Americans have come to accept the idea that our government should be allowed to have lots of secrets - secrets from all of us, citizens of the United States of America, who are, supposedly, actually in charge of the government.
How can we citizens actually be "in charge" of a government that decides that it will make its operations "secret"?
Answer: we can't!
This problem was extensively discussed in that book by Daniel Ellsberg that I have commented on a couple of times in these blog postings. Here's a link to my last blog posting on the Ellsberg book, Truth And Consequence.
The secrets that Ellsberg was most concerned about were the secret plans of the United States Government to initiate a nuclear war that would end up killing about 600,000,000 people, and that would, probably, bring on a "Nuclear Winter" that would kill a lot more (and maybe everybody on the planet). Ellsberg did not share those nuclear war plans in his book, but he indicated that he knew what they said, and that he was not sanguine about the future of humanity, precisely because he knew about those plans.
Well, here's a story about government secrecy that is a lot less threatening than the secrets that Ellsberg was talking about. I am speaking of the revelation that a CIA agent, David Rush, was able to conceal the fact that he stole "more than 600 pounds of gold bars, together with more than $2 million in cash and dozens of Rolexes and other luxury watches." You can read all about this in a story in the June 17, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal. The story is titled, "A $40 Million Gold Heist Risks Exposing CIA’s Top-Secret Spy Programs."
Are we, the self-governing people that we profess to be, ready to stop allowing people who (supposedly) work for us to decide that they can hide the government activities that they are undertaking, and that they think should be secret?
I am raising my hand! Considering the challenges ahead, I think that everyone in the world would be better off if we all knew about whatever those government secrets are that the people who are (supposedly) working for us think we shouldn't get to know about!
Think about this. Making all government information available to the people, as a matter of right, is actually a really "radical" idea. Just about as radical as the idea that ordinary people should be in charge of the government, instead of subject to it!
Image Credits:
(1) - https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/072316/how-do-you-purchase-physical-gold-bars.asp
(2) - https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-raise-your-hand-in-class-1857202
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