TRUST IN

{This speech was given before The Pandemic, in the early days of the first Trump Regime. I first presented it to our EZ-Speakers 15-member Club. Janet Kerr, one of our veteran members, convinced me that I should deliver it in District Competition.  She worked tirelessly with me, trying to get the words condensed to the 7 ½ minute limit. About 80 people showed up to the competition. As the time limit was approaching I could hear Janet, through my words, shout but in a whispered voice, “Wrap it up!.” She believed the speech was good enough to win if I loped off the last paragraph. The Red Light warning of the time limit was so bright it blinded me, and blindingly I ran the red light and disqualified myself. I thought the last paragraph was that important.}

Caution: words speeding into heady thoughts and heading right at you!

Danger! approaching questions…may cause doubt, anxiety or sleeplessness. 

I blame this speech on Toastmasters. Do you know what they make us do at each meeting…? Recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Oh it’s simple enough. We’ve learned it by heart…no, not really, we’ve learned it by rote…if we said it by heart…we might think about it….that would be dangerous!

Words like Allegiance, Indivisible, phrases like under God, with Liberty and Justice for all….{I said the last three words as if they were a question.}

We are giving our word….when you think about it, in a pledge or vow there has to be an agreement among people….we have to trust that each of us is telling the truth, believes the meaning of the words.

There is a saving grace in the Pledge of Allegiance…at least it doesn’t end with “…until death do you part.” I took that vow and it turned into a 52-year agreement called marriage. 

Citizens, Did you know each of us is a part of something called the public trust? It means that in us lies the true power and purpose of our society…in us. It includes the idea that our natural and cultural resources—forests, libraries, rivers, educational systems, media—should be preserved by the government for our use….

Are you beginning to feel some anxiety? what a responsibility! ….it’s really important that we don’t misplace our trust…someone could just walk away with us….think of it, we’re programmed to give it all away everyday

--we trust our smartphones to turn on and connect us with the world

--we trust the faucets when we turn them to H in the shower to deliver hot water

--we trust our car’s engine to turn over in the morning

--we trust the driver in the highway lane next to us not to turn into us at the exit

--we trust our colleagues to turn up at work

--we trust our friends to turn toward us in time of need

--we trust our kids and dogs will turn out alright in spite of their best efforts not to

--we trust our day will turn into just what we wished for so we can turn in before midnight

And think of the trust we turn over to our medulla oblongata to control the functioning of our hearts, lungs and brains. We give it all away without a second thought.

We are such trusting souls.

I submit we have a gland that secretes trust Drip by precious drip into an organ that holds it. When someone asks for our trust---whoosh….what if someone comes by for a trust refill when we’re empty…Wait, maybe like liberty and justice for all….There is an unlimited supply of it…we are walking on the edge of the wild side now…..

Words label our experiences. We trust them to mean the same for each of us. Think of all the times you did something or it was done to you and you called it trust! For me, it came when I joined a fraternal organization as a young man……no not the French Revolution’s citizen guard—it was one that required learning pages of ritual responses. Toastmasters, the organization did something quite amazing—I was given a Mentor. Imagine that. {Each Toastmaster is given a Mentor when entering the organization.} His name was Ed Wrede, an old farmer not to be judged by his appearance. Every Tuesday at lunch for a period of 10-12 weeks with huge patience, he would recite from his memory the passages I needed to memorize…I would try to repeat it…phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph until I knew it as well as he did. At some point, I realized that was his goal. That I would know it even as he did. During the ritual itself in which I had to recite the words while I was blind-folded, a question was asked—"In whom do you put your trust….?”  I knew the correct response…. I wanted to say, “In Ed Wred.” But I repeated what he taught me to say, “In God.” It was then that I realized if I had any trust at all, it was in the people Providence had put into my life. 

Words like trust aren’t just labels of experiences…They also act as connections between us. Now, don’t kill me, I’m only the messenger, but mistrust can disconnect us. Let’s not end this there. 

Citizens, consider this… the men who signed off on the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. A high bar. Was the huge burden they assumed lightened by the trust they must have had in each other even with all the differences between them?

For the past three years there has been so much talk about our divided country. If words, looks and gestures could kill, there would be a lot of casualties in our nation’s capital. Each of us has a fierce streak of independence. We inherited it from our immigrant ancestors. So, maybe we don’t have enough allegiance left in us. Picture a country with no allegiance in it. Let’s not end this here. 

Citizens, when you stand for the pledge do you ask yourself, “Am I a member that makes this country Indivisible? Have I taken for granted the very thing that was entrusted to me? We are left with an impossible task—to act in our own and another’s best interests at the same time. When we next place our hands over our hearts, let us begin to consider the work we were left to complete.