Country Club or Club for Our Country



Country Club or Club for Our Country


*"I would never join a club that would have me as a member."* – Groucho Marx  

Growing up, my playgrounds were public parks. The city streets and green spaces of Washington, D.C., were open to all—except those with country club memberships. These clubs, with their manicured lawns and exclusive gates, were foreign to us.  

My parents valued education. My father graduated law school, yet most of my siblings never finished college. I left George Washington University despite having a full scholarship, finishing high school a year early. Like Thoreau, I believed formal education truly begins when it ends. That belief deepened when I moved from struggling public schools in D.C. to the best institutions in the suburbs. It was my first real lesson in inequality.  

Later, as a tennis professional, I lived in two worlds: one of hard pavement, sweat, and labor, and another of affluence and ease. I became, in essence, an ambassador of recreation.  

Teaching at such prestigious schools as Sidwell Friends, Holton Arms and Saint Albans, I encountered the pressures of privilege—the expectation of Ivy League success, the generational wealth that made struggle a foreign concept. Intelligence was abundant, but insight was scarce.  

My mother grew up near a dairy farm, and I found peace among those who worked the land. Her frugality, shaped by the Great Depression, instilled a deep appreciation for conservation. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., known as “Workington,” was built by people like my father—men and women working sixty-hour weeks to carve out a life.  

I had the opportunity to enter consulting work, to sit in conference rooms, but I chose the sun, the sweat,  physical labor of the outdoors. Later, I traded city life for rural America, seeking refuge in the woods.  

That choice shaped my perspective. Today, we live in a quiet civil war—between laborers and elites, rural communities and urban professionals. Populism has pushed us further apart. Once, moderation held us together; now, both sides retreat into ideological corners, distrustful of one another.  

Amid this conflict, the planet suffers. In the name of profit and consumerism, stewardship is abandoned. The wealth gap has grown—America’s top ten percent control sixty percent of the wealth, while the bottom half holds only six. Yet, politicians propose greater tax cuts for billionaires while reducing Medicaid.  

Without moderation, we risk tipping our country into chaos. But if we recognize the delicate balance—between prosperity and preservation, privilege and labor—perhaps there is still time to protect what matters most.  



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