May 14, 2014 by Melissa Fox

The Irvine City Council Should Fulfill its Promise to Create an Orange County Veterans Memorial Park Without Delay

As Arlington National Cemetery commemorates its 150th anniversary, here in Irvine we learn that the committee created last month by the Irvine City Council to establish an Orange County Veterans Cemetery has not even had its first meeting because some politicians who were added as committee members cannot find the time in their schedules.

In fact, there is profound concern that the unnecessarily large committee formed by the Irvine City Council, based on Council Member Jeffrey Lalloway’s insistence on including numerous politicians, is a sham, set only up for show, not to take action.

At a previous meeting, the Council majority of Mayor Steven Choi and Council Members Christina Shea and Jeffrey Lalloway approved Lalloway’s motion to expand the Veterans Cemetery Committee to include numerous Orange County politicians, including Steven Choi, who had already indicated his opposition to the cemetery. Now it turns out that the committee has not been able to meet – and will not meet until the end of June at the earliest – because Steven Choi has no time in his schedule. How is it that Mayor Choi has no time at all to meet on this important committee? And if has no time to meet, why did Lalloway insist that Choi he be on the committee – which is charged with implementing a veterans cemetery that Choi opposed?

Here is what the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park posted on their Facebook page:

“If last night’s Irvine City Council behavior was any indication of things to come, we have a long row to hoe. Interesting to note that Chairman Bill Cook’s comments relative to the obvious foot-dragging process remained unanswered by the Council members sitting on the ad hoc committee. The delays present a frustrating obstacle to the legislative process. The ad hoc committee appointed by the City Council has yet to meet, and the dates provided by Mayor Choi in late June as to his availability are well past a critical May 23 date to move AB 1453 to the next level. When one or two members of a committee can hijack the meeting schedule, we have a unique situation extant in that a minority of members controls the entire process. Furthermore, it appears that the rancor that exists between City Council factions is an additional obstacle to progress on this most important issue. “

At the City Council meeting, one of the veterans observed that “the general consensus is that the delay is a deliberate and bad faith effort” to kill the veterans cemetery. The veteran members of the committee offered to meet “weekends, evenings, mornings before breakfast” to move the project forward and prevent the veterans cemetery from being the victim of death by delay.

Another veteran – from the Disabled American Veterans – stressed the urgency of the veterans’ request for an Orange County veterans’ final resting place, pointing out the hardships for veterans’ family members, particularly for the elderly widows of World War Two veterans, who must make a long trek to veterans cemeteries in Riverside and San Diego counties.

Orange County Veterans Cemetery, melissafoxblog, melissajoifox, Melissa Fox, Melissa Fox for Irvine, melissafoxblog.com, Irvine Commissioner Melissa Fox

Melissa Fox urging the Irvine City Council to fulfill its promise to create an Orange County Veterans Cemetery without delay.

I also spoke to the Council, stating again that as a resident of Irvine and the daughter of a Korean War combat veteran, I strongly support the veterans cemetery, and that I was concerned, as were others, that when the committee was formed, “the addition of so many players seemed to me a way to hamstring the committee, to actually prevent it from reaching its stated goal, which was to find a suitable location for a veterans cemetery in Irvine. This concern is exacerbated by the rancor I’ve witnessed here this evening at the mere mention of a request for a progress report. I hope that my fears are not realized and that this isn’t a way to ground the ball and run out the clock. When I last addressed the Council, I was here with my father, and when the veterans were asked to stand, he could barely stand because he had just had chemotherapy. His passion was to come here and talk to you. He isn’t physically able to do that for himself, so I am his voice . . . Please don’t ground the ball. Don’t let time run out.”

The veterans’ questions last night, as well as my own, were met with stone cold silence from the Irvine City Council.

I share the veterans’ concern that the unnecessarily large committee formed by the Irvine City Council, based on Jeffrey Lalloway’s insistence on including numerous politicians, including Steven Choi who opposes the veterans cemetery, is a sham, set only up for show, not to take action.

It is important that the committee members and the Irvine City Council know that Orange County veterans are not going to just fade away. Orange County veterans deserve a final resting place close to their families and loved ones.

May 6, 2014 by Melissa Fox

May is Military Appreciation Month: Appreciating Veterans, the Right Way

Reposted, with permission, from Air Force Times

May 2014 marks the 15th annual celebration of Military Appreciation Month. Yet much of the nation still has no clue about how to truly appreciate the military that makes great sacrifices to keep them safe.

Sure, fellow travelers will buy a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or Coastie a beer in an airport terminal. Teachers will direct students to write essays about famous military leaders. Baseball fans will cheer for a combat vet throwing out the first pitch.

Such heartfelt gestures are all worthy acknowledgments. But acknowledgment is not the same as understanding — a prerequisite for true appreciation.

An equally important prerequisite to appreciation is to avoid misunderstanding.

Unfortunately, in a nation where less than 1 percent of the citizenry wears a military uniform and just 13 percent are veterans, there is widespread misunderstanding — and even ignorance — about what service really means.

Too often, troops are seen as trained killing machines eager to engage in that singular objective, only to later return to the civilian world unskilled, uneducated, angry, damaged and dangerous.

Over the past 13 years of combat, popular media — books, movies, video games and, yes, newspapers — often have fed such misperceptions, peddling combat violence as entertainment that fills the vacuum of knowledge about the truth of who serves in uniform and how that experience shapes them.

Here’s a far more accurate picture:

■ 26 percent of veterans age 25 and older have at least a bachelor’s degree, versus 28 percent of the total population.

■ 92 percent of veterans age 25 and older have at least a high school diploma, versus 86 percent of the total population.

■ Veterans’ median annual income is $35,367, considerably higher than the non-veteran population’s $24,521 median.

■ 70 percent of veterans voted in the 2012 presidential election, compared to about 61 percent of total eligible voters.

Those Census Bureau statistics show America’s veterans are educated, motivated, successful and civically engaged.

So it’s no wonder the veterans’ community reacts strongly when their entire demographic is painted otherwise.

One recent example of this phenomenon was an interactive map created by the online Huffington Post after the recent deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas. The map noted the locations where violent crimes across the U.S. had been committed by veterans — as if their veteran status, in and of itself, was the primary factor behind each and every one of those violent acts.

Under withering criticism, The Huffington Post quickly took the map down and apologized, saying it essentially was intended as a plea for better mental health services for veterans.

No reasonable person would argue that there are not great numbers of combat vets who need support, whether in mental health services, physical care, housing or employment — and the nation owes a particular debt to them to ensure that ample resources are provided to help address those needs.

But it should not be forgotten that countless nonveteran Americans are in need of the same types of support.

The greatest disservice that can be done to veterans is to lump them all into a single highly skewed stereotype.

The first step to truly appreciating the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans is to understand that the vast majority served with honor while in uniform and continue to do so in civilian life, as neighbors, co-workers, spouses, parents and members of their communities.

April 8, 2014 by Melissa Fox

Call for Action: Support Orange County’s Veterans at the April 22 Irvine City Council Meeting

I recently spoke to the Irvine City Council in support of Assembly Bill 1453, introduced by Assembly Member Sharon Quirk Silva (65th AD), which would create a state-owned and state-operated veterans’ cemetery in Orange County, the state’s largest county with no dedicated burial ground for its combat veterans and other servicemen and women.

In addition, I wrote to Irvine’s Mayor and City Council members, as well as to Irvine’s two Assembly Members, Allan Mansoor (AD 74) and Donald Wagner (AD 68), Irvine’s California State Senator Mimi Walters (SD 37), Senator Ben Hueso (SD 40), Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Senator Lou Correa (SD 34), Orange County member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, urging them not only to support the bill to create an Orange County Veterans Cemetery, but also to locate this cemetery in a portion of the Great Park that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

I was tremendously proud that my father, a decorated Korean War combat veteran, joined with many other Orange County veterans and also spoke to the City Council, urging them to support a veterans’ cemetery in a portion of the Great Park.

The Irvine City Council then narrowly voted 3-2 to support AB 1453 and call for the establishment of the Southern California Veterans Cemetery in Orange County, to express the City’s strong interest in providing at least 100 acres of land at the Orange County Great Park (formerly MCAS El Toro), and to form a site selection committee of interested parties to see if a suitable location is feasible in and around the Great Park location.

Now we must protect that victory.

Here is a press release issued by Orange County Veterans’ Memorial Park Committee (OCVMP) urging supporters of the veterans’ memorial park to attend the Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 22, to ensure that Irvine moves forward with its promises without delay. It is a call for action to support Orange County’s veterans:

PRESS RELEASE AND MEDIA ALERT

Contact: Bill Cook, (949) 697-0123

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 2, 2014

Orange County Veterans Have Their Sights Trained On
A Southern California Veterans Cemetery

Group gaining support from State Legislature and a number of Orange County cities.

Ever since the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro (MCAS El Toro) closed in 1999, a small group of Orange County veterans have dreamed of having veterans’ cemetery and memorial for all soldiers who have fought and died defending the United States located on a portion of the former military base. Over the past several months, the group is finally seeing some signs of progress.

The group of about 25 veterans and other veterans’ issues supporters, now known as the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park committee, reports that the following milestones, according to committee chair Bill Cook of Mission Viejo.

In January, Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-CA65), and Chair of the Assembly Committee on Veterans Affairs, introduced Assembly Bill 1453 that would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to apply to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs State Cemetery Grant Program for the construction of a Southern California Veterans Cemetery in Orange County.

In addition, AB 1453:

1. Allows all honorably discharged veterans and their spouses/children eligible for interment in the cemetery — a fee would be imposed for each spouse or child interred in the cemetery.

2. Creates the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund — all money received for the design, development, and construction of the cemetery shall be deposited into this fund.

3. Creates the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund — all funds received would be allocated for the cemetery’s maintenance.

4. Authorizes the cemetery administrator to accept donations of personal property to be used for the maintenance/beautification of the cemetery.

Background

According to the National Cemetery Administration, the closest regional option for Orange County veterans is the Riverside Veterans Cemetery, which offers neither a convenient location nor a long-term solution for the estimated 133,000 Orange County veterans and their families.

California is home to more veterans than any other state. Despite the fact that Orange County is also home to Army, Navy, and Marine bases, Orange County has been identified as the state’s largest county without a veteran’s cemetery. There is clear need, evidence, and community desire for establishing a veteran’s cemetery within Orange County.

Growing County Support for a California State Veterans Cemetery in Orange County

Since the time in January when AB 1453 was introduced, other Orange County government leaders have added their support. Local Orange County elected state leaders have added their support for the bill calling for a Southern California State Veterans Cemetery in Orange County including Assembly Members Tom Daly (AD-69), Alan Mansoor (AD-74) and Don Wagner (AD-68) and Senate Members (Lou Correa (SD-34) and Mimi Walters (SD-37)

In March, the City of Irvine took the lead in supporting the development of a Southern California Veterans in Orange County. Long time Council Member Larry Agran, working in close cooperation with Assembly Member Quirk-Silva and OCVMP committee chair Bill Cook, introduced and obtained passage of a resolution to both support AB 1453 and call for the establishment of the Southern California Veterans Cemetery in Orange County, express the City’s strong interest in providing at least 100 acres of land at the Orange County Great Park (formerly MCAS El Toro) and the formation of a site selection committee of interested parties to see if a suitable location is feasible in and around the Great Park location. . . .

Next Action Steps

The topic of the Southern California State Veterans Cemetery in Orange County again will be on the agenda of the Irvine City Council on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. The planned discussion item will be the formation of a Site Selection Committee to review possible locations in and around the Orange County Great Park and the former MCAS El Toro land. The OCVMP committee is urging all interested Orange County veterans to attend this April 22 City Council meeting which normally begins at 5:00 P.M. Veterans are encouraged to wear their patches, ribbons and other appropriate ceremonial attire. The Irvine City Hall is located at 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine (corner of Alton Parkway & Harvard).

If you agree that our Orange County veterans deserve a final resting place close to their families and loved ones, and that a portion of the Great Park in Irvine, which was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, would be an altogether fitting and proper location for this Orange County Veterans Cemetery, as well as a lasting memorial to the Great Park’s military heritage, please attend the Irvine City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 22, to show your support.

Thank you.

March 5, 2014 by Melissa Fox

Orange County Veterans Deserve a Military Cemetery

Orange County has a long and proud military tradition. Currently, more than two million veterans live in California – more than in any other state. This military tradition continues into the present, as nearly 7,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars live in Orange County.

Yet Orange County veterans do not have their own official military cemetery and those in Orange County who want to visit a veteran’s grave in a national cemetery must travel to Riverside, San Diego or Los Angeles counties.

A bill recently introduced in the California Assembly by Sharon Quirk-Silva (AD 65), Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, would remedy this problem by creating a state-owned and state-operated veterans cemetery in Orange County.

As the daughter of an Orange County Korean War combat veteran, I strongly support this bill. It is time that Orange County offered its veterans – who have sacrificed so much for us – a final resting place close to their families and loved ones.

Furthermore, as an Irvine resident, I believe that a portion of the Great Park in Irvine, which was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, would be an altogether fitting and proper location for this Orange County Veterans Cemetery, as well as a lasting memorial to the Great Park’s military heritage.

For these reasons, I have written a letter to Irvine Mayor Steven Choi and the Members of the Irvine City Council, as well as to Irvine’s two Assembly Members, Allan Mansoor (AD 74) and Donald Wagner (AD 68), Irvine’s California State Senator Mimi Walters (SD 37), Senator Ben Hueso (SD 40), Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Senator Lou Correa (SD 34), Orange County member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, urging them to support the bill to create an Orange County Veterans Cemetery and, also, to locate this cemetery in a portion of the Great Park that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

If you agree with me, please contact your representatives and the Irvine City Council and let them know that you believe that a cemetery should be established in a portion of the Great Park that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to serve and honor Orange County veterans.

Here is the letter I sent to Mayor Choi and the Irvine City Council:

March 5, 2014

City of Irvine
1 Civic Center Plaza
Irvine, CA 92625
City Council 1 Civic Center Plaza Irvine, CA 92625

RE: California Assembly Bill 1453

Dear Mayor Choi and Members of the Irvine City Council,

I am writing to urge you to support AB 1453, introduced by Assembly Member Sharon Quirk Silva (65th AD), Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, which would create a state-owned and state-operated veterans’ cemetery in Orange County, the state’s largest county with no dedicated burial ground for its combat veterans and other servicemen and women.

I am also writing to declare my support for locating this new veterans’ cemetery on land that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS El Toro) and is now part of the Great Park in the City of Irvine.

It is time that Orange County offered its veterans – who have sacrificed so much for us – a final resting place close to their families and loved ones.

I believe that a portion of the Great Park in Irvine, which was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, would be an altogether fitting and proper location for this Orange County Veterans Cemetery, as well as a lasting memorial to the Great Park’s military heritage.

As an Irvine resident and a member of the Irvine Community Services Commission – and as the daughter of an Orange County Korean War combat veteran – I urge you to support AB 1453 to create an Orange County Veterans Cemetery and, also, to locate this cemetery in a portion of the Great Park that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Sincerely,

MELISSA J. FOX, ESQ.

November 27, 2013 by Melissa Fox

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the first Thanksgiving of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in the hard winter of 1621 to the first national Thanksgiving celebration, declared by President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War in 1863, our nation has recognized that, even in the most difficult of times, we Americans have much for which we should be, and are, deeply grateful.

We are grateful for our freedoms, and for those whose sacrifices, both in the past and in the present, have made those freedoms endure for generations.

We are grateful for our families and friends, and for the love that makes life worthwhile.

We are also grateful that we are fortunate enough to be able to help others.

Our family, especially during the holidays, supports ClothingDonations.org, a service of Vietnam Veterans of America. ClothingDonations.org will pick up your used clothes and household goods at your convenience and use them to support programs that address the needs of all our veterans.

We also support Families Forward, an Irvine-based organization that assists Orange County families in financial crisis to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency and helps these families to once again become independent, productive residents of the community. During the holidays, Families Forward also provides in-need families with festive food baskets and personalized holiday gifts.

Another worthy organization is the California Association of Food Banks, founded in 1995 to help hungry people throughout California, including our local Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County and the Community Action Partnership of Orange County Food Bank.

We are grateful, too, for everyone in our community and our nation who protects us and serves those in need.

Our friend Michael Kinslow has written a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving for those who protect and those who serve:

Thank you God for every woman and man who risks their life for my freedom and safety. Please bless their families with peace.

Thank you God for every child, woman, and man who volunteers in my community. All of those who feed the hungry, provide shelter, and all who put their hearts, minds, and souls into building up others and caring for all of your creatures. Please bless them in their own time of need.

Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving.

November 11, 2013 by Melissa Fox

On Veterans Day: Honoring and Helping Those Who Have Defended Us

As the daughter of a combat veteran, I know the tremendous value of veterans’ service, their core principles of honor, courage, and commitment, and their needs after returning from deployment.

Our part of the nation is especially rich in military veterans – which makes sense given both our many nearby military installations, such as Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and our past military heritage, including MCAS El Toro (now the Orange County Great Park), MCAS Tustin (now The District in Tustin and a proposed regional park), and the Santa Ana Army Air Base (now the Orange County Fairgrounds).

More than two million veterans live in California – more than in any other state. Southern California is also home to more young veterans than anywhere else in the nation. Nearly 7,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans live in Orange County, the 25th most in any U.S. county, while our neighboring counties to the South (San Diego), North (Los Angeles), and East (San Bernardino) are numbers one, two, and 15.

But despite the fact that young veterans often enter the workforce with far more skills and experience than their civilian peers, new veteran unemployment is significantly higher than the overall rate and the unemployment rate for non-veterans. For new veterans aged 18-24, the unemployment rate averaged 20.4% in 2012, more than five percentage points higher than the average among non-veterans aged 18-24. These young veterans need – and deserve – more of our help with employment, education, health care, and other services.

Here in Irvine, we honor and provide support to our veterans through the Irvine 2/11 Marine Adoption Committee, which provides charitable and educational activities and support for the benefit and welfare of the marines and their families assigned to Camp Pendleton, with special emphasis on the 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines (known as the “2/11 Marines”). The Committee solicits private and public donations of cash, food, beverages, and new and used material goods to help underwrite the cost of sponsoring participants. The Committee also holds special events throughout the year in addition to an ongoing recycling program which donates the proceeds from recyclables to support 2/11 Marines and their families and a letter writing and care package project. Volunteers are welcome. Please contact Irvine211@yahoo.com for more information.

Irvine student veterans are served by the Irvine Valley College Veterans Service Center, (949-451-5296), located in Room SSC 120, IVC Student Services Center and UCI Veteran Services, (949-824-3500), located in G304 UCI Student Center.

Irvine Valley College Veterans Service Center is dedicated to helping veterans and their families access the wide range of education benefits offered by the V.A., well as answering any questions veteran students or dependents may have concerning their educational benefits, including California’s Troops to College program of the California State University.

UCI Veterans Services provides veterans, reservists, active-duty members and dependents assistance in obtaining the educational benefits to which they are entitled. The office is responsible for submitting entitlement requests for new and continuing students to the V.A., answering any questions veteran students or dependents may have concerning their educational benefits and providing resources and programs to assist veterans in navigating their transition to civilian and student life.

A local organization dedicated to helping veterans that I especially recommend is Veterans First, the only nonprofit 501c (3) community-based agency in Orange County with the purpose of providing services exclusively to homeless veterans and their families. Veterans First provides an all-inclusive effort that includes housing and nutritional meals, case management, substance abuse aftercare, life skills and transportation, employment assessment, job training and job placement assistance.

Please join me in honoring our veterans on this Veterans Day – and every day – by helping those who have defended us.

Thank you for your service, Irvine veterans. Now it is time for us to be there for you.