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• The state's Open Government Task Force will be submitting legislation during the 2013 Legislature aimed at improving access to information and to make more government documents available to the public. We don't believe the task force's recommendations go far enough, but it's a move in the right direction.
• The state's poor showing in Sunshine Review's transparency analysis is something that South Dakotans are familiar with but should not have to accept. The report shows that state and local governments still have a long way to go make it easier for citizens to get the information that they have a right to know.
• ___
• Aberdeen American News. Nov. 18, 2012
• Let's work to succeed, not secede
• A curious thing happened after the Nov. 6 elections.
• Thousands of Americans, unhappy with the results of the presidential election, have signed online petitions hoping to secede their states from the United States.
• The ultimate act of "taking your ball and going home," as it were.
• Usually after an election, some wingnuts (on the left and right) will declare, "I'm moving to Canada!" How many of them ever do it?
• Secession is three ticks more extreme than that.
• But not so extreme that your friends and neighbors won't sign their names to petitions on the whitehouse.gov website asking for South Dakota to be allowed to "peacefully" secede from the Union. Folks such as "Pamela R" from Ipswich, "Carol L J" from Rapid City, "Gene D" of Canton, "Dirk R" of Elk Point, "rebecca n" of Aberdeen and "Martin F" of Glenham, among several others, are apparently ready to update their passports and build a 12-foot fence around the state.
• Of the 6,100 or so signatures on South Dakota's petition, relatively few are from South Dakota. Not sure what it says about our state that thousands from around the country have signed a petition for us to secede?
• We can understand the frustration for those who feel the country is going down the wrong path. Now you know how the other half felt during eight years of George W. Bush. And recall how you might have felt during eight years of Bill Clinton and how many Americans felt during eight years of Ronald Reagan . . .
• We also understand the joke. These people aren't actually wanting to secede -- at least we hope not. But they are exercising their right to be heard, and that is a good thing.
• A better thing might be to recognize that the country has a way of righting its own ship and that most Americans want to live happily in the purple. Look deeper than the harsh map of red and blue states. Detailed county-by-county U.S. voting maps,

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