No Women Allowed

Augusta National Golf Club was established in 1933 as an all-male golf club.  It's a private club that doesn't receive government assistance - it operates solely on the dues from its members and the money it makes from the Masters golf tournament every year, which is arguably the most famous golf tournament in the world. 

The 10th fairway and green at Augusta National Golf Club

Its all-male membership is causing liberals great consternation again - every year, as the Masters tournament is gearing up, this controversy rears its ugly head and more and more pressure comes to bear on the owners of Augusta to do away with their all-male tradition and start allowing women as members.

This is still a free country, right?  I'm not so sure anymore.  A private entity should be free to run its organization as it sees fit, as long as it's not infringing on the rights of others.  As a private club, they are entitled to whatever rules and regulations they want.  If they want to close every year from March through June, so be it.  If they want to require their members to wear hats while playing golf, so be it.  If they want to allow only men to become members, also, so be it.  Anyone is free to start his or her own private golf club that only allows women as members.  Also fine would be a private club that wants to allow only seniors as members.  I don't hear anyone crying foul that the United Negro College Fund doesn't allow whites.  Again, as a private organization that is not being subsidized by public funds, e.g. tax dollars, they are free to provide scholarships to only blacks.  If you don't like it, then start your own and provide scholarships to whatever group you want to cater too. 

That is what freedom is all about.  Part of the greatness of freedom is that we are free to do things that others don't agree with.  Augusta is pissing a lot of people off, and it's their right to do so.

Unfortunately, the pressure of the left will eventually be too much for Augusta to resist, and their policy of allowing only male members will be a thing of the past.  It's not just verbal clamoring that is taking its toll - money is being funnelled to movements to end this abhorrent policy of this private club running its business as it sees fit without bothering anyone while doing so.  And where there's money, there's power - power enough, even, to bring down one of the most storied golf clubs in the world.  And once the do-gooders have accomplished their mission, what will they be able to brag about?  That they eviscerated the freedom from a private organization in the land of the free and the home of the brave - not an accomplishment I would be proud of.  It's not about freedom to the anti-Augustans - it's about having things their way, without regard to the freedom of others.  Basically, you are free as long as your choose to exercise your freedom in a manner they approve of. 

The President has even taken time out of his busy days of running up the national debt and ridding us of freedoms through Obamacare's personal mandate and the National Defense Authorization Act:  "Women should be admitted.  It's long past time when women should be excluded from anything."  Basically, what he's saying is that it's long past time that people are free to decide who they will invite to be part of their private clubs.

For the sake of all of us who cherish freedom, I hope Augusta National continues to fight this war against liberty.  If they do continue the fight but lose, it foreshadows the loss of freedoms across the board.  Augusta losing its freedom may not affect you, but it opens the door to the eventual attack on freedoms you hold dear, and this will continue until freedom is a thing of the past, something we will tell our grandchildren about when we tell stories of the once great America where freedom rang from coast to coast.