Something I have been thinking a lot about this year is the role of support and scrutiny in respect to transparency. I would guess that in many places resistance to a broader transparency in government is rooted in an aversion to, or fear of, scrutiny. On the opposite end, we would have proponents of transparency with an interest in using the open data and information to support their cause or interest. What is the difference? If my cause is to scrutinize a particular public figure, then I seek information and data to support that. Or if I am supporting a particular candidate, I would be interested in information that would support them and their claims. Etc. Etc. I think the two intentions, support and scrutiny, are, in the case of civic participation, inseparable parts of a whole. For now, I think the tone of this interplay is set by the initial intention. If one sets out to "hold feet to fire", then they will be on a mission to scrutinize. Perhaps the counterpart to this, as support, would be "keeping one's head in the light".
This relationship will continue to be in my thoughts as I hope it reaches a point of maturity. However, in light of the past few weeks in Chattanooga, I thought it was apropos to discuss with a recent transparency discussion at the County Commission and an active effort to recall the mayor and some council members.
Contentious times in the Scenic City. Not yet time to quote Schiller, but Lincoln out of context....
"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
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