Nothing happens to us by accident, there are no chance meetings and there is no such thing as good or bad luck. We do not live in a chaotic universe.

We choose, as spiritual beings, the challenges we will face in the human condition, not as punishment, nor as reward but as a part of our spiritual growth and development; as part of our learning process.

Some very advanced souls choose the most seemingly impossible situations in order to see if of love can still survive and triumph. Many brave and adventurous souls choose positions of great power for the same reason. Politicians are to be admired and respected for their courage, for they are usually those who have, in what we would think of as past experiences, been those who opposed others in power with hatred and violence when it seemed to them that love and non-violence was futile.

Well, now the boot is on the other foot. Now these souls are 'having to go' at it themselves. Will they be any better than their predecessors?

Every time politicians put their personal pursuit of power, wealth, ambition, political ideals and party allegiance above the pursuit of the people's well-being and happiness or above any of God's creation in, on or above the earth, they fail in their challenge. They fail in their volitional karma.

Instead of being angered by self-serving corruption in 'high places' we should feel compassion for these lights that failed and for a life being wasted. Any politician who votes for or against any proposal that effects the people should first ask, "If I were Jesus or the Buddha, how would I respond"

Lao Tzu, the great master of Taoism, writes in the Tao Teh Ching: "The wise ruler does not interfere with the lives of the people." We do not have to look at the present Chinese government to see how this wisdom is ignored, for interference is rampant in most local governments.

Do not be filled with hate for those councillors who interfere with our lives, our homes and businesses - not even when those whose delays in giving their rubber-stamp approval to your submission can bring you to ruin. It is far too easy to blame 'the system', for the system is merely a euphemism for the caring-less way an official performs his obligations. So to those who put rules and regulations above ethic and common sense, above common decency and love for their brothers and sisters, do not feel hatred but pity. Rebuke them, by all means, and, if they repent, forgive them. And if they fail again and again, repenting each time, continue to forgive them; for your anger if sustained, will add fuel to the fire of man's inhumanity to man.