Hot Pursuit

Writing a weekly column can be difficult at times. It’s not so much the writing aspect of it, but rather coming up with a relevant topic that is going to have broad appeal to readers. 
Over the past five years since I began this column, I have written about a variety of topics. Some of them seem to come up from year to year. While I don’t like to write about the same topics over and over, sometimes it can’t be helped. That’s where it becomes my job to try and put a little different twist on it.
This week I’m focusing on something I have never written about before, though the broad topic has been addressed in the past. This week is Sunshine Week. No, it’s not a goal to see if the sun can shine during one week in March, but rather to make it shine every day as we focus on doing our best to serve citizens. 
Started in 2002 in Florida, Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Those are two heavy topics that are near and dear to all newspapers. The week has expanded throughout the country since then. 
Though it was created by journalists, those pesky people who seek information and the truth, the week is about the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why. 
The week enlightens and empowers people to play an active role in their government at all levels. It also aims to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger. 
We saw a small example of this last week during township elections across the state. In little neighboring Westfield Township, located just outside of Blooming Prairie, more than 100 people turned out for the township supervisor election and annual meeting. Tensions ran a little high, but it’s nice to see so many people take an interest in their local government.
 This initiative is increasing public awareness, it’s coming up more often in policy conversations, and the efforts of participants are being cited as real forces for moving the public away from simply accepting excessive and unwarranted government secrecy. 
It’s important for the media, including this newspaper, to let people know about problems encountered with or ideas about accessibility when it comes to transparency of government. 
Greater government transparency and openness can improve the way we live. Transparency can nurture a culture of trust in our elected officials, further an understanding that government serves important functions for citizens, and provide a measure of accountability. 
When information is curtailed, we nurture a culture of mistrust and cynicism. We need to do everything in our power to prevent this.
It is vital that we all fight every attempt to hide the public’s information behind a big, padlocked door. We all need to go in hot pursuit of letting the sun shine in.