Letter: Let’s get it right

One ingredient is always left out of any statement regarding the history of the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Cruz, and the recent op-ed on these pages is no exception (“Prioritize veterans in Santa Cruz County,” Terry McKinney, June 3). I refer to the peace groups incongruously in residence within the war memorial over the years.
Around 1974, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Winter Soldier organization was allocated space in the building and even granted funds for providing job search and other benefits for veterans under the euphemistic title Vets’ Co-Op. Their mission, however, was primarily political, which placed them at odds with the traditional veterans groups which met in the building. One of which came later and definitely was not traditional.
The Bill Motto VFW Post 5888 was reputedly the only antiwar unit in VFW history, and it was expelled at least once from the national fraternity for that impertinence. These groups would refute the bromide, repeated more than thoughtfully examined, that our freedom results from our war machinery. (Think just for a moment of all the ways your liberty has been enhanced by all the U.S. military adventures since 1945. Avoid generic abstractions.)
On the one hand, we had one feckless leader explaining with the words of L.B.J. how we had to fight ’em over there so we didn’t have to fight ’em over here. On the other, there is bin Laden himself declaring the U.S. troops stationed in their holy land as a cause of his war against us. “They hate our freedom,” was the Bush league slogan, and I presume the jealousy on that front has subsided considerably with all the wiretapping, torture and kidnapping without habeas corpus implemented by the Crawford Cretin and his regime. “Citizen! Your precious freedom is not owed, but paid, to your army!” said someone, and once there were groups unnaturally housed within the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Cruz who were apt to repeat such sentiments.
Clovis Bowden, Felton