Truth emerges sooner or later
Truth emerges sooner or later
No one running for an elected office for the first time – local, state or national – ever tells voters that their government’s business should be kept secret.
Every candidate enters the ring of public service wide-eyed, preaching the importance of open government, response to the voters and accountability.
However, as time wears on for those who win their elections and must bear the microscope of public scrutiny, the tune of open government often changes. Hiding information becomes easier than telling the truth.
Progressing from tell all to tell nothing is often the evolution of well-meaning officials shifting their work from the public’s eye to the secrecy of a closed room.
This evolution might start with an honest mistake, such as a meeting that is not announced. No one finds out, a controversy is quietly avoided, the next secret meeting becomes easier and so on. The officials learn doing business in private is much easier. Patterns develop where officials routinely try to hide the whats and whys of their decisions. Fewer questions about what they do mean fewer headaches and ulcers from the public.
Sometimes, somewhere in this evolution, many officials begin to understand the error of their ways and work to return to a more open style of government.
But there are others who reach the epitome of arrogance, never giving a second thought to secrecy. These individuals feel they are so important, they should be left to rule their kingdoms without the scrutiny of either the people who elected them or the press.
These individuals are few in today’s government, but they do exist.
The most glaring example in a long time, and perhaps ever, of such arrogance was seen in Murphy just a few weeks ago.
When asked a question by a Murphy businesswoman, town council member Sandra Sumpter responded, “It’s city business, why do you want to know?”
In this case, the question was over the forced resignation of the city’s police chief. But no matter what the question or the topic, Sumpter’s response is unimaginable.
There is no legitimate reason for an elected official to believe a citizen would not want to know what government is doing. Citizens have a right to know, a right earned by the shed blood of men and women who fought and died to give us the freedoms we enjoy.
This freedom is nothing to be toyed with nor taken lightly. It must be safeguarded by everyone, especially those in elected offices.
Sumpter, through her remark, effectively turned her nose up at the very core of freedom – the Constitution. Such is a scary thought coming from anyone elected to serve the people.
Attitudes like Sumpter’s are the very reason Americans must always guard freedom with a vengeance. Making sure government remains open to the people is part of that vengeance.
Officials such as Sumpter should not be tolerated. Those headed in a similar direction much be stopped before they reach such arrogance.
The public and the press must be constant watchdogs, reminding elected officials they work for and report to those who elected them.
The reminder is simple – live up to the ideals that were there in the beginning. The government’s business is the people’s business.
Veteran politicians will agree this is the best plan. Open government is the right way, the way government is supposed to be. Longtime elected officials will admit that when something is hidden, sooner or later, it will come out. Then the consequences will likely be worse than if the truth was told from the beginning.
Glenn Harbison is publisher of The News Observer in Blue Ridge, Ga., and associate publisher of the Cherokee Scout. He can be reached at 706-632-2019 or glenn_harbison@hotmail.com.
