From Deseret News archives:
Lawmakers need to earn our trust
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.
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.
Comments
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256 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
206 - BYU football: Bronco weighs in on Hall
193 - Palin signs books, chats with fans
165 - Utah/BYU rivalry can be more civil
150 - Cougars going back to Vegas
150 - Andersen apologizes for Jordan hoax
142 - Nude bathers cited for lewdness
125 - Max Hall wants to look ahead
124 - Jazz fall apart late at L.A.
110
Love him or hate him, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch knows how to get attention.
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