OpEd; Editors Note: The Joy and Burden of the 4th

With the freedom and joy of the celebration of the 4th of July comes the equal responsibility to exercise that freedom. Yes. It's kinda like weight lifting. It is not the weights that make the muscles. It is their use.

In traditional press, the story is written asking the centers of power what happened. Interviews are taken of the VIP personnel and they say what things mean. On the Evansville Observer, I have tried to offer audio of a subject if possible completely, but have offered only selective video. I can only use bites of 3.5 minutes for upload given my current system. Thus I make no representation that what you see is everything that occured. Of course it is not. The clips are key points in the discussion. My current computer resources do not allow me to upload full meetings that take 2 hours.

Thus----there is a story to be read---but it is not handed to you. I will provide the audio and video as best I can. You the reader must also come to the meetings once in a while. This is not LOST, or AMERICAN IDOL.

Our city has the capability of providing full audio of these meetings, and yes even cctv-----and I have publically requested that they do so. They have ignored the request.

The Amendments to the Smart Growth Plan are important matters to the community and yet there was NOBODY other than the Evansviille Observer and other alderman or developers at this meeting. No press. No contracted city press or Gazette.

Our governmental units feel it is fashionable to hold key meetings in the heat of summer so as to avoid public participation. The strategy works. However, it comes with a big price. ....the price of the very thing we celebrate today--the 4th of July.