Looking for trust

I think we all swing from optimism to pessimism in our lives. Daily triumphs on every level bring renewed optimism. At the same time, daily doses of disappointing and often frustrating actions swing us back to the darker side.

This is nothing new, though the case can be made that the swing between the highs and lows is more rapid and more acute.

Just look around this great nation of ours and you can't help but be impressed with the miracles of optimism that abound.

No nation on Earth is more charitable than ours. When others are in need -- more often than not -- Americans respond with charity in countless forms.

No nation can match the miracles of modern technology within the medical community than ours. The expertise of our medical community is unmatched, and for that we should remain a grateful nation.

And we must remember the everyday heroes -- those who never gain the deserved recognition -- who live among us. Millions of acts of quiet kindness mark this nation. So much so that these heroes are almost expected and often overlooked.

Yet we face obstacles in today's society -- obstacles of finance, of race and of faith. These sources of optimism are too often overshadowed by a vacuum of trust. This creeping cynicism is the direct result of a long trail of broken promises.

Like it or not, we've lost trust in our financial future. We've lost trust in our elected leaders. We've even lost trust among several of our church leaders.

For certain we've lost trust in the media. And though it lacks the urgency and importance of others, we've lost trust in members of our sports community.

Without trust you lack confidence. Without confidence you lack optimism for the future. And without that optimism comes instability.

Maybe President Obama should appoint a trust czar -- someone in whom the American public can hold complete and unquestioned trust. Someone who may provide disappointing news but on whom we can rely for the unvarnished truth without reservation or question.

And someone who can provide the answers to the questions that frustrate and cloud our futures.

Hope and change are slogans. Trust is a bedrock issue on which all else is based.

The storm that currently brews across this land would clear overnight were we to have absolute trust in those institutions on which we rely.

But before this storm moves on, we must find that trust somewhere.