Extreme transparency

Despotic regimes thrive on secrecy, and except for a smattering of honest libertarians, conservative policy makers today instinctively seek to shield their actions from public view. Dick Cheney, for example, mastered the dark art of deception, even as he kept the Clown-in-Chief from muddling his mind with too many facts. The same is true with the NCGOP leadership in Raleigh, who have quickly forgotten the risks of governing behind closed doors. Their latest attempt to veil public information is a unwelcome step in the wrong direction.

For North Carolina, the risk of secrecy in public policy is doubly deep given the reach of Art Pope's incestuous shadow government. In Mr. Pope, we have an unelected gang boss calling the shots, running his Show with impunity and escaping even the illusion of scrutiny from so-called media watchdogs.

The business of government is the people's business. As taxpayers and citizens, we are the shareholders in this business. We have the right to know anything and everything done with our dollars. From personnel records to public expenditures, from transcripts of meetings to transportation logs, from promises made to promises kept, we the people should have free and unfettered access to any aspect of government operations at every level, no matter what. The only arguable exceptions in my view are national security and criminal investigations, but even there we should err on the side of full and immediate disclosure whenever possible.

• "It's the people's money. You work for them. They have the right to know," Goolsby said. "If you don't like that, then don't work here."

The truth is, we have precious little knowledge of what is really happening in our name. As a result, we are personally and individually complicit in whatever damage our governments do.

I encourage you to step up to an extremist view on this matter. I encourage you to ask your representative in the General Assembly to vote against this shift toward secrecy.