To the Editor:

Re “Presidential Stone Walls” (editorial, June 17):

George W. Bush volunteered for public office with all its conditions and ramifications when he decided to run for president. And having won not once, but twice, the most coveted public office our country has to offer, he is now denying public access to his records and wants to turn his presidential years into a private, as opposed to a public, tenure.

Mr. Bush and his administration have made such a colossal mess in so many areas that it’s no small wonder that he wants to keep the administration’s records private. But that’s exactly why we, the people, along with historians and future administrations need access.

The country must know how so many bad decisions were made. What was the process? Who gave advice? Who, if anyone, spoke out against it? Was President Bush, as “the decider,” incapable of heeding any opinions that opposed an already made-up mind?

This administration’s documents need to see the light of day, if for no other reason than to recognize that those who do not heed the lessons of history are destined to repeat them.

We as a country can’t afford to repeat the Bush administration’s mistakes.

Robert Brandes
Fredericksburg, Tex., June 19, 2007

Note from KBJ: You don’t have to be a Bush hater or a progressive ideologue to agree with The New York Times on this one. Presidential papers should not be accessible to the public during a president’s term of office, especially during this era of ambush journalism. But within a dozen or so years of a president’s departure from office, they should be unsealed.