One of my journalistic heroes, Bob Johnson, died this weekend. From the news coverage, you can tell that he was a lot of things to a lot of people and had a truly remarkable career in print journalism. But for me, Mr. Johnson, who in his retirement years founded the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, was the distinct, booming voice on the phone who would reassure me, a young reporter at one small newspaper or another, that no, various public entities could most certainly not withold public documents from my newspaper. Then he would sit on the phone and patiently dictate a letter helping me cite just exactly what clause of the New Mexico Open Records Act made it illegal for me to be denied access. Those letters somehow always managed to convey both the facts and an undercurrent of deep moral outrage at the mere suggestion that the information in question could be witheld. That combination was rather effective, and a good majority of the time, the records would be handed over without much delay. But more importantly, I never got off the phone with Mr. Johnson without feeling more empowered, both as a reporter, and as a citizen. He is one of the people who helped me understand this very important truth: Your government works for you, and 99.9 percent of the time, you are fully entitled to know what it is is doing with its money, its policies, and its operations. Anyone who tells you differently is ill-informed or lying, but if you know your rights, you're a lot harder to fool.

So thank you, Mr. Johnson. You will be missed.