Two years ago, on a night much like tonight, I was at the state capitol. It was the last night of the legislative session, and lawmakers were either hard at work or eating dinner.

I was standing outside holding a sign and singing “This Little Light of Mine” with hundreds of other people — my sister, hippies, grandparents, college students, Tim DeChristopher, bloggers, people who wanted to know what their government was doing. We were all there for one reason — to fight for open government and the sanctity of the state’s Government Records Access and Management Act.

Two years ago, if you remember, the Legislature passed H.B. 477, run by now-state auditor John Dougall, a law that politely informed Utah residents that what their government was doing was not really any of our business unless government leaders opted to make it that way. The Legislature introduced it, passed it and the governor signed it in roughly the same amount of time as I spend filling out my March Madness bracket.

After ignominiously repealing the law two weeks later, the Legislature blamed the media for the brouhaha. They seemed to feel it was a violation of journalistic integrity to fight for the ability to properly do our job — that job being acting as a watchdog against the government.

The people won that battle. But the war for open government is still very much ongoing.

Government has a tendency to lean toward closed dealings. This is true at all levels. And there are valid arguments to keep aspects of government secret. Lawmakers may be more willing to share their opinions if those opinions aren’t going to be broadcast. There are situations that need to be treated delicately. Constituents come to their lawmakers with personal issues that they would rather not be available for public perusal. The Constitution was drafted in secret meetings; although many decried the process, the participants determined the open dialogue that came with secrecy was more important than the public being able to sit in the gallery and watch.

Closed government is not always malicious or even intentionally secretive; it is simply easier and less messy. On the flip side, it can be used to hide wrongdoing, protect someone, pass a bad law or avoid being held accountable. Either way, government is better when it is difficult, inefficient, angry and open. That is the whole purpose of the representative democratic republic we’ve got going on in this country. Democratic ideals require open government, and open government should always be the default.

And the responsibility for open government rests on two groups: the government and the people.

Do you know why H.B. 477 was passed, despite the immediate public outcry? Legislators never thought people would react as vehemently as they did, largely, I am sure, because they never thought people cared about access to government because history hadn’t demonstrated that much desire for access to government. Many Utahns may not have been aware of GRAMA until she was on life support. We need to demand open government at all levels. What happens on your school board and city council is every bit as critical, if not more so, than what happens in Salt Lake City and Washington. Know your rights. Exercise them. Find out what your government is doing. Participate.

Numerous news outlets have reported that in the last year, the Obama Administration has denied more Freedom of Information requests for security reasons than any other time in Obama’s presidency. There may be legitimate reasons for those, but denial on security reasons should be an exception, not a precedent. Government employees should not be looking for reasons to close records. Elected officials should know — how is this not a given? — that when you’re doing your job, using taxpayer-funded computers and phones, talking taxpayer business, that communication is open to the taxpayers. And they should know that every time the ruling party goes into a closed caucus meeting for hours on end and comes out with a decision, we all wonder what happened in there.

Demanding open government works. In 2012, the Daily Herald received hundreds of documents from cities and school districts regarding how decisions were made, evidence behind the controversy involving a popular football coach, financial statements and more. We used GRAMA to find out that people were tracking down information on two former state legislators opposed to Orrin Hatch’s re-election and to get the decade-old police record of a sexual assault committed by a Secret Service agent in Provo. We didn’t always get what we were seeking, as information-gathering goes, but we, along with other news organizations, bloggers, researchers and residents put the government on notice — we have the right to know what’s going on.

And there’s a reason for that. In an unnamed square on the central street of Berlin there is window in the ground. This window, about four feet by four feet, is atop a small room filled with starkly white, empty shelves. It is to remind the world of Kristallnacht, the night the Nazis burned books and attacked hundreds of Jewish businesses, homes, synagogues and people. It is the night the world was put on notice about what Hitler was doing.

Closed governments burn books, intimidate thinkers, squelch dissent and destroy people. Closed governments happen because the people allow it.

Happy Sunshine Week!

• Follow Heidi Toth on Twitter @leftinutah. For more information on Sunshine Week, go to sunshineweek.org.