This is an important one to me. My service was an eon ago but it still affects me to this day. And what’s happening now needs attention. See below for what I need.

But here’s why…

Hundreds of thousands of veterans (half of them disabled) are losing their jobs, including 86,000 jobs at the VA alone (that includes the 6000 there that Trump already fired). Trump is still funding the VA records modernization project, but gutting its IT department (a contradictory move). He is cutting some veteran benefits, and though his budget claims to boost a few others, those plans seem disingenuous, as they contradict other directives that entail net losses in the same programs. We went through this before, when he gutted nearly every veteran’s program his first term; so we know what Trump really means to do. Military.com has a balanced story about all this by Patricia Kime: “Veterans Organizing ‘Call to Action’ Rally.”

One of the organizing committees for this protest is Unite for Veterans. We will march on the national mall the afternoon of Friday, June 6—the 81st anniversary of D-Day…and the week before Donald Trump’s North-Korea-Style birthday military parade. The hope is to rally far more than the 6,000 troops he will be ordering to march for him then.

Here’s what I need. My default plan is to drive up to DC the day before and down the day after, and camp in my RAV while there. But I’d like to pull off something more. I have a lot of book stock to sign and sell to cover gas and food and sundries. Plan B is to bar hop the evening after the march, somewhere I can park near enough by that anyone in DC watching my social media then can come hang out, buy me a drink, and walk to my car to buy some books and get them signed. I can’t plan a specific location because I expect DC will be chaos that night and I won’t know what places will have room to stop at, so it will all be on the fly.

However:

I’d love to pull off Plan A instead!

It would be excellent if I could find someone who will let me crash at their place in DC that Thursday and Friday night, rather than have to camp. It would be even more excellent if someone could take me in thus and host a party that Friday evening that we could publicly invite local atheists to, and I can drink and sell and sign there instead of barhopping.

And as Always:

Regardless of whether I am lucky enough to get either kind of host for this, you can always donate money to my PayPal window if you’re inclined. It would be no strings attached (just funding my trip, a tank of gas and probably a scotch or two). I will also publicly thank any donors that ask me to!

You can also contact me to arrange to pre-buy a signed book and pick it up at the rally (or in the hours before; I’ll likely be getting breakfast somewhere you can stop by), if that works better for you. We can discuss details in comms.

I am also open to giving someone a ride, if you want to join the march. You’ll have to find your own place to stay (or cover us a motel), but if you are on the main route from Atlanta to DC, and can travel all day Thursday and Saturday (or one of those days, and plan your own transportation for the other), I will have comfortable room for three (and their gear). Get in touch.