State leaders muzzle Floridians who want to speak out

Floridians, take notice. Your right to a representative government is being stolen away. Recent headlines document angry eruptions among an audience of people who show up to meetings ready to tell their leaders what they think — only to be muzzled by time limits that shut down somewould-be participants before they could utter a single word. More often, however, the exclusion is happening quietly and secretly, in meetings that never take place. Closed doors that should be open. A row of empty seats on a dais, facing a roomful of chairs that are also empty. The result, however, is the same: The ...