Dear Editor,
The recent guest column by Secretary John R. Farris of the Kentucky Administration Cabinet, excusing the blocking of Web sites in order to increase productivity, was a smokescreen. The Concerned Members of the Kentucky Historical Society know better. Their Web site was blocked from state computers long before the current brouhaha over blocking political blogs occurred.
The blocking of the Concerned Members' Web site followed their Open Records Act request for membership roles of the Kentucky Historical Society, for the purpose of electing officers. The Historical Society, a state agency of the Commerce Cabinet, denied its members access to the roles. When the Concerned Members obtained a favorable ruling from the Attorney General's office, the Kentucky Historical Society took the extraordinary step of suing its own members to completely quash disclosure. Before the suit was filed, access to the Web site of the Concerned Members was blocked from state computers. The blocking by the state was nothing more than a raw exercise in strong-arming its citizens.
