Hope and Trust

What I hope for is dependent on what I trust.


This is a basic reality of life. I can only hope for things to happen in a surrounding of what I trust in. Such things as stability, availability of life sustaining elements – food, water, family, friends, shelter, clothing, transportation, social network, economic structures. Oh, and government authority providing order and structure. Yes, order and structure, like schools, courts, libraries, park districts, local authorities such as police, fire and health institutions.


As a citizen I give up some authority to public institutions. These are government entities. They develop expertise and protocols that provide the excellence and professionalism needed to serve the public well. The rank and file employees are hardworking and competent to perform their jobs. They take pride in doing that. We see this easily in local governments. Park Districts, Library, Fire Districts, and a host of others including the local town or city government with all of its operating units – police, streets and sanitation, water/sewer, public works, etc.


Trust in these entities is not automatic, of course. The public retains control of these entities by way of the ballot box. In the main, however, we get what we need because enough citizens pay attention and keep government accountable.


Larger government units for county, state and nation are further removed from us, and more trust is needed because of that distance. A free press helps us know what is going on with those units of government, and when issues arise, transparency of data and accountability help us know if government is functioning as it ought. Trust is thus maintained, or not.


Trust is the foundation for hope. To have hope, means we understand not only where we are, but where we want and need to go. To get there we must have stable social institutions – whether public or private – to partner with our expectations. And hopes.


Even though we are in pandemic mode, we are also in strong government authority mode. Most of us trust our government units. We see them struggling with difficult issues and making the best of it for our safety. We understand the sacrifices we are being asked to make. Tough decisions, tough actions, high sacrifice. On all of us. We chaff at the circumstances, but we understand them. And we cooperate. We survive.


There are those who do not trust. They react to authority that is not theirs to do. They struggle to regain authority and control. They cite the constitutions – national and state – and look for the authority that gives them rights to protest and complain.


Although they survive, too, they create a barrier to common success of what needs to be done for all of us to survive long-term. They don’t see this. They don’t understand this. They feel smothered and wronged.


I wonder if they feel hope? How can they when they don’t trust?


I’ve been pondering this for some time now. I trust and am part of the solution to our common predicament. I am not a lamb following the mob to slaughter. I am an independent citizen finding and supporting community to help it survive and thrive in better times.


I believe those will come. I trust they will arrive. I hope for them.

Do you?


May 11, 2020