OPINION

Lies and dropped passes

Loss of trust

What do presidential lies, bureaucratic failures, broken vows and laws, national media failures and dropped passes have in common?

Each of them (and so much more) involves broken trust in today's America.

Of myriad serious problems facing our nation, the widespread loss of our trust in institutions, governments and, to a large degree each other, for me is the most serious because it affects all others, including the very fabric of our nation.

So many of us have grown mistrustful of so much for good reason after living with a culture of convenient dishonesty from the top of society downward.

What makes the situation so dire is this cultural shift into mistrust over such a relatively brief period has led us far away from honoring truth and trust through the looking glass into some bizarre world where trust be damned as long as an objective is achieved by any means. I call this using the "nuclear option" on our trustworthiness.

The most tragic part is those destroying trust don't seem to care if others no longer believe in their words or actions. I'm having trouble figuring out whether I'm more disgusted or angered by this national decline. It's probably both equally.

Many of you clearly feel likewise over misplacing our trust in the naive hope that inherent human goodness ultimately outweighs selfish and evil intentions. Yet I'm witnessing just the opposite as trust is openly violated on every front from courtrooms to intelligence agencies and relationships in general.

It's also a mistake to limit trust lost to only governments and institutions. This complex scourge unfortunately exists in various forms.

I'm not being cynical as much as realistic about the country we've allowed and accepted today. This column in some ways is similar to earlier ones in which I've lamented the damaging loss of integrity and character across society. That's to be expected, since those qualities overlap with that of fragile trust.

A single lie told in seconds can severely damage or ruin trust that required years to forge. Falsehoods inevitably sow seeds of doubt. When one's dishonest actions contradict words, we can no longer trust in the words of the one spreading the dishonesty. Although it's unfair, mistrust affects our larger perspective, hence the expression, "I no longer believe in anything because I once believed in you."

Far too many of those we elect, appoint and trust to live up to their promises and lead us with integrity wind up betraying that trust without a bit of concern.

There are so many ways and forms of losing trust. Someone who proves himself unreliable, regardless of whether his pattern is intended, also risks losing trust in himself and others' trust in him. As a coach, I wouldn't trust the receiver who drops more than half his passes to be the go-to player for the winning touchdown or put a 30 percent free-throw shooter at the line with the outcome at stake.

We rely on this quality we call trust for our very survival from the moment of our initial breath. There's no choice but to trust in care and nurturing to sustain our life. We learn to trust those who prove themselves worthy, and distrust the ones who may know the right words but whose actions fail to match up.

Even many in whom we come to place our fullest trust can violate it due to ever-changing circumstances that life hands us all. The need to trust is an inherent part of our spirit that yearns to be validated on the deepest of personal levels and well beyond.

Being fed and accepting false information (some intentionally planted to divide us) as purported truth also can make many of us appear untrustworthy when we choose to either act on or pass along those falsehoods.

This matter of trustworthiness, like gravity, profoundly affects you and me, whether we choose to admit it or not.

Most of us naturally want to trust that our elected leaders are acting in society's best interests rather than their own. We'd like to trust they are spending our tax dollars efficiently and effectively and making and enforcing reasonable laws intended to enhance our lives together.

So when we find these people making decisions and taking actions that run contrary to such expectations, our trust is shaken, even lost, never to be regained.

I'm thinking specifically of those legislators (and judges and public servants) who put their greed and material comforts above the public good. I'm thinking of national elected leaders who promise the people something favorable to us all, yet shatter trust by delivering something far different.

I'm thinking of a state government and its agencies acting behind public eyes to cater to special interests over the greater welfare of our overall population.

This quality truly is an inherent part of our spirits that binds us as friends, couples, families and a nation. United we stand, divided by mistrust we fall.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 03/12/2017

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