Transparency today, transparency tomorrow, transparency forever…

County public employee salaries and pensions should be public, posted on the County website. We pay them and have the right to know without incessant pressure or filing public records requests.

I’ve heard so many stories about the Santa Cruz County Planning Department wielding gross double standard hypocritical authority, one for cronies, one for everybody else, over several decades now, that I am inclined to believe some of it to be true, or at least questionable, necessitating a call for open exposure and procedural challenge.

Transparency is public disclosure. Pillory is public ridicule. Being human we’re stuck with both, but let’s strive more towards the former and accept some of the latter as imperfection in practice.

So much of what Government does, including County Government, is cloaked behind walls of opacity. We’re asked to trust the “experts,” which is a primary reason why westside Santa Cruz desal failed. With the exception of personnel matters this is inexcusable in our time and can change.

Easy to fix. How easy? The Internet. Post, post, post. Why the resistance? Exposure of double standards and hypocrisy. Trust is earned by openness and sincerity. Interesting that we look back historically with awe at those who stuck their necks out publicly for social change, and justify a lack of transparency in our time, by our actions and those we place in positions of leadership and power.

There were 56 Declaration of Independence signers. They used their real names. They didn’t hide behind masks, bandannas and pseudonyms. Justifying anonymity in politics, including civil disobedience and campaign financing, is a justification of cowardice and absolutely devoid of accountability and honor. If you’re going to do it, do it above board. If you can’t do it above board, don’t do it.

And be impeccable, like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and numerous others who left their marks on history. No excuses. Stand up and be who you are, or stand aside. If you want to leave a mark, leave your name. Take the consequences that come with political action. Civil disobedience and campaign financing in particular are dishonored and tainted by anonymous cowardice.