It looks like special interest groups have once again "bought" the Legislature. One-fifth of them received all their money from special interest groups, many received at least half, and only one received most of his money from his district (Deseret Morning News, Dec. 12).

I am hoping that with the new state leaders there will be a return to civil and moral leadership — the kind we learned growing up at home and in school.

If you were like me, I just took for granted what my South High civic teachers taught us about the Declaration of Independence. No big deal. That's how life was in America; we trusted our leaders, and respected them. And, if they didn't live up to those standards, we were told we could throw the rascals out (something in the Declaration about securing rights, "that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.")

At home, I learned trust is to be earned, not given, and that a person only had his/her word. We have seen a "numbing" of those values in our society and in our elected leaders in particular. We used to hold them as models for our children. When they made promises, we could take it to the bank. Now, we want to shield our children from seeing the behavior of some elected officials whose word is no longer a given.

Today, we have politicians who look at us and tell us, "I am not a crook," it was an "oversight" or a "clerical error," or that there was no inappropriate relationship. Is it any wonder most people don't trust politicians, have lost confidence in their government and that some do not bother to vote?

We now have legislators who are reluctant to give full disclosure on any potential conflict of interest, saying, "You will just have to trust us," when there is no evidence to do so. Matter of fact, they act insulted if citizens even think otherwise, though they hold closed meetings because voters can't be trusted to understand public matters.

Talk about trust. As of November, more than 275 bills were already drafted, primarily by lobbyists "assisting" legislators. Of the 600-plus bills filed each year, few have any relationship to what legislators promised their district's voters in the campaign literature — less government, local control and, the heart grabber, Utah values!

Citizens can't compete with the special-interest groups that hire lobbyists and then write their salaries off as a business expense. So, tell me money doesn't buy influence.

Lawmaking in Utah is a big industry, as evidenced by the many lobbyists lurking in the halls waiting to corner their targeted legislator. There is no level playing field for the average citizen, since legislators can leave office and be hired the next day as a lobbyist by the same group they regulated while in office. In the meantime, citizens are still playing by the rules they learned about democracy in high school.