Supporting the troops, IAVA style!

Those of us who served overseas during Operation Enduring Freedom and/or Operation Iraqi Freedom come from all across the political and socio-economic spectrum. But, if there is one thing that binds all of us, besides our service in GWOT, it is certainly our ability and desire to plunk down $250 for an evening of cocktails to be enjoyed with noted Veterans advocates from Hollywood.

IAVA’s West Coast Heroes Celebration
This spring, please join us in honoring the nation’s newest generation of heroes and celebrating the successes of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). IAVA is holding the first annual West Coast Heroes Celebration on Thursday, April 30th, 2009. The cocktail reception will be held at the offices of Creative Artists Agency (2000 Avenue of the Stars) in Los Angeles, California from 7-9:00PM.

We are excited to have Cameron Diaz, Nick Styne, and Norman Lear co-host this special evening.

Ticket $250
Sponsor $5,000
Patron $10,000
Benefactor $25,000
Premiere Sponsor $50,000

I mean, who among us could ever forget Ms. Diaz’s standing up for the veterans during the 2004 election when she said:

Women have so much to lose. I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies. We could lo–if you think that rape should be legal, then don’t vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body, and you have a right to say what happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should vote.

Well, that really had nothing to do with veterans actually, but I am sure she is spectacular on her caring.

Since I didn’t know who Nick Styne was, I looked it up:

High-powered motion picture talent agent Nick Styne is leaving International Creative Management after more than ten years. He’ll be joining the Creative Artists Agency and is reportedly taking major clients like Cameron Diaz, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair supermodel Heidi Klum with him.

Man, I can TOTALLY see why OEF/OIF vets want to hang with him. I know when I came off the airplane on my return my first thought was “Shit! Where am I gonna get a talent agent now?” Because, if there is one thing a wounded vet without a job needs, it is a talent scout. Don’t believe me? Just run up to Walter Reed and ask for a show of hands on how many have their own, and I bet not a one of them does.

And Norman Lear, man, that dude is Teh Awesome! Just a few weeks ago he was talking about how he supported the troops of this war, as he had ones in the past:

But like any great film, and Stop-Loss is a great film, it can help the viewer to experience that “feeling,” if only fleetingly. Stop-Loss did that for me. I feel as never before for the men and women fighting it and for their families.

During the Vietnam protest days there was an indelible photograph of a group of students lying on the track in front of a troop train. Where, I wonder, is my troop train?

Dude, I am *SO* down with that logic. I truly am. I like the Red Sox, but until Jimmy Falon played a deranged lunatic member of Sox Nation, I never truly understood. It really does take a movie to make you understand and grasp the importance of an event you took part in, doesn’t it?

(To his credit, at least Lear is a veteran of WWII)

I just personally want to thank IAVA for doing this for all of us out here struggling with having $250 of expendable income that we can’t get rid of, and giving us the opportunity to meet the types of counsellors we need the most: ones who can get us into the movies.

Here is one guy who gets it:

Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Liberals suck, Politics, Usual Suspects