“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

James Madison, our fourth president, made this powerful observation more than 200 years ago. As Pennsylvania Sunshine Week comes to a close, it is worth reflecting on.

Our nation, now approaching its 250th year, was founded on certain goals — the creation of a society in which public affairs are conducted with the consent of the governed, in which decisions are made by men and women chosen through democratic means by the governed.

For this to work, constituents of government at all levels — local, state, federal — must be able to review what decisions are being made and what elected public servants say to explain why they make those decisions. And for the voting public to be able to reach informed conclusions about how they feel about those decisions, they need access to the decision-makers’ meetings and deliberations.

Public, transparent access to local and state meetings and hearings is essential. The ability of tax-paying voters to request data and documentation is vital.

The ability of government to shield such information from their constituents must be as limited as possible — we fear, frankly, that it isn’t limited enough. Every man and every woman has the right to reach their own conclusions about whether lawmakers or county commissioners or township supervisors or school board members are executing their responsibilities correctly.

As your newspaper of record — and as your neighbors, your friends and family — we want everyone to have as much information as possible so that we each can exercise the freedom — the realization of which was another goal of the United States’ founding, perhaps the most important goal — to decide what we prioritize, what we value, what we disdain and what we cherish in deciding how we each will cast our votes.

Clear laws that hold governing bodies accountable for sharing the information that answers voters’ questions about their priorities and values are an instrumental part of ensuring our nation and our communities have that accountability to voters.

We hope our lawmakers and other elected officials can better understand the urgency of transparency and accountability in government.