WASHINGTON, DC – The nation's oldest major veterans' organization is urging its 2.2 million members to contact Congress and urge them to help America's businesses stay in business.

"The image that is the United States of America is one of strength, compassion and stability, yet this financial crisis is undermining our ability as a nation to think positively about the future," said Glen M. Gardner, Jr., the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.

"The debate in Washington is about Wall Street and Detroit, but the true debate is on Main Street, where confidence is at a critical point because the crisis is affecting everyone, to include veterans and their families who are employed in industries affected the most, or who own small businesses and property."

Gardner, a Vietnam veteran from Round Rock, Texas, is now asking the 2.2 million VFW and auxiliary members to contact their elected officials in Congress and urge their support to work with the administration in a bipartisan manner to help America get working again.

"America became a superpower in the last century because of an economic engine that enabled our military to win its wars," he said. "We absolutely cannot allow our industrial capacity to diminish to the point that we are dependent upon other nations to arm our military, employ our workers or outright own us."

For information on how to contact Lake County's representative and senators, visit Congressman Mike Thompson's Web site, http://mikethompson.house.gov/contact/index.shtml; Sen. Barbara Boxer at http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/; or Sen. Dianne Feinstein, http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home.

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