The Other Side of the Coin

Yes there are two sides to every coin, and I was thinking early on in the Augusta discussion about the other side of the coin and then got distracted.

As I was listening to my very conservative, very republican, country club business partner last night it brought me back to a very simple reality; Augusta National is a PRIVATE club.  The nature of private does tend to mean in this country "not for general consumption," but somehow everyone, even I, wound up in the middle of discussing who Augusta National should admit to their PRIVATE club.

Again, the secret handshakes not withstanding, does anyone have the right to tell anyone else what do with their PRIVATE lives??  I realize that many people want to, abortion, alternative lifestyles, not just gay marriage, but lifestyles in general, buckling in when you drive.  These are all very different examples, and yes some of these decisions, and others, may have an impact on other people, but they are still PRIVATE decisions are they not.

The quote that I found most amazing from yesterday was when a female golf analyst for ESPN said "at least the final bastion of the male dominated  society in this country is gone."  Huh??!!  There are thousands, if not millions, of "old boys clubs," secret handshakes, and just plain old every day examples of "old school," in the worst connotation of the term, still in existence today and there will be for some time to come.  Even when I worked at "the firm," there were plenty of deals being done on Bourbon Street, in strip clubs, with lots of cash, booze, and naked women around, and not only does all of that still happen, but many of the women from the firm that made partner did so because as well as being qualified, which those that I knew definitely were, they also agreed with, supported and took part in that way of doing business.

"the last bastion of male dominated society??"  I bet Augusta wished they were that powerful.

Cond- A - Cending

Right off the bat I need to say this is not a note in anyway against Condalisa Rice as I do not know enough to be dangerous in that regard, either way.

However, having watched Sportscenter long enough this morning I came to realize that the two new member thing is not at all what anyone is saying it is, at least not that I can tell, and it reminded me a great deal of President Bill Clinton making the grand announcement when he first took office about how many of this he was going to appoint and how many of that, and I said it then and will say it now, you can't force diversity in such a planned and structured way and have it be real, and in the case of President Clinton you wind up eliminating a class or race of people from consideration regardless of qualification, which seems to me to be exactly what we are supposed to be getting away from.

Anyway, ten years, almost to the day, that a woman made very public her wanting to be at Augusta and being kept out Augusta adds two female members, very rich, very powerful, one black and one white, female members.  How nice that Augusta can get black and white to keep moving in the proper direction on the race front, they can get rich, they can get powerful, and all at the same time come across as doing such a wonderful thing, and what a great step and so on.

The folks at Augusta National are lying, as all the men in all the exclusive "boys club" do, and they are getting rewarded for it in more ways than anyone can for doing so.

Always there has to be a first step, I get that, and always someone has to push the establishment to take that step, I get that as well, but doesn't anyone else get sick of the fact that one, people can't just do what is right in the first place, and two, that even when they do they can't just say outloud " we are doing this just to keep all of you people quiet for another ten years, and we are going to get all we can out of these two before we let any others in."

I went to "prep" school, and I fought the idiots that ran the place and that went there the whole time I was there.  I tanked an interview at Dartmouth for undergrad because I did not want to do the preppy thing all over again, and because I was never any good or had any interest in secret handshakes, and I worked for the largest consulting firm in the world and fought the partners on the same BS for my eight years there until they had had enough of my telling them it was wrong to lie to people to make extra BILLIONS!!

I just wish everyone would stop the bullshit, do what is best for the planet and everyone on it all the time and allow others to do the same.