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According to the Oxford Dictionary, TRUST is defined as “a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” I’ve always been trusting, sometimes a little too much so, as I believe in the basic goodness of people. I value honesty, truth, and integrity, qualities encouraged by my family and friends.
Well, usually.
I didn’t trust my older brother as a child, mainly because he was mean to me. He hadn’t banked on a little princess usurping his role as the little prince of the household. He punched me in the stomach daily, teased me mercilessly, and when we got older he’d hold my head under water up at the cabin. That all changed when he became a teen and got interested in girls, and over time I developed trust in him. He’s become a man of integrity. (Thank goodness)
Integrity is an extension of honesty, combining it with strong moral principals— also known as ethics. My brother Steve has integrity, and I both admire and respect him for it.
I trust him.
I trust most people, and sometimes that amazes me.
Last week I drove 840 miles, and I had to trust hundreds—no, THOUSANDS of drivers to follow the rules of the road. There were a few jerks who took it upon themselves to whiz by and weave through the traffic at everyone’s peril, but we all managed to work together to keep from colliding. Now that’s TRUST.
It brings me to the point, though, that we can’t trust everyone. A 2019 poll by the Pew Research Center showed that Americans think their distrust of the federal government and each other is a problem that gets in the way of solving issues. Well, of course. 75 percent of Americans stated that their trust in the federal government has been shrinking. That’s a LOT, and I think much of that mistrust is based on the lies we’ve been fed. (64 percent felt they were losing trust in each other, a better lacking record than trust in government.)
I think we’re all frustrated with the lies and misinformation that abound in America today, and I’m even more disturbed to see that many people embrace these lies without checking out the facts. We have access to a wealth of information on the web, and we need to be discerning about what information we trust.
I make a point of checking out questionable news on Politifact.com, a Pulitzer Prize winning site run by editors and reporters at the Tampa Bay Times. I’ve also used snopes.com to check out shocking information in emails or on social media. Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s true. DUH!
I just learned recently about a film called “2000 Mules,” about voter fraud, so I checked it out on snopes.com . Snopes directed me to an AP article that stated “A film debuting in over 270 theaters across the United States this week uses a flawed analysis of cellphone location data and ballot drop box surveillance footage to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election nearly 18 months after it ended.” And that’s only the beginning.
Does “2000 Mules” lie or does the Associated Press lie? I’m putting my trust in the AP. What about you?
Google the article: FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot ‘mules’.
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