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Sunshine week reminds that open-government rights are never secure - The Galveston County Daily News: Free

Today, we assume the natural order of things to be just the opposite.

We assume the state has no general right to exclude the people from the details and records of government and must make a case and meet a burden of proof to do so.

The trouble is, we also tend to assume that once the laws have been passed and rights widely recognized, things will tick along like a good watch forever after.

The truth is, people are working every day to undermine such laws and the ideals they embody to render them by policy or practice into vestigial doodads, no more useful than a ceremonial sword.

The forces of secrecy always have reasons, which have been about the same since the lords lived behind moats. The peasants will be safer, happier and calmer if not confronted with information they probably can’t comprehend and don’t really want to know anyway.

Source: Sunshine week reminds that open-government rights are never secure - The Galveston County Daily News: Free

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