Trust

Trust
by Ted Lang, Associate Editor

September 6, 2002

Columnist Ted Lang There comes a time when an individual must regain a good reputation by admitting to dishonesty or to having lied. It is an act that permits one to "come clean." It must be understood, however, that reputation is extremely hard to build and easily tarnished or destroyed.

Once an individual has been caught being dishonest or lying, people dealing with that individual always ask themselves the question: Is he lying now, or was he lying previously, or does he always lie? This is why, even when a person "comes clean," it is so hard for people to trust such an individual ever again.

"Coming clean," means to admit that one is wrong, and one can be wrong one of two ways: first, an individual can plan and carry out a dishonest act or lie; and secondly, an individual can make a mistake in judgment that results in some negative outcome. Clearly, this is the difference between conscious, deliberate wrongdoing, and making an "honest mistake."

But if there is such a thing as an "honest mistake," then the question begged is: What constitutes a "dishonest mistake?" Obviously, a "dishonest mistake" is where an individual should have "known better," given the circumstances at the time involving the judgment used, where any reasonably prudent, sensible individual would never have executed and carried out such bad judgment. In short, a dishonest mistake comes very close to being a deliberate, wrongful act.

The admission of wrongdoing, whether deliberate or an honest mistake, usually carries with it some form of penalty. The penalty others will assess is a lack of trust - a lack of trust fostered upon a history of previous dishonesty, or a lack of trust predicated upon poor judgment. Either way, it serves as punishment by one's peers. But depending upon the magnitude of the wrongdoing, as well as whether or not it was just a mistake in judgment, other graduated reactive punishment, including legal prosecution, is normally in order.

With these premises as a backdrop, let us now examine the actions of our government. Should Reno and Clinton have known that moving flame-throwing, heavily armored tanks at the Branch-Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, might result in the horrible death of its occupants, given its rickety, death trap type structure? Wasn't this also a violation of the 1878 Posse-Comitatus Act that forbids the military from being used in civil law enforcement actions?

The conspiracy employed in getting around this prohibition by the Clintonistas was to accuse the Davidians of manufacturing illegal drugs, which allows invoking a section of the government's unconstitutional War on Drugs. Military units can be used in civil law enforcement actions if it can be shown that certain drugs were involved.

Of course, neither child abuse, the original premise of the unprovoked government attack, nor illegal drug manufacturing were ever proven, and no evidence whatsoever of either has ever been produced. That means, a search warrant and its proper service, as required by the Fourth Amendment, was never carried out - these people were gassed and horribly burned to death for the new, ominous American crime wave now spreading across America: "suspicion." "Innocent until proven guilty" is no longer a given in our "American" criminal "justice" system. And who cares about a bunch of shabbily dressed religious freaks and wackos anyway?

Why the digression concerning Waco? Has there been an admission of wrongdoing on the part of our government? Has there been punishment for the wrongdoers? Somebody "accepted responsibility," but what was the punishment? Was the killer of 81 Americans, 26 of whom were children, ever brought to justice? Were they tried and sent to jail? No punishment, trial, or even rebuke for the wrongdoers that killed 81 human beings, all of whom were brutally murdered by American government for the crime of "suspicion."

Now consider these facts against another segment of exactly the same backdrop, the lies that American government has launched upon us in other life-threatening situations. Consider the lies the FBI generated concerning TWA 800, American Airlines 587, the Richard Jewel railroading, the Anthrax debacle, the 911 bungling and resultant cover-ups, the crime lab debacle, etc. Consider the Senator Torricelli whitewashing and the jailing of Congressman James Traficant. Consider Clinton and Condit, and consider how Bush and Ashcroft have done nothing to address any of these breaches in the trust the people had in its government.

One more thing: Consider what our leaders in government are saying about Saddam and the need to attack Iraq. ***

Photo of Columnist Ted Lang courtesy of the author