The nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization revised several areas of focus in order to better focus on serving America’s veterans.
The National Executive Committee of the The American Legion recently passed Resolution 5, which revises its vision, mission, values and motto.
Vision: “The American Legion strengthens America by improving the lives of our veterans, the military and their families.”
Mission Statement: “The American Legion strengthens our communities, states and nation with programs and services for our veterans, the military and their families.”
Motto: “Veterans Strengthening America.”
Value Principles:
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- A VETERAN IS A VETERAN – which means The American Legion embraces all current and former members of the military and endeavors to help them transition into their communities.
- SELFLESS SERVICE –which means The American Legion celebrates all who contribute to something larger than themselves and inspires others to serve and strengthen America.
- AMERICAN VALUES AND PATRIOTISM – which means The American Legion advocates for upholding and defending the United States Constitution, equal justice and opportunity for everyone and discrimination against no one, youth education, responsible citizenship and honoring military service by observing and participating in patriotic and memorial events.
- FAMILY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT – which means The American Legion meets the unique needs of local communities.
- ADVANCING THE VISION – which means The American Legion educates, mentors and leads new generations of Americans.
- HONORING THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE US – which means The American Legion pays perpetual respect for all past military sacrifices to ensure they are never forgotten by new generations.
Download Resolution 5 here.
One big advantage of having a sound vision and mission is that it provides the organization with a very clear lens through which to view issues and decide whether we should publicly comment on said issue(s). As you know, when The American Legion speaks we carry the voices of all our members and veterans across the nation and the globe. As such, we have an enormous responsibility to be thoughtful, judicious and measured when we do elect to enter any conversation in a public forum. Therefore, we will strive to publicly comment on issues that do in fact have a direct impact on improving the lives of veterans, the military and their families.
Additionally, as you are aware, National has made many public comments on a number of social issues so our position is quite clear on almost any recent topic — Law Enforcement, Sanctuary Cities, Flag Code, etc., so the need to continuously reiterate those statements is in many instances simply redundant.
We do, however, recognize that on a local and regional level the needs of your Department(s) may be somewhat different so we wanted to provide you with some thoughts on how to comment on public issues if you deem the need to comment necessary:
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- Local media and officials looking for comment desire to hear from their local American Legion leadership when it comes to issues that pertain to their specific communities.
- Remarks made by local Legion leadership to the media (or other officials) should be based on Resolutions only — and not the personal beliefs or wishes of the designated local spokesperson.
- Resolutions on specific topics can be searched here — https://www.legion.org/resolutions
- For reference purposes, you can also search for past comments National has made on issues here — https://www.legion.org/pressrelease
Finally, we would highly recommend that local Legion leadership apply the same lens as National does and comment on issues pertinent to improving the lives of veterans, the military and their families.
We hope this information is helpful, and thanks for all you do on a daily basis to improve the lives of veterans, the military and their families.
Author: caLegion Contributor
The above article may contain opinions which are the author's own and may not necessarily reflect an official stance taken by The American Legion Department of California. We do our best to vet any information posted to the website. Please email webteam@calegion.org with any changes and/or corrections to anything published here.
