23 March—This morning’s screed was originally intended to be about Connecticut’s long-term trash disposal travesty. What started life in 1973 as the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA) miraculously morphed in 2014 into the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA). Same old politically appointed incompetence with a new name. We see a lot of that in Connecticut. But “materials innovation”?

But something came up late yesterday that must preempt that specific screed while sticking to the subject of trash.

At the top of the sidebar on your computer screen—or perhaps you’ve scrolled past it on your phone—is the notice of the freedom of information workshop at the Litchfield borough hall tonight. Well, yesterday the borough’s acting warden let it be known that the workshop will be closed to the public. Yes, you can believe it.

Here’s her email:

“Mr. Rosenberg:

“The meeting is closed to the public. I am sorry. If you show up, you will be turned away. This is not a training session for the public.

“Gayle”

Gee, I used to be Paul. No matter, she’s still Gayle to me. But I refuse to run with a pun on an ill wind.

You’ll recall that Senior Burgess and Acting Warden Gayle Carr is the very person who led the charge of the uptight brigade (a.k.a. the BOLBOWAB), flagrantly flouting the First Amendment by tearing yellow ribbons off trees on the Green. You won’t recall that the uptight brigade then paid a cooperative mouthpiece $1,400 of hard-pressed taxpayer money to defend their unlawful behavior.

And now this unlawful insult piled on the previous and pending unlawful insult. Well, I assured Gayle that I fully intend to show up, along with others interested in learning more about making the most of the Freedom of Information Act. Evidently the BOLBOWAB and its equally outrageous and autocratic Hysteric District Commission want to reverse engineer the FOIA in order to keep the public in the dark about their nefarious dealings.

So do drop by the borough hall at 28 Russell Street a bit before 6:30 this evening to get a fine education in FOI law and procedure from Tom Hennick, who’s been doing his marvelous thing for two decades. Or to be turned away . . .