Reply #7: So closing EPA libraries, and hiding govt reports on a variety of issues [View All]

[Blackhatjack]

...cause you no heartburn? Go try to do a report on this country's nuclear arsenal today and see how many documents are now missing which were available 20-30 years ago.

And by the way, nothing makes a document more or less useful for analysis just by slapping a "classifed" label on it. The number of documents withheld from public view today is exponentially greater than just 10 years ago.

The recorded actions of government agencies are essential to understand why our government works the way it does. For example, after Katrina you would look at the pre-Katrina govt evacuation plan for New Orleans to analyze what the govt did and why. But hey, the govt cannot find a copy of the evacuation plan today. So lacking that critical report, it is impossible to know what the govt's position was, if it was followed or not, and how the planned use of resources may have contributed to the eventual disaster that cost thousands of lives.

Archivists and Historians are essential to a transparent govt. Those who ignore accurate historical records tend to be vulnerable to the same mistakes in the future.