Park or Services for Veterans

It was with equal parts of shock, bewilderment and anger that I read “New Battlefield for Veterans” (Nov. 22). The Veterans Park group needs to seriously reconsider its priorities. They want to use the undeveloped land on the Veterans Administration property in West Los Angeles for a rose garden? Jogging paths? Instead of facilities to help those who have sacrificed so much to ensure our freedom? They should be ashamed of themselves.

I watch my 83-year-old mother, napping in her wheelchair, and I see an extraordinary woman, a patriot of World War II who helped save countless lives. . . . She used her nursing skills and natural compassion to make a difference. Would these founders of the Veterans Park group, these Brentwood housewives, be enjoying their upscale neighborhoods if it were not for people like my mother? I think not.

The services through the Veterans Administration that my mother has been able to receive (and which she deserves) have been a blessing, both for myself and for her. Instead of worrying over beautification of their neighborhood, members of the Veterans Park group need to take their heads out of their Sub-Zeros and thank God for our veterans. I look at a park and I see a nice place to take a stroll. I look at my mother and the other vets in the hospital she’s staying in, and I see true beauty. Good luck to John Keaveney, Billy Coleman, Lee Ingram Jr., Marvin Rivenbark and all those who oppose this thinly veiled ruse to deny our veterans that to which they are entitled--which is, ironically, what so many of them died trying to defend--freedom to live with dignity and in peace.

LAURA CHESLER, Santa Clarita