The political race season is upon us again in Deerfield, which got us to thinking about an actual road race in a December 2012 international competition. The lead runner, Kenyan Abel Mutai, stopped just shy of the finish line. He had become confused by the unfamiliar signals.

The second-place runner, Spaniard Ivan Fernandez Anaya, pushed Mutai across the finish line. After the race, Anaya was asked why he did it when he could have won the race. He said there would be no honor in winning a race he hadn’t actually won. “If I had done that, what would my mother think?”

What would my mother think! What a wonderful way to describe fair play. Boxing referees call for a fair fight, and boxers shake hands before the competition begins. We like a fair fight. Hitting below the belt is wrong, and we know it.

We want our children to learn fair play on the playground and in life. Why then do some adults ignore the childhood and sports lessons about integrity when it comes to “real life?” In real life winning is everything, isn’t it?

We don’t think so. We hope it’s not old-fashioned to believe that integrity matters, for each of us as individuals, and especially for the health and honor of our community.

Of course there are cheaters out there, but our response should not be to cheat better. When we try to out-bully a bully, we become the worst version of ourselves. Isn’t that what some children use as an excuse: “He did it first!”

We can do better.

We are not blind. The world has chipped away at our own childhood naivety over the past eight decades. Corporations cheat. People buy votes and maliciously malign their opponents. Snake oil salesmen still exist, even if their product is different.

Dirty tricks have been around for as long as we have had voting. For some, winning is everything. We ourselves have felt deep frustration and disappointment when we have seen dirty tricks creep into national and state elections, all with the most spurious justifications.

Now those most undemocratic manipulations have been happening in Deerfield too.

Last October 2024, we read about people destroying both Harris and Trump lawn signs. It is true that after the struggles of the Covid era, many people were angry and hurting. Perhaps their actions on behalf of a favored candidate were born from frustration but was damaging property and intimidating neighbors really the best salve for those feelings? Wouldn’t honest action be better for us all?

It can be a positive thing to canvass neighborhoods, to speak with people in an effort to raise awareness, to discuss issues calmly, openly, and honestly. This is the free speech we value, part of what has traditionally made us proud of our democratic form of government. But bullying others is just another form of dirty tricks, of not playing fair.

Now we have another local election just around the corner, so again we can take positive action. Get out and vote!

It is spring. People are again planting lawn signs, hoping to grow a candidate. We have recently heard of one lawn sign disappearing; we hope that doesn’t happen again. However, some Deerfield residents have been visited by a person — more than once in the same day — who urged them to replace their favored candidate’s lawn sign with one for the other guy. It is fine to argue the merits of your candidate. Harassing townsfolk to change their signs is not. This is the slippery slope of dirty tricks, not how to win a race fair and square.

Democracy requires us to respect the rights and views of others, even if we don’t share them. We must all feel safe announcing to our neighbors who we prefer. Signs should never be destroyed, defaced, or stolen. No one should feel targeted for sharing their free speech through lawn signs.

If you want to win, do it with honor. Play fair. Make your mother proud.

Edith and Alan Lipp are retired high school teachers who live in South Deerfield.