A land without golf carts is not a land of freedom

It is believed to be Frederick Douglass who first said:

“A land where a 92-year-old can’t drive a golf cart to a store is a land without freedom.”

Sure, these words have been invented by the author and then randomly and haphazardly attributed, but that makes no difference. Because now these words ring more true than when they were first uttered, lo’ those seconds ago.

To wit: The decision of the Cedaredge (Colorado) town marshal Tom Early to ban golf carts from the streets of his quiet, little mountain town.

One problem with Early’s decision: Common sense. It seems some folks in small towns use a golf cart as a main source of transportation. People like 92-year-old Bill Glassford.

Glassford used a golf cart to get to the grocery store for him and his 95-year-old, wheelchair-bound wife, helping to keep their lives as independent as possible. Now, Glassford tells the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that “got a warning ticket from local police a couple of weeks ago and was threatened with arrest if he rode his golf cart on city streets again.”

Members of the Deer Creek Village Golf Club have also been inconvenienced by this, as several members used their golf carts for transportation to the course.

Early, who will be running his next campaign under the slogan “Why would senior citizens need dignity?” said that he knew it was a controversial issue, but the growing population of the town made it necessary.

The population did break the magic 2,000 barrier a couple years back, after all.

Still, how does that help the Glassford’s. Sure, Early and Co. have told them they’d be better off if they just relented and became wards of the state, but the Glassford’s want to stay independent. Just want to go to the store by themselves.

“He has to depend on the neighbors to take us, whether we just want a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk,” Lillie Glassford told the Daily Sentinal. “It’s very inconvenient.”

If only Tom Early had listened to those words that Frederick Douglass never really uttered. Then he would know that golf carts can mean freedom. And then he wouldn’t look quite so silly.

–WKW