THERE ARE SOME REASONS TO CELEBRATE IN 2020
No change comes without some discomfort
As I sat down this Sunday morning with my vegan protein smoothie and newspaper, I pondered the two very serious pieces that I have been working on for my Medium account. You know what? I found it exhausting. After monitoring the daily horrific pandemic numbers, and after a bruising election cycle, I just didn’t have the strength today to get all profound and deep. So, my brain turned to a couple of pieces of good news that were in the paper this morning. Interestingly, both news items are related to the pandemic, which just goes to prove those age-old adages “with every change comes opportunity” and “no change comes without some discomfort”.
The first item is about the progress of women in our society, and I’m not really referring to the election of our first female Vice President, which is a wonderful thing. Our society still has a very long way to go towards reaching true equity and equality, and men, we still have to own the fact that violence against women is a male issue where females are the victims. We need to change our behavior if there is any hope of eradicating such violence. All that being said, the good news is this. I was a child in the 1960’s. My younger brother and I were very athletic and loved playing sports. If it rolled, bounced or slid on ice, we were into it. We played all kinds of organized youth sports. One of the explicit or implicit messages that often came across from our coaches and certain parents was “don’t play like a girl”. This meant don’t be soft, don’t be scared and always play “balls to the wall” even if a limb was hanging off. The impact of this message was profound. In short, you viewed girls as second-class citizens until puberty hit. You then became very interested in them, but not as teammates.
At least on the sporting level the seeds for change were planted in 1972 with the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments. This legislation forbade institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of gender. What this meant was that girls’ sports had to receive equal funding as compared with boys’ sports. As the years passed, the fruits borne by this legislation became obvious. Girls and young women now had the resources to become serious athletes and be viewed as such. By the time the late 1990’s and early 2000’s rolled around, America had become a global powerhouse in Women’s soccer. So much so that when I brought my son, an avid soccer player himself, to the women’s World Cup at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in 1999, he viewed Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Brandi Chastain as great players, not great women players.
Things have continued to evolve since then. I have been on the Board of Education of my town for 15 years. In that time, I have seen the continuing revolution in girl’s/women’s sports. Then on Saturday, November 28, 2020, something particularly awesome took place. As the result of coronavirus quarantines leading into last weekend’s game the Vanderbilt University football team found itself without a place kicker. Where to find a kicker on such short notice? The coach turned to Sarah Fuller, the 21-year-old senior goalkeeper from the university’s championship women’s soccer team. As Coach Derek Mason explained in a postgame news conference, “Listen I’m not about making statements, this was out of necessity”. The fact is that at 6’2” tall, Sarah has a powerful leg and can kick the hell out of the ball. She was welcomed with open arms by the entire football team. After a week of practice with the team, Sarah took the field wearing a helmet with the words “PLAY LIKE A GIRL” emblazoned on the back. She became the first woman to suit up and play for a Power 5 football team. How cool is that?
In the week following the game there have, of course, been some trolls on social media attacking Sarah. However, she responded by saying, “The negative is just a waste of my time”. “I have worked hard to get where I am, and I was in the right spot at the right time to be called up on the football team, and I’ve been working really hard to perform for them. So, at the end of the day, I don’t care what the negative is.” Good for you Sarah. You are a hero to me. 24 days short of my 62nd birthday I sure wish I could show up my old coaches and “play like a girl” right now.
The other good news item related to the pandemic has to do with the recently completed presidential election. I am not commenting on who won, or the ongoing baseless claims of voter fraud. What I am commenting on is the sheer number of people who turned out to vote. The lifeblood of a democracy is the number of people who cast ballots during elections. When turnout is consistently low, not only are there questions about the representative legitimacy of those who hold office, but the system itself is at risk of withering and dying.
According to the U.S. Election Project, a nonpartisan website run by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who tracks county-level data, 66.7% of the voting-eligible population exercised their franchise and voted in the November election. It is the highest percentage since 1900 when the number of eligible voters was much smaller. The increase in voting percentage was certainly facilitated by the pandemic. To accommodate health concerns, there was an expansion of early voting and mail-in voting (voting methods which, on a more limited basis, have been in place for years and/or were not taken advantage of by voters). For years I have said that in this, the World’s leading democracy, voting should certainly be secure, but it should also be easy to accomplish and encouraged at every level. No local “tricks” should be employed to disenfranchise any individuals or groups of people. I’ve always applauded Australia for making election day a paid national holiday. With the technology that is becoming readily available, I hope that in my lifetime I will see voting-from-home become a reality.
Regardless of who any one person voted for in November, and who won the election, we should all celebrate that so many people chose to come out and participate in the process. It is good for this grand experiment in self-governance that is the United States of America. It can only be hoped that the 2020 election will be a watershed event, and that going forward the electorate will continue to turn out in ever increasing numbers thus strengthening our democracy and the legitimacy of its leaders.
We all find comfort in status quo, but status quo is really just an illusion. Change can be unnerving but, in fact, change is the only constant in the Universe. As a surfer I know that you can either fight against it or you can ride the wave. 2020 has presented us with unprecedented challenges. We can either hold on to the way things were and not adapt and flourish, or we can learn, grow and change from this experience.
Thank you to Sarah Fuller, everyone who turned out to vote, and all others this year who showed us that even in the most challenging of times, life can find ways to evolve, grow and benefit from the experience. One World/One Love. Peace.
