Comment by _DeadFred_ 5 days ago
If you give the government tools for hiding information, the government will abuse those tools. This is what freedom looks like. I have family members in this dataset, and they would be fine with it because they would pick freedom and this is what freedom has to look like.
The founding fathers understood freedom needs public accountability. That includes how government decisions are made and how public funds are used, including at the VA. The founding fathers believed a well-informed citizenry was vital to a free society.
FOIA deters misconduct, corruption, and waste. Even in this context, doctors diagnosis/judgement of service members has come up for discussion.
A free society empowers the public, which is exactly what this information does.
Transparency fosters trust. When we can look inside institutions we are more likely to trust them. For the VA, that means looking at the treatments they are providing and how they are treating those they are supposed to serve. The VA has historically had very low public/veteran trust.
Access to information such as this fosters relevant discussions and debate. Especially for an entity like the VA which receive virtually all of it's funding from the government and needs to constantly (sadly) resell the public on the necesity of it's budget.
Were the VA (whose purpose is medical care of our veterans and is almost exclusively funded by us the taxpayers) to restrict access to... information about medical care to our veterans would be a huge issue for a free society.
My position is not deviant, extremist, nor alien to the concept/definition of the burdens/requirements of freedom promoted by the founding fathers.
You labeled me deviant and extremist, I replied with why I held my position. I think I deserve at least a reply after you made such a grose comment.
That’s your deviant, extremist definition of freedom. It aligns neither with the founding father’s definition nor what a typical person would say if asked to define freedom.