Lieutenant governor’s office weighs in on 2007 Veterans parade controversy

Remember the 11th Annual Long Beach Veterans Day Parade? So do a lot of people, especially members of the three veterans groups–Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace–who were told they couldn’t march in the Nov. 10 parade. Organizers said the groups didn’t “fit the spirit of the parade,” and were concerned their anti-Iraq war stance would politicize the event.

Now, an adviser to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi says city officials and parade organizers are poised to reverse themselves and invite the same three veterans groups to march in this year’s Veterans Day parade–alongside other parade regulars with their own political perspectives, like the American Legion.

In a separate development, the three veterans groups have already been accepted to march in the parade that will kick off the city’s 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Jan. 19.

“The city is willing to let any member of any organization march as long as they conduct themselves accordingly,” said Wade Sanders, Garamendi’s senior adviser on military and veterans affairs, and a retired Navy captain whose ties to Long Beach include renting in Belmont Shore when he was stationed here. (His roommate? A young man named John Kerry.)

“They’ve been solicited to apply next year,” said Sanders, who says he had a series of conversations last month with veterans, parade organizers and city officials to engineer a compromise.

But if that’s the case, no one seems to have explained it thusly to parade organizers or Ninth District Councilman Val Lerch, whose territory is home to the Veterans Day parade.

Parade organizer Martha Thuente said that no decision has been made on whether to invite the veterans groups to march this November, and that the issue won’t even be considered until organizers’ first meeting of the year, in February. When I tried to ask about her conversation with Sanders, Thuente got testy.

“For the third time, Theo, I will tell you that I can’t comment on that,” Thuente said, meaning she couldn’t comment on what members of the organizing committee–which she heads–are thinking, and how the committee will decide when it meets next month. “What part of ‘No’ don’t you understand?”

Then the line went dead. I’m not sure, but I think it was my first hang-up of the New Year–not counting my growing dislike for various types of mustard.

Lerch said that members of the three veterans groups have been invited to the committee’s meeting, the last Tuesday in February, and that they’ll all talk about it then.

“The city is not reaching out” to the veterans groups, Lerch said. “It’s the [organizers] board.”

He offered a much different take on the situation from Sanders, who gave the impression a resolution was near. It’s not near–not for at least a month–but ironically, both sides may be working toward much the same result.

“In the parade itself, I got both parties to understand that the parade is there to honor veterans. This may not be the appropriate place to carry protest signs,” Sanders said. “Just carry your banner and walk. That’s kind of where we are.”

Lerch is pretty much there too–except he’s opposed to letting the anti-war veterans wear T-shirts protesting the Iraq war. The parade is incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, he said, and nonprofit regulations keep organizers from letting anything politicize the parade.

“I would vote ‘Yes’ if they were willing to come in their uniforms or their civilian clothes,” said Lerch, a 24-year Coast Guard veteran and a voting member of the parade board. “Civilian clothes would be okay. Some of them may not be able to fit into their uniforms any more.”

Protest? If she protested on Veterans Day, Long Beach mom Pat Alviso told The District, “I’d be protesting my own son.” Full disclosure: Alviso is a member of Military Families Speak Out. And her son? He’s the son who has done two tours of duty in Iraq.

“We’re pretty happy that it went the way it did–in that way–but there’s still some of us who feel that maybe we should be more pro-active,” Alviso said of Sanders’ discussions with parade and city people.

“Some of us feel that we should have marched anyway, because the people who needed to march [in November], you can’t recapture that, and the insult–that is hard to take away.”

Tags: 11th Annual Long Beach Veterans Day Parade, 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, belmont shore, California, Iraq Veterans Against the War, John Kerry, Long Beach, Long Beach City Council, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Martha Thuente, Military Families Speak Out, Ninth District Councilman Val Lerch, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, val lerch, Veteran's For Peace, Wade Sanders