Strawberry Gazette
VOLUME I — LAND USE ISSUE 4 — JUNE, 2010
The veterans home and hospital areas are both located west of Interstate 405. The LOS ANGELES CEMETERY
between Sepulveda Boulevard and Veterans Avenue contains the remains of some 85,000 veterans and family
members from the MEXICAN WAR to the present. The Wilshire FEDERAL BUILDING lies east of the Interstate.
“IT’S NOT JUST THE
WATER!” LAND, LOS
ANGELES, AND THE
OWENS VALLEY
BY CHRIS LANGLEY
In the early twentieth century,
agents for the City of Los Ange-
les began surreptitiously buy-
ing property in the Owens Valley.
The plan was to capture control
of specific parcels of land that
would lead to the city controlling
the water of the valley. The trium-
virate of Lippincott, Eaton, and
Mulholland were frozen in time
together in a famous photograph
that appeared in the Los Angeles
Times on August 6, 1906, looking
* * * * Serving the 300,000 veterans living in greater Los Angeles * * * *
more like engineers than land
bandits. In part, appealing to the
greed of the valley’s farmers and
ranchers, they basically secured
the water rights to the Owens Val-
ley. In a few years, work would
begin on the L.A. Aqueduct, which
would take the Owens River to the
young city to secure its explosive
growth.
The economic and social rela-
tions between the city and the val-
ley have shaped the land of the
Owens Valley. These relations are
reflected today in the allotment
of space, business, and the aes-
thetics of the landscape in which
the lives of local residents are
embedded. It also left the Los
Angeles Department of Water
and Power (LADWP) landlords of
Continued on page 11
An Interview with Matt Coolidge,
Founder and Director of the Center for
Land Use Interpretation of Los Angeles
Cinny Kennard (CK): We’re talk-
ing now with Matt Coolidge, the
founder and director of the Center
for Land Use Interpretation of Los
Angeles. You are a leading expert
on how property is used in the
United States. From what you’ve
seen here today, what about Straw-
berry Flag and how this property is
being used now?
Matt Coolidge (MC): I’m still get-
ting my mind around it. Frankly,
this is the first time I’ve been this
deep into the VA here in L.A., and
so just initially, as a project to
draw people to this place, for me
The Future of
Veterans’ Land
BY TERENCE LYONS
Every Sunday afternoon for more
than two years, a handful of veter-
ans have gathered at the intersec-
tion of Wilshire and San Vicente
Boulevards, just outside a corner
of the West Los Angeles VA prop-
erty. Calling themselves “the Old
Veterans Guard,” they are “vigor-
ously protesting the abuse and
misuse of this sacred land that
was deeded 122 years ago for vet-
erans’ use only,” says Robert Rose-
brock, a leader of the group, who
objects to certain non-veteran
uses on the property.
The basic 1888 deed by which the
owners of Rancho San Vicente y
Santa Monica transferred 300 acres
to the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers simply specified
that it was land “on which to locate,
establish, construct, and perma-
nently maintain such branch [West
of the Rocky Mountains] of said
National Home…” Over the years
since then, the VA property has
grown (as with the nineteenth cen-
tury grant of 200 acres from a man
who had pledged a cash donation he
was later unable to pay) and shrunk
(as in the cases of the twentieth
century takings for the San Diego
Freeway—Interstate 405—and the
Westwood Federal Building).
Also over the years since 1888, the
VA property has been put to uses
for the benefit of the public gener-
ally, as well as veterans in particu-
lar—in 1904 it became a stop on
a 100-mile daylong streetcar out-
ing for tourists, and in 1911 sev-
eral thousand civilians joined two
thousand vets to watch “hair-rais-
ing aerial stunts” over the prop-
erty. Most recently, the VA property
in March of this year joined in the
new “Stadium to the Sea” route
of the Los Angeles Marathon, as
thousands of runners struggled
it’s already achieved something.
I guess in a way the people who
are here, whoever they are, are
sort of filling in kind of a crack
that’s forming in the VA, a social
kind of crack in the frozen sort of
politics of this place. I guess all
of us, for better or worse, are like
little droplets of water, freezing
and expanding in the crack as we
come in to find out what this place
is, what it means, what it could be,
what it isn’t, what it should be. I
guess it’s still an open question
but the question I think has been,
for me, raised, which is a question
I never thought to even ask.
up Bonsall Avenue in the make-or-
break last uphill segment of the
race before coasting down San
Vicente Boulevard to the finish
line in Santa Monica.
But today, the VA land is also used
for longer-term, non-veterans-
related purposes, from vehicle
parking for offsite enterprises to
a mineral rights agreement con-
trolled by the Department of the
Interior. Two of those uses involve
VA agreements with Brentwood
School and the Veterans Park
Conservancy.
Brentwood School
The VA provides twenty-two acres
in the northwest corner of the
property to the private Brentwood
School under a “sharing agree-
ment,” on which land the school
has constructed a modern athletic
complex, which includes playing
fields, tennis courts, a track, and
an aquatic center. The ten-year
agreement begun in 2000 (cur-
rently at $375,000 per year) is now
up for a ten-year renewal option,
and Head of School Michael Pratt
told The Strawberry Gazette when
we spoke in May that the school
had submitted for VA approval its
election to proceed with the option.
The agreement provides that the
VA “shall have the right to sched-
ule uses of the Athletic Complex or
portions thereof at mutually con-
venient times,” and Pratt told the
Gazette that the school has offered
the VA the use of its track, for exam-
ple, when it is not required by the
school. Moreover, the school has
hosted the Golden Age Olympics, a
national athletic event for veterans,
and supported the building of the
VA Fisher House and offered tuto-
rial services for the veterans’ chil-
dren staying there.
Continued on page 2
CK: This is over 300 acres if you
calculate the land across Wilshire
Boulevard in Los Angeles, and
then you come across Wilshire to
this quad, where we are, between
Building 205, 208, 209. What’s
your thought of the whole notion
that these two buildings are aban-
doned? This one is partially used.
Many other buildings around
this campus are abandoned over
the course of years. As a land use
expert, do you see a gold mine
here? Do you see old buildings
that just need to be knocked
down: let’s start over? I’m putting
you on the spot I realize because
you’ve just been here a little bit.
Continued on page 11
2
I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country Tip the world over on its side and everything loose
away from them. There were great numbers of will land in Los Angeles.
people who needed new land, and the Indians were
selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. — Frank Lloyd Wright

—John Wayne

THE FUTURE OF VETERANS’ did say that it foresaw a gazebo/

LAND CONTINUED... »
Pratt also spoke of a senior-level
ethics course he taught in which
he took students to the VA and
met with World War II prisoner of
war veterans as part of the class’s
study of just war theory. This sort
of healthy interaction between
the VA and the outside commu-
nity incidental to property use
seems to benefit everyone. The
Brentwood School agreement also
provides that the school “shall
make every effort to increase pub-
lic awareness of the [VA’s] role in
making the premises available
to” the school, although Pratt
could not say what had been done
in that regard except that “it is
widely known in the community
that Brentwood School does not
own the land.”
Veterans Park Conservancy
Another VA “sharing agreement”
is with the Veterans Park Conser-
vancy, a Brentwood-based nonprofit
group that has been recognized by
the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors for its work since 1986
in, among other things, dedicat-
ing the “Veterans Parkway” portion
of Wilshire Boulevard as it passes
through the VA, and restoring the
Bob Hope Veterans Chapel on the
cemetery grounds.
The 2007 twenty-year sharing
agreement (with a mutual option
provision for another ten years)
concerns the sixteen acres behind
bandstand, the restoration of a
rose garden and fountains behind
Building 220, and the return of
birds to the area.
Whether the 1888 deed requires
the property to be used only for
veterans—and whether isolating
veterans from the community is
even a good idea—are questions
that beg to be addressed in a com-
prehensive way.
The Master Plan
From 2004 through 2007, the
VA undertook the Capital Asset
Realignment for Enhanced Ser-
vices (CARES) study on the national
level. In a September 2007 news
release, the VA said that facility
modernizations “along with the
agreement with the Veterans Park
Conservancy to designate 16 acres
of land for the Veterans Memo-
rial Park, the Fisher House, and
the buildings designated for tran-
sitional housing for the homeless
[Buildings 205, 208, and 209] repre-
sent a major portion of the Master
Plan for the VA campus.”
In September 2009, Norby told the
forum of Westside leaders that the
VA was “pulling together a master
plan” for the property, of which a
preliminary draft was then com-
plete, but he did not give a timeta-
ble for the plan’s completion. Under the direction of print studio manager Rich Nielsen the veteran’s print studio produced this etching for a
mulberry/strawberry limited edition of veterans preserves in honor of Zev Yaroslavsky’s visit to Strawberry Flag.
Such a plan would not only be use- Zev Yaroslavsky is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the western part of
ful, but the process of developing Los Angeles County and a constituency of two million people.
the plan—especially if it included

Creative Arts Winners

the fence at Wilshire and San input from all those with a stake
Vicente Boulevards, in front of in the property, especially veter-
which Rosebrock and his group ans—would be a valuable tool for

Compete at National Level

conduct their protests. The agree
ment provides for the develop-
ment of a park to be used “for
benefit of veterans and the gen-
eral public,” and this seems to be
the focus of the protests, notwith-
standing that VA Network Direc-
tor Ronald B. Norby told a forum
of Westside leaders in September
2009 that the VA intended “no use
of the campus not related to veter-
ans,” and that the land would be
used “exclusively at all times for
service and care of veterans.”
The Gazette spoke with Sue Young,
executive director of the Conser-
vancy, who said that the purpose
of the park was “to honor, heal,
educate, and unite.” Although she
said that the Conservancy was
“not ready to talk about the park”
because it was “not there yet,” she
Paul Crowley recording the Tin Man’s voice in the film Silver and Water
that aims to reconnect Los Angeles with the source of its water.
determining the proper and most
beneficial uses to be made of this
wonderful property.
The Gazette received no response to
requests to interview Norby for this
article, and we were among those
barred from a May 18 invitation-
only “VA Quarterly Stakeholders
Meeting” that may have addressed
the state of a master plan (as prior
such meetings have done).
Land use is a subject of enormous
importance, not only at the VA, but
in the community at large. And it
is a subject that is most profit-
ably addressed in frank and open
forums rather than street-corner
protests or closed-door meetings.
BY TERENCE LYONS
The local winners of the 2010 Vet-
erans Creative Arts Festival are now
being judged at the national level of
competition for a trip to La Crosse,
Wisconsin, in October, and partici-
pation in a stage show (in the per-
formance categories) and arts show
(in the visual arts categories) that
will celebrate the national winners.
The local competition in the annual
festival was held in Building 500 on
March 11 and was open to all vet-
erans who receive services at the
West Los Angeles VA. The veterans’
response to the call for entries was
enthusiastic, said Erin Rule, rec-
reation therapist at the Domicili-
ary, who organized the local event.
Besides viewing the many works of
art and the crafts on display, those
who attended the March 11 festival
competition were treated to more
than two hours of musical perfor-
mances and dramatic readings.
Recreational therapist Bruce Gar-
rett introduced dozens of acts,
ranging from Yolanda Harris’s dra-
matic and thoughtful recitation of
“A Veteran’s Dream” to Philip Scott’s
entertaining and humorous “Did
You Know God Was Black” to the
Men of Faith group’s rousing vocal
finale.
The competition was organized in
many categories. Local winners in
the various visual arts categories
had their works photographed, and
the photos were sent in for national
judging. Videos of the local win-
ners in the performance categories
were forwarded for the national
selections.
The winners of the local West Los
Angeles Creative Arts Festival in the
musical performance categories
were as follows: Troy Newsome in
pop solo for “Purple Rain”; Stanley
Salce in Broadway solo for “Some-
where Over the Rainbow”; Wood-
stock in folk solo for “It Ain’t Me
Babe”; Ray Rodgers in religious solo
for “Walk with Me”; and Men of
Faith in religious group for “Jesus,
He Will Fix It.” Rodgers has been
a contributing writer to The Straw-
berry Gazette.
In the spoken performance cat-
egories, the winners were as
follows: Yolanda Harris in inter-
pretive performance for “A Vet-
eran’s Dream”; Napoleon Jackson
in dramatic prose for “A Touch of
the Master’s Hand”; Willie Smith
in inspirational poetry for “The
Lord Jesus Christ”; Ethan Lucas in
other poetry for “Born Alive, Die
Cold” and “New Life”; and Mark
Balmforth in humorous short story
for “The Rainmaker.”
In the visual arts categories, the
winners included the following:
Lance Scott in acrylic painting for
Little Girl; Phyllis Miller in oil paint-
ing for Man’s Eternal; Charles Beatie
in sculpture for The Clown; Arturo
Peña and Lance Scott tied in mono-
chrome drawing for Peña’s eagle
entitled Freedom and Scott’s other
Little Girl; Haven Robinson in both
colored drawing and pottery for
Blue Heaven Cathedral and Com-
munion, respectively; Eric Kaylor
in color photography for Nature vs.
Man; and Peña also in mixed media
fine art for The Lord Is My Shepherd.
Peña has been a contributing car-
toonist to The Strawberry Gazette.
Also winning in visual arts were
the following: Bernard Johnson in
glazed ceramics for Vase; Kenny
Ondo in painted ceramics for
Ondo’s Piece; Julia Garrett in col-
lage for Surroundings Around Barack
Obama; Jake Stephens in bead-
work for his untitled beaded work;
Ronte Foster in applied art for The
Queen Bee; Nicole Ortiz in leather
kit for Starry Moccasins; Glen Ayala
in wood-building kit for Birds Para-
dise; and Gerald Procella in plastic
model kit for his Harley model.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.
— Bertolt Brecht
3
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see land as a community
to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love
and respect.

— Aldo Leopold

California State
Home for Veterans
to Open June 14
BY TERENCE LYONS
The 396-bed Veterans’ Home of
California – West Los Angeles will
be dedicated with all appropriate
pageantry on June 14, Flag Day, on
the grounds of the West L.A. VA.
The 10:00 a.m. public ceremonies
and ribbon-cutting will include
the U.S. Marine Corps march-
ing band from Miramar, the New
Directions choir, and a flyover
of vintage World War II aircraft,
according to Jeanne Bonfilio of
the California Department of Vet-
erans Affairs (CalVet).
A wing that will be part of the
Residential Care Facility for the
Elderly was virtually complete
at the time of our tour, although
not all of the furniture had been
moved in. Both the rooms and the
common areas are light and airy,
with large windows, views of the
landscaped grounds, wide halls,
and outdoor patios off the lobbies
and dining areas. There are no
dark hallways or cramped envi-
ronments that people sometimes
associate with nursing or retire-
ment homes.

CalVet will operate the facility,
which will be its sixth Veterans’
Home in the state, on 17 acres of
VA campus land deeded to the
State of California for the pur-
pose, said Louis Koff, administra-
tor of the new home. The VA will
provide the veteran residents with
medical care, medical supplies,
laundry and food services, and
prescription medications.
The rooms we saw were built in
suites, with two individual bed-
rooms, a closet, and a bathroom
opening off a large foyer. The foyer The Anabolic Monument as an artwork redefines monumentality as a working process rather than a commemo-
was big enough to contribute to rative one. It replaces the Neo-Classical monument’s herculean effort to erect a permanent form with the
the roomy feel of the place, but herculean effort to support life, which will always seek to rebuild itself and create form around that process.
not large enough to be anything
more—a resident would have to
do all his living in the bedroom.
Each bedroom featured a hand-
Thoughts about Living

Three levels of care will be pro-

some wall of built-in drawers and
shelving that will include a flat-
screen TV.
Monuments, Private and Public
vided. The 84-bed Residential
BY JANET OWEN DRIGGS with such works as the Anabolic This is what the conference means
The $187 million project (financed by federal as well as state Monument and Strawberry Flag. by afterlife: revivification after
money) has been under construction on the VA “north campus” Unknown Day, 1875 I’m here because I want to better death. Perhaps it occurs through
J. C. Gobrecht, writing in Ohio understand how scholars are think- the monument’s instrumentaliza-
since July 2007, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called
“The maimed and crippled sol- ing about the subject and tell them tion as a tool of power, or perhaps
veterans “the true action heroes” at the groundbreaking.
dier…is no longer without a ‘local about this work. via ritualized enactment, but this
habitation and a name’…The notion of afterlife always supposes
Care Facility for the Elderly (age The beds are new hospital beds— ample provision which a humane Wondering what the word “afterlife” that the tangible object of a monu-
62, or younger if disabled) will certainly more expensive than and generous government has means in relation to a monument, ment, with apologies to Dickens, is
begin accepting patients this conventional beds—and surely made for his present and future I listen to Dr. Clare Harris discuss as dead as a “coffin-nail.” 5
summer. Sometime next year, the practical in case a resident earthly comfort, is to him of far Tibet’s Potala Palace. Once home
252-bed Skilled Nursing Facility, becomes ill or otherwise requires more importance than the inscrip- to the Dalai Lama, since his 1959 May 6, 2010
and a 60-bed Alzheimer’s/demen- more intensive medical attention. tion of his name upon the lofti- flight from Tibet, the Chinese gov- Santa Fe Art Colony, Los Angeles
tia (or “memory care”) unit will But the appearance of the hos- est memorial pile.…The Soldiers’ ernment has turned Potala into a Unpacking. Here is Dad’s campaign
open. Admission to the veterans’ pital bed, especially when com- Home is a ‘living monument;’ one museum. Although this act seems poster and the bonnet Mum knit-
home is a state (rather than fed- bined with the fact that the foyer/ upon which the war-worn veteran to evidence regard for a subject ted from a doll’s pattern. Here is
eral) decision, said Koff, and 117 bedroom doorways have cur- may gaze with pleasurable emo- culture, it also drains power from the dye-stained measuring cup. For
applications had been received tains rather than doors, create an tion as he proudly contemplates it indigenous opposition by position- the rest of my life I will be creating a
by CalVet as of mid May, when atmosphere that almost screams and exclaims ‘I live in the hearts of ing its culture as a relic. As novelist “reconstruction… problematic and
The Strawberry Gazette toured the “hospital” rather than “home.” Per- my countrymen!’” and critic Raymond Williams wrote, incomplete, of what is no longer.”6
building with him. haps the addition of an uphol- “A culture can never be reduced to Wanting to inspire my son with
stered chair and a bedside table, April 28, 2010 its artifacts while it is being lived.” 2 his grandfather’s courage and his
The $187 million project (financed which had not yet been delivered Parker Road, Hastings, UK grandmother’s sense of fun, I will
by federal as well as state money) to the rooms, will soften this. Closing up our parents’ house, my If a monument allows its visitors undoubtedly exaggerate.
has been under construction on sister and I gather objects that to reclaim the past, then Potala is
the VA “north campus” since CalVet currently operates five Vet- briefly anchor passing time: a small a kind of organized forgetting. I’m May 7, 2010
July 2007, when Governor Arnold erans Homes of California from brass lion, a measuring cup, two reminded of Pierre Nora’s asser- Anabolic Monument (Lauren Bon,
Schwarzenegger called veter- Napa County to San Diego County, pairs of plastic baby shoes. These tion of “the terrorism of histori- 2006—ongoing), Los Angeles
ans “the true action heroes” at and is now working with contrac- tangible things assure us that the cized memory” and his distinction: State Historic Park, USA
the groundbreaking. At the time tors to build two more in Fresno past really happened. They let us “Memory is life, borne by living Standing in the middle of the Ana-
of the Gazette’s tour, the build- and Redding. Its mission is “to ponder it in ways we cannot if all we societies... History…is the recon- bolic Monument’s circle of corn
ing had been cleared by the fire promote and deliver the benefits have is fleeting memory. They repre- struction, always problematic and bales. Suggesting a different defi-
marshal, and the building inspec- provided by the grateful State of sent memories our parents chose to incomplete, of what is no longer.”3 nition of “afterlife,” they are made
tors were in the process of finish- California to its deserving Veter- keep, and those that we take home from corn stover that was grown
ing their business. Koff said that ans and their families—with a will shape the “memories” that our Curator Sona Datta then presents by the artist’s Not A Cornfield
he then expected the licensing vision for California’s veterans to descendents have of these beloved Durga: creating an image of the god- (2005–2006). A regular site of cere-
authorities from the Department live the highest quality of life with people. dess. At the British Museum, it mony and ritual, the rotting bales
of Social Services (for residential dignity and honor.” enacted an annual Hindu tradition host plants that attract insects,
care) and the Department of Pub- April 29 + 30, 2010 of sculpting Durga from mud and which appeal to small birds and
lic Health (for nursing care) to For more information, please visit University of the Arts, London, UK straw. Because generations of Hin- rodents, which in turn draw larger
conduct their examinations. www.calvet.ca.gov. Attending Afterlives of Monuments dus define themselves in relation to avian hunters; and so the cycles of
symposium on “key markers in their past in this way, the festival is life go on.
the colonial and post-colonial his- offered as an example of “intangi-
June 20 American Legion Post#322 is having a Fine Art tories and spaces of South Asia.”1 ble cultural heritage,” a living mon- Because monuments are intended
& Garage Sale in Building 500 starting at 9am. ument.4 (Thinking of Nora, isn’t a to keep the values of a culture
Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Stu- festival in a museum rendered life- “conspicuous to posterity,” they
dio are reinventing the monument less, or at least zombie?) Continued on page 4
 4
Topographically the country is magnificent — and
terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in
the world is the divorce between man and nature so
complete. Nowhere have I encountered such a dull,
monotonous fabric of life as here in America. Here
boredom reaches its peak.
Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without
effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land
be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without
cultivation.
— Plato

— Henry Miller

THOUGHTS ABOUT LIVING class, a welcoming kitchen, a bur-

MONUMENTS... CONTINUED »
have traditionally been made of
materials that change at a geologi-
cally slow rate (granite, marble,
etc.).7 In contrast, the Anabolic Mon-
ument is made of organic matter
that, because it participates in the
metabolic processes that support
life (of which anabolism is a signifi-
cant part), changes continually.
Rather than life after death, the
Anabolic Monument speaks to life,
after life, after life. To quote Bon,
“The Anabolic Monument redefines
monumentality as a working pro-
cess rather than a commemorative
one. It replaces the Neo-Classical
monument’s herculean effort to
erect a permanent form with the
herculean effort to support life,
which will always seek to rebuild
itself and create form around that
process.”8
May 8, 2010
Strawberry Flag (Lauren Bon, 2009–
ongoing), Veterans Administration
West Los Angeles Healthcare Cen-
ter, USA
At a landscape painting class
observing an aquaponic struc-
ture. Powered by solar and pedal
energy, utilizing reclaimed water, it
Sock Man’s aroma is lavender gathered from the Historic State Park of Downtown Los Angeles’ Anabolic supports rescued strawberry plants.
Monument. This is Strawberry Flag’s tangible
object. It operates in tandem with
geoning network of human rela-
tionships and relatedness.
A revisioning of the American flag
as a self-sustaining system, Straw-
berry Flag proposes this old soldiers’
home as a monument that simulta-
neously supports and is produced
by the processes of life. A monu-
ment that is neither tucked away in
a cupboard nor given the status of
a relic, but one that sustains both
memory and the living present.
Notes
1. http://www.transnational.org.uk/events/100-
afterlives-of-monuments
2. Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society,
1780–1950, p.323. 1983. Columbia University
Press, New York.
3. Nora, Pierre. Between Memory and History: Les
Lieux de Mémoire [1984]. Representations 26,
Spring 1989, p.7–25. University of California
Press, Berkeley.
4. The concept of intangible cultural heritage
counterpoints UNESCO’s World Heritage Site
status, which focuses mainly on tangible aspects
of culture. UNESCO describes intangible cul-
tural heritage as “the practices, representations,
expressions, knowledge, skills—as well as the
instruments, objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces
associated therewith—that communities, groups
and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part
of their cultural heritage.” Available at http://www.
unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00002.
Retrieved May 28, 2010.
5. Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. “I might have
been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as
the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade.”
Reprinted 1986. Bantam Classics.
6. Nora, Pierre. Between Memory and History: Les
Lieux de Mémoire [1984]. Representations 26,
Spring 1989, 7–25. University of California Press,
Berkeley.
7. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Second
Edition). 1989. Oxford University Press, UK.
8. Quoted in Anabolic Monument: Corn, seeds,

From Home to Hospital: The

water, soil, human tending, time, Los Angeles,
intangible culture too young yet to February 27, 2006–ongoing by the Metabolic
be described as “heritage”: daily Studio.

Medicalization of the Veteran

teas, weekly Jam Sessions, monthly
High Teas, a print studio, a painting

Welfare State
BY JANET OWEN DRIGGS architectural trends, and each striv- The following paragraphs do not
The story is told around the Domi- ing to provide all the comforts of claim to offer definitive answers.
ciliary of a vet who came to the VA
last year and presented himself at
Building 206 and said, “I’m home-
home—or at least as many as could
be managed inside of an institu-
tional setting.
But, by plucking at a variety of
historical events, scientific dis-
coveries, and political decisions,
Land: A part of the earth’s
surface, considered as
less, broke, and unemployed. And they hope to unpick some of the
I’m a vet. Can you help me?” “Are “The grateful and generous atten- paradigmatic threads that wove
you a drug addict?” he was asked. tion of the entire people”1 could the change.
“Are you an alcoholic? Suffer from have been expressed through the
mental illness? Dual diagnosis?” He provision of larger pensions, or
replied “no” to all of the above, and via the expansion of nascent com-
he was told that there was nothing munity care. But consider the
Improving Medical Care Meets an
Aging Veteran Population
Initially the NHDVS provided
property. The theory that
land is property subject
the VA could do for him. time—the Victorian Age. Moralis- domiciliary services—accommo-
tic, industrializing, nation building, dation, food, clothing, compen-
The vet went out and smoked pot for and in thrall to the “familiar and sated work (if desired), and leisure
four days and then came back. He soothing discourse of…domestic- activities—along with inciden-
was welcomed with open arms, put ity,”2 which asserted the home as
in a program, and given “three hots society’s primary unit. How else
and a cot.” could such an age have attempted
tal medical care. However, as the
veteran population aged toward
the end of the nineteenth cen-
to private ownership and
control is the foundation
to meet the “debt that can never be tury, so the need for medical atten-
How did we come to this state of repaid” but by providing homes on tion increased. At the same time,
affairs? How did the VA change from a grand scale? both an array of scientific innova-
being a soldiers’ home to a hospital tions and the growing profession-
requiring a medical diagnosis for Today the situation has changed.
admission? The Metabolic Studio’s The NHDVS was long ago absorbed
Janet Owen Driggs examines the into the Veterans Administration,
alization of medicine prompted
increasing reliance upon scientific
rather than domestic-style care.
of modern society, and is
eminently worthy of the
history. now the Department of Veter-
– Ed. ans Affairs (VA), and the extensive Exampling this shift, it is notable
grounds that once supported sol- that when the NHDVS was estab-
After the Civil War, Congress diers’ homes now primarily sup- lished, nurses were generally uned-
responded to the needs of return- port medical facilities. Although
ing Union combatants by establish- there are signs that residency may
ing the National Home for Disabled be re-emerging as an objective,
Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). Built the question remains: Why was
ucated and doctors rarely washed
their hands. For although Florence
Nightingale set up her ground-
breaking nursing school in 1860,
superstructure.
upon a foundation of gratitude, hospital care substituted for the it was decades before her radical
the NHDVS eventually comprised Victorian intention to afford “resi- approach to medical hygiene found AMBROSE BIERCE
eleven “old soldiers’ homes,” dences and care to war veterans”? 3 acceptance. At the same time, until
each built according to the latest Continued on page 10
 5
They made us many promises, more than I can Some people talk of morality, and some of religion,
remember, but they kept only one; they promised to but give me a little snug property.
take our land, and they did.
— Maria Edgeworth
— Red Cloud

Aerial View of Westwood circa 1972 with the Veterans Administration marked.
 !
BERRY
AW F
STR

LA
G
O
ME

TA
DI

BO T U
LIC S
8
I think nobody owns the land until their dead are Maka le wakan — the land is sacred. These words
in it. are at the core of our being. The land is our mother,
the rivers our blood. Take away our land and we
— Joan Didion die. That is, the Indian in us dies. We’d become just
suntanned white men, the jetsam and floatsam of
your great melting pot.

— Mary Brave Bird

THE FUTURE OF VETERANS GARDENS
BY LAURA SANDERSON HEALY
The Veterans’ Garden at the VA
used to be worked by veterans
who had come through rehabili-
tation programs and who tilled
the land, growing crops and flow-
ers for the VA to sell to restaurants
and florists. That program has
ceased, and the land that the gar-
dens occupied will now be man-
aged in conjunction with the VA by
the Claremont, California–based
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gar-
den, the largest garden in the state
solely dedicated to California’s
native plants.
Rancho Santa Ana was founded
in 1927 by Susanna Bixby Bryant, a
daughter of one of California’s pio-
neer families, who dedicated 200
acres of her ranch (in what is now
Orange County’s Yorba Linda) to
grow and study native California
flora in perpetuity. “We consider
her quite visionary,” said the gar-
den’s executive director, Patrick
Larkin, recently, “because she was
upset that native plants were dis-
appearing because of development,
and she wanted to do something.”
Trustees decided it was in the gar-
den’s best interests to move in the
1950s to Claremont and be associ-
California are perfectly good in the
landscape, use two-thirds less water
than their exotic relatives, and
they’ve adapted to living in a Medi-
terranean climate, which is what we
are in here in Southern California—
we are not in a desert. They will go
dormant during the summer, and
many of them will actually drop
their leaves [then] rather than dur-
ing the winter months. Some of our
natives will actually die during the
summer months if you water them;
that’s how well adapted they are to
the conditions here.”
“There’s any number of challenges
that we encounter in terms of try-
ing to convince people to use the
plants and to adopt them more
readily in the landscape,” Larkin
said. “One is this whole percep-
tion of what a California native
plant is, and the misconception of
what a native is—everyone thinks
they are the brown things on the
hillside that burn. They don’t real-
ize that native plants come in all
sorts of beautiful colors and are
just as worthy for use in the land-
scape as non-natives. We even
have a native rose. “
Larkin said the garden has been
working out an agreement with
can go out, whether it’s indepen- can’t find these plants in just any
dently or working with somebody old garden center or nursery out NEW DIRECTIONS
else.” The garden is always get- there. And we hope it helps raise
ting calls, he said, from contrac- the visibility of the VA and also CHOIR MAKES
tors and land owners wanting to some of the work that we are doing
hire someone “who actually care with California natives.” The gar-
for this stuff, but they didn’t know den uses volunteers to make flo-
IT BIG!
where to find anyone, because ral arrangements using the plants, BY KELLI QUINONES
nobody knows how to do it. There “and by looking at them initially New Directions Choir appeared
just aren’t the professionals out you would never guess that there on America’s Got Talent on June
there, people in the field, who are was anything different about 1, 2010. Choir Director and U.S.
used to working with these plants. them,” he noted. Marine Corps veteran George Hill
When a homeowner is looking to told the judges and audiences that
transform their landscape, if the And the vets? “We will be working the purpose of the choir singing
person on the other end of the line with the Compensated Work Ther- was to “let people know, all of the
doesn’t know about these plants, apy veterans, as far as the training other veterans, and especially the
they are not going to be able to tell program is concerned, and will active duty armed forces, that it’s
them about them. There are very certainly continue to have the okay for a warrior to seek help.”
few schools that are actually deal- Integrated Therapy veterans who One of the veterans in the choir,
ing with these plants. I am most are still working here watering Carlton Griffin, told the judges
excited about getting a workforce and pruning.” Whereas the gate that he had been homeless for
out there that can help proselytize to the Veterans’ Garden has only more than 25 years. He walked 28
about these plants.” been open for the Farmers Market miles to New Directions and “got
on Thursdays, they plan to keep it my life together.” Both Hill and
The garden is working on land- open during the week. “We will be Griffin credited New Directions
scaping plans for the entire Veter- here five days a week,” said Larkin. Choir with keeping them alive.
ans’ Garden property, but Larkin “We want it to be a place where, in The choir consists of ten veterans,
says there are a couple of theories addition to whatever sales might all of whom had once been home-
on how those will manifest them- be going on, folks will come down less. The choir’s rendition of “Old
selves. “Hopefully we will have just to get away from it all.” Man River” earned them a spot
pretty pictures and everything in the next level of competition,
sometime soon,” he said. “We and judge Piers Morgan’s praise:
want to make a garden-esque dis- THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 5 PM “[This performance] was one of the
Launch of Strawberry Gazette Issue
play space to show people how a Five at the DWP IOU Garden, most powerful, emotional, and
landscape can be converted into Lone Pine, CA. inspiring things we’ve ever seen
something much more water effi- on America’s Got Talent.”
cient so people can look at it and
think, ‘Oh, I can do that in my

“You can’t find these plants in just any old garden center or nursery out there. And we
hope it helps raise the visibility of the VA and also some of the work that we are doing
with California natives.”

ated with Pomona College’s under-
graduate programs; Claremont
Graduate University now has mas-
ters and doctoral studies in system-
atic and evolutionary botany. By
growing California native plants on
the garden’s eighty-six acres, “we
are trying to encourage their use,
and are also conserving the rare
and threatened plants,” said Larkin
as he sat at a booth representing
the garden at the Westwood Farm-
ers Market on the old Veterans’ Gar-
den site. “With the water crisis and
everything else in California, the
ones that are adapted to Southern
the VA to co-manage the old Vet-
erans’ Garden area for a “very
long time,” though they have been
present at the property since Jan-
uary of this year. They are cur-
rently looking for a manager,
Larkin said, and promised they
were going to be “working with
the Veterans Administration to
train veterans on the propagation,
care, and maintenance of Califor-
nia native plants to basically cre-
ate this workforce who can help
get these plants in wider use and
really help with California’s water
situation—just train them so they
own yard.’ We won’t be using all of
the property immediately, but as
interest and business grows, and
we are working on getting con-
tracts, we’ll keep progressing back
into the property—it is phenome-
nal back there.”
Larkin said he believed the adja-
cent neighborhood to be poten-
tially receptive. “I think this is
a great location; we’ve got folks
who are very interested in doing
the right thing, looking for native
California plants and things that One thousand cots were made by veteran volunteers for Tax Day High Tea
are water efficient,” he said. “You Six theme, “Beds on Heads”.

Two Land Use Films, Fifty Years Apart:
Avatar and Wild River
BY LAUREN BON
Many have declared that Avatar,
written and directed by James
Cameron, is a dumb film—that
it has no story but has great visu-
als. I disagree. Avatar has the
story of our time—the inability
to resolve land use disputes, and
how that shapes our environment
and lives. Pandora, Avatar’s cin-
ematic location meaning “hav-
ing gold everywhere” in ancient
Greek, is like Los Angeles, where
mining metal (silver) and turning
it into the silver screen created the
material that built the Hollywood
film industry. That was done at
the cost of the Owens River Valley
ecosystem. A much earlier film,
Wild River (1960), takes aim at the
South and Southerners affected
by the Tennessee Valley Author-
ity in the early 1930s, and how the
redirection of the wild Tennessee
River changes forever the life of
the people there.
Both directors Elia Kazan and
James Cameron distract the viewer
with a romance that shares impor-
tance with the social and economic
upheaval that unquestionably is
closest to the heart of both mov-
ies. The land use corporations in
both films are the perpetrators of
decisions that change forever the
culture of place and its rootedness
in nature.
In Avatar, fictional ore called
unobtanium is mined at the cost
of the Na’vi primordial landscape
in which knowledge flows neu-
rally through all living things. In
Wild River, the decision to flood
the island to direct the river to
electricity-generating plants and
to provide flood control comes up
against a powerful exponent of
basic human rights and American
values in the form of a matriarch
who has always lived and worked
the land in question. The “bad
guys” in both films are the expo-
nents of change—the conquista-
dores of other times—who form
romantic relationships with the
locals.
In spite of the centuries that sepa-
rate the people in Wild River (set in
the 1930s) and Avatar (set in 2156),
we still relate to the characters as
“real.” Yet Hollywood stars dressed
in Appalachian garb are as far
from real people as the stretched,
lanky Na’vi tribespeople are from
us moviegoers. But neither Kazan
nor Cameron is taking primary
aim at the development of their
characters: what is being altered
in both films is the land itself.
A half century ago, reshaping
landscapes with large civic and
industrial processes was common
and omnipresent; fifty years later,
that shaping of space is making
continued life on earth a question,
and that question is of course en-
meshed inextricably with cultural
practice in our moment. Land use
is indeed a story—if not the story—
of our time. Avatar is a palpable
and believable artwork that tells
this story well, and does it with
such subtlety that the audience of-
ten doesn’t even feel its presence.
STRAWBERRY SUNDAYS
Beginning June 6 and
running throughout the
summer, Strawberry Flag
will be the place to be
for live music and perfor-
mance at 5pm at the blue
section of the flag. Bring
a picnic, a friend or come
and just relax to the talent
of veterans.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to
anything, for it’s the only thing in this world that
lasts. It’s the only thing worth working for, worth
fighting for.
—Margaret Mitchell, Author, Gone With The Wind
Bldg 209: Garden Folly, (Indexical Strawberry Flag). In architecture, a “folly” is a building actually constructed
primarily for decoration In the original use of the word, these buildings had no other use, but from the 19–20th
centuries the term was also applied to highly decorative buildings which had secondary practical functions such
as housing, sheltering or business use.
HOROSCOPES
ARIES (March 21–April 19)
This will prove to be a busy month both at work and
at home. Luxury items are always tempting, but do
keep your budget in mind, dear Aries, as money is
short this month. Love is in the air, especially in the
first week of June; be assertive and confident. Prop-
erty or vehicles may need repairs; let a professional
take care of it.
TAURUS (April 20–May 20)
Taurus, this is the month to start exercising. Try yoga
to help you shed extra pounds and create more en-
ergy. The start of June will be quite busy, but as the
month progresses it will calm. In the workplace, allies
are strong but few; use your sound business sense
when making decisions. The 5th–9th may bring a
new romance into your life. The month is full of posi-
tive, romantic energy. Balance remains important.
GEMINI (May 21–June 21)
Although your insight and communication skills at
work are increasingly valuable, changing jobs isn’t
in the cards right now. Gemini, focus on laying the
groundwork for the future! After the 11th, singles
may find a new relationship, and couples will talk of
marriage. New beginnings at June’s end will take a
great deal of attention; listen carefully and respond
honestly.
The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.
— Franklin Delano Roosevelt
CANCER (June 22–July 22)
Dear Cancer, keep your work schedule flexible to
keep up with the demands of your colleagues and
superiors. June is a good month for love. The 19th–
23rd, get to bed early—an illness is on its way! Try
to take a step back into passivity. Listen to those
close to you; their advice will prove to be quite to
your benefit.
LEO (July 23–August 22)
Creativity in the workplace will finally be recognized.
If you’re seeking employment, stay enthusiastic: this
might be your month! While although work seems to
be going well, be wary of launching new products, as
they will be poorly reviewed. The 5th–7th is a good
time for love whether you are single or in a relation-
ship. Make sure commitments to you are upheld.
VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sep. 22)
Opportunities at work are opening up; be selective.
Focus on relations with your coworkers, and remem-
ber to be your charming self. Problems in your re-
lationship will dissipate this month. Singles: be on
the lookout for someone from a distant land as they
could be your new love. No gossiping this month, it’ll
come back to bite you. Clean your house and remain
flexible—company’s on the way.
LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 23)
Although work continues to be more of the same,
you should use this time to socialize and connect
with your coworkers. Financial options open up to
you this June—be sure to read the fine print. Singles:
don’t count on that new love of yours lasting much
longer. Travel opportunities are coming. Listen to
your gut; it will save you from a grave misstep.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24–Nov. 21)
Your superiors are behind you at work, but there is an
underlying tension amongst your coworkers. Be aware
of clerical miscalculations. The last week in June will
bring revenue. Those in relationships find them going
smoothly, and singles, you may find the love of your
life. Listen to your mother this month—let her words
hold extra weight.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)
You’ve been working hard, and June is the month you’ll
get the praise and respect you’ve been waiting for.
Success is coming! In a relationship? New arrivals may
be on the way! Singles should look no further than the
water cooler for their next love. Take care of yourself—
allergies and sore throats are likely!
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22–Jan. 19)
There are great challenges at work, and even though
you’re working hard, the rewards will not be worthwhile.
But the rewards are coming soon, so stay dedicated
and tenacious. Be careful with your loan application
this month—double-check for mistakes. June is a
great time for relationships and for finding, or keeping,
long-term happiness with that someone special.
9
THROUGH THE EYES OF ALICE: THE VA’S
HISTORY OF HOME
BY SHARON SEKHON years, where she felt she began the
I met Alice Kemmer Moore through true romance of her life—with the
her grandchildren Hal and Mari- people and culture of Japan. In
lyn Hileman (both grandparents 1908 she returned to the United
themselves now) well over forty States and ultimately settled in Los
years after Alice had died—but her Angeles to marry and raise a fam-
zest for life and love of other people ily. When her husband died pre-
had impressed me across years. She maturely, Alice returned to nursing
began her service as an army nurse and worked here from 1930 to 1937.
in 1898 at the start of the Spanish- Her work ended when she suffered
American War, and served all over an appendectomy in 1938.
the world, including at this VA cen-
ter in 1900 and again between 1930 When Alice moved to this campus
and 1937. She retired here in 1951, in 1951, she had an elevated con-
and when she died in 1965, she cept of what the VA should provide
was buried at the cemetery next to veterans based on her own work
door. Alice considered the VA center ethic. In her 1960 memoirs, Alice
“home” throughout her career—she was happy to note that there were
began at the VA soldiers’ home in old friends and two other nurses
Marion, Indiana, where she nursed from the Spanish-American War
Civil War veterans. here too with whom she could
share memories. Alice wrote,
Alice was noted for her bravery and
was a pioneer among army nurses— I returned, being then 77 and
she was among the first commis- became one of the Veterans, domi-
sioned units of army nurses, and ciled at the VA, Los Angeles Cen-
understood the importance of ter 25. Colonel Bringham who had
representing women. Alice was arrived while I was nursing here
stationed as a nurse in Cuba dur- in 1930-1937 was still here. He has
ing the Spanish-American War continued through these 9 years,
between 1898 and 1899, and was beloved by every veteran at the V.A.
appointed a nurse in the Veterans I am very happy. The scientists say
Service. On the way to an assign- “Every cell in our body is renewed in
ment in the Philippines, she was 7 years.” I now being 86 have had 12
rerouted to China instead to attend lives. I’m not feeling so old now but
to those wounded during the Boxer I do feel I have had 12 good, differ-
Rebellion. ent lives. With my happy life here at
the V.A. Cottage Center, I feel I may
Alice helped establish a hospital finish my 12th….
in Peking before being ordered
again to the Philippines, this time Alice passed away in 1965 and is
during the Filipino Insurrection, buried in the cemetery adjacent
where she was commended for to the VA. Every time I come here,
her bravery during a small pox I think of Alice and how she helped
epidemic in Manila in 1901. She create a home here for herself and
returned to the United States as a for others through a spirit of hard
private nurse in the Washington work and love of people. When I see
D.C. area. Alice was again singled others here doing the same—work-
out for her bravery when President ing in tandem to help others heal
Theodore Roosevelt recognized and survive—I know her spirit lives
her, along with other nurses from on.
the Spanish-American War, at a
special reception. Sharon Sekhon is the founder of the Studio
for Southern California History, which can
be found online at www.socalstudio.org.
Alice returned to active duty and
was stationed in Japan for several
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18)
You’re giving your all on the job, and everyone is ap-
preciative. If you’re unemployed, keep your hopes
up—this is a good month for a job offer. Married SONGS & DANCES OF
couples may fight. Long-term relationships may
marry. Singles may not have the best of luck this IMAGINARY LANDS
June. Make sure all of your insurance is paid and up A SITE-SPECIFIC
to date. Those worries you’ve been carrying since
the New Year will be relieved. Keep the secrets you
CONTEMPORARY OPERA
were asked to keep. DIRECTED BY O-LAN JONES
PISCES (February 19–March 20) PERFORMANCES
Be creative at work, but be sensitive towards grow-
July 1–18, 2010
ing jealousy amongst your coworkers. Perhaps a job
Thurs–Sundays, 8PM
offer is on the way. Watch you finances; medical bills
Sundays–2PM
are getting out of hand. This isn’t the best month
for relationships—new or old. A woman close to you
TICKETS
will need extra support. Watch out for bees and red
$15 to $50 available online
ants! Heed a child’s warning!
SAVE $5.00 discount code: Gazette
VENUE
Songs and Dances Warehouse
RANCHO SANTA ANA 8840 Washington Blvd.
BOTANIC GARDEN Culver City 90232
CALIFORNIA’S NATIVE GARDEN
WWW.OVERTONEINDUSTRIES.COM
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711 (323) 655-2410
(909) 625-8767
www.RSABG.org
10
FROM HOME TO HOSPITAL
CONTINUED... »
Joseph Lister’s antiseptics studies
of the 1870s, science asserted that
wound infections were caused
by exposure to stagnant air. As a
result, while hospital wards were
sometimes aired out as a precau-
tionary measure, washing facili-
ties were rarely available until the
end of the century.
Nostalgia Loses its Status as an
Illness
When the NHDVS was established,
the ideas “home” and “military
health” were linked in public con-
sciousness via the medical diag-
nosis “nostalgia.” When that word
lost its diagnostic significance,
however, the link was broken.
Just as the term “post traumatic
stress” was coined in the 1970s to
name symptoms resulting from
the impacts of war, so the word
“nostalgia” was invented in 1678 to
describe the experience of home-
sickness in a military context.
For the next 200 years or so the
word named a sometimes-fatal
condition of longing, despair, and
decline. Usage reached a peak
during the Civil War, when 5,213
cases of nostalgia were reported
by Union troops during the first
year of combat.
Not long after the Civil War, how-
ever, the curative connotations of
nostalgia began to fall away under
the influence of scientific special-
ization and Freudian psychology.
They were almost completely gone
Dear Raw Mama
Q: What exactly is raw food and
why is it good for my health?
A: Raw food is all around us, alive
and thriving in nature, speckled
on fruit trees, growing abundantly
and inconspicuously in the wild,
cultivated on a farm or in a home
garden, or in the colorful rows of
fresh produce at the grocery store.
It can be as simple as picking
something off a plant or unearth-
ing it from the ground and putting
it straight in your mouth (washing
is optional if it’s organic). Or it can
be a science, like alchemy, taking
the most unassuming ingredients
and mixing them together using
magic tools, most importantly a
good blender, and turning them
in to something extraordinary.
The basic concept supporting
this lifestyle is that eating food
in its raw form is the healthiest
because it preserves the highest
integrity and quality of its nutri-
ents. Technically, raw food is any
living consumable organism—
veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds,
meat and fish, dairy, and fer-
mented foods such as sauerkraut,
kefir, or kombucha—in its natural,
by 1900, and the notion that home
was medically efficacious, in and
of itself, evaporated. Today, “nos-
talgia” is synonymous with a senti-
mental longing for the past, which
has no validity whatever as a medi-
cal diagnosis.
The Rise of the Hospital
Healing temples, hospices, asy-
lums, and leper houses were com-
mon in Medieval Europe, but
scholars tend to view these insti-
tutions as a means of isolating
rather than curing the sick. The
first modern hospitals—places
where the sick are treated by qual-
ified medical staff—date to sev-
enth century Persia. They emerged
in the West in the eighteenth cen-
tury, becoming prevalent in the
nineteenth.
Prior to the impact of such influen-
tial thinkers as Lister and Nightin-
gale, hospitals were insanitary and
unhealthful places, however. “Nurs-
ing…needed neither study nor intel-
ligence; nurses were considered to
be little less than prostitutes,” and
anyone who possibly could stay at
home to be cared for, did.4
Two things changed this situation.
First, as the medical benefits of a
hygienic, professionalized envi-
ronment met a Fordist approach
to organization, so equipment,
skilled staff, and medical resources
became concentrated in purpose-
built locations, and medical prac-
tices became more standardized
and specialized. Second, as the
concept of “home” lost its myth-
ological status as a cure-all, so
With
Gabriella
Salomon
unprocessed, unheated (above
118-ish degrees), and unadulter-
ated state. The reason for the 118
degrees is simple enough: that is
the temperature at which the liv-
ing enzymes found in raw food
begin to break down and lose
their potency. These enzymes
play a vital role in all our meta-
bolic processes, from digestion to
self-healing. When you consume
living, enzyme-rich food, it prac-
tically digests itself, leaving you
with a surplus of energy to play
harder, work more efficiently, and
do more of what you love!
Because there are many interpre-
tations and applications of a raw
food diet (or any diet for that mat-
ter), it is easy to get stuck trying to
understand exactly what it means
to be a raw foodist. But regardless
of what spin you put on it, or who
you ask, the most important thing
is to be conscious and aware, and
to listen to your body because it
knows what it does and doesn’t
like—and I am not just talking
about your taste buds. Food is
medicine; it has the power to heal
and to create disease, so use it
wisely.
General California Facts
Capital: Sacramento
Entered Union: Sept. 9, 1850 (31st state)
Motto: Eureka (I have found it)
State Colors: Blue and gold
State Song: I Love You, California
Nickname: Golden State
the unskilled, unsterile, holistic
domestic realm became viewed
as unsuitable for patient care. As
a result, many aspects of life that
had previously occurred in the
domestic arena—childbirth and
aging, for example, as well as vet-
eran care—were medicalized.
The Changing Body of War
Every war offers new technologies
of destruction and protection. The
impact of high-velocity Minie bul-
lets caused an increase in ampu-
tations during the Civil War, for
example, whereas anesthetic
simultaneously helped more sol-
diers to survive the grisly proce-
dure. Fifty years later, surgical
hygiene garnered higher survival
rates during World War I (WWI),
but trench warfare imposed phys-
ical and psychological conse-
quences on its survivors.
By 1900, the NHDVS residents
were mostly elderly Civil War veter-
ans. By 1923, with more than 72%
of incoming residents being WW1
veterans, the demographic had
changed. Although NHDVS offi-
cials were concerned about provid-
ing psychiatric care, many of their
young residents looked to veteran
welfare for support building a life
outside of residential care.
Seeking to respond to the needs
of their changing populations as
medical science offered ever more
treatment possibilities for increas-
ing numbers of young survivors,
the NHDVS increasingly empha-
sized its hospital rather than dom-
iciliary function.
The Rise of Psychiatry
The words psychiatry and psychol-
ogy were first used in the early nine-
teenth century to describe the study
and treatment of, respectively, men-
tal disorders and mental functions
and behaviors. The disciplines were
slow to gain medical acceptance,
but by 1904 there were 150,000
patients in U.S. mental hospitals,
and Sigmund Freud’s promotion
of his therapeutic method from the
1890s to his death in 1939 brought
the idea of mental healthcare to
wide public attention.
From the mid twentieth century, a
drug-based paradigm of mental
healthcare emerged, and psychia-
try’s first “wonder drug,” Thorazine,
was introduced into the market in
1955. The many new drugs devel-
oped during the 1950s—often as a
result of governmental investment
in science during World War II—
were mass-marketed through the
1960s and 1970s.
In other words, by the time NHDVS
officials grew concerned about the
mental health of WWI veterans, the
medical profession was both ready
to offer scientifically validated men-
tal healthcare and eager to bring its
curatives to a wider population. In
a similar fashion, by the time vet-
erans of Korean and Vietnam wars
needed help, the pharmaceutical
industry was eager to bring its prod-
uct to a wider consumer base.
State Symbols
Flower: Golden poppy
Tree: California redwood
Bird: California valley quail
Animal: California grizzly bear (1953)
Fish: California golden trout (1947)
A Porous Home or a Closed
Hospital?
The NHDVS was set up to respond
to a very particular situation—the
needs of Union soldiers, who had
effectively forged the United States.
The situation was personal: citizens
saw the needs of their relatives and
the growing numbers of destitute
amputees who peopled their towns.
At the same time, they were often
intimately aware of and interested
in the nature of the care provided,
for there was a strong, steady flow
of life between the soldiers’ homes
and their locale.
The fraternal organization the
Grand Army of the Republic oper-
ated as a significant political force
after the Civil War, for example.
The appropriations that built and
maintained their homes ensured
that towns grew up around, or out
to meet, the veterans. The homes
themselves were tourist destina-
tions, with Los Angeles’s Pacific
Branch drawing up to eighteen
trolley loads of visitors a day in the
1900s. (They alighted at the pur-
pose-built station that is still in
place, though unused, on the VA
grounds.)
Speaking to the place of veterans at
the center of civic life, a weekly col-
umn in the Los Angeles Times titled
“The Soldiers’ Home” reported on
events, including funerals, new
arrivals, concerts, and the fortunes
of the veteran baseball team. How-
ever, as the domestic model of care
was pushed out of play by the scien-
tific thrust, so the flow of life gradu-
ally reduced to a trickle.
It was a synchronous retreat, with
both home and city pulling away
from one another. For as the aging
veterans became less able to partic-
ipate in burgeoning civic life, so the
NHDVS, anxious to offer the best in
modern care, went in the direction
of specialization, compartmental-
ization, and the reach for sterility
that necessarily shut out life’s vicar-
ious germ-carrying processes.
Modernity Underpins it All
In the mid nineteenth century, a
home-like place with plenty of activ-
ities and visitors was perceived to
offer the best possible care environ-
ment for veteran residents. As time
progressed though, the best envi-
ronment came to be understood as
a hospital: a sterilized retreat where
veteran patients received efficient
professional care.
As the NHDVS homes were a legacy
of the Civil War and the Victorian
discourse of domesticity, so the VA
Hospital system can be understood
as a legacy of WWI and the dis-
course of modernity. This discourse
rejects tradition and asserts the
capacity of rationality and scientific
objectivity to improve the human
condition. It is characterized by
its reliance on—indeed faith in—
technology, and its emulation of
machinic models, which led to the
increased standardization, special-
ization, and compartmentalization
of different aspects of society.
Although modernity and its mod-
ernizations brought seemingly
indisputable benefits to many twen-
tieth century citizens—lower infant
mortality rates, greater life expec-
tancy, and increased food produc-
tion for instance—their impact
is also critiqued. Not least in rela-
tion to “industrialized” and com-
mercialized hospital care, which is
thought to dehumanize relation-
ships between patients and the con-
stantly shifting, target-driven staff.
Another criticism, expressed most
emphatically by Michel Foucault
in The Birth of the Clinic,5 likens the
modern hospital to the pre-modern
leper house. Like the leper house,
which served to isolate rather than
cure the sick, the hospital functions
as an institution of confinement; a
place, Foucault argues, in which
society sequesters the sick, the mav-
erick, the unstable, and the poten-
tially destabilizing citizen.
What Next?
How will the land of the Westwood
VA be used into the twenty-first cen-
tury? With a new, 396-bed state
veterans’ home opening on the
Westwood campus6—one of five
such new homes planned for Cali-
fornia—it seems that the VA may
now be looking to combine the Vic-
torian provision of “residences and
care”7 with the professionalization
and expertise offered by the mod-
ern hospital.
What will that look like? Might a
newly porous VA campus provide
resident patients with entertain-
ment, company, and meaningful
work in addition to healthcare? Will
veteran issues re-take center stage
for a grateful nation? Or might the
commercial “pores” that currently
ventilate the campus (film shoots,
vehicle storage, oil drilling, etc.)
multiply and augment the “about $5
million” that they garner annually
for “repairs and improvements”?8
Are new approaches to veteran wel-
fare emerging at the intersection
of “hygiene” and “home”? To quote
President Obama (and the Straw-
berry Flag neon): “Grab a mop” (and
watch this space).
Notes
1. Kelly, Patrick J. Creating a National Home: Build-
ing the Veterans’ Welfare State, 1860–1900, p.
97. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mas-
sachusetts. 1997.
2. ibid.
3. U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. VA History.
Available at http://www4.va.gov/about_va/vahis-
tory.asp. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
4. Bloy, Marjie, Ph.D. Florence Nightingale (1820–
1910). Available at http://www.victorianweb.org/
history/crimea/florrie.html. Retrieved March 26,
2010.
5. Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic: An
Archaeology of Medical Perception. Routledge.
2003.
6. Groves, Martha. “Homecoming for Veterans in
West L.A.” Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2007.
7. U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. VA History.
Available at http://www4.va.gov/about_va/vahis-
tory.asp. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
8. Tillman, Ralph D. Tillman (director and asset
management, Greater Los Angeles Healthcare
System), as quoted in “Homecoming for Veterans
in West L.A.” Los Angeles Times. July 5, 2007.
STRAWBERRYFLAG.ORG

California Facts, State Geography
Land area: 155,973 sq mi. (403,970 sq km)
Water area: 7,734 sq mi
Coastline: 840 mi
Highest point: Mt. Whitney — 14,494 ft
Lowest point: Death Valley — 282 ft below sea level
Geographic center of state: In Madera Co., 35 mi. NE
of Madera
11
California is home to the oldest, largest and tallest
living things. The bristlecone pines of the eastern
Sierras are 4,600 years old, General Sherman
Tree in Sequoia National Park is the largest and
California coastal redwoods are the tallest.

“IT’S NOT JUST THE WATER...”
CONTINUED... »
nearly 240,000 acres of land. This
ownership of land has had effects
on the valley in some drastic ways
that are often overlooked in dis-
cussions about the water being
sent south.
Postmodern insights about our
lives focus on space more than
time, and using this perspective
helps us better understand the
relationships between the Owens
Valley and Los Angeles, and the
identity of each.
Reading the arguments of Edward
Soja and Fredrick Jameson led Jea-
nette Malkin in her book Memory
Theater and Postmodern Drama
to write that it has now “become
a commonplace to speak of mod-
ernism as privileging time, while
postmodernism privileges space.”
In 1986’s Of Other Spaces, philoso-
pher Michel Foucault stated, “The
present epoch will perhaps be
above all the epoch of space. We
are in the epoch of simultaneity:
we are in the epoch of juxtaposi-
tion, the epoch of the near and
far, of the side by side, of the dis-
persed. We are at a moment, I
believe, when our experience of
the world is less that of a long life
developing through time than that
of a network that connects points
and intersects with its own skein.”
Rather than study the history
of the water wars, Los Angeles’
domination of the Owens Valley
farmers, and the incessant litiga-
tion, the land in the valley and in
the city seen together is enlight-
ening. In his treatise Postmod-
ern Geographies: The Reassertion
of Space in Critical Social Theory,
Edward W. Soja explores the chal-
lenges of examining space and
place occurring simultaneously
with a language that is linear
and sequential. We must simply
at this point accept those imita-
tions, although some artists and
writers are exploring overcoming
these limitations of language in
their work. It does suggest that art-
ists like Lauren Bon, focusing on
site-specific installation and per-
formance (as happened recently
during Pipeline: A Three Day
Shoot Out) open up new doorways
through work that brings a new
postmodern understanding to our
examination of land, Los Angeles,
and the Owens Valley.
Near the end of his book, Soja,
who was located at UCLA, makes
a very important discovery about
Los Angeles. In a chapter enti-
tled “Taking Los Angeles Apart:
Towards a Postmodern Geog-
raphy,” he writes, “What is this
place? Even knowing where to
focus, to find a starting point, is
not easy, for, perhaps more than
any other place, Los Angeles is
everywhere. It is global in the full-
est sense of the word. Nowhere
is this more evident than in its
cultural projection and ideologi-
cal reach, its almost ubiquitous
screening of itself as a rectangular
dream machine for the world. Los
Angeles broadcasts its self-imag-
ery so widely that probably more
people have seen this place—or
at least fragments of it—than any
other on the planet. As a result, the
seers of Los Angeles have become
countless, even more so as the pro-
gressive Globalization of its urban
political economy flows along sim-
ilar channels, making Los Ange-
les perhaps the epitomizing world
city, une ville devenue monde.
Many local residents feel they
know L.A. First, as you look about
Lone Pine, and southern Inyo, not
to mention all of the Owens Val-
ley, it is silently there in the land it
owns and controls. Here we take
the LADWP for granted, but when
I used the term yesterday, some
folks from Tecopa and the Ama-
rgosa Valley (still in the county)
had no idea at first what I was
referencing.
The electricity (power) division
of the Lone Pine offices is begin-
ning to dominate the south end
of Lone Pine, with large ware-
houses, equipment, and the many
white trucks and vehicles seen all
about the land. Turn on the televi-
sion and watch the news, the cop
shows, and most other episodic by both sides and used to benefit
programs; they were shot in L.A. If each side in negotiation and sub-
June 19, 7–11pm
our flat-screen TVs are “windows” tle power politics.
on the neighborhood (like our real Save the Historic Spring
windows), then we are neighbors In part two of this series, we will Street Bridge and Cele-
to this digital L.A. place. Again, look at anecdotal evidence to see brate Dorian’s Bon’s 18th
much attention is paid to the eco- facets of this complex land use Birthday at The Metabolic
nomic benefits of having Holly- and misuse, and the complex Studio, 1745 North Spring
wood come to our streets and hills social and economic issues that Street, Open mic.
and mountain roads to film com- swirl around the LADWP-owned
mercials, feature films, or televi- land in the Owens Valley.
sion. The images we carry of the
Old West, the new or old Middle
East, Afghanistan, India, or even
China are all composed of our land
by Hollywood technicians. Land
and landscapes, owned by L.A. or
the People of the United States
(the Bureau of Land Management
and the U.S. Forest Service) are
manipulated by Hollywood to tell
stories. I haven’t seen many critics
actually argue this fact, but place
and space in our films is much
more important than the actual
use or misuse of history in these
products of Los Angeles city.
Ironically, much of the land
owned by L.A. is leased out to
ranchers, a shadow of the mythi-
cal screen cowboy. They become
beholden to the city, so when once
they captured the Alabama Gates
in November 1924 to protest L.A. Gyblet adopts a strawberry and celebrates his 2nd birthday at Strawberry
land policies (read: water policies), Flag.
Tom Mix sent in the mariachis he
was using to film Riders of the Pur-
ple Sage to entertain these rebels.
When I wrote under a pen name
about the victory of local groups
after several years of litigation
forcing L.A. to return the water to
the lower Owens River, a promi-
nent rancher castigated me in a
letter for defaming L.A. Beholden
for the use of LADWP land and
water, he was forced or felt right
in championing his landlords,
regardless of the negative environ-
mental effect they have had on the
land.
The relationship of Los Angeles,
the Owens Valley, and the land
owned by the city is a very complex
and at times ambiguous matter.
Regardless of historical process,
at the same time today, the land
is torn in conflict, but the claim
to good stewardship is embraced Calliope’s routine rounds at the quad 205,208 and 209.

MATT COOLIDGE CONTINUED... »
MC: Well, a gold mine is one
land use here that I would have
doubts about—you’d have more
luck with that in northern Nevada
and places like that! But, seriously,
first and foremost, this place
does belong to the federal govern-
ment and the veterans, and this is
their place. Whether they’ve been
using it to the utmost of its capac-
ity and abilities is a question, and
a question we have some role in
getting involved in as people who
pay taxes to the federal govern-
ment. I wouldn’t want to see pri-
vate enterprise come streaming
in here because I think that would
dislodge the role this place should
serve, and could serve, perhaps,
more efficiently for its constitu-
ency: the veterans. It’s their place,
it’s their decision. I don’t know. I
wouldn’t want to presume what
should go on here. It’s not really
my place in that way. In a dense
urban environment, to have this
kind of scale of disuse is unusual,
at least in a place like this—the
west side of Los Angeles. In some
ways I find that really refresh-
ing. It gives you a sense of space,
of landscape, of aspiration and
imagination, even a sense of hope,
of possibility. People come here
and sort of fantasize about what
could go on in all this underuti-
lized space, and that in itself is a
great exercise and is a refreshing
proposition in this overbuilt city.
CK: I don’t think we’ve ever thought
of it that way. That’s really interest-
ing. It is extraordinary that we’re
sitting at the corner of San Vicente
Boulevard and Wilshire Boule-
vard in the heart of Westside Los
Angeles, a very affluent area, and it
hasn’t succumbed to huge sprawl-
ing development.
MC: Abandoned and under-pro-
grammed space is a resource too. It
stimulates discussion and brings
energy. Energy often flows into
where it seems to be lacking. This
relative void in the urban fabric
enables things like this, the cre-
ative investigative project Straw-
berry Flag, to occur. This project
has been attracted to this place for
many reasons, clearly, but couldn’t
really occur if this underutilized
space didn’t exist.
CK: What can a sculpture like
Strawberry Flag do for this space?
For this land?
MC: It can energize it, fragment
it, shake it up, turn it upside down,
contrast it, or just go “splat.” I think
it has done all those things, for
some people, already. Like I say, it
has brought people here—who
knows who?—to see and consider
this remarkable overlooked place.
The Flag project has made many
of us wonder many things. I imag-
ine it’s causing a lot of people to
scratch their heads: that’s a good
start. It’s bringing people from dis-
parate points of view together to
talk, which is always a good thing.
What the full range of its effects are
have yet to be seen, and could take
years, and be impossible to really
track, as it will merge with the rest
of the site’s evolving dialog with the
public and itself over time. The Flag
project has irrevocably occurred,
and it is a point of dialog that I
doubt anybody could have seen
coming. This kind of perspectival
diversity is critical to broadminded
thinking. We are certainly outside
the usual boxes here!
CK: Matt Coolidge, thanks so much
for joining us on Strawberry Flag
Radio.
MC: Sure. My pleasure.
July 3, 6–9pm
Independence Eve Electric
Parade at Strawberry Flag.
Bring your own marching
band and declare your
independence—no musical
instruments required. BBQ and
dancing and a special visit
from the Strawberry Queen.
 Land really is the best art. This land is your land and this land is my land, sure,
— Andy Warhol but the world is run by those that never listen to

12 music anyway.
— Bob Dylan

She hated the spotlight. One year Shuttle from LACMA to

I asked her to be the focus of a Vet-
eran’s Day column for all the work
she had done. Pam just shook her
head no.
“Honor them, not me,” she said,
pointing to a group of veterans
down the hallway. “They’re the
ones who deserve it.”
The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy
deserved the accolades, they said.
Incredibly, in 2002, Pam’s job was
going to be eliminated in budget
cuts. She was considered “excess
staff.”
“I don’t think helping cut down on
veterans’ complaints and show-
ing them the respect they deserve,
should be considered excess staff,”
she told me. Neither did the veter-
ans. They went ballistic, holding
a rally for her outside the VA gates.
Pretty soon, word came down from
Mrs. Pam Murphy receives Purple Heart pin from VA lead volunteer Julie Stranges, NYSSCAR State Presidents the top of the VA. Pam Murphy
Project, in honor of her husband Audie Murphy. was no longer considered “excess
staff.” She remained working full
VAWLA in connection with
Lauren Bon’s Bldg: 209
Garden Folly (Indexical of
Strawberry Flag)
Bldg: 209 Garden Folly (Indexical
of Strawberry Flag) is a sculpture
by Lauren Bon that will be at
LACMA as part of the exhibition
EatLACMA, June 27–Nov 11, 2010.
The sculpture is constructed
from salvaged building parts
and includes the strawberries
from the intensive care unit at
Strawberry Flag.
Strawberry Flag is a revisionist
view of the American flag as a self-
sustaining system that has been at
the VA for a year.
The Metabolic Studio will run a
free shuttle between LACMA to
the VAWLA on weekends from

Pam Murphy, VA Hero, Dies at 90

time at the VA until 2007 when Strawberry Flag starting at 2pm
she was 87. and running through 6pm. The
Metabolic Studio and the veterans
“The last time she was here was a with whom we work have organized
DENNIS MCCARTHY veteran Stephen Sherman, speak- gambling, bad investments, and couple of years ago for the con- an historic tour that will operate
DAILY NEWS OF LOS ANGELES ing for thousands of veterans she yes, other women. “Even with the ference we had for homeless throughout the summer along the
After Audie died, they all became befriended over the years. “Many adultery and desertion at the end, veterans,” said Becky James, coor- historic Wilshire corridor.
her boys. Every last one of them. times I watched her march a vet- he always remained my hero,” Pam dinator of the VA’s Veterans His-
Any soldier or Marine who walked eran who had been waiting more told me. tory Project. Pam wanted to see if The shuttle will be coordinated
into the Sepulveda VA hospital than an hour right into the doctor’s there was anything she could do with live music at the blue section
and care center in the last 35 years office. She was even reprimanded She went from a comfortable ranch- to help some more of her boys. of the flag each Sunday through the
got the VIP treatment from Pam a few times, but it didn’t matter to style home in Van Nuys where she summer months.
Murphy. Mrs. Murphy. Only her boys mat- raised two sons to a small apart-
tered. She was our angel.” ment – taking a clerk’s job at the
The widow of Audie Murphy—the nearby VA to support herself and
most decorated soldier in World [In April], Sepulveda VA’s angel for start paying off her faded movie
War II—would walk the hallways the last 35 years died peacefully in star husband’s debts.
with her clipboard in hand making her sleep at age 90.
sure her boys got to see a special- At first, no one knew who she was.
ist or doctor—STAT. If they didn’t, “She was in bed watching the Laker Soon, though, word spread through
watch out. game, took one last breath, and the VA that the nice woman with
that was it,” said Diane Ruiz, who the clipboard was Audie Murphy’s
Her boys weren’t Medal of Honor also worked at the VA and cared for widow. It was like saying Patton had
recipients or movie stars like Audie, Pam in the last years of her life in just walked in the front door. Men
but that didn’t matter to Pam. They her Canoga Park apartment. It was with tears in their eyes walked up
had served their country. That was the same apartment Pam moved to her and gave her a hug. “Thank
good enough for her. She never into soon after Audie died in a you,” they said, over and over.
called a veteran by his first name. It plane crash on Memorial Day week-
was always “Mister.” Respect came end in 1971. The first couple of years, I think the
with the job. hugs were more for Audie’s mem-
“Nobody could cut through VA red Audie Murphy died broke, squan- ory as a war hero. The last 30 years, The Metabolic biodiesel trolly running between the VA and LACMA all
tape faster than Mrs. Murphy,” said dering millions of dollars on they were for Pam. summer long.

APRIL CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS ANNOUNCEMENTS HOURS OF OPERATION THE STRAWBERRY GAZETTE

ACROSS 39. Receipt DOWN 36. Tyranny Ray Rodgers and Sheila Lowe were Strawberry Flag Parrot Sanctuary Produced in conjunction with Strawberry
1. Bankruptcy 42. Banca 2. The Color of 37. Capital married on May 15. Teas Thurs, 7AM-dusk Flag and the Metabolic Studio, Los
5. Bull 46. IOU Money 40. Capone Mon–Fri, 3PM Angeles. The Metabolic Studio is a direct
6. Rev 47. Green 3. Gross 41. Money On the Third of July, to celebrate Inde- Vets’ Garden charitable activity of the Annenberg
7. Pyramidscheme 48. Dollar 4. APR 43. Audit pendence Day, Strawberry Flag will be Boot Camp Thurs, 7AM-dusk Foundation.
11. Heartofgold 49. Duty 5. Bills 44. File throwing a huge event with food and Tu, 12PM
12. Stampact 51. Evade 8. Accountants 45. Cost a parade. Everyone is invited! Japanese Garden, Veterans correspondent: Terence Lyons
16. Return 53. Trust 9. Euro 50. Buck Jam Sessions Golf Course Contributers: Lauren Bon, Matt Coolidge,
17. Wallstreet 54. Net 10. Taxes 52. Debt June 14 marks the ribbon-cutting cere- Wed, 1–4PM Closed Paul Crowley, Janet Owen Driggs, Laura
20. Fifteenth 13. Millions mony at the West Los Angeles State Sanderson Healy, Chris Langley, Rich Nielsen,
23. Credit 14. Deductible Veterans Home at 10:00AM. Print Studio Raw Food Lunch Gabriella Salomon, Sharon Sekhon, Chris
25. Offshore 15. Bear Workshops Tu, 1PM Tallon, Kelli Quinones
26. Switzerland 18. Interest Wadsworth Theatre is hosting The Songs Thurs, 5:30–7:30PM Gazette Manager: Kelli Quinones
28. Penny 19. Extensions of Our Lives, Volume III, which will Landscape Photographer: Joshua White
29. Cash 21. Refunds benefit the Fulfillment Fund on June 14. Brentwood Theatre Painting Class Designer: Brian Roettinger
30. Golddigger 22. Tarp No performances for Sat, 1–5PM Gopher Plan: Lauren Bon
32. Pay 24. Taxman March 2010 Edition of 2000
!
BERRY
33. Peñalty 27. Liability Strawberry AW F
STR

LA

35. Count 31. Deposit Barber of Dreamers Sundays

G

38. Treasure 34. Shelter Open daily, Sun, 5–7PM

O
ME

DI

AB U
OLIC ST
T

9AM–7PM