
Years ago, in Anchorage, Alaska, public school teachers were preparing to go on strike for higher wages. The nightly news showed them peacefully demonstrating on various street corners. Back then, a peaceful demonstration didn’t consist of torching cars and garbage cans, nor vandalizing or graffitiing government buildings. My, how times have changed.
At several of these demonstrations, protesting parents had very young children at their side holding professionally made protest signs. I doubt 9 out of 10 kids even knew what the signs meant. Newspaper editorials were full of comments from citizens on both sides, and some teachers even had their classes submit letters, of course, all hand-written opinions in support of faculty members. I supported them as well.
Most of my friends and acquaintances saw this as children and students being used as pawns for the benefit of negotiations. It was a clever ploy to evoke sympathy from the public, on the same level as ‘supposed homeless people’ asking for money along a street or in front of a store, with a dog or puppy on leash in clear sight. I see this type of activity as a means to garner emotional empathy. For me, I do feel sorry for the animals being abused this way.
One morning at work, during break, I read an editorial supposedly written by a third grader from a local elementary school. My co-workers were all chuckling about how well-versed and educated this youngster was, knowing without question the letter wasn’t composed by an 8-year-old student. Her editorial described income levels and raises over the past 10 years—information that only an adult was privy to.
A mechanic friend of mine said that someone should write a rebuttal. I did, calling out the student’s parents and teacher for allowing the girl to send this in under her own name. I mentioned that the child was not to blame. My blunt and to the point response immediately ignited a firestorm of replies.
Friends immediately came to the child’s side, including parents and grandparents. The girl’s grandfather wrote a letter saying that I should be ashamed of myself, because my critique had put his granddaughter in tears. It took a couple of weeks before the flames of discontent finally went out. During that time, I learned that the mother basically admitted she “helped” her daughter write things, seeing no wrong in it.
Some time before that, I composed a newspaper piece about how a group of people were living in a certain town where jobs were scarce, so that they could collect welfare and food stamps on a yearly basis, and do what they wanted to without working for a paycheck. My facts came from a welfare fraud agent that I worked with. The folks made mention to were called hippies at that time.
Needless to say, the residents I wrote about didn’t respond back for obvious reason. The only papers they undoubtedly subscribed to were Zigzag and Bugler. Those folks getting most upset were local business people and politicians, including the mayor of Homer. Evidently, they saw my piece as a slam on everyone living in their community. One incensed gentleman, under a thinly veiled threat, offered to take me fishing.
Since those two events took place I now wisely hold back, yet on rare occasion, can’t help but let the truth out of it’s holding cell. Generally, I keep these type of highly opinionated posts contained within my blog for subscribers to scrutinize and comment on.
The last time this happened was when I wrote a piece, simply stating that another word for marijuana is dope. Even Cheech & Chong called it that back in the late 60s and early 70s. This blog opinion lit one fellow to the point of him making unmentionable statements against me. He was out to change my viewpoint on things.
I keep the truth more at bay these days, not being as bold as I once was, hoping to not end up like the late Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for “The Arizona Republic.” Mr. Bolles was murdered in 1976 for merely doing his job.
The other evening, I watched a western for the umpteenth time, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” A portion of the storyline, has the publisher of a small town newspaper, “The Shinbone Star”, printing a story about wrongful acts in his community, with immediate retaliation from an outlaw the article was written about.
In this fictional movie, the newspaperman’s office is destroyed and he’s nearly killed by three outlaws for doing the same job as Don Bolles, honestly releasing a factual story without political correctness intervention.
It seems more and more, the truth is being suppressed in both television and newspaper news for one obvious reason. Whereas the truth used to hurt the guilty party, it can now hurt those people exposing it. In my opinion, the days of unfiltered, exposé, investigative-reporting, has gone the way of morality and the Ten Commandments where our government is concerned.
Just recently, in Marion, Kansas, a local newspaper. “The Marion County Record,” was raided by town police, with computers and other electronic devices illegally confiscated. This was in retaliation for investigative articles written by one of the paper’s reporters, regarding a business owner, mayor, and the police chief. Mayor David Mayfield, in a Facebook remark, said this about the newspaper. “Journalists are the real villains in America.” Mayfield was supportive of the raid.
There are many controversial, untold stories out there, yet finding a brazen reporter to cover them isn’t always easy, and in some cases, newspapers won’t print things after it’s written. I suppose this is out of fear on what happened at “The Marion County Record” and fictitious, “The Shinbone Star.”
There seems to be a concentrated effort by a faction of people these days to keep the truth at bay. Freedom of speech is under attack. Truth will eventually lose the battle if people don’t fight back!


















