March 6, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: Trust. Isn’t that the basis of the good life we enjoy? Think about it, without trust between individuals, groups and businesses, how else could we choose our friends, decide where to work and what we buy. In America trust has not been a problem because we have the freedom to make our own choices in our daily lives.
But what about trust in our public lives, in government? Polls tell us that we are rapidly losing it. How should we think about trust when we vote? Just keep in mind that we don’t simply elect candidates, we decide where to place our public trust.
The dime in my pocket tells me not to worry, just kick the trust question upstairs to the highest level. Good suggestion. It’s why I pray, but I’m still worried. I have friends and former colleagues who played by the rules and then found out that the rule book was thrown into a shredder on January 20.
That’s right, trust is fragile. The best definition I know comes from one who served in several key cabinet posts in Washington. George P. Schultz wrote, “Trust is the coin of the realm.”
And what happens when the realm, government, throws away that coin? Nothing good because fear creeps in. That’s why my dime tells me to bring God into the picture. If not, at least the Supreme Court. The constitutional issue of the day is where does political accountability lie in our government of separated powers, the legislative or the executive branch?
However, academic questions provide little solace for the U.S. government worker who comes to work in the morning and doesn’t know what the afternoon will bring. Trust has vanished, not just in Washington, D.C., but closer in Salem, at the Veterans Administration Hospital.
Dave, what do you tell those workers? That’s easy. Tell them to hang pictures of the president on all the office walls. It works in other countries with dictators. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
