NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is refusing to allow veterans to march on Staten Island during the borough’s 102nd annual event. Vets planning to attend the march are understandably angry, especially considering the mayor was fine with pot smokers marching just last week.
This excerpt from the New York Post details how some of the city’s vets are feeling:
“It’s a slap in the face,” Jamie Gonzalez, 57, a Marine infantryman who saw combat in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, told The Post.
Gulf War vets like Gonzalez were set to be given special honors in Staten Island’s 102nd annual Memorial Day Parade this year to mark the 1991 conflict’s 30th anniversary — until the city pulled the plug.
“For many of us, a parade is a form of closure,” Gonzalez said. “We gather together and support each other.”
“I’m incensed,” said Ted Cohen, 82, a retired Air Force reservist who was on alert through the Cuban Missile Crisis. “It’s pathetic.”
