Uppity Wisconsin

West LA VA land descendant of donor speaks out
Descendant of VA land donor responds to park controversy
By Carolina Winston Barrie
I would like to respond to a letter in your December edition from Robert Rosebrock and Francisco Juarez which contained distortions and false charges about the Veterans Park Conservancy. I am a member of the Board of Directors of that organization, but more to the point, I have a family obligation to insure that the intentions of the original gift of land are faithfully carried out. My name is Carolina Winston Barrie. I am a descendant of Arcadia Bandini de Baker. In 1888, the United States government, by a special act of congress, accepted 300 acres of land for the benefit of veterans of foreign wars. This gift was from Arcadia and Senator John Percival Jones for the sole purpose of providing Veterans with a place to heal from war. Never has that desire to heal been more important than today as our sons and daughters return home with scars of battle in their bodies and minds.Three generations of my family have fought to maintain the healing mission of the original gift (which became the V.A Hospital and recreational facilities). The physical and mental facilities of the V.A. have always been overwhelmed and under-funded. The Government's neglect of our Veterans has been a national scandal long before Iraq. Yet over the years, the more valuable the acreage became, the more land developers plotted to steal it and convert it to profit. Our family has resisted schemes for shopping malls, condominiums, even an NFL Stadium. And we might not have prevailed had it not been for the formation of the Veterans Park Conservancy.Founded in 1986 to protect and enhance the land, the organization's director, Susan Young, and its Chairman, retired three-war hero Gwynn Robinson, have led the efforts along with other groups to save and re-vitalize the VA property. Buildings were rebuilt, rusty fencing was replaced, decayed monuments revived, and a Chapel, first used by veterans of the Civil War, was restored to it's original beauty with the help of the Bob Hope family.Had it not been for the dedication and hard work of Veterans Park Conservancy, Senators Alan Cranston, Pete Wilson, Dianne Feinstein, Congressman Henry Waxman, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and others for the last two decades, the deeded land, the VA facilities and the open parkland space would have been sold to the highest bidder by the Federal Government. Indeed the new State Veterans Home and the expansion of the National Cemetery would never have happened. These achievements are a clear example of how a caring, non-profit, private sector group can raise the large sums of money necessary to do work that the Bureaucratic Federal Government can never find the budget for. THE BRENTWOOD NEWS accurately chronicled the achievements in its November cover story, "Home of the Brave." In the light of that long overdue tribute, my family and I find it distressing that anyone who read it would attack the motivation and the achievements of Veteran's Park Conservancy under the guise of being a Veteran's spokesperson. To call VPC "a modern day Trojan Horse designed to subvert the deed" is to insult not only its membership (one third of whom are Veterans), but all the nationally recognized veterans organizations who have passed resolutions of support, as well as all the donors, large and small, whose contributions have saved the land and enforced my family's original intentions. Very truly yours, CAROLINA WINSTON BARRIE