When Arizona State Rep. Kelly Townsend read about the desecration of the Venice Beach Vietnam memorial, she was deeply disturbed. When the Navy veteran told her kids, Elizabeth, and DJ about the memorial that had been vandalized with graffiti, they were appalled and ready to make a road trip to makes things right.
Veterans’ memorials have been damaged in three US states, according to USMC Life, including the Vietnam War memorial in Venice. While the Venice area wall for missing veterans has been tagged before, the latest vandalism was much more extensive. CBS Los Angeles reported that the vandalism consisted of spray-paint covering hundreds of names of those lost during the war.
DJ said he thought the vandalism was “disgraceful.” Elizabeth took one look at the story and said, “Wow.” With that Townsend and her kids were on the road. “Parents should set the example and so I put action to words and brought them there to help,” said Townsend.
Townsend and her kids arrived in the evening and met with Marine vet Jon Scudder and others who had made a public call for help.
Instead of restoring the wall, the City’s short-term solution was to drill holes in the wall and put plastic over it to protect it. Townsend and others knew that was not a viable remedy given that the plastic would be down in no time. The city council had put in a work order to have the wall covered but they didn’t show up until this morning on Memorial Day, which according to Townsend added “insult to injury.”
So, she offered advice to Scudder as to how to work with government to ensure that said, “I helped to direct the guy as to what he needed to do to fix some of the problems.”
As a member of the Arizona House Veteran’s Caucus, and former Caucus co-chair, Townsend intends to lead a delegation of all willing Arizona representatives to the Wall when it is time to repaint the names.