Keep Asking Questions

In a democracy, we have the right to ask questions. In St. Augustine Beach, when citizens ask questions, there are answers. In St. Augustine Monday night, Commissioners apologized after Mayor Boles told a lady concerned about the mobile vender ordinance that she could not ask questions, only comment. The apology is appreciated. The practice of refusing to answer questions is contrary to the genius of a free people. Our Founders fought and died for hte right to question authority. Under former City Managers, questions were never answered, as with the hundreds of questions on Environmental Justice and illegal dumping. I was even excoriated by a former Mayor for asking too many questions. (I feel their pain: when I was a child, my mother had a rule: "No questions after 8 PM.") Questions were forbidden under Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Marvin Runyon (formerly of Nissan USA, later head of the U.S. Postal Service). Under TVA Chairman S. David Freeman, questions were allowed, and they were how journalists and activists learned the truth. Question authority. Question any authority who purports to ban questions. As Barry Farber always ended his radio broadcasts, "Keep asking questions."