OPINION:
How absurd would it be if the National Basketball Association were to suddenly mandate that in the interest of “diversity” (whatever that actually means) a requirement would be instituted whereby every team roster had to include a general-population proportionality of white and Asian players (“Head coaches laud NFL’s diversity moves at league meetings,” Web, March 29)? What if the NBA also forced teams to give these players a “fair share” of game-playing time? Any such requirements would, of course, be immediately dismissed, as they ought to be.
The NBA, absent any government intervention, has become the phenomenon it is precisely because the free-choice marketplace has allowed those with exceptional athletic skill and endurance to rise to the top. The same is true of the National Football League. Yet the latter, yielding to a small yet vocal group of ideologues, will now require that each team have at least one minority or woman among its coaching staff. Why? Because there is currently a lack of minority and female coaches in the league.
Perhaps someone can explain to the NFL why no such test, in reverse, has ever been applied to player ranks. America was founded on the ideals of individual freedom and property ownership of the self. While it may have already taken too many decades for the U.S. to match these ideals with reality, it certainly is no time to allow government or ideologues to hamstring this wonderful progress with mandatory, made-up intrusions that rob individuals of their precious right to succeed or fail on their own.
That central idea, expressed across 200 years, has been foundational to the exceptional success that has made the U.S. the attraction it is to millions around the world.
H. LEE LAPOLE
Loveland, Ohio
Please read our comment policy before commenting.