During a recent golf outing with my friend Tom from Manchester, the conversation turned to the demise of youth sports in the Queen City. My buddy grew up there and once played on a Class L state championship basketball team as a Manchester kid.
“Things sure have changed,” Tom said. “This past year Manchester schools had trouble finding enough hockey players for their teams.”
Tom added that many of the neighborhood Little Leagues from his youth are extinct.
COVID was a factor in this demise of sport, but there’s much more here. Part of it involves demographics. When Tom was a kid, families were larger. Ergo there were more Little Leaguers. Part of it is cultural. There are more things for youngsters to do. And part of it is societal. Excellence isn’t as encouraged or celebrated as it once was.
“Everyone gets a trophy now,” is a common lament. The plethora of awards dilutes their value. And competition is discouraged, both directly and tacitly.
While cooperation is important, competition brings out the best in many. And don’t forget that teamwork is enhanced and leadership skills are learned when members of a squad must work together to overcome challenges—i.e. how to beat OTHER teams.
This brings us to Sir Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister who famously described his successor—Clement Attlee—as “a modest man, with much to be modest about.” Churchill believed in exceptionalism and obviously didn’t see the socialist Attlee as exceptional.
Thought by many to be the greatest man of the 20th Century, Churchill reflected the values of Victorian England into which he was born. He believed in the British Empire and other things that would be seen as politically incorrect today. His honest eloquence would no doubt get him banned from Facebook.
The sun eventually set on the British Empire but those who love America similarly see our country as exceptional.
Ronald Reagan often spoke of American exceptionalism and how our country represented a “shining city on a hill.” The national pride he promoted came from love—not hate, xenophobia, jingoism, or racism.
That the USA now has so many self-loathing residents who go out of their way to denigrate America and misstate our history is a function of several movements and various forces—some quite malign. These mindsets need to be countered, whether they emanate from academia, the popular media, scheming Marxists, or the Democrat party.
The wonder of America is evident everywhere. And yes, the sports world provides countless inspiring stories that help document our exceptionalism, from the Miracle on Ice to the several soccer World Cups captured by our American women. Inclusion and opportunity abound, compared to, say, the 1940s. Sports, like the military, provide a unifying template where merit matters, regardless of ethnicity.
Consider that every Major League Baseball team has retired Jackie Robinson’s #42.
In the face of all the current wokeness and movements to diminish what we were and what we are, we should celebrate our continuing progress in so many “arenas.” Of course, we should study and learn from history but that should involve embracing our exceptionalism in addition to acknowledging our shortcomings.
The next time you look up at a bright shiny moon, ponder that 12 people have actually walked on that moon. All were Americans.
Exceptional Americans.
