The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks drove home the responsibilities of every citizen - and brought new threats to open government.
These include: Secret incarcertion of Middle Eastern people on suspicion they might have some connection to terrorism. Secret military trials for suspected terrorists. Relaxed rules for FBI eavesdropping. Prosecutors' tape recording of conversations between defendants and their lawyers.
Those are subjects that need to be examined by everyone interested in open government. Many, including civil liberties organizations and some members of Congress, are now examining them.
In reaction to the attacks, Congress hastily passed and the president signed the labyrinthine "Patriot Act." Attorney General John Ashcroft followed it with stringent new restrictions on American freedom and due process.
But these new rules - amounting to Constitutional amendments by executive decree - are subject to public scrutiny and debate. And in this republic, scrutiny and debate are essential.
Testifying to the Senate, Ashcroft aggressively defended the new law enforcement measures. He suggested that anybody who questions them is either a fool or an ally of terrorists. Presidents have authorized this sort of thing before, his supporters say.
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Yes, they have. Did it make them right? I know the list, and I had personal experience with one example.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, I was just the right age for military service. I remember clearly the imprisonment later of Japanese-Americans in what we called relocation centers - our euphemism of the time for concentration camps. I worked as a timekeeper in the construction of the camp at Poston, Ariz., while waiting to be called to active duty as a Marine officer candidate. The money was good. I didn't question it - until I saw former high school athlete buddies behind barbed wire in this hot, squalid desert compound.
They were American kids - and while their families remained imprisoned, thousands of them volunteered for the Army. They formed a regiment whose slogan was "Go For Broke." It fought in Europe and became the most decorated American Army regiment in World War II.
Two generations later, our government recognized that the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans was wrong and tried to make restitution with modest payments to the survivors. Having served as a Marine officer in two wars - and with a grandson who is a Marine sergeant in Afghanistan - I am well aware of the need for security and secrecy in wartime.
But I think all of us should look with skepticism at extreme efforts to shut down civil rights and due process.
In our democracy, open government has followed mostly a strong, forward course. But it isn't automatic. And in the history of open government, I would prefer not to have any more chapters in which we are wrong and have to apologize to later generations.
by Bob Johnson
Daily Lobo Guest Columnist
Bob Johnson is the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. The foundation is a non-profit organization that acts as a watchdog over compliance with the Open Meetings Act and the Inspection of Public Records Act and works to improve public access to government activity.
