SAN DIEGO – Assembly Member Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) will speak at a peace rally at 8 am on Monday, November 7, at the Clear Channel Studios, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive in Kearny Mesa. Also scheduled to speak is Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an Army specialist killed while serving in Iraq.

“As we approach Veterans Day and honor the sacrifices of veterans and active duty military, we also need to remember the ongoing sacrifices made by military families,” Saldaña said.

Saldaña, who serves on the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, said she was disheartened, but not surprised, when the United States Military reported recently that long deployments are having a troubling effect on military families. Incidents of divorce, alcohol and substance abuse, and other behavioral and mental health problems have increased, according to military data.

“It’s the scars we don’t see that take the longest to heal,” Saldaña said. “We need to make sure soldiers have what they need on the battlefield and at home.”

To help heal those invisible scars, Saldaña co-authored legislation requiring veterans to be included among the targeted populations receiving new Proposition 63 mental health funds. The bill received bi-partisan support and was signed by the Governor in September. She testified before the County Mental Health Board last week to encourage adoption of the bill’s provisions into their plans to allocate Proposition 63 funds.

“We need to make sure veterans who need help get it,” she said.

Saldaña, the daughter of a career Marine, has been participating in a full slate of Veterans Day observances this week, including the Veteran of the Year Awards and the Military Order of the World War’s Massing of the Colors Ceremony. She said it was equally important to participate in Monday’s Peace Rally because she believes that honoring fallen loved ones sometimes means raising questions about why they were put in harm’s way.

“The right to raise those questions is at the core of our democracy,” Saldaña said.