Writer's Block

Civic duty

On my way home from work Tuesday I spent a couple of hours watching elections observers test voting machines at a demonstration in Kahului. Let's be honest: it's not a real big story. The observers looked over the machines, they ran their ballots, they checked the computer count. They had some questions but no major problems.

But what really impressed me was how seriously they took their jobs. They came prepared with their sample ballots, they asked pointed, technical questions about the machines' software and how they would be used on election day, they pored over every glitch with elections officials until every question had been addressed. I don't think anybody came in thinking they would find something out of whack, but unlike most of us, who walk into the polls on election day and just expect everything to work the way it should, they weren't taking it for granted.

A few months ago, my mom served on jury duty. She wasn't looking forward to it, but by the time the trial ended, she felt a strong sense of responsibility to reach the right verdict. For a while, the jury was deadlocked, but instead of giving in so they could go home early, my mom and the other jurors came back to deliberate for a second day, until they could agree on a verdict they believed was fair. Again, most of us take it for granted that we could get a fair trial if we were ever in court. They were taking responsibility.

I feel that way about open government. I was working on a story about a county program, and the person I was interviewing (not a county worker) questioned whether I could "get permission" to see county memos and e-mails related to the program. "Permission"? I bristled. And then I faxed a written request for the documents -- certainly because I wanted to see them, but partly just because I could.

We live in a society that guarantees anybody the right to open the government's books and look inside. Anybody. But people seem to forget that. So as a journalist, I guess I see that as part of my civic duty -- periodically checking to see that those books are still open. Like clean elections, like fair trials, it's just something we can't afford to take for granted.