{"id":22009,"date":"2011-01-27T18:13:46","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T22:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=22009"},"modified":"2011-01-27T18:13:46","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T22:13:46","slug":"choi-refuses-to-pay-his-bill-for-breaking-his-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=22009","title":{"rendered":"Choi refuses to pay his bill for breaking his contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Choi, perhaps the worst graduate of the US Military Academy in modern history, got a bill for $2500 because he left the military service before his contract ended according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2011\/1\/27\/939250\/-Army-Bills-Lt-Choi-$2,500-for-DADT-Discharge\">DailyKos<\/a>. Of course, this is another reason for Choi to play the victim. Despite the fact that he knew that &#8220;coming out&#8221; on that fellow Rachel Maddow&#8217;s show would violate his contract under the &#8220;Don&#8217;t Ask, Don&#8217;t Tell&#8221; policy, Choi did it anyway and refuses to pay his financial obligation for that act;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Mr. President:<\/p>\n<p>Today I received a $2,500 bill from your Defense Department Finance and Debt Services. Specifically, you claim payment for &#8220;the unearned portion&#8221; of my Army contract. Six months after my discharge under the Don&#8217;t Ask Don&#8217;t Tell policy I have tried to move forward with my life, and I was inspired by your clarion calls for our progress as one nation towards a more just society. I have served my country in combat and I have tried to live my life by the values I learned at West Point in continued service to our nation. To move forward in my own life I have finally sought treatment for Combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Insomnia, and Depressive Disorder from the Veterans Affairs Department. But I still find myself on a domestic battlefield for basic dignity as an American citizen. I know I am not alone in this fight because of the desperate cries for help I get from discharged, unemployed, discriminated, and suicidal veterans. I have felt all of their same pains personally. Today I also witness the disgrace of a country that perpetually discovers methods to punish its own citizens for taking a moral stand.<\/p>\n<p>By flagrantly and repeatedly violating an immoral law, I have flagrantly and repeatedly saluted the honor of America&#8217;s promise. At West Point, when we recited the Cadet Prayer we reminded ourselves &#8220;always to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.&#8221; It would be easy to pay the $2500 bill and be swiftly done with this diseased chapter of my life, where I sinfully deceived and tolerated self-hatred under Don&#8217;t Ask Don&#8217;t Tell. Many thousands have wrestled with their responsibilities and expedient solutions when confronted with issues of this magnitude. I understand you also wrestle with issues of our equality. But I choose to cease wrestling, to cease the excuses, to cease the philosophical grandstanding and ethical gymnastics of political expediency in the face of moral duty. My obligations to take a stand, knowing all the continued consequences of my violations, are clear.<\/p>\n<p>I refuse to pay your claim.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What a drama queen. <\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Daniel for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Choi, perhaps the worst graduate of the US Military Academy in modern history, got a &hellip; <a title=\"Choi refuses to pay his bill for breaking his contract\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=22009\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Choi refuses to pay his bill for breaking his contract<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-whackos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}