Celebrating Sunshine Week
Sunshine Week has come and gone for this year, but its message of the importance of Transparency and Accountability in all government matters should be one that lingers on throughout the year.
The following article appeared on the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s website.
Citizen Sunshine
Pioneer Press Article Last Updated dated 03/15/2008 04:38:11 PM CDT
Protecting public access to public business is, by and large, not a very sexy endeavor. No plunging necklines, no paparazzi, no red carpets, no adoring crowds. Sure, there's the occasional headline, when an attempt by someone in government to keep secrets is so egregious that it provokes a court fight, or when some charismatic crusader uncovers corruption by using freedom of information laws. But mostly there aren't headlines. Mostly, there are quiet squads of persistent citizens who bother to inform themselves of their rights, who bother to insist that the expenditure of their tax money and the exercise of the power they grant to government be accompanied by access to information that will allow them to determine if their money has been well spent and their power well exercised. Today begins Sunshine Week, a national effort to emphasize the importance of the public's right to know what our governments are doing. (For more, see the column by Don Gemberling on the opposite page, and go to www.sunshineweek.org or elsewhere on the Web.) Public access to public information, as self-evident as the case for it may be, doesn't just happen. Human nature often drives people to seek unfair advantage, and unfair advantage breeds well in the dark, away from the sunlight of public scrutiny. It takes active, persistent people to resist that drive, to protect the principles of open government. So here's to the little old lady who insists on seeing the fine print in the bus contract the school district signs. Here's to the grumpy old man who demands a clear answer when he asks the city council why it's getting up to go behind closed doors. Here's to the fed-up taxpayer who wants to see official e-mail to understand better why so-and-so got a tax break. Here's to the cranky partisans who scour the campaign contributions of political candidates and who raise hell when the reports thereof are late. Here's to the ornery bloggers who mine the Web for source documents and more. Here's also to the many public officials and employees who understand that public information belongs to the people, not to the government, and here's to librarians, attorneys, reporters and civic groups who walk the beat for openness. Here's to you all, you quiet squads of persistent citizens, you heroes of democracy.