Over and done with

The court case between Martha Burk and Augusta is over.

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Everybody lost.

Except her attorneys.

The city lost $120,000 in negotiated attorneys fees to Burk's lawyers - as well as having lost its effort to bring order and safety to protests along narrow and crowded Washington Road during Masters Week.

Burk's legal team had challenged the city's protest ordinance, which prevented her from amassing a group at Augusta National's main gate. A federal judge had ruled against her, but two hearings in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals came out in her favor.

The Augusta Commission this week decided to cut the city's losses and pay the settlement.

Also losing in all of this is the cause of women, which was never going to be helped by Burk anyway. She was, after all, attacking a private club that has donated millions to charity, much of which has benefited women. If her protest in 2003 hurt the city, which it was intended to do, it hurt businesses owned and populated by women. Moreover, how much good could her $120,000 in lawyers' fees have done if funneled, instead, to the local shelter for domestic violence?

Augusta can change its ordinance to conform with the ruling. Augusta and Augusta National will go on quite nicely. All Martha Burk has done is cause damage. But it is already past.

--From the Saturday, July 31, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle