“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader

WILLFUL OMISSIONS UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY

(Written 26 August 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 08 July 2009.)

I am the type of person who likes to know what is going on his surroundings. It's not so much ego, really. It's more like I can know how to respond to a situation if I know what is going on.

Because of this "thirst for knowledge", so to speak, I consider myself to be rather well informed. So when something pops up that I know nothing about, I tend to want to get some answers.

Such was the case last week when the city was putting down traffic counters on my street. I knew I had not requested them, and, knowing my neighbors, I was pretty sure my neighbors did not, either. So, I sauntered out into the middle of the street to ask.

"What's up?", I asked.

"We're putting down traffic counters", one of the city workers replied.

"I can see that." I was getting a little irritated. To me, it is a little condescending to state the obvious. "Why?", I asked.

"To count traffic."

Another "duh!" kind of statement. Why else would you put traffic counters down? So I asked again, thinking that obviously they must have misunderstood my question. "Why?"

"Because that's what we were told to do." Another no-brainer. My irritation grew.

"By whom?", I asked.

"Our boss." Well of course it was by the boss. I don't imagine that there are renegade crews out there putting down traffic counters just for the fun of it. By this time, I wasn't just angry. I was ticked. All I wanted was a simple answer, and all I was getting was the run-around.

So I clarified my question to get straight to the point. "Who called in and asked your boss for a speed study?"

"I don't know, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, anyway."

Now I will be the first to admit that, with the last remark, I lost my temper. Here was a city employee, an employee whose salary I help pay, who in effect works for me, telling me that what was happening on my street in front of my house was none of my business. Talk about arrogance!

I spent a good part of the afternoon down at the city building talking to one employee after another trying to find out why the city was doing a speed study on my nice residential street. All I got from one city employee after another was the run-around about how they did not know, and I would need to talk to this one and that one, but this one was gone until the end of the week and that one was in meetings or some other such rot. I finally found out that my elected official had requested the study after I had complained to him about speeding.

Before I finished visiting the city, I commented that it would be wise for the city to communicate a little better and stop stonewalling, as their "lying" could have cost my elected official his job. How's that? Simple. If I did not know that he was actually listening, I might be inclined to think that he is worthless and throw the bum out at the next election, when in actuality he had been doing his job but city employees took it upon themselves to not let his constituents know. In short, the failure of city staff to inform me of what my representative is doing could very well cause me to vote differently, which is (indirect) tampering with the democratic process.

This subversion of our democracy through omissions is not only happening here in the Rock, but also in cities, counties, and states everywhere. It is also happening in our federal government.

Call it "not volunteering information" if you want. Use whatever euphemism you want. Whatever you call it, omitting facts is still a willful attempt to undermine the rule of the people, and this kind of behavior by our public officials, whether elected or appointed, is not acceptable.

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