Good Faith:

Wednesday-March 2, 2011

Good Faith:

When we speak of good faith, we normally think of somebody that is close and someone whom we enter into an agreement with. When we speak of good faith, we think of trust and we expect that our expectations are going to be met.

When our forefathers created the beginning of the country’s relationship with the world and its own citizens, the expectations were that good faith would see the new country through. Since then each citizen, each elected official has, through their action of violating good faith, brought the country to where it is today.

Good intentions are irrelevant when the good intentions turn out to be violations of the sacred act of good faith. Good faith is violated when citizens are told they have a right to gain benefits from others. Good faith is violated when one group of citizens are pitted against another group, because of benefits they are being told they deserve, because they can get it through violations of good faith.

Good faith is something we invest in and expect a return on. The 14 Senators in Wisconsin are violating the tenants of good faith by being AWOL. The Federal Government violates good faith when they over step the boundaries of state’s rights. The Federal Government violates the good faith of the legal system by ignoring a court that deemed the healthcare law unconstitutional.

The government, be it the local, state or federal levels, is given a level of trust by the citizens who pay the bills. As I started today’s FORUM, I said that each citizen and each elected official over the course of 235 years have in one way or another violated the good faith that the forefathers had in future generations to preserve the perpetual union.

In yesterday’s FORUM, I related a story about a woman who asked Benjamin Franklin this basic question after the Articles of Confederation were adopted on March 1, 1781.

The lady asked "Well, Doctor, what have we got a Republic or a Monarchy?"
Franklin replied “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

The answer to this question might have been given to us on that day. We have not kept the republic whole! We have violated the good faith of the forefathers.

The expense of government is related to the expense of buying votes by those in the public and private sectors, who have over the years violated the good faith that the public has entrusted to them. We see this with those appointed to full fill the President’s view of how things should be. We see this with whom the President has entrusted to carry out public policy. We see this in how the State and Federal governments have encouraged Public Unions to force State legislators to approve spending programs that have resulted in breaking the bank and the tax payer as well. We have one question to ask. Where are the benefits that were promised? We can no longer expect good intentions in fairness to solve these complex problems that are not only structural, but social.

Good Faith is violated when laws are passed with hidden agendas and hidden features. Union members, in most states, who pay dues through their salaries that we pay for have the right to deduct those dues on the State Income tax they file every April. These dues that are deducted mean millions in lost revenue for state tax payers, but also become revenue to the unions.
Good Faith is violated when government becomes too big to manage. Government programs are now redundant programs. For instance, a new report on the number of federal programs for identical activities was just made public they include: 100 committees for surface transportation that do the same thing – 82 committees for teacher quality that do the same thing – 80 committees for economic development that do the same thing – 56 committees for financial literacy that do the same thing – 55 committees for highway programs that do the same thing – 52 programs for entrepreneurial efforts that do the same thing - 35 infrastructure committees that do the same thing – 28 new market programs that do the same thing – 26 committees for telecommunications that do the same thing – 20 committees on the homeless that do the same thing – 20 committees on business incubators that do the same thing – 19 committees for tourism that do the same thing.

This approach does not make sense. The titles for these committees do not make sense and I ask you- what benefit have we derived from these committees? The benefits that have been derived have gone to some citizens in the form of pay backs and benefits for sitting on these committees that do nothing to better our structural and now our social well being.

Our Good Faith is violated when it becomes virtually impossible to stop the spending abuses and the abuses of political payoffs by those that insist we invest our good faith.

Good faith does not come through social justice. Good faith does not come from an individual who claims their employers are like dictators. Good faith does not come from workers demanding they get control of their employers. Good faith in our society does not come from entitlements. It starts with personal initiative.

Good faith is what created the idea of a perpetual union; a union of people who trust and who can invest in the American dream by having the freedoms to invest in their dreams. Those who would demand control over their employers or control by a centralized government have forgotten what good faith is, because they do not have faith in themselves. When we lose faith in our abilities and in ourselves, then our republic and our Constitution will be lost forever.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The founding principles of the founding fathers are what good faith should be built upon. Good faith and trust in our principals is what brings justice and what gives our freedoms the room to grow.