Pickleball Csarina

‘Tis the season for petty tyrants: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Nicholas Maduro, my HOA president, and his hand-picked Pickleball czarina.

            Admittedly, the Pickleball Czarina (hereafter referred to as PBC) has little effect on the world political scene. However, in terms of affecting my daily life, she’s a bigger obstacle than any of the other despots listed above. 

            For those who haven’t made the mistake, yet, think long and hard about whether living in an HOA is worth the harassment. Our HOA president bills himself as ‘the savior’ of our community, although his presence was an accident, and his input was much less than he brags about. Unfortunately, he is seen as a god by the residents who suffered through the bankruptcy of the developer of this community during the ‘Great Recession.’ Those of us who arrived later don’t understand why he has served multiple terms as president, or why a spineless HOA board allows him to bully them into bad decisions. His latest ineffectual negotiation led to the loss of the DirecTV bulk contract, and an immediate increase in residents’ expenses of about $100/month to secure TV services from either DirecTV or AT&T. (Who, it turns out, that even though DirecTV is owned by AT&T, compete with each other.)         

I’ll continue with my one example: Pickleball. There once was a thriving community of Pickleball players in my HOA. The numbers have slowly dwindled down to a fraction of the initial players, thanks to the PBC. Although she was instrumental in bringing PB to our HOA, she is incapable of of running an organization, except by fiat.

Case in point: visitors. None are allowed (in any scheduled activity, lest they add to the wear and tear of the court). There are an estimated 1000 people who live in our community. A generous estimate would be there were fifty people who played the game on a regular basis, twenty-five on MWF and the same number on TThS. About half that number now play, driven off by the PBC’s arbitrary edicts. Being an excellent player, the PBC plays on MWF and routinely suggests that less skilled players play on the “beginners’ days”: TThS. She doesn’t want to play with people who aren’t a challenge to beat, despite the fact that some of these so-called beginners have avoided her and played on TThS for going on two years. 

So, to use the MWF players as an example since I am most familiar with them, there may be at most 25 regular players, of which maybe 8-10 show up on any given MW or F. If everyone of us brought a guest twice a year, then that would mean 50 guests, spread out over (3 days x 52 weeks) 156 play dates. That’s about one guest per week. Two, if the TThS crowd also brought two guests per year. The additional wear and tear on the asphalt courts would be horrendous! Not! 

Still, the board is spineless enough to not make an exception to this dumb rule for Pickleball, or to rewrite it altogether for every activity. Petty tyrants abound. And this is only one small example of HOA rationale. Think twice about joining one. The name of this HOA is not mentioned above because I do not want to suffer any more harassment, having been banned from playing pickleball for a week for arguing the above point.

Referendum vs. Amendments

 

National Referendum

By now it should be obvious to most voters that the federal government has become dysfunctional, grid-locked, and almost evenly divided by politicians who care more about themselves or private interests than the country. It is unable to govern effectively because of the divisiveness. Our Constitution, written in the eighteenth century, although a giant leap forward in its time, is not suited for the present fast moving culture of the twenty-first century. The ability of the voters to modify the Constitution to fit present circumstances is woefully inadequate. A two-thirds majority of Senators and Representatives must approve the proposal and three fourths of the states must approve it.

In almost every statewide election in Florida, there are proposed changes in laws and regulations. I suggest the next Constitutional Amendment be The Referendum Amendment. Voters need to be involved with making timely changes in the Constitution.

The Referendum Amendment might work like this: If 5% of registered voters in every state sign identical petitions for an amendment, then that proposed amendment would appear on the next presidential election ballot. Every voter in the country would then vote on that amendment.

Conservatives would be able to put a balanced budget, line item veto, or term limits amendment to a national vote. Liberals could propose national health care, a ban on assault weapons, repeal of the Second Amendment, etc.

The National Referendum Amendment certainly beats having rioters in the Capitol or another Civil War.