Lindsay Katz
EE Staff Writer
American war veterans, many 80 to 90-years-old, returned for the fight. But this time the enemy was the United States. When the House and Senate reached an impasse, failing to pass a funding bill, the government shut down, taking with it the closure of every war memorial in the nation’s capitol.
However, the Million Vet March, Oct. 13, helped flip the standoff for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Veterans, and all Americans, descended upon the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. and at other memorials throughout the U.S. Organizers of the non-partisan protest claimed on their website they were “being used as political pawns in the ongoing government shutdown and budget crisis.”
The genesis of the demonstration began just 11 hours after the shutdown started Oct. 1, when wheelchair-bound elderly veterans from Mississippi defied National Park Police, pushing aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial. “We didn’t come this far not to get in,” one veteran asserted in a Stars and Stripes story on the first day of the shutdown. The veterans were part of a four-busload trip taking months of preparation and $100,000 to fund airfare, transportation and food. As veterans tore through the barriers with the help of some lawmakers and their staff, they were met with rousing applause by onlookers. “This just means so much to me,” army veteran Alex “Lou” Pitalo told Stars and Stripes. “I waited 70 years to get a welcome like this.”
Million Vet March organizers were incensed and disillusioned that military service people were being blocked from the very memorials honoring their service. “The Administration has closed down war memorials that are normally open 24/7 and do not have any staff to guard them under normal circumstances,” demonstration protestors stated on their website homepage. With nearly 48,500 “likes” to their Facebook page, efforts drew passionate participation across the country. According to John Stolte in an Oct. 4 post to the March’s wall, “50,000+ of my brothers died in Vietnam and more continue to die today from Agent Orange exposure and they want to shut down memorials? Millions died in WWII and Korea and they want to shut down the memorials?….Be there Sunday to be heard.”
The Million Vet March website had an online petition visitors could sign to re-open war memorials. It also listed rally points in every state where supporters could assemble if they were unable to get to Washington. The march was promoted on Twitter under #1MVetMarch.
The government shutdown furloughed 800,000 federal employees, closing national parks, federal buildings, and access to the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and much of the Capitol, all barricaded to keep tourists out.
After heated political fighting the 16-day shutdown ended Oct. 17 when Congress voted to pass a bill ending the fiscal crisis. President Barack Obama signed the legislation and the memorials were reopened.