Today the Olympic closing ceremonies will occur.  For a couple of weeks, we witness high-level performance of athleticism as well as examples of great sportsmanship.   Imagine that so many people gather to celebrate the purity of sports and the example of dedication these athletes put into their pursuit of sport.  We’ve seen examples of athletes helping others, of embracing at the end of an event or race, appreciating the dedication and sacrifices shared.  We’ve seen gracious crowds appreciating the efforts as athletes expose themselves to injury, exhaustion and more often failure than conquest.  Sure we too celebrate the great victories and the greatest victors, but it is always with respect for all the competitors.   There is no racism, there is no hate-mongering, there is only understanding and respect we see.   I think of our political discourse in our country is something of an athletic, contact sport.  Sure some bruising competition is expected, like the rugby and soccer, and wrestling and even jostling on 5000 meter races, but why can we not stay within the bounds of civility and respect?   Think about the Olympics, the greatest issue between athletes was the disgust for those that would not play fair, those that used performance enhancing drugs to give them an edge over athletes that worked so hard to get to the games.  Even in this extreme case it was honest expressions in defense of the Olympic values we witnessed.

The vitriolic language and insulting behavior especially by Trump in our political competition, but certainly not restricted to his brand of politics, is beyond the bounds of fair competition.  I fear that the anger and hate he has tapped into and is encouraging is tearing the social fabric of our country.  I fear that it doesn’t end with completion of a race, then we all hug and appreciate each other as Olympians do… but rather it continues and seethes and surges through-out, in manifestations of senseless violence stoked by continued outrageous statements.  What really was wrong with Political Correctness, which is just a snarky word for “Respect”.  Do we not have respect for each other and our differences which are rarely ever as great as our similarities?   With the closing ceremonies tonight, I hope we can find a way to tap into the Olympic example and bring back respect, fair competition and even Political Correctness.  Then maybe we can really keep America Great!