So, maybe some \u201cOur America\u201d readers wonder:\u00a0\u00a0what happened?\u00a0\u00a0They\u2019re used to several essays (good or bad) a week.\u00a0\u00a0But in the past couple of weeks, the writing slowed down.\u00a0\u00a0So here\u2019s the good news:\u00a0\u00a0nothing is wrong.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s just May, and May for me is the heart of track season.\u00a0\u00a0As a track official I\u2019m \u201cworking\u201d four or five meets a week.\u00a0\u00a0For a retired guy, that\u2019s a lot like a full-time job, even though it\u2019s fun.\u00a0\u00a0So there\u2019s been less of the \u201cdawn breaks\u201d time to sit down and write, and fewer of the ongoing discussions that keep me deep in Our American political world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t worry, track does come to an end (though Jenn\u2019s not so sure sometimes!!).\u00a0\u00a0And they\u2019ll be plenty of time to get back to what I\u2019ve chosen to do:\u00a0\u00a0comment on Our America, and Our World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But while I\u2019m talking about track and field, let me draw a couple of parallels.\u00a0\u00a0Track is unlike a lot of other sports, where every game is \u201cequal\u201d to most other games.\u00a0\u00a0In football for example, if you lose the first three games of the season, your opportunity to make the \u201cplayoffs\u201d is low.\u00a0\u00a0So as a football coach you have to take the first game as seriously as the last.\u00a0There\u2019s always room for improvement, but you better be ready to go when the first whistle blows on the field in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Track is a little bit different.\u00a0\u00a0We run meets all season, from the snow-blustery first meets of March to the sunbaked (or rain soaked, or both) days of May and June.\u00a0\u00a0But, in the end, only those meets in the championship season \u201ccount\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0As a team or individual, you could lose all of March and April, then miraculously pull it together in May and June and still make it to the State Championship meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, it usually doesn\u2019t happen that way.\u00a0\u00a0Usually the whole \u201cregular\u201d season builds, using each competition as data to prepare for the next, culminating in the \u201cpeak\u201d at the most important meets of the year.\u00a0\u00a0And, back in the day when I was coaching (now nine years ago), I took each meet seriously all year, working hard to win each time.\u00a0\u00a0It not only prepared us physically for the year end championships, but it got us into the mind-set of winning.\u00a0\u00a0That was important.\u00a0\u00a0As athletes, often times the key difference isn\u2019t talent or physical preparedness. It\u2019s all \u201cmental\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this week it\u2019s the beginning of the \u201celimination series\u201d in high school track \u2013 district week.\u00a0\u00a0And my focus this week is the nine different pole vault competitions that I\u2019m officiating (five down, four to go) .\u00a0\u00a0The stakes for the vaulters are simple:\u00a0\u00a0finish in the top four and move onto the Regional meet competition.\u00a0\u00a0Fail to make that standard, and track season is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In each competition there comes the moment, the exact height (measured to the lesser quarter-inch) that determines who goes on, and who\u2019s done.\u00a0\u00a0A whole season of vaulting, hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars of poles, injuries overcome or still nagging: it all comes down to three attempts in a five minute period at that one height.\u00a0\u00a0Find a way over the bar, and it\u2019s onto the Regional.\u00a0\u00a0Fail, and done.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no one else to blame, no missed pass or failed block.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s just you, a runway, a pole and the bar. The coaches are there to help \u2013 but in the end, it\u2019s still just you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a coach, those three attempts (three fails and your out) go so fast.\u00a0\u00a0There seems almost no chance to make the corrections, to the \u201cright pole\u201d or the right settings; to get the kid over.\u00a0\u00a0And to the athlete, physical tightening is the enemy. First there\u2019s one miss, then the second.\u00a0\u00a0Third attempts are all mental.\u00a0\u00a0If you can only \u201cjust\u201d do what you\u2019ve always done:\u00a0\u00a0no pressure.\u00a0\u00a0But pressure tightens the legs, changes the step, shortens the muscles, and that alters the entire \u201cgeometry\u201d of pole vault.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the biggest lesson the rest of the season can teach; relax under \u201cthird attempt\u201d pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some, there\u2019s the joy of clearance.\u00a0\u00a0But for many, it\u2019s the bittersweet end of the season.\u00a0\u00a0On the one hand, it\u2019s onto summer.\u00a0\u00a0On the other, it\u2019s back to work, to get even better for next year, to \u201cfeed the addiction\u201d of clearing that one-inch diameter, fourteen feet, ten-inch long bar set far above the padding.\u00a0\u00a0As the official, I can see it in their eyes, the set of their shoulders, their first words off the mat with the bar lying by their side.\u00a0\u00a0You know what their determination will be, maybe before they even do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t a political essay today \u2013 but we can all learn from the lessons of track and field.\u00a0\u00a0Politics in America is a lot like a track season.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s lots of regular season events; tests along the way to learn and develop tactics, strategies, and issues.\u00a0\u00a0But in the end, there\u2019s only one final test, one moment when everything comes to a head.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s Election Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will not claim that American politics are an \u201cequal\u201d fight right now.\u00a0\u00a0Those in power today are doing everything they can to \u201cset the table\u201d for a win in November.\u00a0\u00a0We can argue whether that\u2019s ethical or legal or not.\u00a0\u00a0But there\u2019s an old axiom in American politics: \u201cAll\u2019s fair in love and in war, and in politics\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We are now finding out how extreme that axiom can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
November 2026 is not the \u201cState Championship\u201d of elections.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s more like the Regional meet, the intermediate step leading to the final showdown.\u00a0\u00a0But, at least for Democrats, it\u2019s a lot like that third attempt at the bar.\u00a0\u00a0We know we \u201ccan\u201d clear the height.\u00a0\u00a0But can we \u201cjust\u201d put ourselves together enough to do it.\u00a0\u00a0Because we need to qualify, to get to the next step, to regain some power to make the last competition in 2028 winnable and fair.\u00a0\u00a0We need to win in November, no matter the daily stresses of the ongoing political disaster that is the United States today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So take a breath, focus on your technique, and make the bar this November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we can get ready for the rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"