Happy Fourth of July. Today is the 230th anniversary of America’s declaration of independence, an experiment in nation-building based on liberty and the daring notion that the authority to govern is bestowed by the governed.

It’s a work in progress, though. What Abraham Lincoln would later dub “government of the people, by the people and for the people” today puts way too much energy into keeping secrets from the people. It’s kind of hard to be an informed citizen without information.

Listed below, for your holiday weekend reading, are random examples of the lengths to which government officials routinely go to keep the public in the dark.

“A good place to start is a Western Washington citizen’s request for public documents related to Seattle’s proposed light-rail system. Rick Hangartner got much of what he asked, but the city withheld three documents under a provision that applies if there is a pending “controversy,” usually interpreted to mean a lawsuit. The project was controversial all right, which is why an engaged citizen was looking into it, but no litigation was pending. The Washington state Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the documents could be kept secret.

“Closer to home, when Spokane’s former public works director, Roger Flint, left his city job to go to work for an engineering firm that has dealings with the city, it appeared to conflict with the city’s new ethics code. Mayor Dennis Hession said it wasn’t applicable in Flint’s case, according to a city attorney’s opinion. If you want to see that opinion for yourself, you’re out of luck, because the city deems it “an attorney work product” and won’t let you see it.

“Under explicit Kootenai County policies, the e-mail messages exchanged between Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and former Juvenile Drug Court coordinator Marina Kalani were public records. In a lawsuit by The Spokesman-Review, which was looking into the collapse of the Drug Court program, a district court judge ruled the e-mails should be released, but they haven’t been pending Kalani’s appeal.

“Also in Idaho, the Legislature contends it has the right to close House and Senate committee meetings, the primary place where citizens can express their concerns in public about the shaping of state laws. The Idaho Press Club sued over the issue, with support from such organizations as the Idaho Conservation League, the League of Women Voters of Idaho and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho.

“A Spokesman-Review reporter recently was seeking a police report for a bike accident that injured a woman in Airway Heights last summer. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office had jurisdiction over the case, but for some reason the Spokane Police Department had the record. A clerk for the Police Department refused to release it, giving no reason, but referred the reporter to city attorney Rocky Treppiedi, who didn’t return her calls. The Sheriff’s Office’s public information officer finally agreed to read the report over the phone, but said he couldn’t release a record held by the Police Department. It turns out that the information authorities were guarding so closely was included in a press release that had been issued at the time of the accident.

“During a controversy over Bernard Malamud’s novel “The Natural,” the Central Valley School District’s instructional materials committee instructed the public, including a reporter and the woman who filed the complaint, to leave so the committee could discuss the issue and make a decision. After consulting with an attorney, the reporter returned. Her insistence that she had a right to attend prompted an apology from the superintendent, but the meeting was over and the decision had been made.

“This spring, a Spokane Police Department spokesman was about to respond to a request for several internal documents including manuals and information about internal complaints. But acting Chief Jim Nicks ordered a halt because he was angry at the newspaper over recent stories, including those about Otto Zehm (see below). Faced with the likelihood of a lawsuit, police finally turned over all the requested records.

“Speaking of Zehm, Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker won’t allow the release of a security video that could answer lingering questions about the impaired man’s death after a convenience store scuffle with several officers and two Taser jolts..

“Spokane police and City Hall are still resisting a request for unredacted Internal Affairs reports, which describe how the department handles misconduct charges against its officers. A request for the department’s Use of Force reports for 2001-2005, submitted on April 5, still hasn’t been filled.

“After 19 months, the Office of Naval Research still hasn’t provided an accounting of how much money the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle was paid to study thyroid cancer in children downwind of Chernobyl, a study with implications for Hanford downwinders in Eastern Washington.

“Reporters working on The Spokesman-Review’s investigation last year of former Mayor Jim West asked for the City Hall e-mails of attorney Treppiedi. Some finally were produced about a month ago, but many are still withheld.

“From Montrose, Colo.: A fired airport manager asked for a public hearing at which the county manager referred to a “diary” in which the reasons for discharge were outlined even though the airport manager’s personnel record was exemplary. Asked for the diary that was used at a public meeting to defend a public action, the county manager refused. Two courts ruled against him but he finally prevailed on appeal. The county manager later resigned and left town, with his diary.

These examples are presented in no particular order, and the list could go on indefinitely. Most deal with the difficulties encountered by reporters and other citizens who file paperwork for public records. It’s not just the foot dragging that’s troubling, it’s also the fact that so many public agencies even require the formality of a records request when they could simply share public information with the public when asked.

When will “of the people, by the people and for the people” be applied with the people? Let’s hope it doesn’t take four score and seven more years.