TRUST IS A FRAGILE THING
I have not written anything for a while. When I write here I like to do so in a kind of upbeat way. Even if I am frustrated by happenings in the world I try to temper my frustration with humor. However, I must confess to being in a kind of “funk” for several months.
It’s a trust issue and we seem to be in a drought.
I don’t know anyone who does not fear, at some level, the Internal Revenue Service. You do not have to have done anything wrong for them to make your life absolutely miserable. Not even the Internal Revenue Service fully understands its own rules, or the myriad of the often confusing, conflicting and convoluted interpretation of those rules.
Still, I always felt comforted by the fact that all of us could expect the same unfeeling, mean spirited and heartless treatment from the IRS. In other words I believed we would all be treated equally badly. Not any more.
It is now clear the Internal Revenue Service, along with the Judicial System, Environmental Protection Agency, Labor Department and virtually every other Government agency and department have become politicized and hopelessly corrupted by those in political power.
We can no longer expect fair and equal treatment from government at any level. We must change our political registration and affiliation to that of the current ruling party in the seat of government and hope for favored rulings due to our political party “loyalty”.
I no longer have any expectation that our political leaders will tell me the truth. Not to say there are not rare individuals who tell the truth, but they are lost in the crowd of the habitual purveyors of lies, half truths and “spin” that serve only at the twin altars of re-election and power.
What is the old saying? Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me twice, shame on me. To which I would add: “You have lied to me a thousand times, so do you really expect me to trust anything you say? Sorry, trust is a fragile thing. Trust must be earned and cannot be instilled by government fiat or Presidential executive order.”
Our political leaders remind me of a line from “The Sounds of Silence” written by Paul Simon: “And the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made”.
Not much in the way of humor to find in this. Only a kind of sorrow that we have corrupted a political system that once brought hope to so many.
Bob Bandy
