You can&#8217t know where you are going if you don&#8217t know where you are.

It does not matter, then, whether your concern about government is that it is doing, and

spending, too much, or too little. Whether you think it ought to stop coddling criminals or

stop being cruel to suspects. Whether you worry that people have too little respect for their

elected leaders or place too much trust in political hacks.

No matter your political, social or fiscal views, the fact remains that this government of,

by and for the people cannot function in a democratic manner if the people don&#8217t know

what the government is up to.

Today is the beginning of Sunshine Week &#8212 sunshine-week.org &#8212 the annual campaign originated by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to emphasize the importance of an open government to a free people. The government exists to

serve us, not the other way around. And the only way the people have any chance at all to know

whether they are being served in the way they wish to be served, or being served at all, is

for the maximum amount of sunlight to be applied to all of its actions and effects.

There have been, and continue to be, strides in this area, as well as backsliding. In the

40 years that have passed since the federal Freedom of Information Act became law, the feeling

that government conduct and records belong in the public view has become more entrenched, as

many state and local governments have followed the federal example with their own open

meetings and open records laws.

After Barack Obama became president, Attorney General Eric Holder issued an order that all

records held by the federal government should be presumed to be public, to be made available

for public inspection upon request, except in certain narrow and defined situations where

national security or personal privacy concerns trumped the overall public need to know. While

that was an improvement over the Bush administration&#8217s attitude toward public records,

especially in the paranoid wake of 9/11, the current occupant of the White House still has a

way to go to become the beacon of open government he proclaimed himself to be.

Too many of the crucial details of the massive, and highly controversial, health care

legislation were hammered out behind closed doors, despite Obama&#8217s campaign promise that

it would be otherwise. And the White House, even after being won by a crew that showed

unprecedented skill in the use of new media to get out its message and rally its supporters,

also has not fully carried through on promises that bills under consideration would get a full

Internet airing before being passed or signed into law.

Closer to home, too much of New York State government continues to be guided by three men

in a closed room. Buffalo&#8217s mayor and, particularly, his Police Department run a

frustrating hot and cold on realizing their duties to keep all matters of public business

before the public. And, by insisting that the unquestionably troublesome things that go on in

the county&#8217s jails are none of the U.S. Justice Department&#8217s business, Erie

County&#8217s executive and sheriff are also saying that it is none of their own

taxpayers&#8217 business, either. That&#8217s an attitude that benefits no one.

Sometimes, the truth hurts. But, in a democracy, secrecy hurts more.