A Great Event, in a Great Place

The final score was irrelevant. When an event unfolds as regally as Super Bowl XXVII, everyone is a winner--especially Southern California. Not that there wasn’t a lot of tension built into the event.

After all, it might have rained.

It didn’t of course. This is Southern California.

A place with its ups and downs--like everywhere else in the world--Southern California, sure, has its tensions, disparities, share of stupidities.

But we also have a great many people who love their country and love living here. For the past week, the wave of visitors to Southern California came to appreciate what we are all about.

We’re not that difficult to understand. We bounce back. We are not easily discouraged. This past week of parties and events--culminating in Sunday’s extravaganza--may not have shown Southern California at its most typical. Nothing is typical, anywhere, about Super Bowl week.

But the attitude here this past week was not at all atypical either: Yes, this is a place that is scarcely unmindful of having endured the worst riots in American history. Yes, it is a place that’s still struggling with the worst economic downturn in anyone’s memory. And it is a place that has a whole lot yet to do if it is to proceed apace as perhaps (we like to think) the best place to live, work and raise children in America.

But few here doubt that we shall overcome. That’s our optimism. And a lot of people saw that sunny optimism on display this past week.