Last year I was impressed with this chapters' efforts to assist the homeless population in this city. With over one third of the city's' 9000 homeless being military veterans, the Chapter 91 began a Compassion Campaign and Homeless Working Group. To date, the elders of Ch.91 have given away 1,978 sleeping bags. The program has been so successful, that Coleman, the company that produces the bags wanted to be an official part of the action, so they now donate sleeping bags directly to the chapter, they no longer need to purchase the bags at full cost, like regular customers.
Coleman has partnered with the Ch.91, and the chapter intends to present Coleman with an award . (You can check it out in the photos).
We had intended to go to the weekly anti drone vigil at General Atomic, which the 91 have been holding for a couple years every week. Transport hassles prevented us from getting there today, but we will be better prepared next thursday, and we will diligently provide live coverage and post it .
As to the conditions Liberty and I are having to deal with,with the exception of a couple warnings and having our names run, we have had virtually nil police interaction, and we have been successfully camped out in a nice spot for almost a week.
My hometown friends have been gracious, albeit busy with their lives.
The weather is pleasant, and we are feeding ourselves satisfactorily. Bodily aches and pains are kept to a manageable level.
I want to address the pressing and very real need for us younger vets to be prepared to carry the torch when our elders begin to pass on. As you can tell from the photos, the 91 is a bunch of "old dudes". And you know what? Almost EVERYBODY in the anti war peace movement is older than us. Now I do not consider this a problem so much as a possibility.
Time and time again, we hear the elders encouraging us on, motivating us...they say things like:
"We need you younger men and women to carry it further, into the future for the next generations"
"We are all starting to die off. We are old, and cant' do the physical work, can't run around anymore"
Liberty and I are here to do the "heavy work". The people we meet are impressed and grateful for the work we do. I will put these thoughts into the Regreening pamphlet.
We will be participating in the MLK Day Parade on the 19th, by then I should have VetFest hammered out.
The work goes on: as Liberty likes to say
"While you sleep, we work Overtime."
Stay tuned, and thank you for you continued support!
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