The Public Good is The First Responsibility of Our Elected Officials

What next? The Gulag

In nearly fifty years of public service, I know that when transparency is set aside, something is wrong.....when government seemingly arbitrarily plays free and loose with our earned liberties, it seems clear that we need to empower the “watch dogs” to find out why and to unleash our protections under the Constitution. . .

I, as Director for the Committee for Positive Growth, tend to take this stuff kind of seriously since I spent more than four years in the service of my country where I was asked to commit my time, my efforts and, yes, even my life to protect things like democracy and liberty that all too often we seem to take for granted.

It bears repeating than in a free society, all arrangements and legislation should be subject to total transparency so that every voter has the right and option to see the evidence or the information submitted and the rationale for it especially when it impacts our lives.. The only exception would be if by our actions we were giving away secrets that would aid or provide comfort to the ‘enemy’ which doesn’t apply here.

In the last six years I have discovered that I did not the end of Third
World politics when I left Asia. Now, it turns out that the guarantees and rights guaranteed under the Constitution are being jettisoned here to what end?

What I am referring to are the hearings involving the Delaware Public Service Commission whose principal spokesperson has denied public discussion and even gagged one spokesperson from the opposition from participating in what should be an open discourse. Moreover, attempts by concerned citizens to have the bids to become Delaware’s supplier of energy into the future has been marred by obfuscation and misdirection. The documents made public, in effect, contain important information that has been blacked out from the bids and representations of the various would-be subcontractors/bidders.

The question “why” literally begs for an answer.

Why is such information being withheld from those affected and those who ultimately are going to pay the price is a question that this government has failed to respond to convincingly or answer.

Why are our lawmakers reluctant to make their arrangements public knowledge?
Why are they so reluctant to allow feedback from the public sector?
Does not the public have the right to question what is being considered in our name and paid for with our tax dollars? Information that may impact our lives in significant ways?

The fact is that from the information available from credible sources, the government of Delaware has failed to demand transparency in the transactions of its various divisions and that raises serious questions as to whether the citizens best interests are being served over both the long and short term.

Maybe our politicians need to go back to school to learn what democracy is all about. On the other hand, what we are witnessing may be something else more sinister that needs looking into. We don’t know at this point. But what we do know is that our best interests are taking a back seat to other considerations that are not being made accessible to the public.

Need I remind the citizens of this great State that what we are referring to is not some minor issue but of such importance that it will directly impact our health and well-being for perhaps generations. What our government ultimately decides to do may impact all aspects of our lives: from our health to the water we drink; from the food chain to global warming; from our properties to the actual existence of our shore line. In this context, we can hardly afford to be cavalier or dismissive of serious concerns voiced by the public who are serving in this context as the court of last resort since in increasingly looks as if what goes on in government stays in government.

With such a wide-spread impact, it is virtually incredulous that the people, themselves, have not made their wishes felt through a state wide referendum and why so little light has been shed on the maneuverings of government behind the scenes so as to virtually leave the public sector out of the debate.

Predicated on recent history, our government has mostly ignored or taken a luke warm approach to prior appeals to clean up vital waterways and to find alternative sources to burning fossil fuels that contribute to an increase in carbon dioxide in the water-ways, danger to the food chain and ultimately increased disease and bad health.

A pattern is in place here that is mostly dismissive of the long term “wellness” implications of current policy and not enough attention has been focused on this matter. Delaware, however, is changing; people who have moved in from elsewhere and local citizenry are growing increasingly concerned that we and our government seem to inhabit parallel universes—and many of them bring to the task a history of activism and involvement that questions how this government can claim to represent the people and seem so dismissive of the people at the same time. I should also point out that I don’t mean to paint all of our politicians with the same brush since an increasing number are coming around to the recognition that the public may be right and are increasingly supportive of our efforts, an indication that our efforts are beginning to bear fruit or register progress..

While ultimately this kind of arrogance and dismissiveness will only raise the objections of the people, we still need to shine a spotlight on what is happening here and now that will impact our individual and collective futures. At the very least, such bold and intrepid actions to bring clarity to these concerns can only sanitize the air and put things into a better perspective for those of us who vote and who are perhaps more concerned with long term outcomes than those we have elected to represent us.

Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon