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Our View: Textbook authors' reasoning hard to fathom ... Emergency Services ... 'We tried to de-escalate it' ... Our View: Textbook authors' reasoning hard to fathom ... Emergency Services ... OUR VIEW Our View: Keeping the light trained on government MailTribune.com Writer Posted Mar. 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am Posted Mar. 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2325,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." — James  Madison "Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman." — Justice Louis Brandeis It may seem at times that we can't stop repeating the importance of transparency in government. This week, you'll have to bear with us once more, because March 15-21 is the 10th anniversary of Sunshine Week. Timed to coincide with the March 16 anniversary of the birth of James Madison, Sunshine Week is a joint effort of the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. It is a time to celebrate the importance of open government and to expose efforts to weaken public records and public meetings laws. That effort never ends, because the natural instinct of those in power is to work in secret, out of the public eye. For every law that guarantees government will operate in the open, there is at least one exemption that someone thought should be carved out to prevent public scrutiny. Increasingly, rather than simply refuse to release information — because the law says they must — government agencies are using delays and exorbitant fees to discourage those seeking the records. Recent events in Oregon are a prime example. When Gov. John Kitzhaber was under fire for alleged conflicts of interest involving his fiancee's private consulting work and her role as first lady of Oregon, the governor's office was slow to respond to requests for public records detailing her role in his administration. In 2012, the Oregon State Police told The Associated Press it would cost $4,000 for 25 hours of staff time to prepare, review and redact information dealing with the investigation of the director of a boxing and martial arts commission. Often it is news reporters and the organizations they work for who seek information to inform the public about the workings of their government. But public records laws are there for everyone. Private citizens, in fact, file more requests than journalists do. Government supposedly exists to serve the public, and in this country, the public is  the government. Officials need to be reminded of that regularly. Although we run the risk of boring our readers, we believe the importance of openness in government — from the meetings of public entities to the documents they produce — cannot be overemphasized, because there are those running our governments who are just as busy closing the curtains as we are trying to open them. 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