Open Heart Beats a Closed Mind

I can count on one hand-- maybe two fingers--the number of times I’ve reversed my position on something for the record. Flip-flopping is a flaw, not a virtue. Some could even call it cowardly.

After oral arguments in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court last week, however, I could feel myself switching sides.

This is why we listen. This is why a judge or juror weighs all of the facts, why a mind is designed to remain open. Or sometimes it is simply why attitudes need to change with the times.

I once defended smokers’ rights, until the hazards of secondhand smoke became more clear. I opposed helmet laws, before moving to a state where motorcycles weave in between cars, multiplying my chances of hitting one.

Then came something inconceivable--a willingness to deny a disabled person his or her equal rights.

Who among us could be so cold? Who could find a valid reason to tell a physically impaired individual to give up?

I could.

Show me a disabled human being who wants to be a doctor, a lawyer, a commander in chief, no problem. Teacher, actor, truck driver, by all means.

But exceptions must be made.

Which is why in the 1990s, when a young man with what we cavalierly call a bum leg announced that his ambition was to make a living playing golf, I agreed with those of the opinion that he should not.

Not as long as he demanded that life change its rules just for him.

*

Casey Martin, now 28, has spent years contesting this. Although he does indeed earn money playing golf, the Professional Golf Assn. has successfully blocked his bid to do so while using an electric cart.

Citing it as an unfair advantage, the PGA’s viewpoint is that with a considerable amount of prize money at stake, rules are rules. One pro golfer cannot ride while everyone else must walk.

This position has always made perfect sense to me.

Not to everybody. For example, former Sen. Bob Dole has long championed Martin’s cause, saying: “I didn’t know PGA stood for ‘Please Go Away.’ ”

But a hurdler can’t be carried from hurdle to hurdle. He or she has to run the distance in between.

A diver can’t be carried up a ladder. He or she must first get up to the board, then do the dive.

Golf involves walking. In a brief prepared for last week’s Supreme Court arguments, the PGA Tour’s lawyers calculated that over four rounds of tournament golf, a player might hike as much as 25 miles.

A “Senior Tour” for golfers 50 or older exists, allowing electric carts. But this is of no use to Casey Martin, half their age.

More than one top golfer has argued that being permitted to ride a cart would have enabled him to play as successfully in his 40s as he had before nagging injuries began to curtail his game.

The logic seemed inescapable. Casey had no case. A baseball player with a bad leg could swing a bat, yet you’d still make him run to first base. Physical deterioration has always been a factor in sport.

So despite the Americans With Disabilities Act that was signed into law by President Bush on July 26, 1990, barring discrimination, it wasn’t easy to see how Casey Martin could justify preferential--not equal-- treatment.

Walking is “an aspect of the competition,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor observed a few days ago, with Martin in the courtroom.

But maybe I’m losing my grip, because the more I think about it, the more Martin’s cause seems just.

*

Golf is a business, yes. Golf has rules, yes. Yet if nothing in it ever changed, players would still be using wooden clubs. Seniors would have no tour. Country clubs would still be restricted.

Exceptions can and have been made. Golfers failing to qualify for certain tournaments have often been awarded “exemptions.” Play was so slow at a PGA event in Hawaii last weekend, a number of players were driven from tee to green.

Decisions such as these are made on a case-by-case basis, so why not in Casey Martin’s?

Other sports bend rules. Quarterbacks may not be hit in ways other football players are. Baseball lets some of its players bat without ever taking the field, and lets some of them pitch without ever coming to bat. The Olympics reschedules events so an athlete can compete in more than one.

Casey Martin may lose his right leg. It is very possible that it will ultimately be amputated.

He is not looking to cheat. It is OK by him if everybody rides a cart. But golf is more compassionate toward able 50-year-olds than it is to disabled 28-year-olds. The older guys get a tour of their own. Martin gets “Rules are rules.”

There must be a compromise.

In life, we adapt as we go. We make many things accessible to people that once were not, because it is the civilized thing to do. It isn’t wishy-washy to ignore someone one day, then assist him another.

If fellow golfers can’t lift a finger for Casey Martin, they are the ones with the handicap.

*

Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to: Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com