(Nov. 10, 2007) -- Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out & Veterans For Peace did what they promised. They showed up wearing their groups' T-shirts at the check-in site for today's (Nov. 10) 11th annual LB Veterans Parade and asked for permission to march in the parade. They'd previously been told "no" but tried again.
Organizers and Councilman Val Lerch did what they promised. They told the groups "no"...having previously said that the parade is a non-political event.
Group members then went peacefully to the parade route and watched the marchers go by...as a member of one of the excluded groups said excluding them from the parade was political.
Jabbar Magruder, president of the L.A. Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War -- who said he served 11 months in Iraq with the CA Nat'l Guard and recently helped battle the So. Cal brush fires -- told LBReport.com:
Mr. Magruder: We came down here to participate in the parade and we were turned away by a few people that wanted to make this a political matter.
There appeared to be relatively few Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the event compared to previous wars...and as a veteran I thought it was shameful that these people [organizers] would try to make an issue out of how we feel about the war rather than let us walk down the street and honor us for our service.
Apparently some people want to hold on to their mystique of what veterans are instead of talking to today's veterans and getting their opinions of what's happening now. We came here not to shame anybody but to support our fellow veterans and to show other veterans that they have the right to an opinion about the war in Iraq.
Even the Department of Defense lets allows active duty military to voice their opinions in certain places. The parade organizers have pretty much gone beyond the policy the Defense Department has.
Jeff Merrick of Military Families Speak Out (OC) told LBReport.com that at the event check-in location, Councilman Lerch indicated to the three requesting groups that the parade was full/line-up set and invited the groups to attend a planning meeting early next year for the 2008 parade.
"I don't think that's what other parade applicants are told to do," Mr. Merrick told LBReport.com later in the morning.
He said that after being told "no" to marching in the parade, he and other group members watched the parade go by from a street median on Atlantic Ave. near Harding St.
What kind of reception are you getting from others [while wearing those identifying T-shirts], we asked? "We've heard nothing negative," Mr. Merrick said.
What will you do next, we asked? "We'll have to discuss that among ourselves before we make decision," Mr. Merrick said.
The controvery surfaced publicly at the Nov. 6 City Council meeting and was reported by LBReport.com on Nov. 7 and subsequently picked up by other media outlets. L.A-market news crews were visible at the parade from Fox 11 news and ABC7 news.
