Trust Me

No I'm not talking about the banking definition of trust; I'm talking about a belief in reliability, truth, and strength of someone or something.  Trust involves faith in another to be loyal and sincere.   We trust our friends to be non-judgmental and to keep our secrets, and when it comes to our lovers, trust can include devotion to love one above all others.  It’s pretty evident that trust is the foundation of good health, in addition to hearty relationships.

But trust shouldn’t end with family and friends.  We should be able to trust our neighbors, the media, or the EPA, FBI, CIA, Congress, as well as the office of the President, but we don’t.  That trust has been broken.  Instead of seeing the best of others, we seem to be fixated on the dark side; stuck in a broken system of mistrust. 

I spent five years as an environmental activist, and I can tell you that I did not trust the EPA for nothing.  I even met people who represented the EPA, who seemed very concerned and well educated, but I knew money talked and hands were out palms up.  The EPA wasn’t ruling in favor of a healthy human environment, they were supporting a long outdated fossil fuels industry that has been proven to be detrimental to human health.  And today, with a new administration, there’s talk of demolishing the Environmental Protection Agency all together. 

I had to ask myself is this a good thing or a bad thing?  I mean really, if the EPA wasn’t doing their job in the first place, why bother keeping the agency around? 

Of course I do not think this is a good thing, but as I see all this crazy whipping around an unstable government, I see our Court System working as it was intended.  Our system of checks and balances is still in place.  I see twenty times the people protesting for our Earth Mother in the past four months than I had in the past seven years, here in Pensacola.  But most of all, I realize that my lack of trust and assumptions of the EPA (government) was contributing to the ciaos we see today.  Never has this been so clear as when I attended a pipeline march/rally on February 12th.

As I stood in protest, a young woman rose before the crowd to speak.  Her heart swelled with each spoken word. It didn’t take long for her voice to begin breaking up, as she bravely tried to fight the tears.  I use the word brave, because that is what it takes to open your heart to others, especially when you’re in the spotlight of a hundred pairs of stranger eyes.  That’s trust!

People are not governments.  People are individual persons.  The problem is not one of a government, but of us individuals; you and me.  Our lack of trust leaves no room for love to grow.  It is not boarder fences we need to be concerned with, but instead it is the fences we build around our hearts we need to fear.  We have to quit shutting each other out and embrace each other instead; we have to matter to each other.  Your fight for justice is my fight for justice.  When we stand together, we can change the world.  Trust me.