There\u2019s an old coaching phrase: \u201cYou can\u2019t be what you can\u2019t see.\u201d I used it with my track athletes all of the time. If they could envision themselves winning the race, clearing the bar, throwing or jumping farther; they were half way there. We used to \u201cpractice\u201d visualizing what it would feel like to win, to soar, to stand at the top of the podium. We even jumped off spring boards, used elastic bands, and threw lighter weights, just to gain the physical experience of what achievement would feel like. If they could see it, they could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know, with a high school football coach on the Democratic ticket, it opens the door to all sorts of athletic analogies.\u00a0\u00a0He talked about \u201cthe 4th<\/sup>\u00a0Quarter down a field goal\u201d, \u201cblocking and tackling\u201d and getting down \u201cin the trenches\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not like I needed permission;\u00a0\u00a0my coaching life and my political life often mirror each other.\u00a0\u00a0Laying out a track schedule and laying out a campaign plan are much the same.\u00a0\u00a0Add that to the recent Olympics, and there\u2019s going to be a whole lot of sports similarities in our lives, or at least in my writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last night, Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0For only the second time in our history, a woman is on the top line of a major party ticket.\u00a0\u00a0And for the first time, a woman of color, of South Asian descent, stands at the brink of that ultimate political power.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to say that only sixteen years ago, I questioned whether America was ready to elect a Black man as President.\u00a0\u00a0Barack Obama seemed to summon the future, an action I didn\u2019t really think I\u2019d be alive for.\u00a0\u00a0You see, it was only sixty-four years ago (1960) that Americans elected the first Roman Catholic as President. That’s something that today isn\u2019t even an issue (Joe Biden is the second Catholic President).\u00a0\u00a0It was only thirty-two years before that New York\u2019s Al Smith, was defeated by Herbert Hoover by almost twenty percent.\u00a0\u00a0He even lost his own home state, mostly because of his Catholic religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was very much in favor of Obama in 2008; knocking on doors, putting up signs, and voting for him in both the primary and general elections. But I still questioned whether America was ready.\u00a0\u00a0When he won, I was even more impressed by his opponent, John McCain. Through the exquisite pain of national defeat, he acknowledged the historic marker that the United States had reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last night we watched Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, accept the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination for President.\u00a0\u00a0She is the 52nd<\/sup>\u00a0Democratic nominee in history, a long line going all the way back to Thomas Jefferson and the founding of our American political system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When she stood at that podium she told us her life \u201cstory\u201d. And she explained why she is prepared to hold the ultimate political power.\u00a0\u00a0Harris demonstrated that she is a central part of America\u2019s \u201cstory\u201d, the ultimate success of the \u201cSchoolhouse Rock\u201d American Melting Pot saga.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And she excoriated her opponent Donald Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She fulfilled every objective, and did what politics required her to do.\u00a0\u00a0To achieve success, good politicians run \u201cto the center\u201d when it comes to the general election.\u00a0\u00a0Like most elections, this one will be won or lost \u201cin the middle\u201d, by the decision of those ten percent of our citizens who remain willing to vote, but undecided.\u00a0\u00a0Harris gave a \u201ccentrist\u201d speech, praising American institutions, and promising to defend freedom and liberty both here and in the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained her \u201cbona fides\u201d. She told us the work she\u2019s done as a prosecutor, a state attorney general, a Senator and a Vice President, that prepared her for the task.\u00a0\u00a0And she exhorted her fellow Democrats to go to work.\u00a0\u00a0As Governor Wes Moore of Maryland put it, there are seventy-four days and a \u201cwake-up\u201d before election day. It’s only a little time before the decision is made.\u00a0\u00a0And as Governor\/Coach Walz of Minnesota said:\u00a0\u00a0we can sleep when we\u2019re dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the most important thing that Vice President Kamala Harris did last night, was give America the vision of herself as the President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0America saw what could be.\u00a0\u00a0We saw, not just a Black woman, not just a South Asian woman; not just a Prosecutor from California. We saw a person who would be, should be, President.\u00a0\u00a0She showed all of us that she is \u201cready\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if we can see it, we can do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summon the Future <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The President<\/h3>\n\n\n\n