day 1 in redondo beach king harbor

Hi Friends,

Today was a good day all around!

I got up at 5am and kayaked in from anchorage and got to Hermosa Beach’s Attitude Adjustment group at 7am.  Sitting next to me was someone who said he had been to a great meeting at the Vets Building in Santa Barbara.   I told him that I helped my friend Jean start that meeting and that she had wanted to call it Attitude Adjustment,  a favorite term of hers.  Talk about serendipity!

Then I took the buses to AWSM.  There I met up with many old and new friends,  Among the new friends are Ryan, new leader of IVAW Los Angeles and I was able to talk to him about both a Coffee Strong attempt in our area (VFP SW) and Transition Center/Veterans Park for VAMC WLA.  He thinks that the marines would be too difficult in Oceanside and so favors San Diego.  He seemed to think that he could find someone to lead up a Coffee Strong in San Diego if we could put together funding from our numerous chapters and perhaps outside peace groups.  I am still awaiting some feedback on the actual cost of running Coffee Strong at Fort Lewis from a contact there.

After I spoke with him a VA professional retired expert in social services stopped by and we spoke for awhile.   He thought the Veterans Park planned by the VPC would be a good addition to the campus,  considering the many vets in rehab there and their need to integrate into the larger public.  He seemed to especially like the idea of a transition center on the 388 acres for active duty military transitioning to civilian life.  This is an underserved portion of the veterans,  the seemingly normal grunts and marines who are routinely discharged but never really carefully tested or matched up with employment in their neighborhoods.  Because it sits in the middle of millions of people,  one of the USA’s largest megalopolis, VAMC WLA is the right place for the VA to work with the DOD to place personnel soon to be returned to civilian life WHILE STILL ON PAY STATUS for testing, job skills evaluation etc.  There is a shortage of jobs and especially jobs in killing and destroying things.  The scenario I pose is that we sit down with Waxman, Feinstein, Boxer and with VA Assets Management and present them with a plan to put in a transition center along with the VPC park and make the park a place for vets to mix with the public.