In my wanderings on the Internet I come upon some very interesting information and ideas. Maybe that is why I find myself so alarmed about what is going on in this country. The night news highlights (lowlights) the awfulness of human nature and the details of celebrities’ sad lives. There is not time to cover things that are less dramatic and more important. One of the issues that has not had much coverage is the secrecy of this government of ours.
This administration has taken secrecy to the point that you have to speculate they are doing many things they don’t want the people to know about. The VP is probably the darkest most secret executive in our history. Those in power seem to hide behind the term of “national security” as a way to keep the public from knowing what they do. This makes the transparency of a democracy almost impossible. Without us knowing what is going on we cannot self-govern. If we leave is up to Congress than we are in trouble because they have shown no ability to hold this administration accountable.
We as citizens need to be involved in what is going on, if we are not allowed into the inner decisions and processes than we are not governing. We can’t trust if we are not shown what is going on. This secrecy at this level is totally unacceptable. We need nonpolitical oversight to make sure those in power do not abuse it. That is necessary because power naturally corrupts those who are not out in the open.
What got me to sit down and write about this was an article I read recently about Rudy Guiliani. When previous mayors ended office in New York City they left with maybe a box full of personal mementos of their time in office. Mayor Guiliani, mostly secretly, removed over 2000 boxes of files and information. What did he have to hide? How come he hasn’t been called on the carpet about that? Isn’t that theft of public property?
I don’t know what to do about all that is going on that must be questioned and it isn’t. To be an informed citizen takes time and keeping up on what you can find out. I suggest we all take the time to be informed as much as we can and then we ask lots of questions. Please do your best to participate in any way you can. Aware citizens are needed.