Have a little faith in me.

Trust. Loyalty. Honesty. Integrity. Courtesy. These are all nouns not common in present day society. Am I old fashioned? maybe. Born in 1986, I am not even old enough to know the bygone times of which I speak. A handshake and your word was enough to bind a contract. If someone told you something, you could bet a months wage that it would be the truth. If you committed a crime, you were punished, severely in some cases. People had higher standards then they have now, for themselves as well as others. Although I wasn't around, that doesn't mean I don't admire the simpleness of days past. We currently find ourselves in a civilization in which is more accustomed to fraudulence, theft, corruption, infidelity, and insidiousness then fairness, sincerity, righteousness, and wholeheartedness. When did we lose ourselves? No one can truly answer that question, and now more then ever it seems we can't change it. The only change possible is for the worse, not better. When I am at a local store, I frequently hold the door for whoever is nearby, what is infrequent, is the amount of "thank yous" I receive for doing so. I am not looking for praise and admiration of my door holding skills, but some common courtesy would be appreciated. Its the same courtesy I extend to others. From the President of The United States (Whom I have yet to meet, maybe he doesn't get my face book event alerts), to the cashier at McDonald's. Thank you. Your welcome. Yes please. No thank you. It's not hard to do, and the benefits are great. People are getting more rude by the minute, less honest by the second, and increasingly untrustworthy by the millisecond. Look on the back of your Starbucks coffee, it says something like "Warning, contents are hot". We all know that coffee is hot. Even my 2 year old knows it's hot. That fine text serves only one purpose, to prevent law suits. "Slippery when wet", "Product will be hot after heating", "Remove plastic before eating". These painfully obvious warnings are used by companies to ensure that someone doesn't eat a candy bar with the wrapper still intact and try to sue them. Businesses also invest thousands of dollars in video surveillance equipment to try to prevent and monitor theft and fraud. When did this become acceptable? Blame it on the judicial system if you want, it's partially true. Lack of fairness and justice, and the presence of corruption let criminals get off with nothing but a slap of the wrist or community service. With minimal fear of prosecution, why hold back? Maybe I'm off topic now. It is very hard to trust people, and in this short blog I offer no solution, because there isn't one. As long as there is good people, there will be bad people. As long as there is bad people, bad things will happen. Pretty simple really. People as a whole have past the point of no return. Sorry to be a downer, but it's true. So what can we have faith in now? I think we can have faith in ourselves. Have faith in how good a person can be. Be honest even when it's hard to do so. Help out your fellow man. Trust people. Trust yourself. Maybe it's not too late. "It has to start somewhere, what better place than here, what better time than now".