Every four years the world is treated to the finest examples of what the human spirit can accomplish as athletes display their physical prowess at the Olympic Games. They endure years of rigorous training that conditions the body and disciplines the mind sometimes for one fleeting chance at glory. We cheer on the winners, saluting their triumph.
Now what if the spirit that imbues the Olympic Games can somehow find its way into — dare we suggest — the arena where competition is also a four-year event. The political athletes, if they may be so called, often prepare themselves over long periods and supposedly only the best reach the rarified echelons of local, state and federal campaigning for gold of another kind.
Of course that is far from reality. The grueling pace of politics both physically and mentally could conceivably be mistaken for preparation for the Olympics but that is where the comparison ends. Politics today are infused with some of the worst attributes of humankind while on the hunt for campaign gold. And, unlike the Olympian’s “one moment in time,” as the late Whitney Houston sang it, the politician’s time to shine is after the victory.
Alas, they are not shining, not necessarily because they do not want to but because the next level of this “sport” is for politicians to tear down one another and legislate based on pressure from lobbyists rather than the good of the people. Putting the Olympic spirit into politics will go a far way to reaching that goal.
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