Is it any wonder most people don't trust our government?

Polls consistently indicate that the people's trust in government is at the lowest levels ever, and still falling.  Admittedly, our level of trust in the vast bureaucracy, which we, the taxpayers, finance, can't fall much further before there will have to be finer standard of measurement invented than what currently exists on our planet.

However, when the government can't seem to get even the simple stuff correct, and no one appears to answer for it, is it any wonder people don't trust?

In January of this year, our family took over the adoption of a wild mustang horse from the previous adopters who could no longer care for the animal, for whatever reason.  Adoption of wild horses in the United States is managed by a couple of agencies of our government, the Bureau of Land Management is by far the largest manager of the United State's wild horse herds.  There are also wild horses on U.S. Forest Service lands, and they are managed through a much smaller program which to a large degree emulates the BLM program.

I happen to be one who believes that our public lands are for the most part "over managed" by what amounts to be a huge group of pencil-pushing bureaucrats who are most interested in perpetuating their own sense of self-importance.  If you've ever visited any of the large regional offices of the Federal agencies who oversee our lands, you've no doubt noticed there are plenty of folks hanging out in air conditioned comfort of their offices and cubicles, busily pushing papers around their desks, or starting at computer screens.  In the meantime, there might be one or two people actually out in the field, spending time on the lands they are the caretakers of.  Just like any other government agency, our public land managers are far and away more involved with managing the bureaucracy of managing our public lands, than in actually managing the lands themselves.

Fine.  If the government is going to pay a bunch of people government salaries to handle the paperwork involved with managing our lands, so be it.  But shouldn't the government demand that the people they pay salaries and pensions to actually know what they are doing?

Well, I'm sure at this point you know that I'm asking way too much of our government employees.  You've all dealt with enough government agencies, from your local department of motor vehicles, to social security offices, welfare offices, licensing agencies, etc. etc. to know that for me to expect any straight, truthful, and efficient service from our government is unreasonable on my part, to say the least.

Which brings me back to why I've gotten yet another lesson in not trusting government to handle even the simple things.  In the case of adopting this wild horse, we were told at the time, this past January, that we would merely be taking over the unexpired adoption term of the previous adopters of this horse.  That since there are too many horses that nobody wants, they (being the Forest Service in this case) were more than happy to have someone take over the remaining adoption period, and that ownership would be transferred to us upon completion of the original adoption term, and that if I just signed on the dotted line, all would be "hunky-dory".  After all, they do this horse adoption stuff for a living, and they've handled cases like this in the past.  It was "not a problem".

So here it is, the end of May, 2010, and only now do we find, once again, we were misled, albeit in a small way, by government representatives who either did not know what they were talking about, or were purposefully being deceitful so they could make their jobs easier.  We dealt personally with the previous adopters of the horse, they checked out our location, stables, equipment, etc. so that they were sure the horse was going to a good home.  We handled the transport of the horse from their location to ours, with absolutely no oversight by the government.  Indeed, no one from any government agency was involved in any way with the actual, physical horse....only with the paperwork involved, which everyone from the government knows is the "real important" part.

So now, months later, when we are supposed to take over legal ownership of the horse, we are told that, "whoops!" with their apologies, the transfer of  ownership of said horse (which is still considered "government" property, on loan to us) cannot take place until January of 2011, one year after the paperwork was transferred to us.  The time the horse spent with the previous adopter doesn't matter as we were originally told.  The original circumstances of the situation are null and void, and we will continue to be bound by all the rules and regulations involved with adopting "government" horses for another 8 months.

O.K., not a big deal really.  We love the horse.  The horse is a good horse, who loves being around people.  When I was building it's shelter, it was so unafraid of all sounds of hammers, saws, drills, and other tools, that the horse would actually come over and pick up whatever I wasn't using at the moment with it's teeth, and walk off with it.  I would have to go hunt for my hammer, cordless drill, or tape measure, as the horse would leave them scattered all over the corral. Also, we get a huge kick out of watching the horse eat an orange (which she loves), or stick it's head into a sack of something it thinks must be feed (and isn't) and then look at us and lift it's upper lip so far it looks like it's curling back into a huge smile, as if to let us know: "The joke's on her".  She notifies us if one of her two big plastic water troughs is empty by picking it up with her teeth and tossing it around until someone goes and fills it up again.  If animals have "personalities", this horse definitely has one.  We have no intention of ever giving the horse back to the government, or selling it, or giving it away.  Our horses are part of the family, and this one became an important part of the family real quick.

But getting back to the government and the trust issue..sure, people make mistakes.  Even government employees.  But when nearly every level of government appears to be plagued by mistakes, mis-statements, mis-speaking, misinformation, mishandling, mis-"this" or mis-"that"..is it any wonder the public at large cannot maintain trust in government, even when it comes to the little stuff?