I made an interesting observation at a city council meeting I attended this week and it gives me pause. There was a city councilman who excused himself from being part of a decision because he received a donation from an applicant making a request of the city. I responded very positively to councilman not wanting to be put into a position of bias. Several others applauded. But then latter, the applicant said that he didn’t appreciate being in put on display by the actions of this councilman. Apparently his company had donated money to the councilman’s campaign and he wasn’t aware of it. He emphasized he appreciated working with the city.

I see several possible reasons why the applicant may have said this.

1. The applicant thought that the Councilman who separated himself from the council’s decision was simply making a show, and may have been ‘playing’ the audience.

2. There has been some past contention between certain members of the city Council. By the applicant, seeing that his company had donated money to one councilman. He might feel it could jeopardize the other council’s goodwill toward making a positive decision.

Now I know this one councilman is liked by many and not liked by some. The thing I realize that I need to be careful that I’m not being played. The Councilman may have been very sincere about excusing himself from being part of a judgment, because he received donations from somebody. I also realize, that sometimes a politician will say the words that will appeal to his constituents, but that he may only be doing it for show. I don’t know which is true in this particular example. The caution, I want to share, is for us to be very careful on who we trust, especially when it comes to politicians.

In the national news this week, a senator was caught for drug use. Prior to his election to the Senate, someone I respected asked the senator: How is your soul?

The politician responded with: What does that have to do with anything?

Some people say that a lot of people lose their original perspective when they go back to Washington. Many people will often compromise their original values to achieve power and to achieve a greater good. Some may choose to justify their actions and compromise their values to gain power and to get in good with people of power.

I invite each of us to be careful of flattering words. There are certain things that I hear that pleases me and I want to go ahead and say, I love this person, I’ll support him/her all the way. But the same time I need to be cautious that they are not just words. I need to find ways to research an individual’s past character to see if their behavior is consistent to their words. I realize that in regards to this city councilman, that I heard a second negative thing about him. The negative thing was reported by someone who doesn’t like the councilman and is against his policies. Who is right?

The thing is, I need to treat everything with open suspicion, even those who I trust when it comes to politics.

I invite you to do so as well.