For anyone who may not know, there’s a racetrack that just a hop, skip, and a jump from our town.  Located at the Grants Pass Fairgrounds on Hwy 199 in Grants Pass, it operates for a short four or five-week season each summer.  This year, it opens on June 16th.  Grants Pass Downs is small in size, holding perhaps a couple of thousand people in the stands, but therein is the very reason for its attraction with people looking to spend a warm summer afternoon outdoors… and the people come, including many families with children.  There are no race touts, no professional gamblers, and no reserved seats for the more affluent.  The food stands are reasonably priced, as is the admission.  Once inside, the view from the stands is a beautiful sweeping panorama across the surrounding hills.  The entire experience is more intimate, setting it quite apart from the huge venues in famous places such as Del Mar, California or Belmont, New York.

I mention this because I recall, from where I do not remember, hearing a phrase that “Life is like a horse race.”  It may not seem fair to some, but there are winners and there are losers in life just as there are on a racetrack.  This fact brings to mind another time-worn maxim, “It’s not whether you win or lose… it’s how you play the game.”  Therein lies the problem.  Not everyone plays the game according to Hoyle… in government, business, education, sports, and even entertainment, there are always those who would “game” the system.  Indeed, in this 21st century of a global electronic information network, it has become even easier to spread misinformation, distort the facts, or even mislead people in the guise of actually helping, when the real goal is to hinder.  None of the scientific and technological advances in the past century have had any effect on this form of human behavior.  Nor will they ever in the future… for the problem is as old as man.  Nor have our political systems advanced in lock step with science.  Science does not depend upon man’s character (though it can be misstated)… our political systems do.  Hence, even at our small-town local level we sometimes face situations where the nature of a discussion belies a hidden goal designed to mislead some of the participants.  I can only suggest to those who sadly hold to this course… truth will always trump deception.  It may take a while, but it happens.

Perhaps that sounds skeptical to some… still I believe it true because there are far more people of good will than there are those who rely upon artifice in order to achieve their goal.  If that weren’t true, then none of us could ever get through the day from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed at night.  As long as there are more good people than cunning people, this system of “life” works.

Not too long ago, the nation was inundated by the worst single case of corruption, or downright cheating, in decades when the Bernie Madoff story broke. Thousands of people, and even some institutions, were financially ruined before he was caught… but in this story there is a remarkable twist.  It was his own sons that turned him in.  I cannot imagine the emotional or psychological roller coaster they underwent, but their act proved once again that truth does eventually prevail.  Just like a fine horse, give it a spot at the starting gate, and it will win the day.