Yesterday on The New Yorker Radio Hour, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, talked about the problem we face as a society regarding the loss of social trust. We usually don’t phrase the response to public health workers and government in terms of social trust, but it is essential to being able to exist as a society.
More than the difference in response to public health officials in red and blue states and anti-vaxxers running around telling people not to be vaccinated against even the measles, is the issue of social trust and its breakdown in the United States. One note, Utah, a red state, has high social trust. As someone once quipped, it’s the best state to lose your wallet in.
During this Season of Lent, we should consider how our social trust has broken down and what we can do to help restore it. Like the spiritual journey we experience during Lent, so is rebuilding social trust a spiritual journey, one that cuts across religious lines as well as political ones. Just as it took years to destroy this important value, it may take years to rebuild it, but in order to survive as a society, we must find ways to begin.
Prayer for the Day
When did we lose faith in each other, closing our minds,
When did we begin to think that no one was to be trusted?
How did we come to this point, full of anger and disbelief,
When confronted with plain facts we refuse to accept?
Open our eyes and our minds, O Bright Morning Sun,
So we are able to move beyond the boundaries we set for ourselves.
In the name of the One who teaches us to live beyond boundaries,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
- Albert Einstein, physicist (1879-1955)
Public health relies on public trust. Admitting mistakes and explaining prompt corrective action engenders that trust.
- Leanna S. Wen, MD, MSc, ER physician, public health scientist
Teach me your ways, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies,
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me and they are breathing out violence.
I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Psalm 27: 11-13