Million Vet March: ‘Barrycades’ Torn Down and Dropped Off at the ‘Spite House’

Photo credit: Twitchy

Hundreds of protesters traveled to the World War II Memorial in D.C. today to protest the closure of the memorials during Government Shutdown Theater.

The protest was organized by Million Vet March on the Memorials. Here is the mission of their “peaceful rally against anti-American policies”:

We are all military brats, current and former military spouses and some veterans.  We cannot express how utterly disappointed we were that our Greatest Generation were being used as political pawns in the ongoing government shutdown and budget crisis.  This should never be the case.

We do not care what political leanings you may be; be it liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent or whatever.  The actions of the U.S. government this week with regard to barricading and shutting down the World War II Memorial to veterans, that may or may not be on their last trip to Washington DC, is a despicable act of cowardice.

Many in our group have decided that enough is enough.  We are Americans.  We are proud of our heritage and our service.  As all of us were military brats and spouses, we have served in some form or another our entire lives.  This is our way of life.  We will not stand by and let the U.S. government dishonor the legacy of sacrifice of the generations before us.

The protesters dismantled and removed the ‘Barrycades’ around the memorial and carried them to the White House:

Senators Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin showed up to show support. “Two weeks ago the president of the United States signed a written veto threat. He said ‘if you open the memorial, I will veto it,'” said Sen. Cruz. “This is the people’s memorial,” Palin told the crowd. “Our veterans should be above politics.”

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The ‘Barrycades’ were carried to the ‘Spite House’ and dropped off:

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The march’s organizers have tried to keep partisan politics out of the protest. In a Facebook post, they asked that the event remain peaceful and and non-political:

For some, it is hard to separate the politics from the issue at hand. Some will blame the President, some will blame the Congress. Make no mistake about it, Americans. We, as Americans, voted everyone of our elected officials into office. We are ALL responsible for this mess. It is up to us, as Americans to correct this mess. We all have opinions, but we need to drop them and get to the business of fixing what is wrong with our government, not what is wrong with America. America is a great nation with people from all over the world and to blame one party, faction or group over another is counter productive to democracy in a Constitutional republic.

Why were Veterans prevented from visiting their memorials and monuments dedicated in their honor? We don’t know. We would really like to know the justification for why this was done. However, to us, it is one issue. Monuments, Memorials and Parks dedicated to honor the sacrifices of our American Veterans and their brothers and sisters-in-arms know NO politics.