But in their role as public servants we put our faith and trust in the fact that they strive to perform honestly and honorably, within the laws of the United States of America and for the good of the people they represent.
We have placed our faith in them and they in turn owe us their best effort to be our voice in government. Their power is drawn from our faith and key to maintaining our faith is what we believe they are doing.
This is where all types of faith share a common element. There isn't a way to measure faith by a yard stick or a scale; it is an emotional quality we hold within.
It is made stronger or destroyed by the words and deeds we use to measure that concept or institution or individual in which we are asked to put our trust.
How we learn where to put that trust rests heavily on both personal experience and what we come to accept as truth. Very often the quote used to express the problem with beliefs is Mark Twain's, "It ain't so much the things we know that get us into trouble. It's the things we know that just ain't so." In many ways faith is like that.
We the people of America have put our faith in our government, Democrats, Republicans and a few at either end and in between. They have failed us and betrayed our faith. There was a headlining article this week counting the number of lies that President Bush and the Administration officials told in the lead up to the Iraq War.
For some it's about time we had statistical confirmation, this comes a no surprise. Others may be shocked and for some it remains a point of baseless attack, by critics with larger aims. The extent to which we are willing to accept that is the degree to which we have faith in the sources that have given us the information.
Among the most extreme critics of the Bush Administration the littlest hint at evidence is enough and at the polar opposite are those who may never have enough fact to unsettle their belief. In large measure, each side draws its belief from faith in the American media to report honestly about our politicians and what they do that we haven't had the ability to investigate on our own before the Internet age.
Though I am as staunch a critic of this Administration as anyone, it isn't totally fair that there is a factor of transparency and level of scrutiny from public participation in news that none of George W. Bush's predecessors faced. In some ways this frat boy with the silver spoon got more than he bargained for; he stepped into a role that has for very long protected a far wider and more insidious threat to American Democracy.
That threat is our faith in the representatives in Washington to devote themselves to the public service as they have sworn to do. While each one has laid a hand on the Bible and taken an oath to defend the Constitution and government which it frames, they have looked the other way as our financial security has evaporated.
They have let our men and women in uniform come home without limbs to a fetid and decaying Veterans Administration facilities like Walter Reed, bled dry by private contractor IAP Worldwide, with former VP Dan Quayle and other insiders cashing in on the Board. Meanwhile 200,000 of uniformed service members are left homeless. We reward those who glad hand and shuffle paper for their own benefit and penalize or abandon those who fight for our rights.
When Wall Street suffers from its own excess and the reckless actions come due in a collapse of inflated values, suddenly Washington finds the motivation, instantly to act as one. The last time there was this much unity was the Congressional pay raise and this is the exact same thing.
It is not the usurious lending rates, duplicitous contracts or foreclosures, but the pain of the financial sector that the Washington power circle winces for. They cry for themselves, not those who have nothing but their hearts and souls to give for the country we love. On the surface there may seem to be differences between the parties, and the Clinton Bush values, but so much is opinion and talk about what might be not the record of what is done. Follow the money and that will tell you who is really supporting whom.
We as a country continue to have faith in them out of ignorance and deception that is like honor among thieves between the corporate servants in the Capitol and their counterparts reporting. As you feel your anger or frustration or desire for fundamental change grow inside you, remember their power comes from the dollars in your wallet.
Every time you see one in your hand, remember that there is a transfer of power possible and think what it is you're giving that power to. Know in no uncertain terms they hear you loud and clear when you vote your dollars. Put your faith back in your neighbors, your small and local businesses, your community agriculture and yourselves.
None of us can do everything and it isn't all or nothing, but every vote we make for change brings us closer to reminding Washington who really holds the power, in a language they can understand. It is in ourselves we need and deserve to have faith and bet your bottom dollar flex that power and they will tow the line.
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