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Palm Beach Daily News Checking government Sunshine Law keeps it honest In this era of stealth bombers, bioterrorism and illegal handguns, there still is no more powerful weapon than information. Knowledge has the power to open doors, change laws, save lives. Knowledge is the key to better government, economic improvement, personal growth and even national security. The right of every citizen to knowledge is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and further sustained by open-government laws, particularly in Florida, where Government-in-the-Sunshine legislation has long safeguarded the promise of freedom of information. Today is Sunshine Sunday in Florida and across the nation. Beginning today and continuing through the week, media outlets, from newspapers and magazines to television stations and radio programs, will explain and celebrate the importance of freedom of information laws. There has never been a more important time to be armed with knowledge about the legislation, regulations, records and institutions that affect your daily life. It is vital that each one of us have the right to access public records , from those that hit closest to home — health-care statistics, safety ratings, local commission appointments — to the ones that affect the entire country — policy memos, energy reports, political deals. Such records affect our pocketbooks, as when they involve public payrolls and government contracts. They affect our children when they explain education spending and social services. They even include information about our bodies, such as federal drug testing, environmental standards and security measures. As citizens and taxpayers, we already own that information. It is ours by default and it is only by our consent and under extreme circumstances that it should be kept from us, in secrecy and darkness. Sunshine laws are not a threat to government, they are its protector. Only by examining public records can we ensure that our elected and appointed leaders are living up to its highest ideals, safeguarding our families and livelihoods. Only knowledge can guarantee that our unalienable rights are unfettered. Only by inspecting the mechanics of government can the integrity of the American democracy be sustained.
Reproduced courtesy of the Palm Beach Daily News. |
