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Lakers fans along the parade route on Wednesday. AP Photo/Richard Vogel
One of the crucial roles professional sports have is uniting a city in catharsis.
In July 1967 the city of Detroit endured riots that claimed 43 lives and injured 467. In addition 7,231 people were arrested while damages estimated from $40 million to $80 million (not adjusted for inflation). In 1968 when the Detroit Tigers faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, the city came together to cheer them on to victory.
When looking at images of the crowd Wednesday afternoon, it was moving to see the people. For all the strife people are facing today - economic uncertainty, global instability and a constant bombardment of fear - none of that mattered.
For one day race, gender, age, class, sexuality, political affiliation didn’t matter. The afternoon was about uniting in showing support for a team that gave the fans many moments of excitement since the end of October.
There are very few things in this world that can bring people together like this. Here in Los Angeles the only recent public gatherings that brought people together like this were the 2003 antiwar rallies and the Day without an Immigrant in 2006. The difference with the Lakers is that this was a gathering of happiness rather than protest.
Much had been made of the $1 million price tag for the City of Los Angeles. A lot of people still feel resentment and a sense that a celebration is mere frivolity given the budget crisis in the city. There are teachers that need to be paid, workers that need jobs and essential services that are threatened to be cut.
However that is neither here nor there since the city ended up getting private donors to pick up the tab. The city paid nothing.
In the end the city is still in a fiscal crisis, people are still unemployed, Tehran is still mired in election controversy and all of the world’s ills are still there. But the people of Los Angeles had a few short hours of joy. People still willing to deride that are missing the point.
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you're joking, right?! try explaining that "uniting a city in catharsis" is important to the shop owners that were looted and/or the taxpayers that will be paying for damages to the metro lines.
I'm going to have to agree. The fact that people appear to need a group of guys throwing a ball at a hoop in order to convince them to walk down the street and be friendly to their neighbors is actually a sad reminder of the current state of society. There is no reason why an official parade should have to be thrown in order to convince people not to riot and damage property. I enjoy sports as much as the next guy but people should be getting together and celebrating the many things in life that are far more important than sports.
I should also have the right to marry and donate blood. We should not be in the position to have a $500 million hole in the city budget. But these are realities. This parade, with the Lakers as a catalyst, allowed the hundreds of thousands on the streets and in the Coliseum along with millions watching on tv to forget about these realities just for a bit.
We don't live in a utopian society thought up by scholars in their ivory towers. We will never get there. This is the world we live in, and we've got to work with what we've got.
I'm just saying those few hours of joy were very valuable. Forgive me for trying to be positive for once.
Jimmy, I apologize for bringing you down and applaud you for taking the optimistic view of the situation. There is a negative side to it all that you are clearly well aware of and were choosing not to focus on for the moment. These types of celebrations do demonstrate the potential people have to create a positive sense of community. It is all to easy to focus on why that positive sense of community is missing in our daily lives rather than focus on the rare times like these when it is present.
Bravo, Jimmy! This was a great moment for the city. Anybody carping about bad behavior is mixing up what happened Sunday night -- which sucked -- with what happened on Wednesday -- which was beautiful. I'm sorry if people out there don't appreciate what sports do for them, even if they don't realize it. Sports are an inspiration to youth, a cathartic form of entertainment for adults. The result is a better civic mood in these difficult times. Perhaps more important, sports are an economic powerhouse that generates thousands of jobs in this city so that people can feed their families. This parade was well worth it, and as somebody who attended and reported on it, I'm glad to say it went VERY smoothly.
This is "my" first championship since moving to LA five years ago. I love the feeling of the city. Quite special. Yay Jimmy.
Race riots are not even close to similar to rioting over your team's WIN.
I wasn't connecting what happened Sunday to the race riots in Detroit. I was relating how sports have the ability to unite a city.
Jimmy - you are correct, this is not a utopian society and and you are forgiven for trying to be positive (although, not really sure how you equate my comment to not being positive).
I was just commenting on the fact that, as evident by all our comments, not everyone in the city was united by the lakers championship. In fact, i bet some now feel more divided. something that is great a the city is a gross generalization and does not mean that it is great for all individuals.
sure passive spectator sports
have the ability
to make people forget their lives for a little bit.
that's cool.
seriously, it is.
yet, so does drinking at the bars
going to a cheezy movie,
burning man, etc.
it's a dissociative state.
it has certain benefits.
yet even more importantly
is dealing with the eventual
disappointment of the "crash" or "comedown"
to think that that
a few brief hours of civility
is the highest achievement
the loftiest moment
our civilization can hope for
in the face of very real crises
is not, i think that "hopeful" of an idea
we as a collective
*can* do better.
we *must* do better than that.
we must learn to put the same passion,
energy and brighter part of the human spirit
into the mundane details of every day life
and not dismiss or snark
or demonize the real issues
as "oh well"
not wave the wand of misdirection
to suggest that speaking about
such things is somehow pretentious
or "ivory tower".
because sticking the ostrich head in the sand
certainly isn't the solution either.
sure passive spectator sports
have the ability
to make people forget their lives for a little bit.
that's cool.
seriously, it is.
yet, so does drinking at the bars
going to a cheezy movie,
burning man, etc.
it's a dissociative state.
it has certain benefits.
yet even more importantly
is dealing with the eventual
disappointment of the "crash" or "comedown"
to think that that
a few brief hours of civility
is the highest achievement
the loftiest moment
our civilization can hope for
in the face of very real crises
is not, i think that "hopeful" of an idea
we as a collective
*can* do better.
we *must* do better than that.
we must learn to put the same passion,
energy and brighter part of the human spirit
into the mundane details of every day life
and not dismiss or snark
or demonize the real issues
as "oh well"
not wave the wand of misdirection
to suggest that speaking about
such things is somehow pretentious
or "ivory tower".
because sticking the ostrich head in the sand
certainly isn't the solution either.
Oh, are we doing poetry hour? Neat! I wrote this in high school:
Haiku, I hate you,
You're so hard to do--(leaves fall
in autumn)...haiku.
Anyway, parades, festivals, and celebratory events are important for civic pride. There is a price tag to all of these things. Not all of them will be to your personal taste. Let's not close down neighborhood festivals, community parades, and holiday events. Let's let people have their (privately funded, even!) parades.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County government has more than 8,000 phones that never ring. The annual cost to taxpayers? At least $1.5 million and climbing, as reported today.
So let's focus on the important stuff please? Close that loophole and the city could have paid for the parade with cash to spare.
but umm, wait a minute, that's not misdirection. it's a pesky *fact*. facts are so ivory tower. why do you hate liberty and america? ; >
Give me a break.
The parade didn't do any uniting. The people who were enthused about the Laker win already agreed. Nothing changed, not even for that one day. I'll tell you what definitely did happen on that day, though. More people got drunk and nourished their sense of entitlement to something entirely corporate.
And the "focus on the positive" argument is bull. If you focus on the positive, nothing gets done. Focus on the negative and work to fix it. We don't need to distract people from their problems. We need to fix them.
Also, the city most definitely did pay for this parade. The private donors only contributed $850,000 of the $1 million. We still paid $150,000 dollars.
A lot of you guys are amazing. Dont hate on people who want to celebrate a long awaited victory. Teachers, kids and schools have been getting screwed in this city for YEARS and very few stood up and tried to make a difference. When championships were won here before there was nothing but praise and great feelings by fans and non-fans alike. But now that the shit has finally hit the fan with the city and state budgets and people are losing jobs, all of a sudden its a bad thing to be happy for your team winning. Stop directing your anger at a shitty situation toward people who have nothing to do with it. Pardon us for being happy about something in the city for once. Wow... can't wait for when the Dodgers finish the season. We might have protesters and haters pissed off at Dodger fans too.