Ricky Schroder At
Liberty Rocks
New Mission: To Stamp Out Pornography

by Fred Hernandez
The new venue for Liberty Rocks at Lange Hall on Third Street in Westcliffe had a great attendance of eighty five (85) friends and neighbors most of whom enjoyed a delicious dinner provided by Imperio Azteca. On the menu was a sumptuous taco bar featuring beef or chicken with all the trimmings including dessert.

The event which took place on Thursday, March 21st, started at 6 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation delivered by Dr. Ann Willson who, as always, quoted from the book “Prayers and Presidents” by Author W. Federer. Dr. Willson iterated from three former leaders including Presidents Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt who spoke about the need for morality and resistance against tyranny for a country to survive and thrive. Most appropriate for the evening however, was her direct quote from Theodore Roosevelt in his fourth Annual Message on December 6, 1904, when he intoned “ No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of today for, if so, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the tomorrows.” Almost prophetic for a hundred and twenty years ago!
The main event then got underway featuring a well known personality introduced by Commissioner Bill Canda. Most probably familiar to most of the audience, Commissioner Canda introduced Ricky Schroder who is a well known American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor he debuted in the film “The Champ” and was awarded the Golden Globe, the youngest ever at that time. He went on to star in the sitcom “Silver Spoons” and appeared in other big screen and television shows. The fifty-three-year-old founded Reel American Heroes Foundation (RAHF) to promote patriotic and traditional values. More recently RAHF founded the Council on Pornography Reform (CPR) which produces compelling and informative documentaries about how pornography
has polluted the minds of adults and children alike in the USA.
The pernicious effects of pornography are evident in some of the statistical information currently available such as; 9% of porn users in the U.S. are children under the age of twelve, 25% of search engine requests are porn related, 70% of men between 18 and 24 visit porn sites at least once a month, Internet porn makes up 20% of the total e-Commerce, and an estimated 40-50 million Americans regularly visit porn sites. Even viewership of “female friendly” porn has risen 1,400% from 2013-2017. The industry produces over a hundred billion dollars in revenue worldwide.
Ricky Schroder is taking on the task of spearheading the national effort to stamp out pornography on the internet, at the very least to protect the children. The Council on Pornography Reform (CPR), states “ our mission is to promote a safer and more responsible digital landscape by advocating for comprehensive reforms in the realm of explicit adult content. We are dedicated to safeguarding individuals, particularly minors, from the potential harms associated with unrestricted access to explicit material.”
This being the first public presentation, Mr. Schroder, who owns and operates a ranch in Colorado, came up with various ways and means which he wanted to ask the audience for their opinions and input. For instance, through the instrument of Propositions placed on the ballot, communities could vote to influence the service providers to institute provisions to limit the exposure of pornographic material to certain age groups. Some of these limits could be the separation of explicit adult content from commercial content, age verification before an individual can enter an adult content site, internet and cellular service providers to offer an off switch on adult content sites and different social media algorithms for underage children. The parents, who are the ones paying the bills, should have the option to allow or disallow pornography in their homes. Right now the providers use the 1st Amendment to lobby for the distribution of what they produce but the consumer should have the right to accept or decline.
As a result of one of his projects of producing documentaries of patriotic nature, Mr. Schroder was in the Middle East filming the activities of certain military units. In one of these units he met an officer in charge of operations who is the son of Commissioner Canda. They developed a friendship and as a result Mr. Schroder decided to call on Custer County and Commissioner Canda with the end in view of perhaps working to make Custer the first county in the nation who backs
the effort to stop porn directed at the children. During the course of the evening, Mr. Canda made the commitment to bring up the concept to the BOCC. If approved, Custer could be the first county in the nation to support controlling pornography that affects children. As the evening came to an end the audience was asked by a show of hands if they would support such an effort in their county. Virtually everyone in the audience raised their hands and followed that with raucous applause.
Let us stamp out pornography when it affects our youth. Similar to the marijuana issue some years ago when the county decided that it did not want readily available, rampant exposure to protect the youth, the same can be done for pornography. Those of age who want it can still have it but there should be an option to opt out of it where it might affect the younger generations.