If you believe that government should be completely open and transparent in its dealing with the citizens it represents, then you must read the editorial, “Don’t mess with Right-to-know,” in today’s Intelligencer Journal/New Era. There are some of our elected “public servants” in Harrisburg who are trying to deny to citizens the transparency that good government must provide.
The editorial cites House Bills 364, 298 and Senate Bill 247 as examples of the efforts to whittle away at your right to know. Each of us enjoys the transparency in government that allows citizens the right to access information that impacts our way of life. Imagine living in a society in which this access is denied!
It is incredible to think that these “public servants” evidently have no knowledge of what has happened and what happens under despotic (and sometimes free) governments everywhere. In nations that have no transparency of government, people have no confidence in their government; take a look at what people in Japan are voicing about believing in their government right now.
Why do these “public servants” want to hide information from us? Why to these “public servants” want to practice despotism? What does it say about a government when it seeks to hide, mask, or muddle information from its citizens? Write or call your elected “public servants” and tell them you want to have the unencumbered right to transparency … tell them you want to maintain a working Right-To-Know Law.
[GRAPHIC SOURCE]: via 1.bp.blogspot.com – Another favourite of mine is the Cagle Site for cartoons – http://www.cagle.com/
Editor
Columbia news, views & reviews 
Thanks for bringing this information to light. On the face of it, the bills seem innocent enough, and that’s what make them so insidious. In the guise of protecting privacy, they make government more secretive. If they become law, then other, slightly more restrictive, bills will be proposed, each step pushing us further down the slippery slope. Such creeping incrementalism takes away our rights to know what our politicians are up to, but they’re precisely the ones we need to keep an eye on. What’s that old saying about power corrupting . . . ?
Government transparency and Right-To-Know access to data is critical to any free society. Citizen access to these secondary sources reveals what the primary sources are mandated to report to them … and to citizens. Sometimes, though, they resort to obfuscation and flat-out violation of citizens. Contact us directly for definitive secondary source links to your salary post.