So… what are you doing tomorrow night?
If you're going to Wesley, then I won't try to talk you out of that since I'll be at a Wesley board subcommittee meeting tonight and don't really want to get excommunicated or, even worse, uninvited from Colby's first birthday party.
But if you're not going to be at Tempe First tomorrow night, you should definitely take the light rail to Phoenix for the Cronkite School's Sunshine Week panel discussion on open government. The panel runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the First Amendment Forum on the second floor of the fancy new J-school building at ASU Downtown.
The event was put together and will be moderated by a friend of this here Web site — one Mr. Steve Elliott, the print director of Cronkite News Service. But those of you who don't know Steve might be more interested to learn that there are all sorts of notable folks who you probably have heard of on the panel:
First of all, there's Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who has by most accounts become the face of the Democratic Party in Arizona now that good ol' Janet is Nappin' it up in D.C. Speaking of J-Nap, her press secretary from her Arizona-governing days, Jeanine L’Ecuyer, will also be on the panel.
Also expected are Teri Hayt, managing editor of the Arizona Daily Star, the Tucson paper that is expected to still exist next week, and David Bodney, a Phoenix attorney who's a minor celebrity around the J-school on account of his expertise in media law.
Now, if you haven't been star-struck by any of these big names yet, you might be wondering what this panel discussion and the larger Sunshine Week are all about. Somewhat surprisingly, Sunshine Week isn't just is the weather forecast for the next seven days; it's also a big national to-do that aims to get people thinking and talking about a) knowing what their government is up to and b) participating in government.
Steve will be talking with the panel about public records and other publicly available information about the work of government, considering each panelist's role in different situations.
With real newspapers and real reporters who know how to dig into government affairs going by the wayside on a seemingly daily basis, now is as good a time as ever for anyone — journalists and laymen alike — to brush up on how our government works and what government dealings and records are by law required to be open not just to journalists but to any citizen.