In A Word: Trust
Gerald Eisman
April 03, 2006
Trust: Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. The condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in one:
We place a great premium on trust not only in our everyday lives, but also in our expectations for the future. Upon arising every morning we trust that our day will progress smoothly, bringing a degree of comfort, pleasure, and success to our activities. We set out to accomplish something meaningful for our lives even if that meaning is merely to earn our daily stipend at work.
For those of us with significant others (wives, sweethearts, domestic partners), business partners, working associates etc, we trust that they will perform their roles in our lives as they trust us to perform ours in theirs. Everything we do is predicated on what someone else will do thus creating a symbiotic relationship that benefits each other. In short, we trust each other to do what's right.
Out trust expands beyond personal relationships, however. It extends to those who have some influence over us or the way we live no matter how many times removed from direct contact they may be. It is here that trust is at its most vulnerable since we have no ability to control circumstances. At this point our trust can be considered preternatural.
Take, for example, lobbyists and the influence they exert over our lives. We trust they will exert positive influences over our lawmakers so we, as individual members of the American society, will derive benefit from their actions. Then, this: Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation, pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress.
Evidence against members of Congress – men and women in whom we have placed the ultimate trust by electing them to represent our best interests in our lives. Men and women who should, by all accounts, be the most trustworthy.
Alice S. Fisher, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said this, speaking at a news conference with other high-ranking officials of the IRS and the FBI. "The corruption scheme with Mr. Abramoff is very extensive. We're going to follow this wherever it goes." In this instance, trust is severely damaged concerning lobbyists and will be sorely tested by the investigation.
Then, following that development, this fact emerged. Tony C. Rudy, a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients, as a burgeoning corruption probe took one step closer to members of Congress. This man, Rudy, was a trusted member of Tom DeLay's staff, an elected official of congress in whom many people placed ultimate trust.
Rudy's plea directly followed guilty pleas from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, and from Abramoff himself. For the first time, however, a participant in the skullduggery has admitted to committing illegal acts while working with members of the Republican leadership of the House. These are all men in whom we placed our trust, albeit second handed, except in DeLay's case.
On another front, we, the people of the United States, allowed vast sums of our hard earned tax dollars to be spent for the beginning of reconstruction of a country that we personally devastated in the name of liberation. We trusted the administration to dispense the funds wisely and to create a new and vastly improved social system for the benefit of the people of that nation. Our reward for the trust was this.
A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money. After two years of planning and construction, roughly $200 million of our tax dollars have been spent and no more than 20 clinics are now expected to be completed, this according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. How did the monies we entrusted to the government get so misspent?
When we invest our hopes and beliefs in others, the major element we rely on is trust. It is unfortunate that our trust is so often trampled, but when done so by elected officials or those working for them, the results are horrendous. The time has come for Americans to demand complete and constant overseeing of those entrusted with our money and all other activities that affect our lives.
We place a great premium on trust not only in our everyday lives, but also in our expectations for the future. Upon arising every morning we trust that our day will progress smoothly, bringing a degree of comfort, pleasure, and success to our activities. We set out to accomplish something meaningful for our lives even if that meaning is merely to earn our daily stipend at work.
For those of us with significant others (wives, sweethearts, domestic partners), business partners, working associates etc, we trust that they will perform their roles in our lives as they trust us to perform ours in theirs. Everything we do is predicated on what someone else will do thus creating a symbiotic relationship that benefits each other. In short, we trust each other to do what's right.
Out trust expands beyond personal relationships, however. It extends to those who have some influence over us or the way we live no matter how many times removed from direct contact they may be. It is here that trust is at its most vulnerable since we have no ability to control circumstances. At this point our trust can be considered preternatural.
Take, for example, lobbyists and the influence they exert over our lives. We trust they will exert positive influences over our lawmakers so we, as individual members of the American society, will derive benefit from their actions. Then, this: Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation, pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress.
Evidence against members of Congress – men and women in whom we have placed the ultimate trust by electing them to represent our best interests in our lives. Men and women who should, by all accounts, be the most trustworthy.
Alice S. Fisher, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said this, speaking at a news conference with other high-ranking officials of the IRS and the FBI. "The corruption scheme with Mr. Abramoff is very extensive. We're going to follow this wherever it goes." In this instance, trust is severely damaged concerning lobbyists and will be sorely tested by the investigation.
Then, following that development, this fact emerged. Tony C. Rudy, a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients, as a burgeoning corruption probe took one step closer to members of Congress. This man, Rudy, was a trusted member of Tom DeLay's staff, an elected official of congress in whom many people placed ultimate trust.
Rudy's plea directly followed guilty pleas from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, and from Abramoff himself. For the first time, however, a participant in the skullduggery has admitted to committing illegal acts while working with members of the Republican leadership of the House. These are all men in whom we placed our trust, albeit second handed, except in DeLay's case.
On another front, we, the people of the United States, allowed vast sums of our hard earned tax dollars to be spent for the beginning of reconstruction of a country that we personally devastated in the name of liberation. We trusted the administration to dispense the funds wisely and to create a new and vastly improved social system for the benefit of the people of that nation. Our reward for the trust was this.
A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money. After two years of planning and construction, roughly $200 million of our tax dollars have been spent and no more than 20 clinics are now expected to be completed, this according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. How did the monies we entrusted to the government get so misspent?
When we invest our hopes and beliefs in others, the major element we rely on is trust. It is unfortunate that our trust is so often trampled, but when done so by elected officials or those working for them, the results are horrendous. The time has come for Americans to demand complete and constant overseeing of those entrusted with our money and all other activities that affect our lives.
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