I had the opportunity to go to heaven on earth this week. My friend Dave took me to a practice round for The Masters Championship at Augusta National. There are few experiences in life that have surpassed my wildest expectations but my visit to Augusta National was among them. The course was stunningly beautiful, pristine but lush with color and textures. The only thing that could have enhanced the experience was to be alone on the course or at least minus about 10,000 other people. The thrill of seeing some of the world’s most famous and talented golfers was just icing on the cake. We ended up sitting for several hours in the grandstand at the 16th hole. It’s a short water hole surrounded by sand traps. After golfers leave the tee box its traditional for the crowd to yell, “Skip it.” Most golfers comply easily with the request, dropping a golf ball at the edge of the pond and whacking it with an iron to send the ball gently gliding then skipping across the water, hopefully bouncing onto the green. I could have sat there all day into the night. Lin Wen-Tang a golfer from Chinese Taipei didn’t understand the ritual at first and had to be coached by one of the spectators and his caddy on the skipping ritual. Once he understood, he rose excitedly to the challenge and managed to skip a few balls to the delight of the gallery. Fuzzy Zoeller shared his tee time with an 8 year old kid who managed to hit the ball a mile into the water. A group of the younger golfers seem to relish the chance to best their rivals in the group; their joyful competition at the water was delightful to watch.

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Remember Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the Dillon, S.C., girl who asked Congress for stimulus funds to rehab her dilapidated middle school? I thought she was an inspiration for America; wingnuts at the Washington Times thought she was “irresponsible” for asking government to solve her problems.

Now her governor, Mark Sanford, has taken that line of thinking one step further: He told Fox’s great poet Glenn Beck that taking stimulus funds to fix schools like Bethea’s would be “fiscal child abuse,” while rejecting the funds helps kids. No, I’m not kidding.

The folks at Think Progress have the video. Here’s the key exchange between the butt-kissing Beck and the esteemed gentleman from South Carolina:

BECK: But your point, if I’m not mistaken is, no, no, no, you’re taking care of the children in South Carolina by not taking it. Can you explain that? […]

SANFORD: Since we don’t have any of this money that’s now being dispensed from Washington, D.C.; since we’re going out and printing money and we’re issuing debt to solve a problem that was created by too much debt; since that’s taking place, and since those costs will be borne by the next generation, in fact it is sort of fiscal child abuse to do what we’re doing.

Of course it’s clear that rejecting stimulus funds disproportionately hurts South Carolina’s black community. The state’s unemployment rate is highest in black counties, and schools in the so-called corridor of shame are of course mainly African-American. Sanford cares about one set of kids, and it’s clear whose they are. The GOP’s Southern Strategy is alive and well, even if it’s only working in a handful of states. Too bad Ty’sheoma is unfortunate enough to live in one of them.

Clearly, the irresponsible teen should have had the sense to be born somewhere else, and preferably in a different color skin. Next time she’ll know better.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/04/01/sanford_beck/

MARCH 20, 2009 - - Blinded by ideology, Gov. Mark Sanford can’t see what’s happening economically to people across the Palmetto State and how his behavior is hurting. Our state’s devotee to the notion that government should be so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub is the anti-Dale Carnegie:He’s winning enemies and influencing few. Sanford’s fiscal insensitivity is manifest in a seeming obsession to turn down $700 million in federal stimulus money that state lawmakers already have included in the $6 billion state budget that’s tight because of the national downturn Just this week as more than 10 percent of South Carolina workers are unemployed – the second highest jobless rate in the nation – Sanford said he’d ask again for a waiver from President Barack Obama to use the $700 million to pay down debt instead of seeking more immediate job relief.(In a stinging editorial, The State newspaper wondered what part of “no” did Sanford not understand.) Sanford’s windmill-tilting efforts on the federal stimulus package highlight how he’s disconnected from everyday people’s troubles.State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, characterized the governor’s position so well recently that it bears repeating:“If my house is burning down, I don’t get in my car and drive to the bank to pay off the mortgage. I put out the fire.

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