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Letters

By VVAW

The Veteran welcomes letters, comments and criticisms. Please write. Also, if you have any poetry, drawings or stories you would like to see in the paper, send them along.

(The following letter was written by a VVAW member who is a student at Kennedy-King College, one of the city colleges of Chicago. In order to win official recognition at the college, VVAW followed all the school's rules and regulations, only to be told that the school "didn't need a national veterans organization." The letter describes a meeting that VVAW asked for with the school President and some of the tactics being used by the school administration to keep vets from organizing to build the vets struggle.)

Why are schools against the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), trying to keep us from organizing within school campuses? Even when students at these campuses go through all the legal requirements to be "recognized?" And then they use slander and any or all kinds of tricks to keep us out.

One school in Chicago, Kennedy-King College, has at this time done the following things. When VVAW got good response from vets who go there, who are interested in our program, and who would like to see VVAW an organized club on campus, the administration tried to block us by putting out leaflets saying that we (and I'm putting it very mildly) are a bunch of trouble makers, outsiders, Communists, etc.

So, we of VVAW asked for a meeting with the school president, President Akin, which could deal with these accusations. The President agreed to meet with us, but called the meeting at an odd hour when many student vets were in class or couldn't stay around that late because of jobs or other responsibilities. At the same time, the KKC student government which is running for re-election was also called in for what was supposed to be our meeting with the President.

Now! I ask you, what are they afraid of or ashamed of? I ask again--What are they afraid or ashamed of? The reason for asking again is because not only was the student government there, but the "Martial Arts Club" was brought in as well. Maybe it was for the security of the meeting, for fear that we of VVAW would get out of hand.

That was only one of their tactics. One student government candidate got up to ask, "What are you planning to offer the poor, ignorant Black veterans at this school?" This and other attacks on vets and on VVAW boiled down to one thing--since many of your members are white, and since most of the KKC vets are Black, what business do you have down here at this school. Well, when I was hit in Vietnam, a white medic picked me up saying that we both had to get back to the States. VA checks don't discriminate--they come late to Black and white veterans.

There was a lot more, but to sum it up, it's just like the military all over again--telling us one thing to do and after it's done, the system is changed so we have to do it all over again. They're afraid of vets getting organizing to fight for what we need so they'll do whatever they can to stop us. But VVAW will not stop or give up trying to be recognized at KKC and at schools all around the nation. And we urge all vets to pull with us and fight for recognition on all campuses.

A Chicago Vet

In early June 15 members of VVAW took part in a takeover of the Statue of Liberty; we hung a banner saying "Extend and Expand the GI Bill" and another saying " We've Carried the Rich for 200 years; Let's Get Them Off Our Backs" over the face of the Statue.

We were acting in protest to the way in which 3.7 million vets had been cut off the GI Bill on Memorial Day, 1976--a day to honor the memory of GIs who had died but also a day to forget living vets. Many Americans heard about the action and as a result heard about the way in which vets all over the country are being treated.

Because Ashby Leach, through his takeover of the offices at the Chesapeake and Ohio, was expressing the same outrage at the way in which vets were used once and then thrown away, we of VVAW, who took over the Statue of Liberty, want to express our support for him.

The 15 VVAW Members Who Seized the Statue of Liberty