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COMMENTARY

Eddie Roth: Roundtable discussion revealed common interests

By Eddie Roth

Dayton Daily News

Chalk one up for sweet reason. Twenty or so people with sharply differing opinions on a hot-button issue got together and hashed it out.

They didn't call one another names. They didn't raise their voices. They didn't roll their eyes, or make faces when others were speaking.

They listened. No one changed anyone else's mind, at least on any fundamental position. But all left with a much better understanding of why everyone feels the way they do.

They respectfully disagreed. And the respect was genuine — for the participants' sincerity and the thoughtfulness of their points of view.

The occasion was a forum held earlier this month at Sinclair Community College. People interested in press freedom, government accountability, public safety and Ohio's recently enacted concealed-weapons law were pulled together and asked, "Should permits to carry concealed weapons be open to the public?"

There was immediate consensus on one issue: The media shouldn't have special access to such information, no rights greater than what the general public receives. No one was more outspoken in support of this principle than the media representatives themselves.

People at the table, though, were split on just about everything else. Divisions were based on how each weighed the importance of personal privacy and open government under the circumstances.

Open-government advocates argued that the public must be able to ensure officials act responsibly when granting permits. Access to public records is a proven way to do so, they said.

The permit holders' names could be checked against lists of people ineligible under the law, such as criminal convicts, and parties against whom protective orders have been issued in domestic violence cases. Some participants said they would feel safer if they could, should the need arise, check public records to see if neighbors, workmates or others with whom they come in contact are allowed to carry a concealed weapon.

Others staunchly argued that personal privacy is paramount, indeed, that permit holders' safety could be compromised if their identities are widely publicized. They challenged the open-government advocates to offer any evidence of careless practices in granting permits, in Ohio or elsewhere, that justifies disclosing the names of everyone with a permit.

I come down on the open-government side, but was impressed with what the privacy proponents had to say. More exciting was how the roundtable participants had so much in common, and how effectively they, as a group, might advocate for privacy and government accountability — both fundamental values in a free society.

The gun law presents a fairly close question. But much of what lawmakers allow — and ignore — does not.

Congress, for example, permits affiliated companies in the financial services and insurance industries (both huge political contributors) to pass around private consumer information with impunity. Marketing firms are free to develop and sell citizen profiles that reveal information most people consider to be confidential — all with little or no public oversight.

The Ohio General Assembly has worked overtime to try and close records relating to public safety and consumer protection. Information revealing whether home mortgage lenders are taking advantage of the public, for example, is put off-limits. Potential environmental and public health threats are kept undercover by laws that characterize them as "trade secrets" and "homeland security" risks.

The examples are many, and I would wager that if the group that attended the gun law roundtable came together and used the same high analytical standards to review federal and state lawmakers' general performance on privacy and accountability, there wouldn't be much debate. On most matters, the group would be united — in their disgust, and passion for reform.

Eddie Roth is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News. His telephone number is 225-2383; his e-mail address is eroth@DaytonDailyNews.com.