a thought about los angeles...

la makes me proud to be an american. or at least part of a giant science experiment that has gone awry.

there is nowhere else in the entire world, short of new york or london, with such a brilliant diversity of people all crammed together in such a small area. there is nowhere else on earth where a dude like me can have clients in need of armenian, french, arabic, farsi, vietnamese, tagalog and spanish language interpreters in one courthouse in one four hour pre-trial calendar... and have my clients' mothers bring me a stack of tamales and a foil wrapped plate of luchon as a treat for helping their kid navigate the (il)legal system...

where will this diversity land us as our state's three hour cruise crashes into the island? chopping each other's arms off like central africa? systematic racial cleansing ala serbia? the cold segregation of western european cities? or something better. something nicer. something reflected in the fact that people in la seem to have no trouble merging together on the freeway. or that we can all kick back and enjoy watching the dodgers play. or that there are so many of us here that all we can do is get along or self-destruct.

though the la riots back in the 1990s featured enough black on white on black on korean on black violence to hold us over for a few more centuries, i think things are looking up. the most recent civil disturbances (post-game lakers parades cum riots) featured a rainbow flag of diversity setting dumpsters on fire and flipping over cars. and any community that can riot together, can stay together and play together....