“Why have we grown so accustomed to having so much information hidden from us?”
Editors note: at cinchnews.com, we regularly receive ideas and suggestions for our articles. Today, I present an article written by a guest contributor who wishes to remain anonymous. I am familiar with the author, who runs the grass roots organization “trans American government now”, fighting for transparency in government for 25 years.
You have probably heard of the first paragraph of the US constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
You probably havn’t heard of the second paragraph: “We the People of the United States, in Order for the Government to keep tabs on its Subjects, in order for some People to be more equal than others, ask of the Government to, at arbitrary discretion, keep from us its Insight, Intel, and Truth”
No? Well, as the years go by the government has more and more secrets. Despite us supposedly making up our government, it seems like we wont tell us much of anything. Lest I forget, 1 % of all adult Americans have security clearance! That isn’t very secret then is it? It just means that 99 % of the country barely has access to it.
“BY MAKING ALL OF THESE DOCUMENTS EASILY ACCESSIBLE, THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL DEMONSTRATE THEIR COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY AND OPEN GOVERNANCE. “
Why does the government get to keep secrets in the first place? Why have we grown so accustomed to having so much information hidden from us? “The government gets to keep secrets in order to protect the public from harm, such as important information about a terrorist attack.” We are told. But how many classified documents concern actual national security?
The mere fact that we allow our system to define for itself what we are allowed to see is a problem in and of itself. There is a very real risk of the information being available for the wrong reasons, such as for political gain or personal profit. If we could trust that the information we do not get to see does not contain information about what we want to see, half our the country wouldn’t be at each others throats.
What makes this worse, is that the gains we have made in the last decades have been to “ease the access” of information, such as the FOIA requests. Why have we not drawn a line in the sand, and required less to be hidden in the first place?
Our society is, unlike many European counterparts, built on a system of mutual trust through freedom of information. All the way from our method of election, court proceedings, arrest warrants, mugshots. Our school boards, municipal hearings. If the FBI investigated the JFK shooter, they can hide that for 100 years. But if the police arrested someone from the shooting, it would be public record for all eternity.
By making all of these documents easily accessible, the Biden administration will demonstrate their commitment to transparency and open governance. Through this initiative, they can ensure that citizens have access to important information that could help inform their decision-making process when it comes to issues related to national security. This move is critical for citizens to understand the decisions that the government makes on their behalf. The Biden administration should also take steps to ensure that FBI files and other sensitive data are available for public viewing in order to ensure a greater level of trust between the government and its citizens.
In a world where governments are increasingly concerned with secrecy, transparency and freedom of information is becoming more and more important. With President Biden at the helm, citizens all over the world are hoping for greater transparency in their government’s activities. This includes access to government classified documents that have long been kept secret from the public. It is the hope that this will help to restore trust between citizens and their governments, as well as provide an important check on government agencies.
