Jack Abramoff. Michael Montoya. Duke Cunningham.

It takes only a quick glance at the morning newspaper or TV news to hear about the current scandals rocking our government. To see how much these stories undermine what our nation stands for, it is helpful to look at how the United States and our democracy was born.

Before the United States, the concept of the Divine Right of Kings was rampant across Europe. It stated that a monarch owed his rule to the will of God, not to the will of his subjects, parliament, the aristocracy or any other competing authority. This doctrine continued with the claim that any attempt to depose a monarch or to restrict his powers ran contrary to the will of God. Basically, the average person had no control over his or her life. If you lived in those times and tried to change your situation, you were told that God would punish you for it.

With the founding of the United States, however, a new concept emerged throughout governments across the world. The doctrine of self-determination allowed people the chance to affect how their own society was run. With this powerful force, a leader can move forward on critical items facing a community, state, or nation. Without it, that same leader is a useless husk. Its greatest strength, the trust and confidence of the people, can also be its greatest weakness.

Under our system, when someone goes into a voting booth and presses that button or checks that box, a bargain is made. Yes, the politician is given the power to speak for that person on the affairs of public financing and laws. But there is more to it than that. In return, that elected official must realize that when power is given, the people expect that they will govern with the best interests of the community, not themselves, at heart. When someone abuses that trust by taking money, trips, or other favors in return for their vote, it is the worst kind of sin.

To protect our system, we have written rules that shelter this trust. Our Federal, State, and Local laws are filled with laws that make bribes, nepotism, and undue influence by any one group illegal. Unfortunately, some of the very same people that write these laws have the ability to then make a mockery of them.

Some policy makers see a gray area when examining this issue: one can perform an activity that is unethical but still follow the law. But that is a luxury that cannot be afforded within our democratic system. Because of the high profile that political leaders enjoy in a community, even a small breach of ethical standards can lead to a wide chasm between the public, and all leaders elected within our system. Lawmakers should follow the letter and the spirit of the law, always acting without the merest hint of impropriety.

Most people enter politics because they want to help their community, and most stay clean throughout their careers. But even when a minority breaks the fundamental agreement that sets our society apart from so many others, it defames all of us who believe in it.

The public must realize that, like in every other profession, there are good politicians and bad ones; and even the good ones are not perfect. But politicians must come to realize that the attention, the money, and the power that can be accumulated by being dirty are nothing compared to a greater gift. That privilege that they are given by the people is the ability to have a vision for the future and then to lead those same people to a life that is better than the one they have now.

The American people must always be watching for abuses of power at all levels of government. And we, as the politicians who enjoy the faith of the people who voted for us, must not stand for any one of our profession who crosses that line: for though trust is powerful, it is easily lost.