Closure of Gym for Vets
Re “Angry Vets Confront VA Official on Gym Closure,” Sept. 25.
What in heaven’s name is going on at The Times? Have the inmates taken over the asylum? Where’s the head man who OKs your stories? I opened my Times [Sept. 29] and what do I see on the front page of the Valley section? Doughnuts! Here’s a world-class newspaper hawking the deadly sugar-coated commercial doughnut while ignoring a very real, very explosive situation building in the San Fernando Valley.
On [Sept. 24], the recently appointed regional director of Veteran’s Affairs was forced to face the very people he was appointed to look after, and after speaking out of both sides of his mouth, slipped away without really being accountable for his insensitive, indifferent behavior. As one veteran commented, “You’re only here because you got caught pulling a fast one.” The fast one was the sudden, callous closing of the gym [at the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center]. That gym was literally the lifeline for 300 to 400 vets who used it regularly. This arrogant bureaucrat cited safety considerations and vehemently denied budget cuts. The very small article that appeared in The Times the next day quoted him as saying that with health care going up, he could hardly justify spending $4.7 million on fixing the gym. So much for governmental dissemination and hypocrisy.
Where is the outrage? Where are the editorials blasting the sellout of thousands of U.S. veterans who served unquestioningly only to be turned out by one over-nourished bureaucrat clearly defying the thousands of honorable vets who expect only what they were promised.
If the Times had given the same amount of space to the veterans that it gave to doughnuts, perhaps the inevitable explosion over this issue could be avoided. Remember--U.S. vets made it possible for The Times not to have to publish in either German or Japanese. It is too much to ask for a little gratitude and support? The City Council seems to think not--and in an election year, anything can happen.
JAMES A. TAKACS
Encino
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