After 1300+ views over the last three days, Google saw fit to yank the video shot of John Doe, a homeless man who was forced to catheterize himself twice daily while living under a bridge here in Nashville, Tennessee. Of course, when Google yanks your video, you have no recourse, nor is there an effective way to contact them, so in an email response and in their "how can we make Google better" section, I left the following message:
Google/YouTube can take a more serious approach to flagging of videos; the video you flagged and pulled on Stone Soup Videos titled American Healthcare for the Poor was timely, done in good taste, showed male nudity only to illustrate a medical procedure, and protected the gentleman's identity at all times. By pulling that video at a time when our nation is undergoing critically important debates on the future of healthcare in this country, your flaggers have effectively silenced a compelling and critical portion of that debate; that is, the reality of healthcare for those who must endure it while living homeless in the United States. The video could have easily been restricted to age appropriate viewers or rated as "adult." Shame on all of you for this disgusting lack of compassion, concern and respect for such an important issue in our time, and of the gentleman who gave up his privacy so that the world could see the hell he had to endure. It is terribly sad and disheartening to see that Google/Youtube has become part of the problem rather than a vehicle for the solution.
Not to worry however; I do have a finished copy of the video so anyone that would like to watch it can simply send me an email request to findstevefast@gmail.com. I'll email it off post haste and you can share it with whomever you'd like to.
