Trust is an essential factor in relationships. We learn that from the moment that our parents take us in their arms. They are expressing love. That loving care is the foundation for trust we extend to our mothers and fathers. The people holding us are taking care of us. We learn to trust them.
Then life goes on and we continue to learn who we can trust and who we can’t. The former are easy to identify. They’re the ones that tell us true things and act in ways that show they have our best interests in mind. The latter are those who lie and hurt us with their words and actions. We soon learn who is untrustworthy.
As we grow, we learn fairly quickly how to identify trustworthiness and who should be kept at arm’s length. Complicating that process is the relative importance of people and institutions that we should trust by reputation, but then discover they do not deserve our trust.
It begins with people who say they will do one thing and then do not. Just about everyone has a memory of a person whom they trusted that eventually showed themselves unworthy of that trust. That might be a friend who lied to you or took advantage of your trust to advance their own selfish goals or desires. That causes hurt feelings. But more importantly, it results in wisdom; a more realistic view of humanity that is unpleasant. People lie. They steal. They cheat. They are dishonest. Trust doesn’t blossom in relationships when those behaviors predominate. And the converse is important too. When people are truthful, resist coveting the possessions of others, or act fairly, they inspire trust. As learning creatures, knowing how to trust others is an acquired skill that requires unobstructed observations within a frame of reference that distinguishes between good and evil. This is the discerning of sin (that word no one likes to acknowledge, especially the untrustworthy.)
Institutions fail the trust test when they proclaim this or that and then fail to deliver it. When a school or university says they will help you learn a skill or body of knowledge, but when you graduate you discover yourself ill-prepared, trust is damaged. When a business says they will sell you reliable things and then doesn’t, trust is upended. When a health provider gives you advice that doesn’t make you well, trust is sacrificed. When the company that promises to take care of your benefits doesn’t, trust is destroyed.
Trust is like a crystal-cut glass. It’s a beautiful thing to behold. Held up to the light, crystal-cut glass is brilliant. It distinguishes itself from other cut glass by its deep and sharp cuts, which reflect the light. It shines. But once dropped and shattered, it’s no better than a cheap glass bottle broken on the floor. Crystal requires careful handling. So does trust.
And for that reason, many of us in America today deeply worry about whether or not we can trust our government.
When the IRS investigates people and institutions based on their ideology or world view as opposed to whether they are simply complying with the law, trust is destroyed.
When the top leadership in the FBI, CIA, the Justice Department, and other law enforcement agencies allow political bias to influence investigations and prosecutions, trust is upended.
When judges sit in judgment of people to whom they have expressed repugnance through their acts and words, trust is eviscerated.
When the government is more generous to people who entered the country illegally than those who have devoted themselves to life-long respect for the rule of law, trust is shattered.
When government bureaucrats act more like satraps than servants toward you, trust is unhinged.
When the government presumes you are dishonest when you seek its help, trust is discarded.
When your leaders tell you that a horribly failed military operation was a “complete success” and you know with your own eyes that such is not the case, trust is sacrificed.
When your leaders proclaim that they are responding to a natural disaster that took everything you have while declaring that a priority element of emergency management is the installation of equity, trust is eroded.
When our leaders wrongly tell us that our Founders were evil, trust is mocked.
Yes America, we have a trust problem that goes far beyond the government knaves and institutions that do not treat us fairly and justly. We have a deficit of trust that rivals the budget deficit our Congress and President have created with a federal debt that threatens our future. We can trust them no more than anyone else who lies, steals, or cheats.
In four weeks, many of us will go to the polls to elect a government. Will it be one we can trust?
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