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Highlands Today Open government under attack One of the cornerstones our nation was founded upon is under attack and we must fight every attempt to close doors to the public about the inner-workings of our government. We’re lucky to live in a state where freedom of information about our government is mandated through some of the most progressive laws in the country. But even with that, there are constant attempts to close the door to public access of what our government does, and that’s bad news for citizens. At no time in modern history has freedom of information been more under attack in our country than now. Using the guise of “national security,” all kinds of federal agencies have attempted to roll back regulations that force our government to operate in the sunshine where the truth can be found. After all, it is the citizens who own this country, not the elected elite. What’s most troubling is that more people these days – usually due to partisan political reasons – actually support keeping important information in the dark because the president or someone else in power says so. That’s nonsense. Not one country in the history of the world succeeded because of secrecy. In fact, they fail. The former Soviet Union is a perfect example of this. Only when the public can keep a close eye on the inner-workings of our government can we have the faith that our elected officials and bureaucrats are doing the work of the people. We’re not talking about giving public access to our most sensitive intelligence that puts the public and our troops in harm’s way. But our government increasingly is trying to use this argument to squelch all kinds of information getting out to the public. No matter how you look at it, this is unhealthy for our country. Watergate festered in the darkness, as have numerous government scandals and wrongdoings. Only after these were brought to light and the public learned what their government was hiding from them did the problems get addressed. Our country was founded on a few basic premises, but most importantly that our government is of the people and by the people. When our politicians and bureaucrats try to hide information from the public, it’s not our government anymore. Diligence on this matter is the only hope, because left in the dark, secrets turn sour and do far more damage than the truth can ever achieve.
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