The New York Times: Soldier's Family Set in Motion Chain of Events on Disclosure

For those of you keeping score, here's the essence of what's important here:

He knew whom to turn to: David Hackworth, a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on the military establishment. Mr. Lawson sent an e-mail message in March to Mr. Hackworth's Web site and got a call back from an associate there in minutes, he said.

...The irony, Mr. Lawson said, is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about the case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted Mr. Hackworth's Web site out of frustration, leading him to cooperate with a consultant for "60 Minutes II."

Can this get any more clear? The government is fatally unresponsive, and unless our elected officials get their act together 21st-Century style, the Emerging Public will continue to route around them.