Who among us will be next?

Dear Editor:

 Listening to local radio call-in shows confirms to me that the ignorance of many callers is staggering – especially so, when it comes to the current lawsuit against Ammon Bundy, Diego Rodriguez and the People’s Rights Network. I’m sure most have read about the obscene judgment against those defendants.

 The peaceful protest by Ammon Bundy at St. Luke’s Hospital, when Child Protective Services “kidnapped” Baby Cyrus, has been greatly mischaracterized in our Idaho mainstream media. Apparently, most people assume what they read and see on TV is “truth,” which is sad, because it is not. News has an agenda.

 Mr. Bundy is a law-abiding citizen who exercises his First Amendment rights to help others who are targeted by overreaching government agencies. He uses his free speech, freedom of assembly and peaceful protests to “petition for redress of grievances” – constitutionally protected for all of us in the Bill of Rights.

 Most people don’t know that even though Bundy spent two years in jail for his efforts to help ranchers in Burns, Ore., as well as his father in Nevada, he prevailed in both instances. 

 In Nevada a mistrial was declared and the judge said that the prosecutorial misconduct of the government was “grossly shocking.” What that means is that our government withheld information that should have been made public. In other words, they tried to set him up.

 Ammon Bundy is not a violent gun-totin’ scofflaw, as is suggested in most mainstream TV reports and newspaper articles. He’s a peaceful man of faith who stands against “government corruption.” This latest trial was about crushing a man who would dare exercise his free speech to put a spotlight on corruption in a government agency. The charges were brought against Ammon Bundy for two reasons, one of which impacts us all. 

 The first reason: to make sure he will never be able to run in another gubernatorial election; and the second reason: so that none of us would ever dare think about using our free speech to expose corruption.

Carolyn Kiesz,

Midvale, Idaho