There is a late-night carry-out place in my hometown that I love
                           because it is one of the few places there that actually stays open
                           past 9:30. I used to go there all the time after I finished my sign
                           language class at the local community college, which is down the
                           street, and I still stop in occasionally. The last time I was there,
                           the owner, who has gotten to know me, was joking around with a
                           pair of young men buying Cokes and burgers who had apparently
                           just come from a game of midnight basketball. It seems that they
                           have a habit of sneaking out early in order to beat the other players
                           and spectators to the carry-out.

                           I got curious and asked about this, and the owner and the young men told me
                           about the games held at the college gym. The owner said that he gets a big rush
                           around 1 in the morning when the activities end, and that lots of kids hang
                           around his place-- none of them troublemakers, he hastened to add.
                           He also added that he really liked the whole idea of midnight
                           basketball. I knew him well enough to know that his business had
                           struggled sometimes, so I was glad to hear all this; upon later
                           reflection, I had a few other thoughts about it.

                           In today's political discourse, the conservatives who tend to
                           dominate the discussion insist all too often that in our society,
                           business and government are two opposing forces, almost always at
                           odds (with a few exceptions, such as situations when public
                           services are privatized). The great enemies of business and
                           entrepreneurship are government social programs and government
                           regulations, which unceasingly stifle creativity and capitalism.

                           Midnight basketball, which is designed to give young people a
                           constructive nighttime activity and an outlet, was one such
                           program, and it was viciously attacked by conservatives when an
                           expansion in its funding was proposed by President Clinton in 1993.
                           (Lamar Smith, a Republican Congressman from Texas, claimed that
                           midnight basketball was "based on the theory that the person who
                           stole your car, robbed your house and assaulted your family is no
                           more than a would-be NBA star." His words were unusually harsh,
                           but he was not alone in his opinion.)

                           What is interesting about my little experience at the take-out is that it shows
                           that we need not be so dogmatic. There are times when a government program
                           can actually help a private entrepreneur, and not merely in an obvious way such as
                           public service privatization, but in ways no one would expect. I certainly would
                           never have guessed that midnight basketball would be good for anyone's business.
                           (I should add parenthetically that the business owner is Korean, and most of the
                           basketball players are Black; they get along fine, which is not the way it is "supposed"
                           to be according to the ridiculous stereotype we have of relations between those two groups.
                           More power to them!)

                           In our modern economy, large, impersonal forces like government
                           and business may sometimes be at odds, but they may complement
                           each other at other times. Their interaction is too complex to place
                           into a one-size-fits-all theory, as modern conservatism attempts to
                           do. It was a great surprise to come across a small, personal
                           situation that illustrates this truth so neatly.

                                 --Tony Porco, July, 1997

                                    Note: The Lamar Smith quote appeared in Elizabeth Shogren,
                                  "Midnight Basketball is Winner on Street," Los Angeles Times, Aug.
                                   19, 1994. It also appeared in James Carville's book We're Right,
                                   They're Wrong (New York: Random House, 1996).