Hooray for Hootie!
Richard Hemmer Jr.
Hootie
Johnson, chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, released a very public
reply to a private request to have a woman member join his private club.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/story?id=1403695) The request was private, but
contained threats of public exposure and retaliation. I applaud Hootie for
making this fight public, and for taking what may be an unpopular stand against
the NCWO.
Calling the Augusta National Golf Club elite is like referring to the Amazon as
a stream. Its membership is limited to 300, and money alone is not the basis
for membership. Television coverage of the Masters is limited, although
networks have offered more money for more coverage, the exclusivity of the
Masters is maintained. Ticket prices are half those of other major golf events,
but you can't get one if you don't have one already. They do not even take
names for the waiting list anymore. Augusta National is notorious for its
exclusionary membership policies, especially denying membership to those who
desire it most, who seek its status. When Bill Gates made it known publicly
that he desired membership, he ruined any chance of becoming a member. The club
relished the fact that its membership could not be bought. Now, the club will
show that its membership cannot be "a trophy" for a political action group.
Are women's rights so protected right now that a group with six million members
must lobby to place a woman in a golf club of 300 with no political or social
agenda? Will women everywhere be uplifted by the extremely wealthy, private,
probably conservative woman who would be invited to join Augusta national?
Whomever Augusta National chooses for its membership has no effect on 99.9999988
percent of this nation's population. Tolerance includes allowing the bigots and
sexists to be bigots and sexists when they're not hurting anyone. The dinosaurs
will become extinct eventually. It only took them thirty years after the civil
rights movement to have a black member. (Although the word token comes to
mind, but thats a different essay....)
