How would you like it if when you go to your bank and ask for your statement, they said, "It is not available."

What if you went to your CPA and said I want to see the report on my business for the past year, and they said, "It's none of your business."

What if your elected representatives of this nation, state, county and city closed the doors and went into "executive session," "Closed session" or "Behind closed doors on all of your business that they were "handling"?

That is what is happening in our nation, our state, our counties and our cities.

Don't know if you've noticed it, but most of what our elected, appointed and hired government employees do is "legal" until someone or some organization questions what they are doing. It doesn't matter if it's raising their pay, giving extra benefits or taking three or four days for a one day holiday with pay.

When, or before the most recent administration took office, Obama said, "My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government."

He lied! Plain and simple. This administration has closed the doors on everyone who didn't agree with him.

There's an old Greek saying, that says, -"a fish rots from the head first." Government is much like that fish. Not only does it spoil from the top, it seems to go from the highest right down to our lowest and smallest governments.

There are exceptions, but looking at our very latest county commission and board of education special and regular meetings, I tried to remember the last one that I attended that didn't have a closed meeting.

On January 14, I received a fax for a Public Notice of a Special Called Meeting. In 36 point (LARGE), bold type, it stated, CLOSED SESSION. The only item on the agenda was Pending Litigation.

On the same day, I received a fax from the Board of Education office of a CALLED MEETING. The agenda showed 1. Personnel 2. Organization. They didn't say you couldn't come, but the word personnel is as misused in government transparency as the word truth is in government.

When our elected officials are afraid for you to know what they are doing, or just don't want you to know, they have a few "exceptions" to Openness in Government that can close the door in the public's face.

As one local, elected, public official said when asked why didn't they publish their minutes, "If the public wants to know what we are doing, they ought to go to the meetings."

I say amen to that, but when you get there, you can't hear or know what they are doing. If you ask, you are out of order, and if too many come, they go into CLOSED SESSION until everyone leaves.

Our local officials take advantage of all the "legal" ways and a few questionable ways of letting the people they are supposed to represent know what they are doing.

They have just begun to learn compared to our national leaders. They make no bones about closing the door until their dirt is done.

In the past few years, our election system has been challenged and found to be down right crooked. The courts don't seem to mind that our voting rights and privileges have been messed up by "early voting," absentee voting and no challenge to a voter’s qualifications to vote or where to vote. There is talk of mailing in the vote or e-mail.

Hopefully, there is enough remnant of right to clean out those who do not represent us or want us to know what they do while in office.

The individual vote by citizens can clean up a multitude of sorriness, or allow it to keep getting worse. It is our individual choice. Good, voting citizens must run for office amd vpte, or crooks will stay.

The public has a right to know what those who work for them are doing.

I don’t know why the Democrats hide what they do. They don’t seem to care what the majority of the American people want.

We’ll see!