and of itself of production – a factory devoted to the very when a movie exists in duplicate on hundreds very little recognition. We brought this point Ms. Kim has been on staff at the California Jul 5, 2007: Construction begins on a 396-bed strips photography down to its earliest possible analog photography that digital technology is of reels of film and plays in hundreds of up with Mosley and he replied, “That may have Department of Justice Office of the Attorney State CalVets Home for elderly veterans at West moments. Plus, we’re using it as a political tool to making a thing of the past. That’s significant,” cinemas, or a photograph is printed on been true for some, but for me – everywhere I General since 2001. She is currently L.A. VA. portray the reality of a country in ruins?” I continued, “because art practice has been thousands of front pages. The result of such went folk acted like they just wanted to kiss ya. Supervising Deputy Attorney General, where Aug 22, 2007: VA Secretary Nicholson “Yes,” said I. “The dynamic of photography intergrated into the commodity structure. mechanical reproduction, said Benjamin, is Most people just wanted to thank you for how she serves as a lead trial counsel and reviews, authorizes conversion of West L.A. Bldgs 205, is a metaphor for ruination, and we are actually The economics of museums, the economics “the liquidation of the traditional value of the you served the country.” advises, and directs strategy on federal class 208, and 209 for veteran supportive housing. photographing physical ruins. And those two of dealers – the whole art market has become cultural heritage.” For Mosley’s unit, World War II ended on action cases. Dec 26, 2007: 10,000 HUD-VASH vouchers are things together combine to make a really potent April 30, 1945 when German and Italian troops funded nationwide for each of 2008, 2009, and integrated into the commodity structure.” A German Jewish cultural critic, Benjamin method of portraying where we are in this surrendered. 2010. “Exactly,” exclaimed Tristan. “And was writing at a time of enormous tension and moment of time.” historically very few means of artistic Continued on page 9 tumult. The “talkies” had become ubiquitous “Totally cool,” said Tristan. Photo by Josh White Photo by Josh White FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 8 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 5 Our Town A Buffalo Soldier Tells His Story Continued from page 12 The Strawberry Bulletin here concludes its “That was the scariest day of my life,” said choice.” Strawberry Gazetteer interview with Jesse James Mosley, a man who Mosley. “You been fightin’ these cats for Dec 19, 1984: UCLA study finds that almost bravely served his country in World War II months, and to see them come from behind half of all homeless people are veterans. as a proud “Buffalo Soldier.” Part One of the trees and bushes yelling, ‘Don’t shoot!’ I Sep 2, 1987: President Reagan orders interview appeared in our last issue (No. 5, thought it mighta been a trick or something. identification of “programs…not ‘properly’ the Mapping Veterans September 2011). ‘Cause don’t let nobody tell you different – responsibility of the federal government or that In this interview, we have done our best to dem German soldiers was some bad boys! can be performed more efficiently by the private capture the language with which he spoke, They could really fight and they didn’t care sector.” The context of privatization prompts In the United States following the practice of author Rebecca Skloot nothing about dying. They just didn’t care.” VA asset reappraisal and land sale proposals, The map depicted on the following two pages in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. As one Jim Crow was on the run but not quite done. including West L.A. property. is the work of Metabolic Studio artist Rochelle of Henrietta’s relatives said to Skloot, “If you In the last month of the war, the worry became: Feb 12, 1988: VA investigates hosting 15 city- Fabb, using information supplied by veterans pretty up how people spoke and change the What happens when we move into barracks? owned trailers for a Salvation Army homeless and others, in preparation for a cross-country trip things they said, that’s dishonest. It’s taking It was unthinkable that blacks and whites veteran program at West L.A. to visit Soldiers Homes and homeless veterans. away their lives, their experiences, and their would share the same barracks. That worry Mar 15, 1988: Local opposition to West L.A. Where are the homeless vets? How did they come selves.” proved to be displaced. After two months in an VA trailers mounts. Sue Young of Brentwood to be there? Where do they get their information Mosley, aged 90, concluded our first integrated barracks, a battalion commander Homeowners Association: “We know there about available resources and services? installment by saying, “I’m gonna tell y’all in the 78th Division said that he had no is a homeless problem out there, but the VA The images on the map include pineapples something: I’ve been married twice, and I’ve problems of any kind, explaining, “White men property is not the place to solve it.” The trailer (traditional symbols of hospitality) designating survived cancer twice.” That’s amazing, we and colored men are welded together with a plan is replaced by outreach, increased places the eleven original Soldiers Homes, band-aids said: You have survived World War II, two deep friendship and respect born of combat for elderly and mentally ill veterans, and veteran showing the location of closed facilities, and cancers, and two wives! We laughed – amazing! and matured by a realization that such an placement off the West L.A. campus. various colored dots identifying concentrations We then asked, seeing and participating in association is not the impossibility that many May 20, 1988: Land sale proposals lead to of homeless vets, major military bases, GI a war with so much violence – how did the war of us have been led to believe. When men passage of the Cranston Act, which restricts coffeehouses, and other veteran-related change you? undergo the same privations, face the same transfer/development of 109 acres of the West information. “Oh I don’t know,” replied Mosley. “I guess dangers before an ‘impartial enemy,’ there L.A. VA property. White dots with images of the American flag in after awhile I was just thankful for being alive! can be no segregation. My men eat, play, 1991: L.A. City and L.A. County join to form L.A. World War I veterans marched on Washington in 1932 demanding promised bonuses. The Bonus Army a “distress” position show potential locations for was disbanded when President Hoover turned the Army against the Army.They did however receive I was married before I went in, and when I got work, and sleep as a company of men – with Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) “to end their bonuses in 1936. raising the Metabolic Studio’s giant (fifty feet by out my wife had to tie me to the bed. I’d be no regard to color.” the finger-pointing” over which government’s eighty feet) flag. hollerin’, cussin’, and screamin’ ‘Shoot him! Two years after the war ended, President actions have most increased homelessness. A Liminal Camera Tour Conversation Although the trip never took place quite as it was Shoot him!’ she said. I really had to get myself Truman signed an order to desegregate the 1992: Seeds are sown for HUD-VASH when the originally envisaged, the map has proven useful together. My wife, poor thang, I’d like to drive U.S. armed forces. Unfortunately, despite the Department of Housing and Urban Development In 1888 George Eastman invented the Kodak production have been as fully integrated as Studio personnel visited five of the original her crazy. I really took her through a lot. That victory, the more than one million African (HUD) allocates $17.9 million to fund 750 Section camera in Rochester, New York, and photographic into a totalitarian mode of production Soldiers Homes this past summer (as reported woman went through a lot with me. I can’t even American men and women who served still 8 vouchers to pay private rents for veterans with mass production was born. Contemporary as photography. And the home of that in Strawberry Bulletin No. 5 in September) and imagine.” faced segregation back in the United States. severe psychiatric or substance abuse disorders Rochester was a recent stop on the Metabolic production was here in Rochester!” also made trips to veterans’ centers in Florida, Looking at the world and military today, what They had won the hearts and minds of those who are case managed by the VA. Studio’s Liminal Camera Tour, which is crossing We pondered the subtleties of the Montana, and Washington D.C. do you think? Any advice for the youngsters? in Italy, yet they couldn’t get the same respect Dec 8, 1999: The U.S. government reports America from Flag Day 6/14/11 until Veterans visual metaphor for another complete Moreover, the Studio’s Liminal Camera has Mosley paused in deep thought and said, “I of most here at home. that veterans comprise 23% of the homeless Day 11/11/11 photographing locations that circumnavigation before Tristan asked, “And traveled the country and photographed giant flag- see the young men and women in the military population. have suffered devastation. An image-capturing the second reason?” raisings in the Owens Valley in California on Flag today, and I don’t like seeing the women Dec 21, 2001: HUD-VASH is codified when a and perceptual tool, the Liminal Camera is a “Aura,” I replied. Day and in New York City on the anniversary of fightin’. I think a woman’s place is at home, New Directors at government allocation of $1 billion for veteran repurposed shipping container mounted on the In his 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age 9/11. The Liminal Camera will again photograph raising her family. As far as the men, all I can relief includes funds for 500 additional Section 8 back of a truck. The large-scale photographs of Mechanical Reproduction, Benjamin noted a giant flag-raising on the National Mall in say is – they are blessed that they didn’t come vouchers annually from 2003 through 2006. that the Camera produces are both shot and that “even the most perfect reproduction Washington D.C. on Veterans Day, and its images New Directions developed inside the container. of a work of art is lacking in one element… along when we did. I’m tellin’ you, we had it New Directions, Inc. announced the 2005: Local interests propose conversion will be shown at the Hirshhorn Museum the The following is a loose dramatization of its unique existence at the place where it rough! The situation today is a lot better than it election of Chuck Hurewitz and Jennifer of three empty West L.A. VA buildings “into following weekend. events described by Dorian Bon of the Metabolic happens to be.” was back then. You aint gotta take what we took Kim to the agency’s Board of Directors in late long-term therapeutic supportive housing Fabb calls the map “a work in progress” as Studio’s Optics Division. In other words, a traditional artwork back then. When I came along, a white man September. for homeless veterans” to VA Secretary James the Studio continues to gather information and We were in Rochester yesterday, sitting has an “aura,” which is a product of the could do anything he wanted. They wouldn’t Mr. Hurewitz, a veteran entertainment Nicholson. refine the associated images. inside the Liminal Camera, the world’s largest understanding that when we stand with, say, even arrest him. But these days they don’t care attorney, represents clients in the music, film, 2005: HUD’s first report to Congress on Pocket Instamatic. We’d just driven round the a Rembrandt painting, its existence is unique what color you are, they’ll arrest your butt. This television and publishing industries at the Los national homelessness since 1984: On an in less than a decade, Hitler had been Chancellor Kodak factory for the third time when Tristan to this particular moment and this particular world has changed. I think a lot for the better. Angeles-based firm of Isaacson, Kaufman & “average day…between 235,000 and 434,000 of Germany for three years, and Spain was about to asked, “What would Walter Benjamin have location. The object and our experience You just don’t know what we went through.” Painter, P.C. (IKP). people” are homeless, with approximately 18.7% erupt in civil war. With art shorn of its traditional, thought of this project?” of it are “authentic” and “real,” and any By the end of the war, more than one million New Directions and its Board of Directors being veterans. ritualistic value, Benjamin outlined a theory of As we swung round a wide turn, I considered reproductions are clearly just that: copies African Americans served on land, air, and will be the beneficiary of Mr. Hurewitz’s Jan 14, 2006: L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa: “This is art that would be “useful for the formulation of the question. “Benjamin would have valued that merely serve to enhance the aura of the sea. Despite some of them not being able to more than 30 years of experience leading, the capital of homelessness in America,” when revolutionary demands.” it highly for two reasons,” I finally said. original. read or write, and the lack of training, many overseeing, and assisting public and private a survey finds 88,345 homeless in L.A. County, “Ah,” said Tristan. “So photography strips “First, because we are dealing with ruins. The aura is destroyed, however, when black soldiers distinguished themselves as very community service organizations in the Los almost double the next highest location, New images of their authenticity and the Liminal We’re taking images of the ruins of a means multiple duplicates replace the original, as capable military men – some would say with Angeles area. York City. Camera, a pinhole camera, in and of itself of production – a factory devoted to the very when a movie exists in duplicate on hundreds very little recognition. We brought this point Ms. Kim has been on staff at the California Jul 5, 2007: Construction begins on a 396-bed strips photography down to its earliest possible analog photography that digital technology is of reels of film and plays in hundreds of up with Mosley and he replied, “That may have Department of Justice Office of the Attorney State CalVets Home for elderly veterans at West moments. Plus, we’re using it as a political tool to making a thing of the past. That’s significant,” cinemas, or a photograph is printed on been true for some, but for me – everywhere I General since 2001. She is currently L.A. VA. portray the reality of a country in ruins?” I continued, “because art practice has been thousands of front pages. The result of such went folk acted like they just wanted to kiss ya. Supervising Deputy Attorney General, where Aug 22, 2007: VA Secretary Nicholson “Yes,” said I. “The dynamic of photography intergrated into the commodity structure. mechanical reproduction, said Benjamin, is Most people just wanted to thank you for how she serves as a lead trial counsel and reviews, authorizes conversion of West L.A. Bldgs 205, is a metaphor for ruination, and we are actually The economics of museums, the economics “the liquidation of the traditional value of the you served the country.” advises, and directs strategy on federal class 208, and 209 for veteran supportive housing. photographing physical ruins. And those two of dealers – the whole art market has become cultural heritage.” For Mosley’s unit, World War II ended on action cases. Dec 26, 2007: 10,000 HUD-VASH vouchers are things together combine to make a really potent April 30, 1945 when German and Italian troops funded nationwide for each of 2008, 2009, and integrated into the commodity structure.” A German Jewish cultural critic, Benjamin method of portraying where we are in this surrendered. 2010. “Exactly,” exclaimed Tristan. “And was writing at a time of enormous tension and moment of time.” historically very few means of artistic Continued on page 9 tumult. The “talkies” had become ubiquitous “Totally cool,” said Tristan. NEWS IN THE BULLETIN Page 4 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 9 Our Town Kovic Calls on VA to A Day of Peace Anatomy of the Strawberry Flag Continued from page 8 For the Veterans The newspaper you are holding is one of weekday afternoon at the Flag. (The kitchen Jun 14, 2007: Further land sale proposals lead House Homeless Vets the products of a remarkable artwork that was also a great place to hang out – they even to legislation by Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Waxman Veterans Day, November 11, is a day to honor occupied the lawn framed by Buildings 205, brought an upright piano in.) to prohibit disposal of West L.A. VA land. Ron Kovic, the paraplegic Vietnam veteran with the October 23 airing of a segment of CNN American military veterans of all wars, living and 208, and 209 near the northernmost reaches Political and community leaders joined Jan 8, 2008: “Project 50,” a multi-agency and author of Born on the Fourth of July, told Presents, in which Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported dead. of the West Los Angeles VA property. veterans, clinicians, and artists at more-or- collaboration, houses the 50 most chronically CNN, “If that land [the West L.A. VA] was given on the Valentini v. Shinseki class action lawsuit The November 11 holiday was originally called From June 2009 until October 2010, Lauren less-monthly High Tea events, with proper homeless people on Skid Row, including nine to veterans and if we were able to put at least involving the use of the West L.A. VA land. Armistice Day and grew out of the World War I Bon and the Metabolic Studio installed an linen and tableware. Veterans gathered at the veterans. a small percentage of what we’re spending Gupta interviewed plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, aquaponic strawberry farm in the shape of a Flag on some evenings to join Studio artists Apr 16, 2008: HUD and VA announce HUD- on these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward Rosenbaum of the ACLU and Carolina Barrie, between the Allied nations and Germany that very large American flag – nearly a thousand in play readings. One evening, Bon and the VASH as a joint initiative. Eligibility is extended to building a facility for homeless and disabled grandniece of one of the 1888 property donors, went into effect on the eleventh hour of the strawberry plants sat in horizontal white Studio staged a Samuel Beckett play with all veterans. veterans, I think it would be one of the most who joined in the suit. He also interviewed VA eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. pipes mounted at chest height. major-league talent in “theatre space” cleared 2008: LA-HA is awarded 840 HUD-VASH honorable things we could do as citizens and chief of staff Dr. Dean Norman who said the Originally, Armistice Day as it was celebrated The plants were salvaged from a farm in by CWT vets in Bldg. 205. vouchers. one of the most honorable things that the VA VA had added 700 emergency housing and in many countries was to be a day observed Rosemead where they would otherwise have In the diagram below, artist Lauren Bon Jul 14, 2009: A 273-city survey names L.A. could do to make up for the mistakes of the transitional housing beds. “I think we have with parades and public meetings and a brief been plowed under after bearing only one has sketched out some of the progeny to “Meanest City” for laws targeting the homeless suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m. past.” the resources, with the community, to end crop. The water that nourished the plants which Strawberry Flag has given birth as it by making it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public The United States Congress in 1926 said that CNN described Kovic as a “former Marine homelessness for veterans in Los Angeles,” was salvaged from the Los Angeles River and has moved from object to mythology. Weekly spaces. November 11 “marked the cessation of the most [who] has been working to improve VA Norman said. stored on the site in a large military water Print Workshops are still ongoing, now in 2009: LAHSA reports 5,939 male and 601 female destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war treatment of returning troops since his own bladder. The pumps that drove the water Bldg. 208. The Flag’s community newspaper, veterans homeless in L.A. in human annals and the resumption by the homecoming in the late 1960s” and said that through the pipes were powered by batteries the Strawberry Gazette, has evolved into Nov 3, 2009: VA Secretary Shinseki: “President people of the United States of peaceful relations he “is calling for an occupation protest of the charged by veterans who pedalled stationary the Strawberry Bulletin, which you are now Obama and I are personally committed to ending SUPREME COURT TO HEAR with other nations, which we hope anniversary West L.A. property, not unlike the current bicycles under the shade of solar panels. reading. The strawberry farm is gone, but a homelessness among Veterans within the next of this date should be commemorated with Occupy Wall Street movement.” The Strawberry Flag farm was tended by plentitude of vegetables are growing in the five years.” thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed The story was posted online in connection STOLEN VALOR ACT CASE artists and by veterans employed through Garden of Defiance just down the hill from the Jan 2010: HUD-VA reports: 76,329 people are to perpetuate peace through good will and the VA Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) Flag location. homeless in the U.S. on any given night, and The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to mutual understanding between nations.” hear a First Amendment case presenting program. But the Flag was not just a living As Bon and the other Studio artists 144,842 experience homelessness over the course In 1938, Congress made the 11th of November sculpture to be observed and admired. It inhabited the West L.A. VA property, they quite of a year, with 11.5% of the homeless being FREEDOM the question of whether the constitutional in each year a legal holiday to be dedicated to guarantee of freedom of speech includes a became the nexus of a community of veterans, naturally became curious about the history veterans. the cause of world peace and to be thereafter clinicians, and visitors. and geography of the place and its people. Jun 16, 2010: The VA allocates $20 million BARBER SHOP right to lie about military honors. celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” By The justices voted on October 10 to hear the Bon and the Studio refurbished a kitchen in And that nurtured a similar curiosity among to convert West L.A. VA Bldg 209 into veteran OPEN DAILY 1954, we knew that “the war to end all wars” Bldg. 208 so that harvested strawberries could the veterans living there and participating housing. government’s defense of the Stolen Valor Act, 9AM-7PM had not done that – World War II had required be cooked into preserves by CWT veterans. in the community fostered by the Strawberry June 22, 2010: The nation’s first comprehensive a 5-year-old law that makes it a crime to falsely the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Other CWT vets cleaned out space in Bldg. Flag. strategy to end homelessness – for veterans by claim to have earned medals for service in the Marines, and airmen in the Nation’s history, 209 for the Print Studio where labels could Out of that curiosity and the combined 2015, for all by 2020 – is presented to Congress. U.S. armed forces. and then American forces had again fought be printed for the jam jars. And the Print talents and intelligence of the artists and Oct 22, 2010: LA-HA receives 505 HUD-VASH A Pomona man pleaded guilty to violating aggression in Korea. Studio printed not only jam labels but also veterans was born the Metabolic Studio vouchers. the act after having claimed to be a 29-year Congress that year, at the urging of the art prints and custom t-shirts at weekly print position paper, titled “Preserving a Home for Feb 16, 2011: Based on the Project 50 model, Marine Corps veteran who was awarded the Breach of Trust veterans service organizations, amended the Act workshops. And the kitchen was also used to Veterans.” Project 60 is announced at West L.A. VA. The 60 Medal of Honor, when in fact he had never Continued from page 1 of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and bake pastries that were served with tea every Art begets change. veterans involved will be housed at locations served in the military at all. inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” And so benefits adjudications,’” citing Veterans for other than West L.A. VA property. But the federal Ninth Circuit Court November 11 became a day to honor American Feb 17, 2011: L.A. Times: “7,400 of the more Common Sense v. Shinseki in which the Ninth of Appeals struck down the law as veterans of all wars, living and dead. Circuit ruled that VA delays in providing mental than 48,000 people…homeless on any given night unconstitutional on free-speech grounds and (Veterans Day is sometimes confused with in L.A. County are veterans.” health care constituted a denial of veterans’ said the government cannot act as the “truth Memorial Day. While November 11 is celebrated due process rights under the Constitution. Jul 14, 2011: HUD and the VA allocate $10.5 police” to punish lies that cause no direct in many countries, Memorial Day is a distinctly million for California public housing agencies (Strawberry Bulletin No.3, May 2011) harm. (Strawberry Bulletin No. 2, April 2011) American holiday with its roots in the Civil War. The Metabolic Studio’s “amicus curiae” brief for permanent housing and case management for If it were a crime to lie, said one of the Ninth It began to be observed in 1868 as Decoration 6,790 homeless veterans statewide. L.A. receives concentrated on the charitable trust issues Circuit judges, “Phrases such as ‘I’m working Day, a time for the nation to decorate the graves and argued that the 1888 deed established $1,851,912. late tonight, hunny,’ ‘I got stuck in traffic,’ of the war dead with flowers. After World War Oct 5, 2011: President Obama authorizes $1.2 such a trust to maintain the property as a and ‘I didn’t inhale’ could all be made into I, the day was expanded to honor those who billion to improve VA medical facilities, including permanent home for veterans in perpetuity: crimes.” have died in all American wars. It was not until the $20 million for converting West L.A. VA Bldg “The 1888 Deed created a charitable or public But U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli 1971 that Memorial Day was declared a national 209. trust under which the National Home assumed Jr., in his appeal, said that “knowingly false” holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still Oct 17, 2011: “A sudden influx of transients” to a legally imposed fiduciary duty as trustee to statements deserve little protection under the sometimes called Decoration Day; it was then Venice prompts L.A. to open an emergency cold- permanently use the donated land solely and First Amendment. He pointed to laws against placed on the last Monday in May.) weather shelter 6 1/2 weeks early. Approximately a exclusively as a home for the benefit of disabled fraud that punish those who make false The connection between Armistice Day as quarter of the residents are women. veterans.” promises to obtain money and to laws against a celebration of peace and Veterans Day as a Dec. 1, 2011: 16 cold-weather shelters offering After the filing of required briefs by the defamation that punish those who make false celebration of military veterans is fundamentally a total of 1,487 beds will open in L.A. County to parties and the “amicus” briefs by the and hurtful claims that damage a person’s sensible. Notwithstanding fictional Dr. serve approximately 51,340 homeless people, 16% Metabolic Studio and the City of Santa Monica, reputation. Strangelove-like characterizations, no one of whom are veterans, per LAHSA in Jan 2011. 160 the court issued its order requesting further He said that banning false claims to medals appreciates, honors, and celebrates peace more beds are located at the West L.A. National Guard briefing on the charitable trust issues, saying and decorations is crucial to “safeguarding than a veteran. Armory adjacent to VA land. LAHSA’s Winter that it “has determined that it would benefit the military honors system.” Shelter Hotline: 1-800-548-6047, www.lahsa.org. from additional briefing pertaining specifically The court said it will hear the case of United to the arguments about the creation of a States vs. Alvarez early next year and rule by charitable trust.” the summer. FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 10 OPINION IN THE BULLETIN Page 3

Homecoming Letters, cont. VA employees that I had been looking for Building Continued from page 12 evidence against the company. Ironically, construction manager in January of 2008. the message was written using the parent be a home for veterans in perpetuity, there is a It was not long afterward that I began company’s email address and signed as the fundamental breakdown in accountability to witnessing what seemed to be favoritism company that was not listed on the VETBIZ veterans. toward several contractors not listed on the website. This evidence was used against me It is the opinion of this writer that, moving VETBIZ web site of eligible service-disabled for dismissal, which I turned around and forward, we need to plan what we will do veteran contractors [a site maintained by the reported to the OIG. when the property becomes a home again— Center for Veterans Enterprise, a program All of the harassment and letters were because that is inevitable. Rather than over- office within the VA’s Office of Small and Watchdog retaliatory and aimed at restraining my right identifying veteran homelessness with a Disadvantaged Business Utilization]. In to report what I had observed and believed housing problem, we need to start building December 2009, I reported to the VA Office Once again, we must report that the first were violations … of [Title 5, United States a vision for the future now. The solution as of Inspector General (OIG) that a project hammer has not yet hit the first nail in the Code section] 2302(b)(8). Instead of removing I see it is in a graduated approach. As a first had been taken away from a service-disabled long-promised rehabilitation of Building 209 to the threat of dismissal, the facility made the step the Executive Branch – the President – veteran and awarded to a company that was provide housing for homeless veterans. But at decision, issued to me on August 11, that must enforce the deed of 1888. Then a land not a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small least it is heartening to know that we are not the August 12 was my last day. use agreement or an MOU should be drawn Business (SDVOSB). only people watching over what does or does not Since my dismissal, I have started a up for a land easement on the north side of In March 2011, I discovered that several happen at Building 209. nonprofit organization, One with the Water™ the campus, clearly delineated by Wilshire companies that were not SDVOSB were being On October 25, Santa Monica Human Services (www.onewiththewater.org), in which I am Boulevard, to be known as the Reintegration awarded contracts, even though the Federal Administrator Setareh Yavari presented the City’s teaching veterans and service-disabled Zone. government required these contracts be given annual review of the Santa Monica Homeless veterans, and children with special needs, What needs to happen is no less than the to a SDVOSB. Furthermore, the awarded Plan to the City Council. In a familiar refrain, she such as Autism Spectrum and Asperger’s development of a new working paradigm non-veteran companies were not listed on said that Santa Monica and its local providers Syndrome, how to swim. at the VA of WLA, one that reincorporates the VETBIZ website. … I continued to witness bear a disproportionate amount of the burden After the March 21 filing of Whistleblower’s the veterans themselves into the land that that these non-veteran companies were still for caring for the homeless, and she argued that a Pages of History protection, I still have not received notice is in fact theirs. Providing a pilot for other receiving contracts set aside for SDVOSBs. broader, regional response was needed. that it has been granted. I was dismissed locations, the new paradigm would operate a I reported this to the OIG and my The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that while on sick leave granted to me under home for veterans by veterans. Adding a whole Keep the Home Fires Burning supervisor, and filed for Whistleblower’s Yavari said advocacy at the federal level is the Family Medical Leave Act, due to the new dimension to such existing VA programs medals and Army papers, a small brass box, protection. However, instead of verifying necessary but quoted her as saying that is a This month’s “Pages of History” is both more harassment and anxiety they were causing as CWT, the Reintegration Zone would position the eye. It is always Sunday evening. The room the allegations I made that potential fraud “long, slow, frustrating process.” The newspaper distant than usual and at the same time closer to me. The Merit Systems Protection Board has veterans as assets rather than patients, while always smells of damp washing. We sing. was happening at the VA, my supervisors observed: “That spoke to council members, home – more distant because we reach across the six months to make its decision of my appeal giving them a greater stake in their own From the Boer War: terminated my Contracting Officer Technical particularly Bobby Shriver, who have spent sea, and closer to home because it is a personal of the dismissal. In the meantime, I continue property. Cash would not be necessary here, “Goodbye, Dolly, I must leave you, though it Representative (COTR) duties on March 30, the last seven years trying to get the Veteran’s account. Our Bulletin contributor relates what to fight for the change necessary to allow for we would accept time. After all, as a soldier breaks my heart to go, Something tells me I immediately following my report. No one told Administration to rehabilitate a building for she knows of her Granddad, a British Army service-disabled veterans the fair competition exchanges a set period of his or her time when am needed at the front to fight the foe.” me why my duties were revoked. Even after therapeutic housing on its West Los Angeles veteran who died the year she was born. they deserve and the sole-source contracts they join the military, so time can be a form of From World War One: this reporting, VA employees continued to campus. “That’s the tobacco pouch I made for him Congress intended for them to be awarded. currency that redefines purposeful work in a “Brother Bertie went away to do his bit the defend the contractors I had reported. I was “Los Angeles is the veteran’s ‘homeless capital’ when I was six. It’s thin now, but that leather’ll The Congressional hearing of July 28, 2011, Reintegration Zone. other day, With a smile on his lips and his harassed and moved to an office away from of the nation, according to homeless advocate rot long before the zip falls out.” indicated that change would be forthcoming. After President Obama’s 2009 call to lieutenant pips upon his shoulder bright and my co-workers. New Directions, which is based at the West L.A. Mum was proud of her sewing and so proud The VETBIZ deletion of 70 percent of its citizens to “grab a mop,” Lauren Bon and gay.” Two weeks after the initial report, I was VA campus. Veterans comprise 31 percent of of her Dad. “He had his eyes blown out in the database the week of September 20, 2011, was the Metabolic Studio put together the Print “Aaaa-ll the latest songs a penny,” calls informed on April 6, “We’re trying to figure the county’s ‘chronically homeless’ population, trenches,” she’d say, handing me his glass one. a step in the right direction, but we still have Studio in Building 209, and veterans working Mum, launching into his favorite tune, “Tiptoe out if you should be fired.” I was given a letter according to LAHSA [Los Angeles Homeless Brown and delicately painted, it lives in the more to do. And how do the service-disabled on Strawberry Flag felt compelled to simply through the Tulips.” It was written for the movie that same day (dated March 25) from another Services Authority, a City/County joint powers pouch now, inside a custom-made box, snug as veterans recoup the approximately $13 billion clean the empty buildings up. (Viewed as an Gold Diggers of Broadway in 1929, by which time VA contracting office that recommended my agency]. an engagement ring. that went to those 18,800 companies now effort by people to reclaim their governments, Granddad had been almost blind for fifteen COTR duties be revoked, instead of thanking “Advocates succeeded in pressuring Congress Born in 1881 and too small to become a deleted from the database? the current occupation movements can also years. Did he like the talkies? Could he see me for bringing up all the wrongdoings I was to release $20 million to pay for the rehabilitation blacksmith like his Dad, Granddad enlisted in Stand up! Fight with the freedom the be seen as a response to this injunction.) them? I never thought to ask. observing and/or suspecting were occurring of one of three buildings on the campus, referred the local regiment, the Royal Sussex. Posted to Veterans have provided us! That simple cleaning action by veterans was He and an officer were in No Mans Land at the VA. to as building 209, but the effort ‘falls far short’ of India with the Second Battalion, he earned his Kenneth Rippetoe, MBA profound enough to change the direction of during the Battle of the Marne, 1914, when a On May 19, I was issued a Proposed the VA’s commitment, Yavari said.” education certificate and became “Marksman, Mechanical Engineer their lives while simultaneously transforming First Class” before sailing for South Africa and bomb blew Granddad’s eye out and the officer’s Removal letter, and on May 26, I was issued The newspaper warned, “Pressures on service the use of a building in transition. Once the Second Boer War in 1900. legs off. With the officer on his back directing a letter barring me from the facility. This NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK providers for homeless veterans will only cleaned, Building 209 had light, working He was fifty-six when his only child was born. them, Granddad crawled back to the British was prompted by several VA employees, OBAMA, President of the United increase in coming years as over 100,000 male States of America, do hereby plumbing, furniture, and, for less than two “I can see him now,” says Mum, pulling a shirt trench. witnesses to the same observations that I and female soldiers return from the warfront in thousand dollars, a working Print Studio. Apparently his deed was mentioned in had made, supporting the non-SDVOSB by proclaim November 11, 2011, Iraq, advocates said. Service providers are gearing taut on the ironing board. “In his corner, filling as Veterans Day. I encour- It is only a matter of time before the up his pipe, tapping a matchbox on the arm of dispatches, but when he got home his wife said, informing them that I was reporting on them. up for the challenge, but with little idea of when it women and men coming home from Iraq and “What do I want with an eyeless wonder?” and age all Americans to recognize the chair, singing the old songs.” One of the contractor’s employees wrote to  
 

 


will emerge or how severe it will be.” Afghanistan need a place to mend. Strawberry slammed the door. He got divorced – scandalous In the shadow of the Nazi death camps, VA management that he had heard through veterans through appropriate Clearly, the stakes are building – pardon the Flag was about salvaging lives; Reintegration it is rarely remembered that the term in those days. public ceremonies and private pun – as time continues to pass and Building 209 Zone would enable institutionalized “concentration camp” was first used to describe “We think she went to Canada,” says Mum. The Strawberry Bulletin invites letters from readers on prayers. I call upon Federal, continues to sit without any physical progress individuals a place to come to confront the British prisons set up in South Africa. Aiming “What happened to Granddad?” I ask. any subject. All letters must include the writer’s name 


   

toward the promised renovation. and a phone number and address through which the challenges they face, and a place to come to sweep the country bare of any sustenance for “He became a postman, riding all round   
 


 
 
In other news related to both Building 209 “home” whenever they need to. For, as Robert Hastings on his bike,” she replies. writer can be reached. Address and phone number will States and to participate in the Boer guerilla fighters, the British military not be published; name may be withheld upon request. and the City of Santa Monica, on November 3, Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when patriotic activities in their imprisoned women and children. More than “How did he know which letters belonged Letters are subject to editing by the Bulletin for reasons Santa Monica Police Department officers in communities. I call on all you have to go there, they have to take you in.” twenty-five thousand died in the camps, many where?” including length or questionable expression. Views full gear were observed conducting exercises Americans, including civic and from starvation. “Someone at the sorting office put them all in expressed in Letters to the Editor are not necessarily the in and around Building 209 and the quad it views of the Strawberry Bulletin. fraternal organizations, plac- I’m sitting at the blue-topped kitchen table the right order.” fronts on, which includes the wellness center It must be true. I once saw an article clipped es of worship, schools, and looking through Granddad’s things. Some Mail: 1745 No. Spring Street, No. 4, Los Angeles, CA communities to support this and occupational therapy facilities in Building from the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer all 90012 day with commemorative expres- 208. We are not sure how welcoming a sight that Continued on page 11 Email: [email protected] sions and programs. presented to veterans receiving treatment there. OPINION IN THE BULLETIN Page 2 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 11 Editorial Mechanical Engineer Kenneth Rippetoe, MBA, also wrote in late September concerning his termination Home Fires :R^Zkh_@khpbg`=^ÛZgm Why is Veterans Day not observed in the by the VA. Continued from page 10 This month marks the one-year anniversary This year, the Garden evolved into a veritable United States as universally as Armistice Day about the “Blind Postman.” of the Garden of Defiance. In reflecting upon community garden for the entire campus. is observed in many European countries? Why To the Editor: Granddad met his second wife in 1936 its evolution and what it means to so many, an Various programs have adopted days of the week is the holiday here not as widely recognized As a very young child, most kids are frequently at a bus stop on the Hastings sea front. A expression of gratitude seems in order. There at the Garden or planned their own satellite now as it was in years past? asked, “What do you want to be when you grow widow with three young children, she and are so many veterans, clinicians, Metabolic gardens. What fiendish fun it was to behold the The distinctive numerology of this year’s up?” At the age of eight, my response was, “An the kids were sheltering from the rain. On Studio artists, CalVets staff, and ambassadors campus-wide vegetable anarchy. Everyone should Veterans Day – 11/11/11 – may give it a one- engineer for the government.” You can imagine the breadline and living in lodgings, the from the community who have lovingly experience the joy felt from doing so much good. time-only boost, but by and large it is just the confusion this caused, frequently prompting family had to be out of the house during the ushered the Garden into a life of its own that There is certainly a special debt of gratitude another day on the calendar except, maybe, the follow-up question, “Why is that?” Oddly day, which was tricky when it rained. He was there are literally too many to count. to be paid to Bobby Shelton. Thomas Jefferson that it provides an excuse for a Veterans Day enough, my interest in math spurred the response, lonely, she was desperate. He had a pension. The moment comes to mind when Lauren once wrote, “Cultivators of the land are the most Sale. Most everyone goes to work as usual “I am going to make a difference in the way tax Mum, their only child, was born the following Bon, smiling, led the way to a patch of dead dirt valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the (if they still have a job), and there is no dollars are spent.” June. and said, “Hey, why don’t you put a few plants most independent, the most virtuous, and they discernable national moment of silence at 11 Although I initially dreamed of turning my During World War Two the Home Guard here?” Those words were music to my ears are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty o’clock. engineering skills into those of a NASA astronaut, wouldn’t let him join and neither would the then, and they remain so today. and interest by the most lasting bands.” No Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that as fate would have it, I was destined to be in hospital ARP (Air Raid Precautions). So, when the Also what comes to mind is the trepidation I person I’ve ever met embodies these words more Armistice Day celebrates peace, while Veterans facilities management. I gravitated toward the Luftwaffe flew overheard, he’d shake his stick felt while constructing the first cinder-blocked than Bobby Shelton. An Arkansas sharecropper Day celebrates veterans. And veterans have an VA, perhaps following in my family’s footsteps, at them instead. garden bed. It seemed so big at the time; it and Korea combat veteran, Bobby is a pillar of image problem. as my grandfather was the first Merchant Marine These days I sing his songs to my son. seems absurd in retrospect, but there was a lot humanity. His dedication and love of the land Veterans, as a class of people, present a to receive a burial in his local Federal cemetery, Bertram Henry Martin, crack shot, singer, of personal concern that it would be too much, has taken the Garden to levels never previously problematic image to the public. At best, vets my uncle is buried in the Pu’owaina Crater pipe smoker, loving Dad, eyeless wonder, too over-the-top to last. These experiences of bureaucratic negation and rejection were conceived. Stories and laughs shared between us are heroes who have defended the Republic “Punchbowl” in Honolulu, and my father and postman: 1881-1965. “Bonsoir, old thing, certainly pronounced, but life has a way of are among the multitude of gifts harvested from and preserved the American Way of Life; but Letters youngest brother are veterans. cheerio, chin-chin, napoo, toodle-oo, good- growing sometimes and, in that growth, fear the Garden. even in that image, the violence with which My service to the United States was not in the bye- ee.” becomes secondary. So here we are, a year later, strong as ever and they accomplish this feat makes them a little Elayne Mackey, president of Associates form of military duty. This November 16, 2011, of Vietnam Veterans of America California not going anywhere. Soon, the Grove of Defiance scary. At worst, vets are the homeless whackos would have been my 11th anniversary as an will be installed. It will provide fresh orange juice you see on the streets and pray that they Association, wrote in late September to comment engineer for the United States Department of on a letter from Lane Anderson in Bulletin No. 3, or a revenue stream at CalVets for decades to don’t approach you for bus fare or, worse yet, Veterans Affairs (VA). In February 2011, I received come. Horticultural projects have now extended May 2011. conversation. a commendation for outstanding performance. to almost every entity on the West L.A. VA campus, Certainly, the perception of veterans has In fact, for each of my ten years of work as a VA some with permission and others with none. changed over time. The high respect accorded To the Editor: engineer, I received outstanding ratings on my For this defiant gardener, it has been the most World War II veterans is now legendary. The I have had the privilege to join the Sunday performance appraisals. I am truly proud of my fulfilling endeavor imaginable. The Garden has veterans of The Greatest Generation not only rallies, at the corner of Wilshire & San Vicente, service and dedication to the VA. Unfortunately, grown, the Home has grown, and we’ve grown had fought in a popular and just war, and one for some time now. We would like to think on August 12, 2011, my VA career suffered a tragic together. Thank you all so very much, especially that we had clearly won, but everyone knew that the dedication of those that rally has turn of events. the veterans (you know who you are). the vets – personally. Military service was so an impact on some of the decisions that I started working at the Greater Los Angeles nearly universal that, if you were not yourself have been made for future housing of our Healthcare System (GLAHS) hospital as a project a vet, your husband, father, brother (maybe disadvantaged Veterans. Continued on page 3 Adm. Mullen Retires even sister), or next-door neighbor was. I do have a thought about Mr. Anderson’s Admiral Mike Mullen retired as chairman of statement that he made: “When I asked key Vietnam was different. Not only was that In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30 after people doing the protesting … whether they an unpopular and controversial war, and eleventh day of the eleventh month, the four years in that chair and more than forty years had talked to people like Assets Management one that we had clearly not won, but military Armistice came into effect and World War in the military. National Public Radio called his Director [Ralph] Tillman, they said, ‘Hell no, service was far from universal. One ended. In 2011, for the first time in U.S. years at the helm of the Joint Chiefs “some of why should we talk to them?’” Those now transitioning from active duty history, Veterans Day falls on 11.11.11. the most consequential in modern U.S. military I am having a problem with this response as to veteran status are once again the objects of This issue of Strawberry Bulletin is history.” I don’t believe I have ever seen, met or heard respect, but it is much more an arm’s-length released in conjunction with Veterans Day. Mullen was outspoken throughout his tenure. of Mr. Anderson being at any of the rallies. If I respect than an embrace. Because, like the Bringing West L.A. VA land use issues to During his confirmation hearings in 2007, he am wrong please correct me. I believe that any Vietnam veterans and unlike the World War II Washington, it travels to D.C. with Lauren said the troops in Afghanistan were not getting of those “protesters” would be glad to speak vets, they are not part of an almost universal Bon and the Metabolic Studio as part of the the resources they needed; he pushed for a troop with Mr. Tillman and Mr. Anderson. In fact, military experience. Liminal Camera Tour. surge, and it happened. The refrain from a lot of veterans coming I believe that there have been conversations He testified before Congress in support of back from Vietnam was, “We never got our with Mr. Tillman. ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy parade,” but even when you get a parade, the Anyone that has ever stopped by the rally toward homosexual servicemembers – testimony parade is often a way of keeping everyone in can tell you these are peaceful rallies and Inside This Issue that President Obama called the “tipping point” the motorcade at arm’s length. I myself have never heard anyone using Ron Kovic and West L.A. VA on CNN Page 4 in the debate. Obama said, “Mike, your legacy will offensive language to anyone. This past endure in a military that is stronger but also in a Sunday, September 25, 2011 was the 185th High Court to hear Stolen Valor case Page 4 nation that is more just.” consecutive rally. This dedication shows a Strawberry Bulletin Veterans Day holidayt Page 4 Adm. Mullen and his wife traveled across Published by the Metabolic Studio, Los Angeles true spirit to gather and inspire. America in support of returning troops and all 1888.metabolicstudio.org We have a shared belief and would welcome Strawberry Gazetteer: mapping veterans Page 5-7 veterans, speaking out for employment and Mr. Anderson to actually stop by and see just housing needs. Lauren Bon, Editor-in-Chief what we might actually have to say. A Liminal Camera Tour conversation Page 5 Terence Lyons, veterans correspondent Mullen is almost certainly the last chairman One last thought, I also do not understand Lawrence Flaherty and Jen Curtis, production design Buffalo Soldier story concluded Page 8 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served in the John Pecorelli and Lisa Marr, copy editors Mr. Anderson’s reply: “Perhaps it is time Vietnam War. He is succeeded as chairman by Contributing writers: Dorian Bon, Andrew Douglas, for protests then?” Going on No. 186 with Richard L. Fox, Rick Holland, Janet Owen Driggs Anatomy of the Strawberry Flag Page 9 Army General Martin Dempsey, a veteran of the Contributing Artists: Lauren Bon, Rochelle Fabb, renewed spirit and dedication. Are you wars in the Middle East. Hannah Krut-Powell, Sarah McCabe interested in joining us, Mr. Anderson? Pages of History: Granddad remembered Page 10 Thank you, Edition of 2000 Elayne Mackey Garden of Defiance after one year Page 11 FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 12 Our Town Strawberry Bulletin Volume I, Number 6 Serving the 500,000 Veterans Living in Greater Los Angeles November 2011 This regular feature of the Strawberry Bulletin generally records current events that occur in the lives of some of the citizens of the place we claim as Our Town: the West Los Angeles Soldiers Home held in trust as a home for veterans in perpetuity. It is currently managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second largest cabinet department in the United States, smaller only than the Department of Defense. In this special Veterans Day issue, distributed in Washington D.C. as well as the Los Angeles area, we devote this space to an overview of events concerning veterans, housing, and Los Angeles since World War Two. Sep 1, 1939: World War Two (WW2) begins in Europe. Mis-ter President you Can Can Dec 7, 1941: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the U.S. enters WW2. Jun 22, 1944: GI Bill provides WW2 veterans Give them back their Land Land with college funds, unemployment insurance, Guy Hatzvi, of the Metabolic Studio’s Optics Division, on Governor’s Island. The Liminal Camera is pointed at lower Manhattan’s skyline on 9/11. housing, and a new VA mortgage program. If you order change: it’s simple to arrange 1945: Germany surrenders in May and Japan 1 1 in September. 16 million U.S. citizens serving in the military begin to return home. A Homecoming Strategy Enforce the Deed of 88 and Nov 1, 1945: Homeless Marine corporal There is no question in my mind that the we manage for veterans on the campus. By being David Mizrahi (23), his wife Sophie (23), and thirteen empty buildings located on well- here we have continued to learn about the VA their son Bobby (2) camp in L.A.’s Pershing irrigated lawns on the north side of the West of WLA, about how the property is managed, You can change their fate and Square. Los Angeles campus of the Department of where the water systems are, what happens Jan 5, 1946: Army trailers for homeless Veterans Affairs (VA of WLA) will once again, to which buildings when it rains—all the very You will be a first rate Head of State! veterans are delivered to a Burbank site. in the not too distant future, be a home for practical things that large, centrally managed Feb 7, 1946: U.S. government: “2,900,000 veterans. bureaucracies operate. married veterans will need housing by the end Strawberry Flag was a deployable aquaponic The Garden of Defiance has been the wildest Court Focuses on Breach of Trust October 7 filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, of the year.” strawberry farm operated by a team of of the mavericks in our Metabolic Studio stable. claiming that the plaintiffs have no legal standing The federal judge hearing the class action suit activity of the Annenberg Foundation, led 1946: Government-guaranteed mortgages veterans who worked for the Metabolic Studio “Maverick” because its presence has been a and the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. challenging land use at the West Los Angeles VA by artist Lauren Bon, entitled ‘Preserving a prompt private commercial builders to start as part of the VA of WLA’s Compensated Work key unlocking the gates of the north side of the This motion argues that even if the plaintiffs’ has directed the parties to file additional briefs Home for Veterans.’” “allegations about discrimination, breach of 937,000 new homes. Therapy (CWT) program. A whole culture campus, a place we at the Studio call “Our Town.” “pertaining specifically to the arguments about The complaint seeks an injunction trust, and procedural error” are all true, “this Feb 15, 1946: California validates use of grew to surround the object of the farm. Daily Co-managed by Andrew Douglas and Korean the creation of a charitable trust.” The court directing the VA to provide permanent case must be dismissed.” Although the motion public parkland for temporary housing. “Tea at Three” and a vibrant kitchen were keys War veteran Bobby Shelton, who also managed continued the pending hearing on the VA’s supportive housing on the West L.A. VA says the VA “has as a top priority the resolution of Apr 27, 1946: Rodger Young Village (RYV) to de-alienating the site. A Veterans’ Print intensive care for our weakest strawberries motion to dismiss the case, Valentini v. Shinseki, campus, an order mandating the VA to the housing needs of homeless Veterans,” it also opens in Griffith Park to house homeless Studio was created and became a go-to place at Strawberry Flag, the Garden of Defiance has faithfully execute its obligations under the says that actually providing that housing is not its from November 14 to December 5 to allow for the veterans. 750 Quonset huts each house two for veterans in treatment on the VA campus turned a median strip between the western edge 1888 deed to use the donated land solely to responsibility. filing of the additional briefs. families, with over 5000 people at peak. and others who came through word of mouth. of the property and the back roadway of the new provide a home for disabled veterans, and a In opposition to the motion, plaintiffs’ This follows the first round of briefing in which Feb 4, 1952: RYV residents ask L.A. to keep Stories were told around the kitchen table, on CalVets Home into a productive garden. declaration that the land transferred under lawyers argued that federal district courts “have the court received written arguments not only RYV open. It remains until Feb 1954. The site is the farm, and in the Print Studio, and we put Like Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, our the 1888 deed created a charitable trust and jurisdiction to review challenges, like Plaintiffs’, from the parties, but also from the Metabolic now the L.A. Zoo. them into a newspaper. The very paper you story is influenced by the ghosts of the past. the VA is in breach of that trust. to ‘systemic failures’ in [VA] service-delivery Studio and the City of Santa Monica who filed Oct 28, 1952: McCarthyism positions are reading emerged from the conversations Through the vigil her family members continue While the case was still in its infancy, systems, and that the limitation on federal- friend-of-the-court briefs in support of plaintiffs’ Judge S. James Otero pushed the VA court jurisdiction … on which the Government public services as socialist. The L.A. Housing we had at Strawberry Flag and our desire to keep for their ancestor Arcadia, we touch the claims against the VA. toward settlement talks, appointed a relies here, applies only to attacks on ‘individual Authority’s (LA-HA) Frank Wilkinson refuses to to communicate with the more than half residual heyday of the National Soldiers’ Home. The suit was filed June 8 against VA personnel mediation officer to handle the case, and Continued on page 4 testify before the Committee on Un-American a million veterans who live in Los Angeles Over a century ago Arcadia intended that the by the ACLU of Southern California and other ordered government lawyers to name a VA Activities, and he is fired and jailed. County. land would provide a home for veterans, and by prominent lawyers, including Harvard Law official with the authority to participate Sep 1971: West L.A. VA property’s function Since our second Memorandum of “home” she meant a real home with color and in settlement negotiations. Judge Otero 11/11/11 (a.k.a. 11-11-11); Friday, November 11, 2011: Mathematics School professor Laurence H. Tribe, on behalf of changes. Chief of Staff for VA Extended Care: Understanding (MOU) with the VA of WLA warmth. Her family has tried to steward the land ignored protests from the VA’s Justice The number eleven is the sixth prime number. disabled homeless veterans in order to enforce “The original intention of the donor…was ended in October last year and we were denied along Arcadia’s vision, but real contingencies Department lawyer, who argued that the 1888 deed restrictions. The plaintiffs in the The base numeric number system lends itself to some to establish a home for disabled veterans. a third, Strawberry Flag has had to leave the relating to the immense financial value of the appointing a mediation officer and having case have charged that “the VA has eliminated interesting peculiarities as relates to the number eleven. However, now as an actual hospital, the quad between WLA-VA Buildings 205, 208, property have arisen. settlement negotiations at this early stage of permanent housing for disabled veterans, many admission requirements … [are] not only and 209. However, while you can take away Several generations of VA asset managers the litigation was premature. In response, of whom now literally sleep outside its walls, and Base 10 for example: that he be a veteran, but he must have an an MOU, you cannot take away the spirit of have not, for example, always served the deed’s Judge Otero said that he was not going to it now leases portions of the property to private let the federal government hide behind (2 digits) 11 x 11 = 121 identifiable medical condition which needs Strawberry Flag and the culture it stimulated. requirement that the land now occupied by (6 digits) 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 companies.” bureaucracy, stressing the case’s potential attention in a hospital … ” The form that spirit has taken can be read, in the VA of WLA be used for the sole benefit of (9 digits) 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321 A statement issued by plaintiffs’ counsel importance to needy veterans. May 1, 1983: LAPD Chief Darryl Gates: part, in these Bulletins. Staying connected has veterans. It is, for example, often inappropriately credited the Metabolic Studio for bringing these Settlement discussions are confidential, “Most…homeless are ‘drop outs’ who should been an important target in this past year. We leased to non-veteran-related commercial Base 16 (hexadecimal) for example: issues to the forefront, stating that “the misuse but plaintiffs’ lawyers have told the Bulletin be jailed and put to work.” lost our MOU but we didn’t leave the work, or concerns. The President himself has articulated (2 digits) 11 x 11 = 121 of the West Los Angeles campus is documented simply that the parties are complying with Jan 31, 1984: President Ronald Reagan: “the the place, behind. the importance of “home” for the American (6 digits) 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 in detail in a Position Paper issued in January the judge’s order in this regard. homeless…are homeless, you might say, by Our strategy, known internally as The Dream; but here, in this place that was deeded to (9 digits) 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321 2011 by the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable In the meantime, the VA’s lawyers on Continued on page 8 Gopher Plan, is to stay put and tend the garden Continued on page10