By Susan Motander
Both of the principle speakers at the Veterans Day remembrance in Monrovia Library Park spoke to the issue of concern for those who served in the military.
The keynote speaker was a retired Sheriff’s Department Detective Sergeant who has also served as a staff sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and as the national president of the Purple Heart Service Foundation, Bill Hutton. His focus was, of course, remembering those who were wounded (the Purple Heart being the medal awarded those wounded in combat). Hutton also spoke of the courage of those who were recovering.
Later in the program Congresswoman Judy Chu also spoke of the need to remember not just veterans, but also those on active duty. She spoke of her own relative who had committed suicide while deployed because of constant teasing. She told of recently passed legislation she had sponsored to curtail this sort of bullying.
Chu also said that her office and the Veterans Administration were near completing negotiations with representative of a medical facility in Pasadena to bring a Veterans Clinic to the San Gabriel Valley. This will be the culmination of several years’ work.
