Rocky Warren
Are American Rights & Culture Under Systematic Attack?
January 23, 2010

For years, I've wondered if American freedoms and culture are, and have been, under attack. I was, and am, willing to give the benefit of the doubt and know there's room for disagreement. But it's become increasingly clear to me. Damage to American civil rights is not only occurring, but the rights of the individual are also quickly fading or increasingly, brazenly, being ripped away. Constitutional "Rights" are evidently now to be replaced with "globalism, multiculturalism and leaping socialism." (As distinguished from the historically more common "creeping socialism" of the forties, fifties and later.)

Those who are supposedly "leaders" in the United States are increasingly the people who are adding whole torrents of water to the massive, erosion which is rapidly destroying our United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. And to my astonishment and to add to the mistrust of the American people, print and television media are largely letting government functionaries and "elite" get away with it! The media is supposed to be a watchdog of the public's "right to know"; an information dissemination service to warn the public when actions threaten the nation and the world. However, increasingly, legislators, judiciary, executive branch and the media are immune to the wishes of the people. These often misnamed "public servants" feel they're not in any way beholden or accountable to the public whose tax dollars, work and sweat put them all where they are. And rather than consider what John and Jane Q. Public want, these pundits lecture, condescend and smile their phony smiles, believing they and not the public know best.

As a personal example, the assault weapon laws are a prime candidate. When my state passed the misnamed "assault weapons" laws, I registered my rifle with the state. As a peace officer, and working on patrol for the majority of my career, I was required to do so. From 1984 until 2003, I used that rifle both as a peace officer on the street protecting my community, and as an Instructor who taught other officers Basic Rifle, Patrol Rifle and SWAT classes. Now that I'm getting up in years, it's suddenly hit me.

Neither my Marine Sergeant son who has three combat tours under his belt, nor my Correctional Officer daughter can legally inherit my rifle when I die. For myself, as well as tens of millions of other Americans, an American tradition dies with this generation. My Second Amendment rights are ripped away, as are those of my son and daughter. Not because of anything any of us did wrong. No crime committed at all, by any of us. Just because some self-righteous, gun-banning, liberal prig mistakenly thought they were acting from a "higher motive." What utter garbage!

And through plenty of the destruction of rights, the media has remained largely silent. In most cases, in fact, the media bombards our people with alleged "news" that's already-been-chewed, pre-digested, sweetly flavored baby food in an effort to divert us. Wasting time on what "celebrity" is doing what to whom, or similar nonsense. Very little world news or relevant news filters through the main-stream media filters anymore unless it's cataclysmic. And news about anything which restricts our freedom is summarily trumpeted when it's a Liberal doing the restricting, or dismissed as "neo-con nonsense" and to be rabidly fought in any other case.

I haven't heard true media impartiality since these famous words were last uttered in the 1960's... "Good night David. Good night Chet" to close the Huntley-Brinkley news hour. Even Walter Cronkite let his guard slip on occasion and shared his views. But those "news people" were handicapped by airplanes with prop engines, no internet and no way to get video to the studio unless someone physically brought a real tape in and it could be re-broadcast. How archaic! Yet, despite their handicaps, they reported the news. And made it the News of the World! Where is their legacy today? Who's stepped up into the shoes of even Woodward and Bernstein of Watergate fame? I see hardly any hard-digging nominees anywhere on the mass media or specialized media horizon.

Instead, our media allows politicians, lobbyists and celebrities to expound foolishly at length and without accountability. They can all thieve and spend outrageously while the press provides no check or balance for fear of discovery of their insensate raids upon the people! The New York Post, Times, San Francisco Chronicle, especially newspapers nationwide, as well as almost any other media source in both print and television are in financial trouble. And deservedly so! They've all failed in their primary responsibility. Investigating, protecting and defending the citizens' right to know. And our citizens do deserve protection from all enemies, foreign /and domestic/. And instead the media's collective head is hanging. "It's too hard. It'll upset things. It'll hurt too many people." Bull! Do you think it was easy for Woodward and Bernstein to open up that can of venomous snakes called Watergate?

Instead, one has to wonder. At what point does a politician’s cavalier treatment and working against the people who elected them become dangerous to the state and the nation itself? Isn't a member of the Senator or Assembly who advocates spending taxes on illegal immigrants working directly against their tax paying and voting constituents? Isn't an activist judge who allows convicted felons to vote contradicting the Constitution? Isn't a lobbyist who subverts a Senator with sweetheart house deals, paid junkets and money for campaign funds a traitor? Or at least committing sedition? Don't both lobbyist and dirty politician deserve to reside in prison? A media person who closes their eyes to all this and "let's it slide..." well, aren't they just as complicit as the criminals?

How much should the so-called "investigative reporters" conscience be bothering them now? Where's the next major player to take the place of the whistle-blowers and media giants who used to protect the publics' collective "right to know?" Are they still smothered in the hip pocket of President Obama, Rahm Emanuel and the other wool merchants on both sides of the aisle. Have they joined the ranks of those who've pulled the covering over everyone's eyes? All the time, muttering, "No. Go back to sleep little news person. Tell those naive little voters that all is well..."

All is not well. All is not going to be well.

Now go out there and try again!