Politicians Battling Over War Memorials

For nearly two years, Northridge teacher Brian Rooney has been working at the painstaking task of compiling a registry of thousands of war memorials across the country.

But now his crusade to get the state and federal governments to keep their own directories of the plaques, flagpoles and other monuments to veterans has become the battleground of a political campaign.

Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) and his Democratic challenger in the 27th Congressional District, state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), are competing to prove who is the bigger champion of veterans.

Rogan today will appear with Rooney and other veterans at a war memorial in Burbank. Rogan will tout the House resolution that he introduced this week calling on the National Park Service to create a registry similar to that proposed by Rooney.

Schiff welcomed Rogan’s effort, but said it was modeled on his own state Senate bill to create a registry of memorials in California and post it on the Internet.

Rogan “has ignored the veterans in our district for years, and it takes, unfortunately, a state effort to motivate him to do anything on the national level,” Schiff said. “It’s flattering to see my work imitated.”

The Senate passed Schiff’s bill May 24 39-0, although Schiff was absent. He said he was attending a campaign fund-raiser in Chicago.

To Rooney, who teaches science at Chatsworth High School, the important thing is to honor the memory of soldiers who died “defending Rogan and Schiff’s right to run for office.”