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.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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