By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
This came to me in a daze.
During a long afternoon with fellow Maryland residents
at a mobbed Loveville MVA last week, my mind drifted. I needed water. Food. Space. Fresh air with normal oxygen to carbon
dioxide ratios. An open highway and loud
rock ‘n roll. Where was the USS
Enterprise? Scotty…come in Scotty…beam
me up. Battling Klingons I can handle;
this I cannot.
There was no escape.
I was shackled to this experience like everyone else. Have mercy on us, MVA. Fortunately the patrons were patient and the
staff did its best. Human volume was the
enemy. The equivalent of four lanes of
traffic were cramming down a single-lane road.
Freedom would come eventually for all; for me it would arrive only after
securing the primary objective - my daughter’s learner’s permit.
After accepting the reality of the situation, my mind sought
a diversion and wandered to this week’s “View”.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, it occurred to me that this wouldn’t
just be any “View”...it would be the 300th edition (truly humbling). “Have to do something special”, I thought,
while holding piles of personal information substantiating my daughter as a
human, an American and a Marylander and the all-important MVA ticket with our
call number.
F4 was my MVA-issued Wonka golden ticket to the vehicular
promise land. I clutched it as a
Bingo-hall-worthy amount of other letters and numbers were broadcast over the
intercom. Then it hit me: This is
confluence of socialism and capitalism.
Must write about the great debate.
Why not? Away we go. Let’s whip this into a
sports-and-politics-and-economics-infused frenzy.
With under 18 months to the 2020 presidential election
and a crowded field of Democrats, one that resembles the 2016 list of
Republican candidates, vying to tangle with (presumably) Donald Trump, the
political season is, for good or ill, upon us.
Among the rhetoric slung from both sides, a popular early right-winged initiative
is to label all Democrats “socialists”, an increasingly inflammatory and
misunderstood term. No word yet if the
FCC, a government entity (oh, the irony), is going to add “socialist” to its infamous
“Seven-dirty-word” list.
Fact: The left isn’t arguing for complete state economic
control (this would be counter to American entrepreneurship). Fact: The right isn’t seeking to dissolve all
government economic presence (unrestrained capitalism lacks conscience). More facts: We are all socialists and
capitalists. Americans of all political
persuasions correctly celebrate and benefit from capitalism and a free market
economy while a host of federal, state and local government (socialist)
programs simultaneously provide essential services (including an ability to
address wealth concentration). Socialism
and capitalism are on an economic continuum (both are needed) and are separate
from our precious democratic political system - and the representative
government it promises – that is a universally supported pillar of our shared American
identity.
As with most things in life, the world of sports mirrors
society’s coexistence of socialism and capitalism. From a socialist perspective, public parks
provide soccer fields, tennis courts and baseball diamonds. Recreation and Parks and public schools offer
youth access to a variety of sports. Further,
at the federal level, Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments required
federally funded institutions to provide all students, regardless of sex, equal
access to athletic opportunities and athletic scholarships proportional to
participation rates.
From a capitalist’s perspective, there are few freer
“markets” than high-level, competitive athletics. Performance rules in this realm. Execute or the bench will become well-acquainted
with the curvature of your derriere.
Race, religion and economic status are transcended; performance is paramount. Moreover, regardless of level, competition
extracts the best out of individuals and teams.
It is all a beautiful thing.
As for my trip to the MVA, F4 was eventually called
and, like many of my fellow Marylanders, I exited with the primary objective
accomplished and enabled, by this state-run, “socialist” entity, to go forth
and contribute in some small way to Maryland’s and America’s free market. To call that a beautiful thing too would be
overstated, but the effective collaboration of government and private citizen suggested
a broader context worthy of a column and personal contemplation.
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