SVO

stands for Student Veteran’s Organization. UCHastings has almost 900 students in total. Less than 30 are veterans. Think about it for a second. This is well under the number at other schools in the area. The rejoinder might he that law school is specialized and there just might not be all that many who are interested. I could accept that, but for the fact that there are more at Golden Gate. The Academy of the Arts (which is private, and admittedly in another field) has over 900 veteran’s. UCBerkeley has over 400, which, with all the schools combined is over 1%. 22 is not 1%.

Several of us think there are multiple factors contributing: lack of faculty who are veterans, lack of support at the school, and an obvious anti-military bias at the executive level.
Why am I bringing all of this up?

The current president of the local chapter organized a luncheon yesterday and asked the former chair of UCHastings Board of Directors to be a keynote speaker (former Navy Officer – used the GI bill for law school). He also twisted my arm into saying a few words. The attendance was sparse – former navy, army, Air Force, and coast guard totally about 10 plus three from the student veteran support office at SFVA, one rep from UCSF and two from UCBerkeley. The new student Dean is incredibly supportive, the school dean seriously less so. There was food, I was appreciative of the chance to meet a couple of the new students and reconnect with a number who I knew from last year.

Oh, what did I say? A bit of history about Armistice Day vs Veteran’s Day. How the holiday was viewed in other countries and a reminder about what the poppy stood for. (after all – what good is a forum if I don’t sell poppies?)

But the best? I received this from Jill later in the day –

Pigeon steals poppies to make it’s home at the Australian War Memorial

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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3 Responses to SVO

  1. Pat says:

    The pigeon is a powerful story. And a beautiful one.

  2. Kris says:

    Loved the poppy nest!

  3. Alison says:

    That pigeon (or rock dove, if you will) is amazing.

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