A year-end recap of sorts

Greetings for the season I say to one and all. It has been customary for me this time of year to publish a year-end recap of sorts.

It is hard to believe that it’s been nearly five years since I first had the honor of taking on the charge of filling some hefty shoes. Kevin Jones, aka The Boneman, preceded me with banter and wit not to be surpassed but rather risen to and carried on. I hope I have done the job justice.

We here at the Indy saw some worthwhile growing pains and in my honest opinion quite distinguished ourselves as a force to be reckoned with in and for the community. Relentless in our pursuit of carving the niche of the independent voice here, we are fortunate to have some new talent on our roster. But more importantly, it should be noted that we were bold enough to bring on some folks who did not necessarily champion the perception of our rage, one of a left-leaning bend, but rather are contrary voices who found a welcome home here — not for their inclinations but for their “independent” style of bringing them out.

Harry Truman once said that he did not give people hell but instead gave them the truth. It just felt like hell.

And the truth is that in an environment where web marketing directors accused us of confusing the market, where fundamentalists accused us of professionally egregious conduct, and where would-be writers left us — butthurt because we would not yield to their will — we have stood fast and committed to starting the much-needed conversations without fear or apology.

This very moment, as I pen this piece to you, our legislators both national and local actively pursue the diminution of your civil liberties in the name of political and financial gain as well as unaccountable power and control over the people. And they are doing a fine job.

Congress, for the fourth year in a row, seeks to pass legislation that abdicates our privacy and our First Amendment rights through things like the Omnibus Bill and the Cyber Security Information Sharing Act.

Here locally, a justice court judge, Ron Read, let a motion to compel in the Varlo Davenport case sit on his desk for over four months. This defiance of any semblance of reasonable procedural conduct flies in the face of Brady vs. Maryland and is but another example of government out of control.

Last week while doing my regular guest spot on Fox News KZNU 1450 with Kate Dalley, I was talking about that case, and a caller attempted to chastise me for what he considered to be nothing more than pontificating on something absent any action.

While I will be the first to concur that the identification of a problem absent a solution is nothing more than a complaint, my retort was simply this: I did do something. I stayed on top of the development of this information and, at some risk of becoming a target of this establishment, informed you of what was going on — information that you may otherwise not have known about, let alone how it affects you. The question now is “What are you going to do?”

Yes, you. The reader. What are you going to do?

As the year draws to a close, I am compelled to remind you that citizenship is not a spectator sport. It requires of us something more than perhaps what we as a country have been willing to give, which has been slowly but surely diminishing.

Partisanship is par for the course. Complacency is the new tolerance. Apathy is the final nail in the coffin. But I will tell you, and you had better listen, that our privacy — and by default its association with our ability to observe, report, and hold accountable our elected and appointed officials — is more important than any gun will ever be.

The privilege of having the actions of our government reported to us so that we may take up the charge of verifying their validity and taking action is something we have had, have squandered, and are now losing — and it is now hanging by but a thread.

Ponder that and we’ll see you in the new year.

See you out there.