Honoring our Men and Women Who Serve...

Friday wrapped up a long and meaningful week centered appropriately around honoring our Veterans.

Our families have been touched by military service in many ways. My parents met while officers in the Air Force. My sisters family is a Marine family and they are currently stationed in The Ukraine. John's Dad (pictured at right) served proudly in the Marines during WWII. Both of John's brothers, Judge Joe Vespa (whose judicial seat John is now seeking and pictured below) and his brother Jim, now at rest, served in the Vietnam war.



For these reasons and more, John has always payed close attention to issues affecting Veterans and holds their needs very close to his heart.

Here are John's comments in that regard:

Shortly after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, I, along with several other attorneys formed the Peoria County Bar Association's Legal Assistance To Military People (LAMP) program. This program was developed to provide free legal services for active duty military personnel and their families. In my work as the Director of the LAMP program, I had the opportunity to help many veterans, active duty military, and their families. I have helped many service men and women throughout my career, however, being the Director of the LAMP program afforded me a greater opportunity to reach many more families.

When someone is stationed away from home, the family they leave behind can be vulnerable to creditors, landlords, and ex-spouses, among others. The family suffers from a significantly reduced income and the loss of one if its leaders, as a result of the soldier going away to protect his or her country. This is, obviously, terribly unfair. So, our legislature enacted laws to protect these soldiers and their families.

In that lawyers are especially equipped to handle these matters, they often assist the soldier and the family. Lawyers can protect them from eviction, debt collectors, vengeful ex-spouses, and many other unpleasant events. It has been my distinct pleasure to step up and protect our military on multiple occasions. They are protecting us, in much more serious terms, and I always felt it was the least I could do to assist them, however slightly.

I have prevented foreclosures and other forms of debt collection. I have stopped divorce proceedings and post-divorce proceedings. For instance, there are times when an ex-spouse will attempt to seize this opportunity to gain custody of children. I can and have stopped this. I know how to make the judicial system wait until the soldier comes home and can defend the action him or herself. Our judges are extremely cooperative when it comes to protecting our military. The judge, however, needs to be given the vehicle in which to do this and I stand ready, willing, and able to provide the solution. The law provides a way to protect our soldiers and I take full advantage of that. It is indeed my honor to serve our armed forces in this way.

John and I both feel it is important to pass along our reverence and respect for the military to our children. We educate them at every opportunity about the history of our country and of the thousands of lives lost which has provided us the privileged life as Americans we enjoy today. The Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Peoria is always an exhilarating experience and the ceremonies at the World War II Memorial following offer many teachable moments.



As Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, John will fully enforce the laws that are in place to protect the needs of our Armed Service Men and Women. He will not need any "on the job training" as he is fully fluent in both civil and criminal law and the special needs of the military.

For more photos of our participation in Veteran's Day events throughout the Circuit, please see our Facebook pages here and here.