Congressional Myths

Episode Transcript

Gary (00:02):
hello, and thank you for joining my podcast.
I'm Gary.
I'll be your host and this ismilitary illumination Where we
educate you on what you need toknow about joining the military
lifestyles to stories shareexperiences Relevant insight and
real life examples, you'll learnabout things.
You need to know before joiningthe military Recommending the

(00:23):
military or a unique and eyeopening 2020 Reflection, so
let's do a quick reviewPreviously, we talked about the
four things the militaryrecruiters do not want you to
know about.
And one of them is the FerrisDoctrine.
The other was the CongressionalLeaders, Civilian Courts, and

(00:43):
also the Judge AdvocateGenerals, also known as JAG.
These are the four areas that inview, that are in view, the
information is out there.
But at the same time, it's notput out there.
It's like the dark side of themilitary.
This thing that they do not wantyou to know about.
And today what I'm, first of allI'm going to do is going to

(01:06):
recap what we talked about.
And we're going to recap aboutthe Ferris Doctrine.
The Ferris Doctrine isbasically, is in its raw form,
prevents a military person frombringing suit against the
federal government or militaryagency.
Whether there's negligence,wrongdoing, or a house, they're
injured, somehow.

(01:26):
And the best way to look at itas if you were a civilian.
And you were injured mistreated,your rights was not, were
violated, you would have arecourse.
You can take him to court, youcan take your employer to court,
right?
Not the case in the military,right?
The Ferris Doctrine preventsthat.
It prevents you, a person in themilitary, their families from

(01:49):
seeking justice, basically.
And that's basically what youneed to know about the Ferris
Doctrine.
It's something that doesn't comeup at all.
Unless you're in trouble, unlessyour rights have been violated,
unless there's a problem.
That's when it pops up, when itcomes up to a point in time
where you might want to sue thegovernment.

(02:12):
Let's say you went to thedoctors and they took off the
wrong foot.
Do an operation or in one casethey left some towels in the
body of the person with, as theydid the operation, those kinds
of things you would sue somebodyfor negligence.
But in the case of the military,you would not be successful.

(02:33):
You're not able to do that.
So today when we talk about theFerris doctrine and how it takes
away the rights, we're going tofocus on the congressional
leaders.
This is Congress, right?
And in essence, Congress was.
The government agency thatpassed a law which prevents a

(02:53):
military person from suing thegovernment.
I'm not going to go into anydetail on it that but I will at
a later time.
But just remember that it wasthe law that was passed by
Congress that bars a militaryperson and subsequently their
family from bringing suitagainst the federal government

(03:15):
or agency and of course themilitary.
There's a myth that surroundingI will say if you're in the
military or there's a myth outthere that if there's a problem
In your military, you can writeyour congressperson and they're
going to help you out.

(03:35):
They're going to bail you outThey're going to get help
support you.
That's a myth because that's notthe case.
That's just Not simply not thecase.
The thing that you want tounderstand about the congress is
that Since the Congress was theone who enacted the law they're
not going to turn around andundo what they just did.

(03:59):
So they're not your friend.
They don't support you person.
Now, one thing you also want tounderstand about the Congress is
that when you go to theCongress, your Congress person,
let's say you, a person writeshis, their Congress person, the
representative seeking help ormaybe it's a family member who's
trying to get help for thisservice member.

(04:20):
What you're actually doing isbasically you're writing to an
entry level person who's goingto read the mail and take a
court action.
They may pass it on to theliaison.
They will probably give you someinformation about what to do
next.
I know for sure they will giveyou a form to fill out, which

(04:43):
basically you sign, give themthe rights to get the
information and the rights toshare it.
But in essence, you're nevergoing to write, you're never,
how can I put this, thecongressperson will never see
your letter or your complaintfor two basic reasons.
If it's a U.
S.
senator, their office is inWashington, D.

(05:04):
C.
Second of all if they are And ifthey're not in session, they're
gonna be locally, but they won'tbe in their office.
They're just, are notaccessible.
When you look at the, when you,and when you look at the job
description of yourcongressperson, your senators

(05:25):
and your representatives, it hasnothing, it says nothing about
helping out military people incrisis.
They make laws.
They represent people.
That's what they do.
There's nothing that's said thatthey're going to help you out,
because they're not going to.
And the person has to understandthat before getting into the

(05:46):
military, or even if they are inthe military, they have to
understand that help is notcoming through your
congressperson.
So that being said, one moretime, I'm going to talk about
the entry level, what happens tothe letter or the complaint that
someone's called in.
It's a entry level person who'sgoing to read their information

(06:06):
and send it on along this way.
They don't have the power toact.
They don't have the power tomake suggestions and they cannot
tell another person what to do.
They cannot tell another agencywhat to do.
So therefore it's, I don't know,I don't know how to say it.
It's a myth.

(06:40):
Okay.
Basically it.
When you think about theaccomplished person, you just
can't trust them.
If you send them someinformation, what's going to
happen is that they are going toget you.
To sign an agreement, whichallows them to represent you, to
grab the information and shareit with the military, who

(07:01):
eventually is going to share itwith your command is the same
agency that is, is doing theharm to you, to the person.
I keep saying you, cause I'mactually just talking.
I want to seem like I'm justtalking to the person who's
thinking about the military orwho knows someone who is
thinking about the military.
So I want to say you a lot butit's universal.

(07:22):
So what's going to happen is theletter gets sent out, they
gather all the information andeverything that's shared with
them is shared with the command.
The caveat is that they don't,they're not going to tell you
what the end result is going tobe.

(07:46):
You'll never know what happened.
But what you can almost count onis retaliation.
Worse off than before and I'mnot gonna get into that.
It's retaliation.
And when you know that kind ofthe Ferris Doctrine you also
know that it's going to impactyou because The rights you have

(08:10):
whether it's with JAG the rightsyou have you don't have So by
going to your congressperson,you are actually putting
yourself in a worse situationAnd that's why a person does not
want to send information to theCongress or give it to a lawyer

(08:32):
to help him out in civiliancourts.
It's going to be the same exactsituation.
It's not going to end favorablyfor the military person.
And all the person only reallyhas to do is look at all the
cases that are in Supreme court.
Look at all the cases that's inthe district courts and that,
and they'll be able to see thetruth of that.
And you will be able to.
See the truth in that, that itdoesn't go well.

(08:57):
So the fourth thing I want youto remember about when you're
dealing with yourcongressperson, a person, it's a
congressman or whatever, you'resitting in a representative.
There's four things that youwant to keep a person wants to
keep in mind.
First of all, one governmentagency cannot tell another
agency what to do.
They cannot interfere in theirwork.
Okay.
So therefore they're, thatcovers going, not going to your

(09:19):
congressperson.
But a problem in your commandbecause they cannot intervene.
The other one is that itprevents the military.
The country made the law, whichprevents the military personnel
from suing the federalgovernment.
So why does it make sense totake a problem to the same

(09:45):
people who created the problemfor you?
Okay The only person that'sgoing to see the complaint is
the gatekeeper.
It's the entry level person,also the liaison The
congressperson, therepresentative, the senator will
never see their complaint Whenyou write your congressperson,

(10:06):
you're actually just contactingtheir staff.
I just want you to think aboutthe, when you think about the
government, when you think aboutyour any high powered person
Even the president of the UnitedStates, you're never going to,
you write him And you can getyou going a hurry and you're
going to get a form letter back.
Alright?
And that's what you get backactually when you do contact

(10:29):
your congressional leaders,you'll get a form letter back
from the military stating thatyou know their BS and that
they're gonna want autonomy,which means you self govern,
which means, like I said before,you cannot have one government
agency telling the governmentagency what to do.
But think about this as anelevator and then in the

(10:49):
penthouse suite is where yourcongressperson resides and at
every floor There's agatekeeper.
There's some low level personsome government I should say low
level person, but it's agovernment employee right with a
certain amount of clout, right?
But if it's a 50 if it's 50floor Building and it's on and

(11:14):
the suites on the 50th 51stfloor, right?
You're gonna, your chances areyou're getting past the first
three or fourth floors.
It's very, you're lucky.
You may get past the firstfloor.
Other than that, you will notget past it, and will not go
anywhere.
And also, finally, is thateverything you share with your

(11:34):
congressperson, includingdocuments and letters, these
will be sent to the military,and the commander, and the unit
that you're complaining about.
And there's, nothing willhappen, okay, nothing can
happen, because honestly, if aperson can go, in all fairness.
We're in the military.

(11:55):
We're in the military is in thebusiness of killing people, of
forcing other countries to bendto our will.
That's basically what, thatyou're there for.
The thing about democracy andfreedom, eh, it's just it's a
antiquated idea.
Don't drink the Kool Aid.
That's, that's what we do.

(12:16):
We just go around and justmuscle people around in
different countries.
That being said, it doesn't makesense that a lowly private,
Can't bring a suit against ageneral or colonel or his com or
his company commander.
It's just, it's not feasible andI hope it never happens.
But, you understand this, whenyou go into that world of the

(12:36):
congressperson and you want todo a congressional
investigation, nothing's gonnahappen.
But there is a 99.
99 percent probability that you,the person, will be retaliated
against.
And also, when we talk aboutthe, when I'm talking about the
military, the congresspersonleadership, it's also true for

(12:58):
every agency.
You can take this model, and youcan put it into every agency in
the government, whether it's theCongress, whether it's the
courts, whether it's, civilrights agencies, whatever it is
even the IG, you know what, ifyou write to the, write to your
your IG in the military, it'sgonna be the same thing.

(13:22):
It's a, that's the pattern.
There's no way to turn.
And that's it.
As you're looking at the wholething, is that you're isolated.
A person goes in the military,they're isolated.
The rights and the the rightsthat they have had as a civilian
no longer exist but yet You'reisolated.

(13:45):
I don't know if that appeals toyou a person, right?
But if you know, you can go toyour congressperson for things
like filing, filling out formsDirections and basically who to
talk to you about gettingsomething to happen about maybe
Getting to apply to all thepaper in the military
Recommendations from militaryacademy or outside these areas

(14:08):
Please take my advice.
Do not trust the government.
Do not trust the governmentagencies, especially Congress.
After all, they'll be the oneswho send you off to war.
Don't trust them with your life.
Don't trust them with yourfuture, and don't believe
everything they say.
The congressional myth is, youcan write your congressman, and

(14:30):
you can get an investigationgoing on to help you out.
That's the myth.
The truth is, no one's coming tohelp you.
Okay, all the patriotism thatyou hear, all the things about
camaraderie, All that stuff inthe recruiting ads, right and
thank you for your service,right?
I call that bs because if youreally want to think with my

(14:52):
service, you wouldn't have theferris doctrine You would hold
the military more accountableNow i'm gonna i'm not gonna go
on my i'm not gonna keep goingon here But I would say it's
better.
It's better.
It's better to have aconscription or a draft Then
they have an all volunteermilitary.

(15:14):
Because when you have an allvolunteer military, you have to
hide the dirt.
That dirt is what's gonna hurtyou.
Okay, it's better just to have,conscription, the draft, and
have all this in the open.
Then try to hide it, in allvolunteer.
And you make it, make people,make unsuspecting 18, 19 year

(15:38):
olds graduating from high schoolthinking that they're a they're
going to a career and thatthey're going to get their
college paid for and they'regoing to be protected and
they're going to have the bestmedical care.
They're going to have justicefor them.
JAGS are for them.
That's all we'll talk aboutlater on, but it's just doesn't
exist.

(15:59):
So I'm always, I want to referback to a reflection, a true
story.
Everything I have in these 30years is not just based on me
reading the reports second hand.
I lived it.
I walked through it.
I've been through the fire.
Things I share with you is Ihave it directly firsthand.

(16:22):
So let's talk about my situationwith your congressperson and not
to everything I mentioned.
There was a soldier who wasunjustly, I could say, unjustly
treated, maliciously prosecuted.
This occurred through agovernment in Washington State,

(16:46):
through the Washington NationalGuard.
I'm going to put that out there.
And this soldier went to theircongressperson, every one of
them, from state level tofederal level.
And each time, a form lettercame back from the National

(17:09):
Guard Bureau.
Thank you for your inquiry.
We want autonomy and we're goingto do the best we can and stay
out of it.
That's paraphrasing the letterthat came from, to the soldier.
It just so happened that they,it just so happened that the

(17:33):
letter was sent to Senator PattyMurray about this mistreatment,
about the fact that they weregoing to be court martialed
without the benefit of amilitary attorney.
Yep, you heard from me.
They were going to send thissoldier before the judge without

(17:53):
military, withoutrepresentation.
And what was Murray's response?
That was the response.

(18:14):
The soldier did have to standbefore the military judge
without military representation.
The company person knew it.
The company person did not, inPatty Murray's office, did not
do anything about it.
When questioned, came up to therepresentative that this person
talked with, that I talked with,and this young lady says, You

(18:40):
can't, we cannot make anotheragency do something.
We cannot tell them what to do.
And when I asked her if sheread, if the report was read,
that was sent, outlining thesituation, the person said no.
The person said they didn't havetime.

(19:00):
They did not read it.
They didn't know what was goingon.
This goes to let you know, thatwhen you're dealing with an
entry level person, you'redealing with the low levels.
They don't have a whole lot.
Maybe they're doing, they'rejust getting started.
And to their, come to theirrescue is that a lot of times

(19:21):
things that come out there atthat level are really high level
stuff.
And it takes a certain amount ofunderstanding and legal
expertise to navigate the what'shappening.
They won't have that type of,that knowledge base.
They won't have it.
It's not a negative.
It's just that when you'resending it to your
congressperson, you're notsending it to them at all.

(19:43):
You're just sending it to thegatekeeper.
It was passed on through liaisonto the governor's office of
Washington.
And the same thing happened.
So I'm saying it's the samething happened.
They were talking back andforth.
They can't make one other oneagency to tell another agency

(20:03):
what to do.
And this goes into what I wassaying earlier that this pattern
is everywhere.
It's not just with your Congressperson.
They work hard.
Okay.
It's not just with them.
It's in every agency.
Okay.
So whenever you're talking aboutbeing in the military,
understand what's happening,understand this, you are

(20:25):
isolated and you're separatedand there's no one coming to the
rescue.
And I asked you this question isthis, is the promise of
something where there is norequirement for the promise to

(20:46):
be delivered on.
Is it worth your future?
Everything that the military,everything that talks about that
they suggest, they give you,they're saying is a benefit.
Can be had as a civilian hadbased on what you're doing right
now.
You don't need to go to militaryIt's right in front of you.

(21:08):
The free education is rightthere So i'm going to close with
this when you're dealing withthe congress remember the myth
They're not going to come helpyou.
They can care less about you.
You're isolated and separatedand no one's willing to help
They don't tell you that butthat's the reality.

(21:29):
So come back next time wherewe're going to talk about the
court system And how it'simpacted by the Ferris Doctrine.
Have a great day.