"Where's Journalism when you need it?"

Originally posted October 24, 2024, to TikTok, before being archived at YouTube;

It recently came to my attention that the stuff that I am interested in—civil rights for military families—is not some amorphous thing that the Vice President and current Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, has no knowledge of and no connection to. Two days ago, I learned that the person I worked with at David Trone's office when I lived in Maryland—a gentleman by the name of Andy Flick—served as David Trone's Chief of Staff. After he left Trone's office, he went to the New Democrat Coalition, and from the New Democrat Coalition, he went to—wait for it—the Office of the Vice President.

So, since September 2023, when Flick was hired by the Vice President, she has had in her office one of, if not the most, experienced congressional staff on GI Justice. Andy Flick has now stopped tweeting because I've tagged him on the platform, on X, or Twitter, or whatever. And news outlets don't want to run it because they think, 'Oh, it might not be fair to Harris to air out her yearslong record on civil rights just a couple of days before the election.' That means 23 million voters—they deserve to know one of the candidates' full record on their civil rights and human dignity.

For the prior Attorney General of California, the largest civil rights department in the nation, to just mistakenly omit and fail to implement a law passed in 2013 is significant. That would sway my vote, and I'm tired of being made invisible. I'm tired of other military veterans and military families accepting invisibility when we suffer a suicide rate of 17 of us every day.

There are 23 million military voters who deserve to know the full record of one of the primary candidates for president—not the least of which because she chose a veteran as a running mate, even though she already had someone who should have known that that would give some huge hypocrite vibes.

So, I've already received 'no's from The Military Times and The Oregonian. I'm waiting to hear back from The New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, many of whom I've already written for. So, it's not that I lack qualifications or credibility; it is a topic that news outlets don't want to talk about because it's difficult—because it forces us to look at how screwed over we've made our military veterans. And the military veterans who would prefer to remain quiet, I want to respect that decision. But invisibility should be an option, not a requirement.

Civil rights are not compulsory, but they are compulsory on those who hold power to implement them—like an Attorney General, like a sitting Senator on the Judiciary Committee, like the Vice President. So, if you're worried that Kamala Harris might not be the best choice or might not represent your interests, join the club.

Now, I don't vote early, and President Biden's dropping out of the race when he did is a perfect illustration of why I don't vote early. I am not going to have my mind made up until I walk my happy ass into that voting booth. And when I do, I want to know that I had all the information I could to make an informed decision. Like: is one of the candidates biased against me and my community? Because it sure seems that Kamala Harris is. I would like to know: do I have rights that I should know about because the Department of Justice doesn't advertise them and doesn't give us the opportunity to file a complaint—because it doesn't even list the hate crime protections on its website? I would like to know all this stuff to inform my decision before I go into the polling place.

But the systems that we have in place—the so-called fourth branch of government—are not reporting on this. There is no use for a free press if they don't hold people in power accountable. I can't wait to get The Washington Post's rejection for this news tip, because they have on their tagline, 'Democracy Dies in Darkness.' What kind of democracy denies its own soldiers the rights that their sacrifices secure?

I cannot believe I'm having to say this publicly. I would think that journalists would actually have some ethical and moral obligation—not legal, but certainly moral and ethical—and I can't find it. I can't get a single journalist to treat my community with the respect and dignity we deserve by reporting the facts.

Nothing that I've put on my website at GIJustice.com is unverifiable. I've linked everything so it can be independently verified. I understand the Democrats get to circle the wagons and close ranks. I get it. But if you think you're a journalist, or if you think you're a news outlet, I have yet to hear a sound, logical reason to justify keeping this stuff from the American public—including 23 million voters whom it directly impacts.