A letter written by Beth Daniels, headlined “Can the Sexist Comments,” was chosen as the best for 2003. A letter by Voit Gilmore, “A Difficult Goodbye,” was named best for 2004. Both writers re-ceived plaques. Their letters are reprinted below.
Can the Sexist Comments
From Dec. 17, 2003: Stan Hunt’s column on keeping women separate from men in major golf tournaments was one of the most blatantly sexist pieces of writing I have ever read. The fact that Mr. Hunt admits that he would not have approached the subject if it were not for accepting a dare fails to release him from the responsibility of writing a fair, thoughtful, and balanced opinion.
Instead, he snidely writes, “I figured that would be the end of her trying to play with men,” when Anika “failed” to make the cut at the Colonial. Obviously, Mr. Hunt fails to understand the heart and psyche of truly great competitors who measure their success not by the number of times they may fall short of their intended mark but by the strength of their conviction to keep forging ahead.
Furthermore, Mr. Hunt wasted the entire last half of his column attempting to justify his premise for excluding women from male tournaments on the obvious point that women golfers, even the best in the world, cannot hit the ball as far as their male counterparts. So what? Anyone who has ever played competitively knows how much luck, timing, one’s short game, weather conditions, club selection, and perhaps most importantly, the state of one’s mental game affects the outcome of tournament play. Just ask John Daly.
Finally, there is no place in any article in any publication of merit for the archaic and insulting quotation that Mr. Hunt attributed to his father. I’ve got some news for the male members of the Hunt family: this is the 21st century. Women are not only “let” into bars and “allowed” to wear pants, but they are contributing their unique talents at the highest levels of politics, commerce, academia, the military, and athletics. And doing a damned fine job of it, too.
Beth Daniels
Southern Pines
A Difficult Goodbye
FROM MAY 21, 2004: This is not one of those irate letters denouncing President Bush or lauding candidate Kerry or prophesying the end of civilization.
In the midst of our worldly woes, this is a letter of hope, faith and promise for man-kind. Elizabeth Morrison Barron died May 11. As The Pilot obituary noted, she was a young artist, in love with nature, its beauty and its bounty, especially horses, dogs and birds.
As Elizabeth reached the end of her cruel four-year struggle with cancer, she told her loving husband, Chuck Barron, and her devoted parents, Myrtis and Maxwell Morrison, of her spiritual visit with a hawk that repeatedly circled her home in Southern Pines.
Hundreds of us crowded Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church on May 15 to say goodbye to this beautiful young woman, taken from her life’s potential far too soon. After wonderfully appropriate remembrances by the Rev. Grady Perryman and the Rev. Buddy Olney, we quietly, sadly departed the church.
Elizabeth’s friend and neighbor, Julie Johnson, looked up toward the blue of heaven. There, atop the church’s highest cross, was the hawk.
Voit Gilmore
Pinehurst
