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Sort of a disheartening story in most newspapers yesterday on the erosion of trust in each other we have here in the Land of the Free. You know it's getting serious when our first question after reading the headline isn't 'oh yeah, says who?'

I'm a relentless pragmatist and certainly no Pollyanna (do people still name their children that and then perhaps offer a chorus of this. I did not know that Morgan Freeman played the banjo) and I hate to say it but it makes sense to me.

When you're a pessimist, you can only be surprised and never disappointed and all you have to do is look at the mess and morass that we have created of our national government in Dodge City to realize we've got some fundamental changes to make or you can put a fork in us now because we're done.

It's okay to blame 'those folks in the Capital' except we, you and me, sent them there with instructions to take no prisoners and they're doing what we told them to do. I hope I don't offend you but some of the people you chose are awful.

Actually, I'm lying in the sense of I don't care if I offend you because each of us has made some terrible choices and while blaming one another is very therapeutic, it's not going to get our ship of state off the rocks we've run it into.

Here's the scary part: the only people who can help us heal is us. Yeah, I was really hoping that would read a lot better than that but it is what it is. We have to relearn how to give one another the benefit of the doubt and to not only assume but also believe that people mean to do well, even if they sometimes don't.

We need a return to the era of the open hand because it's easier to shake and to loan to someone in need of it, and we need to look in the mirror and realize we have one mouth and two ears for a reason and behave accordingly. Trust or bust.
-bill kenny