Let's observe Sunshine Week March 13-19

It's time to plan your observance of Sunshine Week, the annual event that reminds Americans of the virtue of open government, citizen access and oversight, and journalists' role in keeping citizens informed about their governments. Today we saw a new way to make readers, listeners and viewers remember it.

"It may be just a coincidence but the combination is apropos: Sunshine Week begins Sunday, March 13, the same day that Daylight Saving Time returns," the Arkansas Publishers Association notes in its latest Arkansas Publisher Weekly. Perhaps Sunshine Week could be promoted in conjunction with the annual reminder to move clocks forward.

Sunshine Week has coincided with the start of DST since a change in the federal time law a few years ago. The week has been built around national Freedom of Information Day, March 16, the birthday of James Madison, our fourth president and author of the First Amendment.

Promotional materials for Sunshine Week are donwnloadable at http://www.sunshineweek.org/. They include logos, editorial cartoons, other graphics and op-ed pieces on freedom of information and open government.