I never considered myself to be "Yacht Club" material being basically
a well educated redneck. However, I do belong to such a club that is
very informal being a "Yacht Club" in name only. I have heard that
some of the older members want ti to be an exclusive organization open
only to a certain class of people but have never heard this expressed
openly. Around here, there would be no market for such an
organization. I want the club to become more open to younger people
who cannot afford to own boats or maybe they own a trailer boat.
Recently, the club obtained an older small 22' boat and it was fixed
up for club members use and I thought this would be a great tool to
attract such younger people. A new guy came along with no sailign
experience so I volunteered to take him out on it. He is younger but
not that young, works for govt in a capacity where you would expect
him to have leftist tendencies. So, we went sailing, almost no wind
but we both became familiar with the boat that was also new to me.
Not knowing him, I steered clear of any topics of conversation that
might cause problems such as politics or religion. He did not take
such care.
He discussed Chavez in Venezuela defending him and said that he
thought he recent voting there on allowing Chavez to be Pres for life
was "Stolen just like the 2000 US election". I shrugged and said
nothing but I was very disappointed in him. I considered this to be a
serious lapse of judgement on his part, bringing up such a volatile
issue when he has no idea of my politics. Considering this judgement
problem and that he had no idea of how to tie a bowline made me wonder
how he could even consider being a cruising sailor.
Now, the issue that had me pondering and that will get me flamed. Do
lefties simply lack good judgement on such a socio/political issue as
bringing up politics in such a situation (I have been in similar
situations involving lefties)? IS it POSSIBLE that the old fogies in
the club are right about social class and wanting to exclude such
persons due to poor judgement? It is possible that I am simply very
disappointed in this guy that I am drawing wrong conclusions.