Beginning of the Dark Ages for public records!

These words are not mine, they are a quote in a New York Times article. Here is the quote:

“When our humor gets black, we talk about this as a period of time that could be the Dark Ages for public records,” said Vicki Walch, the executive director of the Council of State Archivists. “Fifteen years on either side of the year 2000 is very dicey.”

The article also states,

An amalgam of recession-driven budget cuts and fast-moving technological changes could result in a black hole of government information whose impact might not be understood for decades. 

 I see this as a threat to our collective individual freedom. If we cannot obtain information about our governments' activities, we cannot remain a free people for long. Those who wish to foster oligarchies and dictatorships thrive on controlling the flow of information to the public. This is not just a challenge to genealogists finding their ancestors, but a challenge to our ability to hold our federal, state and local governments responsible for their actions.