It’s your right to know
For government to be of, by and for the people, it must be out in front of the people.
The theme for Sunshine Week 2019 is simply “It’s your right to know.” The reason it’s your right to know is that it’s your government.
From the courthouse to the statehouse to the White House, it is your right to know what government is up to. Every deliberation by city council, county commission, the General Assembly or U.S. Congress is the people’s business. Every penny spent by local, state and federal government is your money. Every document held in the halls of government belongs to you.
Transparency is not, or at least should not be, partisan. Access to government meetings and public documents should never be arduous or even controversial. Government derives all of its powers from the public and is answerable to the public.
It is unfortunate state and federal laws are needed to protect the public’s right to know. Of course, we know those laws are needed and more often than not must be leveraged by people requesting even the most basic information from elected and appointed officials.
No branch of government should exempt itself from freedom of information laws and no person in government should seek to circumvent those laws. Accessing government information and attending deliberative meetings should simply be viewed as democracy in action and not as an adversarial relationship between the governing and the governed.
Access laws are not media laws. Every person should have free and open access. The right to know is not only an American right, it is fundamentally right. Government secrecy that goes beyond national security is fundamentally wrong.
So records custodians at city hall, the county courthouse, with the public school system or at the state capitol must not bristle when a person asks for public records. The records requestors are simply asking for a copy of what belongs to them already.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.