I hadn’t planned to write more about fat bear week this year. I didn’t vote. I just enjoy watching the live camera set up so that people in distant locations can watch the bears catching and eating salmon. Actually watching mother bears with cubs is the most entertaining part of the video for me. Yes, the size and the ability to catch fish possessed by the giants, like bear 747, is impressive, but they had to have learned how to catch fish and you can see by watching the cubs that there is skill involved. They are dependent on their mothers’ sharing. Left to their own devices, they wouldn’t catch many fish.

However, I’m back at it, writing a second journal entry not because of the bears’ behavior, but because of human behavior. “It appears someone has decided to spam the Fat Bear Week poll, but fortunately it is easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent,” was the tweet from Katmai National Park earlier this week. That’s right, it isn’t just the world of chess that has been rocked by a cheating scandal.

Apparently, the attempt at cheating was fairly amateurish and easily caught by park officials. Its presence, however, fits into a pattern. I have no documented evidence, but it certainly seems like there is more high profile cheating lately. The Fat Bear contest is simply an opportunity to have a bit of fun and to get more people involved in observing the natural world. There are no prizes to win. There is no money involved. What motivates someone to cheat in such a delightful contest? I don’t understand how the cheater or cheaters think.

Maybe I’m just in a bit of a mood because I got another one of those calls from my credit card company yesterday. The company’s algorithms caught an attempt to make a fraudulent charge on my card. I had previously signed up for text alerts, and have my credit card set up to send me messages every time it is used, so the first attempt was caught. The charge was denied. I was notified by the credit card issuer’s fraud department. I was able to cancel the card right away and no other fraudulent charges were made. I will receive a new card in a few days. We don’t use the card when we aren’t traveling, so there is nearly no inconvenience for us. But it is unsettling to know that some fraudster somehow obtained my credit card number. The fraud attempt might not have come from a data breach where someone got the complete information, but rather from a cheater who was using a number generator to guess at credit card numbers. I will never know. Still one worries about identity theft. After I got off of the phone with the credit card issuer, I checked my online banking just to make sure everything was in order. I carry insurance against potential fraud, so face little danger. Still the presence of fraud is troubling.

It isn’t just the world of competitive games and the world of credit cards that are rocked by cheating. In recent years we have read about cheating in college sports, in poker, in university admissions, and in politics. It seems like cheating has somehow become more acceptable in our society.

Part of the problem is that trust has been eroded in the highest levels of government. I recently saw a poll that showed that more than half of the citizens of the United States no longer trust the impartiality of the Supreme Court. Recent polls have also shown a continuing erosion of trust in law enforcement officers. The very people who are supposed to protect society from cheating are not trusted.

And history was made when the loser of the 2020 Presidential election refused to accept the official results and claimed, without any evidence, that the election results could not be trusted. That claim has been refuted by hundreds of courts across the nation, and no credible evidence has ever been made public, but a large number of citizens believe the claim of fraud. Furthermore hundreds of candidates running in this November’s midterm elections have stated in advance that if they lose they will not accept the results of the election.

Trust is essential to civil society. Cheaters contribute to the erosion of trust.

I wonder what can be done to restore trust. Certainly there are some people of integrity involved in sports and politics in our country. There are people who have earned our trust and are worthy of trust. Sometimes, however, I wonder how capable the general public is at the task of discerning who can and who cannot be trusted.

Hard evidence has been presented in official court proceedings charging the former President with cheating on tax returns, of cheating on loan applications, of cheating in business dealings. His cheating in his present and previous marriages have been public scandals. However, there are a large number of people, including the leaders and founders of one of our major political parties who are willing to overlook these reasons to lose trust. He remains the head of his party and polls indicate that he is a serious contender for the party’s nomination to run for the office again in 2024.

Another disgraced former President, Richard Nixon, did not retain the trust of the leaders of his party, nor of a significant number of citizens after the scandals surrounding his administration became public. It certainly seems like times have changed and different standards are being applied.

A few years ago I heard an address by Bill Moyers in which he warned that our country is on the verge of losing democratic government. At the time I thought he was being a bit over dramatic and over stating the threat to make his point. I am less sure of that now. It does appear that the foundations of our democracy are fading with the failure of leaders to earn and maintain trust.

I am grateful that officials were able to detect and eliminate fraudulent votes from Fat Bear Week. I am grateful that my credit card company detected fraud. I hope we all can bring the best of our judgement to all of society as we work to eliminate cheating and restore trust.

We face an enormous challenge.