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Disable Vet Denied Permit; VVAW Fights City Hall

By VVAW

There are probably several hundred thousand stories of ex-service men getting screwed up in Vietnam or elsewhere and coming home to get screwed in a different way by the same system that sent him off to fight in the first place. The story of Charles Grantham is one of those stories.

Charles returned from Vietnam in a wheelchair. Eventually he settled down with his wife and four children in the small town of Leslie, Michigan. To support himself and his family, Charles planned to run a gift shop from the front of his house, just as he had when he lived in nearby Lansing.

But he reckoned without the Leslie town council. The Leslie city fathers refused to let him have the shop because it violated zoning laws for residential neighborhoods. They said he would instead have to set up his shop downtown, something that is impossible for Charles because of his medical needs.

A VVAW member from Leslie knew Charles and VVAW began to help him fight for the right to be able to support himself and his family. Calling on members of the Michigan Association of Concerned Veterans and on other vets, they have held picket lines at the city building to protest discriminatory treatment of Charles, and have tied it in with the way that the system has dealt with eh vast majority of Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans. They have served the mayor with a summons and initiated a claim with the Circuit Court challenging the city councils' discriminatory decision.

An Appeal was ALSO MADE TO THE Leslie Zoning Boards of Appeals. It cost $30 to make the appeal, but the money was donated by residents of Leslie. Among the points made in the appeal was the fact that Charles' neighbors had no objections to his opening the shop. Also, such concessions were already made to the American Legion—a group which, incidentally, had no interest in helping out this veteran.

The case is still under appeal. If Charles loses, he will be forced to move the another town where he can operate the gift shop. But the city council is being besieged from al directions—vets picketing their meetings, angry newspaper articles and letters, court challenges to their quite little world. If you want to increase their problems, and, more important, support the righteous struggle of Charles Grantham, send a letter of protest to Mayor dick Hues, City Hall, Leslie Michigan, 49251. Send a copy of letter to Charles Grantham, 416 W Bellevue, Leslie, Michigan 49251.