BE WARY

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (6/23/2013)

 

          “Be wary of people who ask you to trust them.”  This was some of the best advice my father ever gave me.  Trust those who’ve proven themselves trustworthy.  Trust is given, not requested.  If people have been secretly poking around in your garbage can for several years, saving all those torn up letters, receipts, and credit card and bank statements, would you trust them, especially if they said it was “for your own good”?

 

          Snoops are inherently untrustworthy.  As a young soldier nearly 70 years ago, I was assigned with a top secret clearance to a counter-intelligence unit, snooping on snoops, spying on spies.  Things were never as they appeared.  A distrust of government is built into our system of government with the checks and balances of its three branches, judicial, executive, and congressional.  The reason is obvious as Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Politicians crave power, and, therefore, they tend to be corrupt.

 

          Of course, the government never told anyone that they were pilfering our electronic garbage cans.  Both Republicans and Democrats have been at it.  Now, we have a gang of military officers festooned with ribbons and bric-a-brac, telling us that they haven’t been reading the stuff from our garbage cans.  They just like to collect stuff in case they might need it.  An argumentum ad ridiculum.

 

          I’m not sure I believe them.  By the way, I never broke my pledge of secrecy as long as the secrets remained classified.  Those who have are contemptible.