I’m Just Waiting…
On Friday, February 28, 2025, I was at In-N-Out in Salem, OR, when I noticed someone with a badge that read “Matt Keating Policy Advisor Senator Manning.”
Matt Keating is a Eugene City Councilor, the same district served by 🟦 🦅 James Manning. As Democrats, that places them high in the ranks of the state party, the same that preaches about human dignity and civil rights, but has no shits to give when it comes to military families like mine. I just can’t stand absolute entitlement of brushing off civil rights for the families who sacrifice for American Entitlement so that he can grab his lunch “in peace” while Oregon military families are being deprived of the rights he gets at our expense. God forbid he should use his power to do the right thing…
But the bottom line is it was in public, so I filmed the exchange since the press hasn’t covered anything about SJM 1, SB 1057, or the slew of violent anti-military hate crimes. You want a nice quiet lunch? Get me my rights.
Have we learned NOTHING from the activism of the 1960s? Without the Double V for Victory campaign of the 1940s, there would be no civil(ian) rights movement to speak of; or do progressives support racial equity but draw the line at Equal Protection for black military families?
Anyway, here’s the footage:
Transcript
Logan Isaac: Hey you [with] Senator Manning? [nods] Hi, my name's Logan Isaac.
Matthew Keating: Hi
Logan Isaac: Senator Manning hasn't given a hearing to SB 1057 or Senate Joint Memorial One; when can he get that on the calendar?
Matthew Keating: I will speak with the senator when I’m back in the office.
Logan Isaac: When shall I follow up with Senator Manning? Actually, no, I'm not welcome because I've been banished from the capital. When will Senator Manning hold a hearing for SJM 1 and SB 1057?
Matthew Keating: I’ll find out when I’m back in the office.
Logan Isaac: I want to know and I can't find out unless I go to the office because I've been banished from the capital unlawfully. When will Senator Manning hold hearings for civil rights for military families? You can call him, Yeah that's great let's get a date…
Matthew Keating: I don’t know when to check times are, I [inaudible] so, uh… You can email, you can call…
Logan Isaac: Wait, no, he has ignored several emails of mine. When will Senator Manning have a hearing on military civil rights?
Matthew Keating: I will check that when I get back.
Logan Isaac: Okay, Matt Keating, when will you call me to make sure that my rights as a military family are being respected.
Matthew Keating: Do you have a card?
Logan Isaac: I don't... I don't have the ability to email right now but I want an answer, and I can't go to the capital.
Matthew Keating: …my lunch break. I appreciate that you want an answer…
Logan Isaac: Are you a member of [James Mannings’] Congressional staff? That makes you a public servant, and here you are, in public. I'm asking another member of the public why they have a private interest in not answering when we're going to have hearings on SJM 1 and SB 1057.
Matthew Keating: I appreciate your service and your sacrifice.
Logan Isaac: When can we expect to have hearings on civil rights for military families?
Matthew Keating: I'm not a member of congressional staff…
Logan Isaac: But [your name tag identifies you as] a “policy adviser” for Senator Manning, you must have privileged information about my interactions with Senator Manning.
Matthew Keating: Well I'm just waiting for my lunch.
Logan Isaac: Well yeah so am I. I'm still waiting too, just waiting. I just want to make sure cuz I'm going to put this up on a public forum later; Matt Keating has been asked in public when his employer, Senator James Manning, is going to hold hearings on military civil rights and why he kicked out SJM 1 from his own committee as the chair of the senate committee for veterans.
Matthew Keating: I'm just waiting for my lunch, but I I appreciate…
Logan Isaac: Yeah, I'm just waiting for my rights. 🤷
Civil rights activists, from left, John Salter, Joan Trumpauer and Anne Moody, stage a sit-in demonstration at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi, on May 28, 1963. Fred Blackwell / Jackson Daily News via AP
