Soccer Celebrations

Early Tuesday morning at 6th Street and Vermont Avenue, joyous, young Korean Americans flew stunningly beautiful flags and blew car horns to celebrate a soccer victory. A marvelous scene, but traffic was moving slower than usual for that time of day. The LAPD was out in force by the time I walked back after breakfast, and the celebration had been squelched. After all, we can’t allow spontaneous, exuberant, law-abiding celebrators to make Koreatown employees late to work. On June 14, commuters from as far away as Long Beach and Riverside were late to work because of the Lakers victory parade--but that’s different.

James Ashley Shea

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