Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Events that affect your lives

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

I’m always interested to see citizens willing to take a stand on issues important to them. Those stands, aside from grassroots movements that take hold and spread regionally or nationally, often involve issues that have local scope and local significance. This means that such concerns gravitate to elected and appointed boards. Though here only a few weeks, I have already stood witness to several beautiful examples of citizens expressing their wishes and desires in events that directly impact their lives.

None of us, especially those that hold office, should ever forget that the “right” to “petition the government for a redress of grievances” or even to speak freely on a given topic is still a part of the First Amendment of our Constitution. Across America, most elected and appointed officials are critically aware of this reality and strive to uphold the letter and the spirit of the law. Yet others do not. By their words and actions, some officials appear to be ideologically at odds with this Constitutionally-guaranteed right by the way they react to citizens. They might, from time to time, take note of the 45 words that comprise the First Amendment. It’s a short read.

Though new to the communities of South Fulton and Fayette and covering mainly South Fulton news, I am not new to covering elected and appointed bodies. In the six years before returning to my metro Atlanta home, I wrote for Georgia’s oldest weekly, covering nine city councils, two county commissions, two school boards, a development authority, a hospital authority and other news. Throughout my time there, I occasionally noticed a few things that have the potential to show up in local government, anywhere. While most officials are above board with citizens, some take it upon themselves to be above the people. Once elected, they develop a type of cognitive myopia that affects some inside the political Halls of Power in any community. While campaigning, they say ‘vote for me, I’ll always be there for you.” Yet once elected, some develop the mysterious and often protracted LMA/DAQ Syndrome. But their machinations are transparent, even if the local government they are responsible for running is not. The Leave Me Alone/Don’t Ask Questions Syndrome is, at its core, merely subterfuge. They sometimes get their directions from the local business elite and sometimes from their own “sense” of ethics and accountability to the public, or the lack thereof. I’m sure I won’t find such mischief here.

I believe the First Amendment is the linchpin to open, accountable and transparent government. It is the access point of “We, the people” to that government. Many elected officials and many on local government payrolls understand that citizens are not always familiar with the ever-increasing complexities required of municipalities and counties. And this is exactly the reason why all governmental entities should, and many do, respect citizens’ requests for information, recognize the confusion that endless rules and regulations engenders and appreciate those in the public that desire a greater access to their government. And it is the First Amendment that both provides for and guarantees Americans ability to be informed. Hence, the failure of any local government to live up to the spirit and the letter of the law is a slap in the face to the very principles incorporated into the founding of this nation.

Your newspaper serves the shrinking worlds of Fayette, Coweta and South Fulton counties. And at your newspaper, we desire to cooperate with local governments but our allegiance lies not with them. Our allegiance is to the readers, to whom we are responsible for providing the most accurate information we can obtain. Knowledge is a tool. And in a world fraught with complexity, our mission is to provide you with as much information as we can about the events of your communities, the local events that affect your lives.