Transparency is one of those words that stimulate me to consider why it is that it is so important. Then I consider that if the windows in our houses were not transparent, we would not be able to look outside. If a summer afternoon’s breeze was not transparent, we most likely would see a cloud or mist-like barrier separating us from others and from familiar sites. Yes, transparency is important, and the need and desire for it throughout the world go without saying.
In contrast to an increasing desire for transparency in governments and the desire for self-determination in many of the world’s countries, Americans have always wanted their governments, at whatever time in history, to be transparent. However, from a curious book, entitled I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not (1992) by Richard Shenkman, I learned a lot of things about our country that were not always transparent; things I never learned in any history books. For example, we now know that Jefferson may have slept with slaves. But do many of us know that Benjamin Franklin was promiscuous, John Adams was pompous, and Washington, though balanced, was not brilliant? On the contrary to one revelation, I think Washington was brilliant in overplaying the adversity at Valley Forge to obtain more aid and to fend off criticism from officials who thought the army should spend the winter fighting, according to Shenkman. And no doubt, you may guess, there are many revelations about our infant government.
Do most of us know that the Constitution was built on the premise that man is ambitious, vindictive, and greedy; that the founding fathers did not emphasize religion as a pillar of liberty; that the Constitutional Congress opened without a single public prayer; and that several of our first presidents refused to be concerned about prayers? These and other revelations are in Shenkman’s book, to include those that relate to the economic spasm America is now going through.
From other sources of information, I have always suspected that American business (big business) has always had a long history of asking help from the government - it certainly would be more comforting if historians, the government, the media, and other sources of supposed knowledge were more transparent about this. These sources could or could have informed the “average” citizen that business founders in the 1800’s chose to allow the government to directly take over essential businesses or lend them the money they needed; that the early farmer not only welcomed government aid but demanded it (the naturally suspicious farmer during the beginnings of our country came to recognize the importance of the government to successful agriculture); and that between 1865 and 1900, Americans suffered through more depressions and panics than at any other time in history - Shenkman does.
So why should we consider revelations made in Shenkman’s book? Well, by coincidence, according to June 7 national news, Sarah Palin claimed that Paul Revere warned the British of “well-armed Americans” and that they (the British) would not succeed. This info about Revere is more than likely true. However, Palin did not add that Revere never got the chance to make his warning ride before he was captured by the British (according to Shenkman).
Shenkman's book is not important in that it presents facts that may be known only by a minority of the population. Its importance is that it should make all of us consider the role transparency plays in local, state, and national government or in any organization supported by government. And it should not be that Americans don’t trust or love their government. It should be that government, like a loving parent, must be forthcoming in transmitting information essential to personal and economic freedom and the quest for the good life.
