Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Major corporations (big businesses) are losing the trust of consumers as well. Many score record quarterly performances on the backs of workers and then announce another round of layoffs to improve their profitability, leaving technological advances and the workers that are left to pick up the slack.

Chief executive officers who really have not improved the company get asked to leave and walk out the door with a $210 million going away compensation package. This all looks pretty unfair, not to mention stupid, to workers.

The term "corporate fat cats" represents an injustice to many workers. If the company board of directors had lost enough trust in the CEO to fire him, why pay him $210 million in compensation to leave?

Another private-equity firm paid its CEO $400 million for his services last year, more than a million dollars a day in income for every day of the year.

What can I say about the nation's press? Only that it does not even publish the news anymore. Virtually every article is now "personal journalism" with the author's views about news events, and the rest of newspapers and newscasts merely print or broadcast propaganda from their news sources.

Everyone from Hollywood publicists to politicians to the White House officials puts their own spin on all news events. There is no news reporting, only their reaction to news events based upon whatever pap they are peddling.

Politicians and presidential candidates are so caught up in carving out their own legacy and future prosperity they would not recognize or acknowledge the truth unless it served their own misguided purposes.

If you have not taken the time to notice, being a politician at the state or national level is one of the best and most lucrative jobs in America today.

There is so much carping and contentious infighting that nobody is responsible for anything that happens to the electorate.

There is also so much lying, cheating, stealing and immoral behavior going on that should anything good come from our elected officials it would be more by accident than design.

Politicians view it as a happy accident. They are too self-centered and self-absorbed in their own wonderfulness to worry about actually doing something rather than continually protecting their own power base and perceived influence.

I believe the majority of Americans are so disgusted with politicians today that they do not really give a crap about what they represent because they know that they are not representing them no matter which party they claim. Count me in that group.

Even the hallowed ivy halls of our educational institutions are taking a beating.

Too many tenured professors at many major colleges are not only practicing their liberal beliefs, they are preaching their permissive brand of liberalism. They stifle the exchange of ideas while promoting personal self-expression with little effort to recognize and teach basic, fundamental American values, including truth, integrity, responsibility, accountability and common sense.

Perhaps the only thing more important to them than actually teaching these basic, respected values is their own ego trip of self-righteousness. Many of these educated idiots believe that they can look at any major issue, decide what is right for everyone based solely on their intelligence, and then develop a social engineering program to make it happen.

Far too many of our college students are so brilliant when they graduate that they know exactly what is right for them and everyone else, what entitlements they are owed based on their continued breathing, and are quick to point out everything that is wrong everywhere.

The fact that they are not nearly as educated and literate as they think they are is just an aside. Like young people from every generation, you cannot share anything with them because they already know everything and can contribute little to the advancement of society until they grow up and embrace responsibility, accountability and integrity.

When you have tenured research professors working on health-related studies that are earning two, three and four times their salary from the same companies for whom they are doing the research. You realize there is no integrity left on campus as conflict and corruption has reached the highest levels of so-called leadership. No wonder there is little trust left in our educational institutions.

We look to our traditional churches to teach positive values, however, these churches are also losing trust among their followers.

It would appear that many of the leaders of these institutions will, like common prostitutes, sell themselves to the highest bidder. For many of these leaders, money will trump self-respect, integrity will give way to notoriety, and truth will become irrelevant to purpose.

If I sound like a social critic, I am. For any half-wit who will pay attention I am giving a clarion call to action. The good news is that you can rise above the current circumstances.

Those who would create distrust may sully the environment, but they cannot force you to follow their errant ways. You can live and act differently, and I advise you to do so.

Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Article.