It is an insult to veterans to have a president who dodged the draft spend $25-50 million taxpayer dollars on a military parade to satisfy his ego and political purposes; at the same time he is cutting over 80,000 jobs in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. 

Not one member of multiple generations of the Trump family has ever served in the U.S military. I have three generations of family members buried at Willamette National Cemetery, and I want the supporters of this Republican administration to understand that I’m protesting on June 14th in support of veterans receiving the healthcare and services they deserve. 

We all want efficiency in government, but a software engineer working for the Department of Government Efficiency, Sahil Lavingia, stated in an interview that he could not find the inefficiency in the VA he was expecting to find, and that fraud and abuse were “relatively nonexistent.” Not surprisingly, he lost his job shortly after the interview was published.

Veterans make up about 30% of the federal workforce and have been disproportionately harmed by cuts made by this administration. 

It is painful to see our veterans, who sacrificed on our behalf, insulted and betrayed. Supporting Astoria’s veterans gives me a reason to show up for a day of protest.

CAROL MERWIN

Astoria