2001 Soap Box Archives
A
Dangerous Precedent
The Supreme Court set a dangerous precedent this past week when
they ruled that the PGA had to allow Casey Martin to ride in
a golf cart to compete in professional golf tournaments. Casey
Martin has a physical disability which prevents him from walking
between the holes. I want to preface my remarks by saying that
I have nothing against Casey Martin nor any other physically
handicapped person and I admire anybody who goes against the
odds and accomplishes something above and beyond, despite their
physical disabilities. I personally don’t have a problem
with Casey Martin or anybody else riding in a golf cart. The
senior players are allowed to use golf carts if they want to,
which almost all of them decline. I don’t think the use
of golf carts would destroy professional golf or hurt it in
any significant way. But that’s really not the point. The
point is does our government, Judicial branch, Executive branch
or Legislative brach have the right to tell private organizations
what they must and must not do? I also happen to think that
the PGA is at times a stuffy, high handed outfit and certainly
don’t agree with everything they do. But if they say their
players must walk the golf course there should be no exceptions.
It’s up to that august organization to decide the rules
of professional golf and if someone doesn’t like it there
is no law which prevents them from starting their own outfit
and make the rules anyway they want to. Government intervention
in private life is a very dangerous thing. They never have enough
power and unchecked will be telling you how many times you can
go to the bathroom a day. Don’t laugh, out of control,
power hungry government is an awesome thing. The government
in China even tells people how many children they can have and
mandates abortion for those who go over the limit. What if a
one armed man wants to play baseball, or a blind man wants to
play soccer. Will the supreme court step in and say that they
have to be allowed to play regardless of their disability? Can
you see where this could lead? I know that the government comes
on like the big benevolent daddy who wants to take care of everybody,
but in reality it is, for the most part, a bunch of power hungry
men and women who think they can spend our hard earned money
better than we can, raise our children better than we can and
control private enterprise better than we can. When the truth
is told, they can’t even run themselves. They can’t
balance a budget, they can’t run a post office which is
as efficient as private carriers, they don’t manufacture
anything and in my opinion act like a bunch of spoiled third
graders most of the time. On the other hand the PGA has been
successful for many years, makes it’s own money, gives
great entertainment to the citizens of this country and has
no trouble balancing it’s budget. It’s self sufficient,
self proliferating and we don’t have to listen to them
whine everytime we turn on a television set. Maybe it should
be the other way around, maybe the PGA should be telling the
U.S. government how to clean up it’s act.
What
do you think?
God
Bless America
Charlie Daniels
