Conversation on Open Meetings Act Is a Good Thing

Dear Editor,
    Re: "Does the Open Meetings Act Go Too Far?" [News, Jan. 8]: Let me preface this rant by thanking Richard Whittaker for shedding light on this, until now, (mostly) overlooked-but-quite-important story. You're to be commended, sir, for your care and attention. But what a crock of shit! Not the reporting but the … hmm, shall we say "interesting perspective" of the article's subjects. The truth is that there is nothing difficult or mysterious about the Texas Open Meetings Act. Its dos and don'ts are founded in intuitive concepts of representative democracy and foundational civic principles. The Texas Attorney General's Office, moreover, produces two comprehensive handbooks that break the act down into digestible bits, drawing together all the case law and A.G. opinions that have interpreted it (www.oag.state.tx.us/open/og_resources.shtml#traps). And for those visual and auditory learners, there's a nice little video (setting aside the grating violin music and the terrible acting by people like yours truly) that also explains the act in detail and is required viewing for elected officials (www.oag.state.tx.us/open/og_training.shtml). So it may read well to wrap an argument in a well-beloved amendment and say, "I can't attend church" and "chilling effect," but it's all hooey, the kind produced by participating in a tainted-canned-chicken-eating contest, at sea, when one also has a severe case of cholera … during a tropical heat wave. In short, elected officials who don't "get it" or find it "odd" or "at-odds with free speech" are either unfit for the office they hold because they just aren't smart enough, or they are fascists trying to keep something from their bosses and the public. There's no in-between.
    Anywho, thanks again, Mr. Whittaker, for starting this conversation. It's an important one. And I will be happy to directly address (and refute) the apparent arguments of the article's subjects for a future article that I hope you'll write. In the meantime, I just needed to give a big ol' "Boo! Boo, I say!" to the people who have filed this lawsuit.