Transparency

Reading the front page story in the USA Today (Friday 3/27) about the FAA's proposed rule change to keep the airport reports of collisions between wildlife and planes from public view, meaning not readily available or through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), I wonder if that's what President Obama meant by transparency.

The article cites that airports only report about 20% of collisions between wildlife, mostly birds, and airplanes, but the FAA believes that 20% could be deceptive to the public and have the number of reports decrease for fear of exagerating the situation at airports. The wildlife organizations, news organizations and other groups feel the opposite is likely to happen, meaning fewer reports would cause travellers to fear it's not being reported.

Well, 80% aren't being reported, and now they want to hide the last 20%?

It seems with Obama's decision to keep the Bush administration rules to classify the many documents on terrorism as secret for fear of informing the American people of the government's work, that this rules keeps the Bush mentality alive in the White House and government, and only goes to further the fear about what we're not being told or what's being done in secret.

Transparency is what it is. It's not opaqueness or even blackness, but clear and obvious. If President Obama wants to assure the American people and ensure his promise of transparency, then he has to do that, and not hide behind verbal smoke screens about terrorism and fear.

We're smarter than you think. And I've always believed that too much information is better than too little. You can always sift through and remove what irrelevant to your need or interest, but you can't add when there's nothing there. We can imagine what we think it is and we can imagine what you're hiding, but neither may be true or correct, but it will instill more fear than the information will if released.

The fear isn't in the transparency but in the secrecy. If you haven't learned that from George Bush, then you need to reread your recent history. Remember we elected you on your promises, renige and all your support fades with our promises.