Letter to Rep. Schiff

[Roberta]

A work in progress, revisions/comments welcome:

Stealing the flags from St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church was a regrettable, un-American act, and we are all gratified that the community, with your involvement, quickly replaced them.

Our happiness is dampened by the comparison between this incident and the continuing removal of Montrose’s American flag each week from its usual, 24/7 place at Honolulu and Ocean View.

As you must know, volunteer caretaker Bill Dodson originally took it upon himself to remove the flag because of his disagreement with our peace vigil meeting at that corner. Board members of the Montrose Shopping Park Association then passed a motion for the flag to be removed for any “public demonstration taking place at the Vietnam War Memorial, other than those gatherings directly related to veterans’ issues, Memorial Day or the Vietnam Memorial itself.”

Whatever has motivated Mr. Dodson and the MPSA Board to decide they can express their disapproval of our political expression in this manner, we doubt that their opinion is shared by the entire community.

We strenuously objected then, and still do. Removing this flag is just as deplorable and un-American as at St. Luke’s.

Each Memorial Day at that corner we honor servicepeople who sacrificed to preserve the blessing of the flag for the entire U.S.A. – everyone, irrespective of belief or politics. Allowing the flag to be removed because of the free speech being legally exercised there makes a mockery of what the Memorial represents.

We call upon you, our Representative in Congress, to get involved to help remedy this situation as well. and we will be very grateful to you for helping us get back Montrose’s other stolen flag.

[anni]

This is such a great idea, Roberta, not to mention a righteous use of the MPV Message Board. Though I must say you haven't left much for us to change. Here are my meager offerings:

•Instead of 'Stealing the flags,' I'd say 'The theft of the flags.'

•Don't think we need any of the adjectives in brackets in the 4th paragraph. It's perfectly strong without.

•And how about this for a closing paragraph: "We call upon you, our Representative in Congress, to help us restore Montrose's American flag to its rightful place flying continuously over the Vietnam War Memorial."

[Roberta]

Latest version:

The theft of the flags from St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church was a regretable, un-American act, and we are all gratified that the community, with your involvement, quickly replaced them.

Our happiness is dampened by the comparison between this incident and the regular removal of Montrose’s American flag each week from its usual, 24/7 place at Honolulu and Ocean View.

As you must know, volunteer caretaker Bill Dodson originally took it upon himslf to remove the flag because of his disagreement with our peace vigil meeting at that corner. Board members of the Montrose Shopping Park Association then passed a motion for the flag to be removed for any “public demonstration taking place at the Vietnam War Memorial, other than those gatherings directly related to veterans’ issues, Memorial Day or the Vietnam Memorial itself.”

Whatever has motivated Mr. Dodson and the MPSA Board to decide they can express their disapproval of our political expression in this manner, we doubt that their opinion is shared by the entire community.

We strenuously objected then, and still do now. Removing this flag is just as deplorable and un-American as at St. Luke’s.

Each Memorial Day at that corner we honor servicepeople who sacrificed to preserve the blessing of the flag for the entire U.S.A. – everyone, irrespective of belief or politics. Allowing the flag to be removed because of the free speech being legally exercised there makes a mockery of what the Memorial represents.

We call upon you, our Representative in Congress, to help us restore Montrose's American flag to its rightful place flying continuously over the Vietnam War Memorial.



Thank you Anni, and Brian and Jeanne for suggestions at the corner. It is pretty easy to throw something together, knowing full well that others will come along and make it better. I hope I have incoporated all the swell improvements, please let me know or any other suggestions.

What next? Brian's idea was that we each sign individual copies of the letter, then mail them all together, to make a nice, fat packet.

Or how about a delegation drops them off in person? I'm available. And perhaps a group of his new constituents, say, a school teacher still on a too-short summer vacation, an artist and/or a pastor? Paige suggested getting a brief appointment with his district director. She (the Schiff staffer, not Paige) actually smiled at me during a recent visit, proof to me that the politics of his new district are moving a bit left.

I'm open to either or something else entirely. Your thoughts please! And we welcome any supporters to sign on, I didn't specify the MPV on purpose.

[Jeanne]

I think the letter looks very good, Roberta. I'd be happy to go to Schiff's office with you, if I can squeeze it into the remainder of my little summer break.

Thanks for doing this.

[Brian]

I will be proud to sign that. Thank you, Roberta! The words genius and brilliant are overused these days, but let's apply them to Roberta, who drew a bright line from Schiff's role in restoring the stolen flags at the church to the need to address the continuing removal of the Montrose Shopping Park Association's flag to protest our vigil every week. And she went on to write a wonderful letter that provokes thought and, hopefully, inspires someone in his office to pick up the phone or send an e-mail.

When I print my letter, I plan to add a postscript, something like this: My wife and I voted for you in 2000, and we were sad when we lost you as our Representative in your next term because of reapportionment. Welcome back to Tujunga!

Now allow me to be impertinent, speaking just among ourselves. The best way Rep. Schiff could help us restore the flag to the Vietnam War Memorial would be for him to join with colleagues like Democrat Barbara Lee and Republican Walter Jones in trying to get our troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Once they're home, many if not all of the Montrose Peace Vigil regulars might find other things to do Friday evenings, and Mr. Dodson would then leave the flag flying.

[Roberta]

Jul 17, 2012 23:01:20 GMT -8 Brian said:

The best way Rep. Schiff could help us restore the flag to the Vietnam War Memorial would be for him to join with colleagues like Democrat Barbara Lee and Republican Walter Jones in trying to get our troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Once they're home, many if not all of the Montrose Peace Vigil regulars might find other things to do Friday evenings, and Mr. Dodson would then leave the flag flying.

Amen to that!!!

In the meantime I will bring copies of the letter to the corner for people who want to sign without printing their own.

[Brian]

Roberta has an appointment with Rep. Adam Schiff's district director at his Pasadena office on Monday, July 30. She will deliver what we hope to be a nice stack of letters and make a quick pitch for retention of the American flag on the corner. Roberta is collecting more signatures at the next Montrose Peace Vigil on Friday evening. If you can't make it to the vigil, please consider printing and mailing a letter yourself.

Only logged in members can download the attachment below, but everyone is welcome to join this message board. You can rewrite the Word document, add a postscript or change the font or type size if you wish. Be sure to add your name and address on top -- and most elected officials appreciate seeing a phone number.

Attachments:

[Roberta]

Not "she" visiting Schiff's -- at least one other person has committed to go (guess who?) and I hope a couple more -- so "we" or "they" please!!

Here's a hint, she created a treasured art work of our Vigil -- think shirts. I think it has been posted here somewhere at least once, but I can't seem to bring it up with the searching capabilities here.

I am incorporating it into our presentation package to Ms. Peifer so you'll see it at the corner in person tomorrow.

[anni]

So, come on already. How'd it go? How many letters? What was said? Give with the goods/gossip you fine souls of action.

[Jeanne]

Jul 30, 2012 17:53:15 GMT -8 anni said:

So, come on already. How'd it go? How many letters? What was said? Give with the goods/gossip you fine souls of action.

Our visit to Schiff's office went well. Roberta, Paige, Bruce and I were present. We met with Ann Pfeifer who admitted at the end that she was surprised by our purpose and had been assuming that we would be making another plea to end the war in Afghanistan. Roberta gave background, Bruce spoke about 1st Amendment, Paige about numbers of people concerned and their political value to Rep. Schiff. I underlined the St. Luke's connection, which she dismissed, presumably because property is not actually being stolen. I said that the presence of the flag is being taken from us every week.

I got the feeling that Ms. Pfeifer was uncomfortable with the complexities of the situation, that there isn't an obvious solution and it will be hard to take an action without ruffling somebody's feathers. Our feathers have been ruffled for several years and it would be good to let others involved know what that feels like. We are hoping to meet the Schiff himself in September.

There were 27 letters (9 from CVUMC.)

Thanks again to Roberta for the beautiful idea and the dogged follow through.