Veterans laughed and teased each other outside the Arizona State Capitol, but the reason for their gathering wasn\u2019t so chipper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dozens joined with lawmakers and community advocates to denounce the federal government\u2019s treatment of veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their main message was loud and clear on the shirts many wore: \u201cStop Firing Vets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same government that thanks us on Veterans Day turns its back on us the other 364 days of the year,\u201d said Omar Algeciras, a 20-year Air Force veteran and vice president of the American Federation of Government Workers Local 2391, a union representing federal employees.<\/p>\n
At the Nov. 10 rally, Algeciras and others called for the federal government to do more for people who had been willing to sacrifice their lives for their country. They demanded more job support, improved social services and an end to deportations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They chanted \u201csi se puede,\u201d Spanish for \u201cyes we can\u201d or \u201cwe can do it.\u201d It expressed the theme of the rally which was the third and final destination of a three-stop tour across the state.<\/p>\n
Only a dozen states have more veterans than Arizona. Roughly 515,000 live in the state, 7.4% of the population. Those veterans haven\u2019t been exempt from workforce cuts \u2013 in fact, they have been disproportionately affected, veterans said, because about one in four federal workers is a veteran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe firing of these federal workers sends a message that our service, our dedication, does not matter, and that is wrong,\u201d said Signa Oliver, an Army veteran and member of the Phoenix Union School Board, choking up as veterans behind her waved signs and American flags.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of his second term in office, President Donald Trump promised sweeping federal job cuts to curb spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Office of Personnel Management has projected a reduction of 300,000 federal jobs by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The veterans felt betrayed, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe benefits and services that we earned are being stripped away from us,\u201d said Algeciras. \u201cVeterans who fought for this country are now fighting to keep their jobs. Veterans who risk their lives are being told they are expendable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from job losses, the rally also focused on Department of Veterans Affairs services and veterans facing deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rally came as the longest shutdown in U.S. history was winding down. It officially ended Nov. 12 with a deal that includes an agreement to freeze federal job cuts until the stopgap funding bill runs out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Democratic holdouts in the Senate also wrested a small concession on Affordable Care Act subsidies, a promise that the Senate will vote next month on the expiring subsidies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The deal promises respite for federal workers through the holidays. But it doesn\u2019t make complaints and concerns disappear altogether, they said.<\/p>\n
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who served in the Marines, said veterans won\u2019t stand for being used as political pawns\u00a0 any longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will fight for the dignity of veterans,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will fight for the livelihood of their families, and we will continue to fight for that sometimes unfortunately elusive American Dream that has been trampled under the politics of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Aaron M\u00e1rquez, D-Phoenix,\u00a0 took to the podium as well. M\u00e1rquez co-founded VetsForward, a liberal advocacy group, and served two deployments in Afghanistan in the Army.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we make America great again by firing the people that serve the country in uniform and continue to serve our federal government,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said. \u201cI think we can make America great again if we remember what\u2019s happening right now, in about a year from now, when we have elections again and we fire the people that are trying to fire our veterans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rally attendees poked and prodded at each other, making fun of rival military branches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rally fell on the Marine Corps\u2019 250th birthday, and several \u201coorahs\u201d erupted from the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The playful jeering and cheering didn\u2019t take away from the central message, calling on veterans and community members to speak out and to pressure their state and federal representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are warriors,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cThrough our voices, through our organizing, through our activism, we won\u2019t give in, and we won\u2019t surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez encouraged civilians to support veterans throughout the year, not just the one day dedicated to their memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for those of you that are not veterans,\u201d he said, \u201cthe best way you can celebrate veterans over this next year\u00a0 is to find a way to make a difference.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veterans laughed and teased each other outside the Arizona State Capitol, but the reason for their gathering wasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":389693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[7023,5229,185608,5643,185606,1587,26753,185607,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-389692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-affordable-care-act","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-american-federation-of-government-workers-local-2391","11":"tag-arizona","12":"tag-arizona-state-capitol","13":"tag-az","14":"tag-office-of-personnel-management","15":"tag-omar-algeciras","16":"tag-phoenix","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115575855830779314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}