I just returned from a month in Asia, teaching in Singapore and Indonesia, and also spending a week with a charity in the Philippines which I've been involved with since the early 1990's. While there, a very needy member of the charity whose son was in jail, asked if I would give her 10,000 pesos (approximately $125) to pay off a government official who said that she could get her son out of jail. I told the woman that I don't collude with corrupt people because they aren't trustworthy, but I said I would ask an attorney to look into the matter (which I did), since it's believed that the young man is being held illegally.
This got me to thinking about our own government, and my views that this government is not trustworthy. True, it probably is not as corrupt as the Philippine government, but I started adding up the many promises that have been made and broken, and the corruption that has been exposed. I have wondered where the billions of dollars have gone, that were supposed to pay for rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq (after we bombed so much of it), helping to rebuild Lebanon (after our bombs, used by Israel, destroyed so much of it), helping to rebuild New Orleans (after promises made that it would rise from the ashes - but 1 ½ years later, and billions of dollars misspent, it seems to be much the same), improving the educational system, (which now consists of lots of test, but teachers report little improvement in education), with promises to begin reducing our national debt (after various experts have said we are in such a big financial mess that it will take generations to get out of it.) Recently, President Bush promised that the government would help rebuild the areas destroyed by the recent tornado - although I see no reason to believe him about this, since he seems to have made little progress in New Orleans. He has also told us he has a new plan for Iraq, and government officials as well as a number of Republicans in Congress have told us that we need to give this new plan - of some more billions of dollars and thousands more soldiers - a chance.
Since this particular blog usually comes from a spiritual perspective, I thought about how much is said in the Bible about trust and keeping promises and saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Much is said about wisdom, and discernment, and listening. I wondered - would I give money to someone who had misspent it in the past? Would I give more soldiers to someone who had not proven that he could be effective with the soldiers he had? Would I support programs that had been judged as ineffective, not sufficient, and not strategically wise by many advisers and by some of the best historians and diplomats in our country? Would I support someone who doesn't listen to the opposite views, even when coming from many experts, as well as from commissions and study groups that used millions of dollars of taxpayer's money, only to have a President refuse to listen to the commissions he appointed? Would I support the plans of someone who had proven, time and time again, that he couldn't be trusted?
I wondered why President Bush keeps making promises and keeps asking us to trust him when he seems so incapable of keeping his promises. Is he incompetent? Unwise? Too inexperienced about the complicated ways of the world? Does he have the wrong advisers around him? Does he idealize the world too much? Is he truly in a state of denial about the facts? Does he simply live on hope?
Although this seems like purely a political issue, perhaps it's a moral one as well.
I am eagerly awaiting leadership that is effective and wise. I don't know if we'll get it in the next election, but I do know we haven't gotten it in the last 6 years.