Download PDF of this full issue: v6n5.pdf (8 MB)

In Cincy Congressman Doesn't Show

By VVAW

On September 17th the Cincinnati Chapter of VVAW held a picket line outside the office of Congressman Willis Gradison in the Cincinnati federal Building, as part of the VVAW national campaign to extend and expand the GI Bill. After a short picket line, the 11 vets, including two who had never been to a picket line before, went upstairs to the Congressman's office. Having called three weeks ahead of time, they expected that the Congressman would be there, be he didn't show. Instead one of his flunkies was there.

A spokesman for VVAW, speaking to politician and press alike, laid out some of the attacks coming down on the GI Bill, but more than that, how vets are fighting back through organizing and uniting vets into our struggle. The Congressman's flunkey responded by looking very nervous when confronted by the angry vets--and said nothing. In fact there was nothing he could say since neither of his Congressman nor any other is going to right to win the demands and needs of veterans.

The 11 VVAW chapter members in the Congressman's office represented far more than just themselves: they carried with them copies of the VVAW national petition to Extend and Expand the GI Bill with 500 signatures of vets from the Cincinnati are, vets who support the campaign. SO, when the VVAW members left the office to take the fight back to the streets, the campaign which relies on vets own strength, not on Congress or politicians, was already building.