It’s hard to believe that nearly eight years ago I investe...

It’s hard to believe that nearly eight years ago I invested thousands of dollars into a radio and spent countless hours in meetings, building relationships, and earning the trust of local public safety leaders. I worked for years to prove myself, only to have it all undermined by leaders who refuse to listen—or worse, pretend to listen without ever acting. Over this time, I’ve poured tens of thousands of dollars into this work, made valuable connections, built strong relationships, and earned the trust of the community and many in public safety. And now, despite doing nothing wrong, I find myself silenced—unable to answer even basic questions or help the very people I set out to. This isn’t just a punishment for me—it’s a punishment for you. Why? Because local leaders don’t care about transparency. They don’t want you to know what’s happening in your community. And they don’t see the value of local, independent media—treating it as less important than the corporate outlets. To make matters worse, I was told I was silenced because of the number of local groups sharing public safety information—information that is often inaccurate or even dangerous. Yet while I’ve been silenced, those same groups continue to spread misinformation unchecked. In fact, they’ve only grown stronger precisely because I was forced into silence.