Years ago, while preparing to move to Portland, Maine for a few months, I rented a room (sight unseen) in a little old hotel in the middle of the city. The price was right and the ad, which advertised “European accommodations,” made it sound like a wonderfully civilized, genteel sort of place where we’d have tea every afternoon and everyone was an ex-pat working on a novel. The pictures on the website were even better.

I’m sure you can guess where this story is going.

Needless to say, the place was a flophouse of the first order. The “European” end of the deal referred to the fact, I think, that the cramped little space had a sink in it. Unfortunately, the water worked about as well as the heat, which is to say it worked occasionally and on an indeterminable schedule.

The point is it’s always wise to question what you’re told, even what you’re sure you already know. I’ve learned over the years that if there is advantage someone can gain from spinning or packaging information in a certain way, they will most likely do it. And that goes for everyone, from business people to those charged with running the Country.

This week, in case you weren’t aware, has been designated as Sunshine Week, and it was first established by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to help promote open government. Sunshine Week is also used to highlight National Freedom of information Day, which falls on March 16.

Any discussion of open government usually includes at least a mention of the Freedom of Information Act of 1966, which is now widely known simply as FOIA. 

To quote from the FOIA website the act “provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information.”  The site goes on to explain that all agencies are required to provide information upon receiving a written request, except under a number of specific conditions, such as if the information pertains to issues of national security.

So how, you might ask, can you commemorate Sunshine Week? Ask questions. Exercise that right we have been given to know the truth, regardless of whether it means government officials will need to answer questions they might find uncomfortable.

It’s not always easy to ask the tough questions and it requires a degree of initiative on the part of the citizens in general and journalists in particular. But knowing that the answers you seek are available, and the law is on your side, makes the task easier to bear.

What good could come out of it you ask? Not much, unless you enjoy living in a place where people feel empowered and as if they have a say in the governing of the place they call home.

A community with well informed residents, where everyone has the right to ask questions and officials know they will be held accountable?

Oh, how very civilized.