Spring of the year is upon us and, all late season cold fronts aside, the sun is shining.
John Denver put it well in his old song:
“Sunshine
On my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes
Can make me cry
Sunshine on the water
Looks so lovely
Sunshine
Almost always makes me high”
Of course, The Temptations liken sunshine to love:
“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May”
And my favorite is probably the Warren Haynes blues standard that likens sunshine to a wellness of the soul:
“He used to say, ‘Soulshine
It’s better than sunshine
It’s better than moonshine
Damn sure better than rain
Hey, now people don’t mind
We all feel this way sometime
You got to let your soul shine
Shine till the break of day’”
But, all weather forecasts and wellness checks aside, this week we recognized another type of metaphor for sunshine.
Sunshine Week is an annual, nonpartisan, nationwide celebration held in March that highlights the importance of open government, transparency and public access to government records.
This week is Sunshine Week.
Coordinated by the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, it brings together journalists, civic groups and citizens to discuss freedom of information— and it is more important now than ever.
According to reporting this week from NPR and The Guardian, the world’s leading democracy watchdog, the V-Dem Institute, now classifies the U.S. as “no longer a liberal democracy,” warning of rapid democratic decline in recent years.
It cites growing the concentration of administrative power in the years since 9/11, weakened institutions, curtailed civil liberties and politicization of government.
The research compares the U.S. trajectory to countries like Hungary and Turkey—only faster.
It also warns such erosion is hard to reverse.
It starts with government transparency — sunshine. And sunshine starts at home.
Around here, keeping an eye on government usually comes down to one thing: the money.
Are tax dollars being spent where they ought to be — on roads you can drive, schools that work and public servants who earn their keep?
Who’s getting the contracts? What’s buried in that bond election fine print?
In Texas, we’ve got a couple of old but sturdy tools for that job. They are the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Open Meetings Act.
They’ve been around more than 50 years, and they still do what they were built to do: shine light in places some folks would rather keep dim.
That’s the spirit behind Sunshine Week. It is a reminder that open government isn’t a luxury. It’s the whole point.
To the Legislature’s credit, there’s been some tightening of the screws. Public officials now face clearer consequences if they ignore records requests.
Meeting notices must be posted three business days in advance — not just 72 hours.
This keeps important agendas from quietly slipping out over a weekend. And if a budget’s on the table, folks get to see it ahead of time. That’s just common sense.
Still, anybody who has worked a courthouse beat or sat through a long council meeting knows there are always another workaround, another delay, another excuse.
Before I proceed, let me preface, the hypothetical complaints I am about to reference have NOTHING to do with any of our local entities.
Thankfully we enjoy wonderful working relationships with each of the government bodies we cover in Western Grayson County.
We are blessed and, by transference, you are too. I’d like to thank our local officials for being on the side of transparency.
But, it is not the norm everywhere and I’ve heard horror stories from newspaper friends across the state.
When agencies abuse open records requests just to stall, there ought to be consequences.
The attorney general is supposed to be the umpire — not a shield.
The law is clear. Public information is presumed open unless there’s a real, legal reason to keep it closed.
But too often, requests that should be filled in days get tied up for weeks or months.
And then there’s the price tag. Records requests can run into the thousands of dollars.
Worse yet, sometimes that money is collected up front while the government turns around and asks permission to withhold the very records it’s already been paid to produce.
That’s not transparency. That’s a toll booth.
At the end of the day, it still comes back to the money.
How it’s spent? How it’s tracked? How it’s used to keep the public at arm’s length?
Open government only works when people insist on it. Not doing so is the first slide into a less liberal democracy.
Happy Sunshine Week!