I'm Right Again dot com

                    Mountain Saguaros
January 30, 2018


The following is a repeat of my blog of December 4th, 2013. I have been following what is one of the most important issues in Arizona's modern history; something that will impact every Arizona taxpayer.

The adoption or rejection of a drought-contingency plan proposed by and Arizona panel would pay farmers in Pinal County many millions of tax dollars in order to recompense them for drilling new wells and constructing delivery systems that would replace the Colorado River water they are now receiving.

The full Arizona House of Representatives must decide the issue before a deadline set for tomorrow becomes effective (January 31).

The following has nothing to do with the water issue.  I felt that both of you readers would rather read something "generic" rather than my second-guessing about something about which I know very little.

(Yes, I know.  It has never prevented me from doing so in the past.)

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LOSING TRUST

    Gfk Public Affairs and Corporate Communications is one of the world's largest research companies, employing some 13,000 poll takers and statisticians in more than 100 markets.

    Recently, they were commissioned by Associated Press, a leading worldwide news service to determine if we Americans had greater or less trust in our ourselves and our institutions that we exhibited in similar polls in the last four decades.

    Conclusion: We might trust in God, but not each other. We are more suspicious of each other and have less trust in both everyday encounters and government than ever before.

    I was motivated to read more about this depressing report by a copyrighted store in the local morning newspaper, so I googled GfK for further insight.

    For example, 14 percent of the respondents answered "Not so much," when asked if they trusted those who prepared their meals when they eat out.

    So I wasn't surprised when people were asked if they believe that they can trust their Federal Government to do the right thing 81 percent answered, "Some of the time."  Only two percent chose "All of the time." (The pollsters neglected to include either "Hardly any of the time," or "Never" as an answer to this question in their massive survey).

    Naturally, one has to ask why the trend line on the "Trust Me" scale keeps sinking?

    One factor is isolation. Being "tribal" meant being together to hunt. It took a lot of resolute hunters to bring down a Woolly Mammoth and keep another tribe from taking it away from them. Being ostracized was a death sentence.

    I see the converse in my neighborhood. Only a handful of homeowners turn out for property owners' functions. Some do not know the names of their next door neighbors.

    The 24-hour news cycle and the World Wide Web bring us unending stories of mayhem and natural disaster. One is discouraged from venturing outside the cave.

   

-Phil Richardson, Observer of the Human Condition and Storyteller 

    "He goes doddering on into his old age, making a public nuisance of himself."—Joseph Menchen

Our unending thanks to Jim Bromley, who programs our Archive of Prior Commentaries


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