Trust

We talk a lot about trust in this country. You can't have a good relationship without it. Yes, you can have a relationship without trust, but it won't be a very good one. A lot of us don't trust our government right now, so today I'd like to share with you my favorite quote from The Federalist Papers,written by three of our founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, it says, "If men we're angels, there would be no need for government."

If you don't trust anything else, you can trust that statement. It's a fact. We need government.

We need school systems and police forces. The postal service is fast becoming obsolete, however. I'm not really going to miss one less day of bills and junk mail when they cut out mail delivery one day a week. Maybe there are some other places we could make adjustments to help offset the expenses of paying people to do all those other jobs.

We need government because we are not angels. People have beeen taking advantage of other people since the beginning of time. We're not born trustworthy, it's something we have to become.

People we don't trust, we don't usually want to vote for. People who sling mud in campaign commercials can't be trusted. They're gossips. Gossips can't be trusted. They can't keep a secret. They ruin reputations. They're mean. There's more to being trustworthy than just telling the truth.

By definition, gossip is what you do any time you say anything bad about anyone. It doesn't matter if it's true. It's still gossip. Rumors are not true. Gossip and rumors are not the same thing. Spreading rumors is a second form of gossip. There is more than one kind. People who gossip are using bad manners.

Barack Obama didn't sling a lot of mud. That made him the most trustworthy candidate for president we've seen in some time. His election proved that if you want people to get out and vote, then you have to give them someone they want to vote for.

We complain about all the campaign promises that politicians don't keep, but we do the same thing. We tell our kids we'll do things we don't ever get around to doing. We promise to fix things around the house that don't get fixed.

Perhaps we don't trust politicians because we can't trust ourselves. We can't be trusted. We gossip. We sling mud. We don't keep our word. If we want trustworthy politicians, then we have to be trustworthy people. It's okay that none of us were born trustworthy. It gives all of us something in common to aspire to.

Our government is made up of the people. Our government is run by the people. Our government works for the people. We are the people. Whatever is wrong with our government is wrong with us.

Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

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