As readers of this blog well know, Rees Lloyd is a stalwart protector of American values and a legal protector of Veterans.

The civil rights attorney makes his home in Oregon but practices law in California.

Tomorrow, Rees will be honored by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors for his relentless legal battle against the ACLU‘s attack on Veterans’ memorials. 

Congratulations, Rees. This honor is well deserved. We know your wife Gail and your girls must be very proud of you. On behalf of your fellow blogforce members, we are so proud of you! Congratulations!

The press release is below.

  

Media Release from The Defense of Veterans Memorials Project

of The American Legion Department of California:

LOS ANGLES COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO SALUTE THOSE WHO HELPED SAVE MOJAVE DESERT VETERANS MEMORIAL AT PRESENTATION BY SUPERVISOR ANTONOVICH OCT. 30, 2012

            The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the initiative of Supervisor Michael Antonovich, will make a presentation of County scrolls recognizing  efforts of  veterans of The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign wars, patriotic citizens Henry and Wanda Sandoz, Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), civil rights lawyers, and others, who played key roles in saving the Mojave Desert WWI Veterans Memorial from desecration and destruction by the extremist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has become the Taliban of American liberal secularism.

            The presentations will be made at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, October 30, at 9:30 a.m., in the Board’s  amphitheatre-size meeting room on the third floor of the  Los Angeles County Hahn Hall of Administration.

            Supervisor Antonovich  will make the presentations. Antonovich, himself, is  an Army veteran and an American Legionnaire. He has has stood with veterans in the long fight  to preserve the Mojave Desert WWI Veterans Memorial, the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial, and all veterans memorials “as they are, where they are,” as first established to honor veterans.

            Those to be recognized for playing key roles in saving the Mojave Veterans Memorial from efforts to desecrate and destroy it by the ACLU, which has become the Taliban of American liberal secularism, include:

            –Herman and Wanda Sandoz, who cared for the cross at the veterans memorial for some 30 years in fulfillment of a death-bed request of their friend, VFW member Riley Bembry, who had participated in establishing the WWI Memorial in 1934. The Sandoz’ donated five acres of their land in exchange for the one-acre memorial site, in order to save the Memorial.

            —Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), in whose 41st District the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial is located.  At the request of the American Legion and other veterans, Lewis authored, sponsored, and achieved adoption by Congress of legislation which, first, designated the memorial as a National Veterans Memorial; and,second,  authorized a  landswap with the Sandoz family which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutional in 2010, overturning lower court orders obtained by the ACLU to destroy the cross. The memorial cross could not have been saved without Congressman Lewis’ legislation, and the Sandoz’ land exchange.

            –The American Legion, and its Department of California.

            –The VFW Department of California, which established the memorial Cross on Sunrise Rock, eleven miles off the highway in the Mojave Desert, in 1934, where it stood without a single complaint until the extremist ACLU sued in 2001.

            –Rees Lloyd, civil rights attorney and American Legion Post 79 life member; co-founder of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of the American Legion Dept. of California; and  author of the American Legion’s “Preserve Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial” resolution and related resolutions which launched the National American Legion’s nationwide crusade to fight the ACLU’s attacks on veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, Public Seals (including the L.A. County Seal), and other public expressions of religion.

            –American Legion Post 79 and District 21, which  first adopted resolutions to fight the ACLU and to “Preserve Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial” in 2002, adopted subsequently by the National American Legion  Convention in 2004 and reaffirmed semi-annually at National Conventions.

            –American Legion Jackie Robinson Post 252, which seconded District 21’s  motion to adopt the “Preserve Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial” resolution by the Department of California, which then sponsored it at the National Convention,.           

            –The late S. Wayne Parrish, Venice Post 177, California Commander 2006-2007, when the District 21 Defense of Veterans Memorials Project was established. To be accepted by his widow, Rosemary.

            –James Creasy, Hollywood Post  43, WWII, Korean War, and CIA veteran who was the California National Legislative Representative and leader of the effort to pass the Veterans Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, And Other Public Expressions of Religion Act (“PERA”).

            –Pro bono civil rights law firms and their attorneys who represented the American Legion and other veterans in fighting the ACLU:

            –Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly, The Alliance Defense Fund).

            –Liberty Institute; and,

            –Thomas More Law Center.

            The presentation by Supervisor Antonovich at the Board of Supervisors Meeting  on October 30, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. is open to the public.

[For more information, contact: Attorney Rees Lloyd, Director Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion, Dept of California, and District 21 Scribe: 951-867-1551.]