Fight on

Last week felt vaguely like a scene from a Tale of Two Cities.

In one city, men and women leapt up and down, cries of elation

rang through office hallways and cellphones chimed repeatedly with

the first notes of the USC Trojans fight song.

The Trojans had won football’s national championship, and in

Newport-Mesa -- a.k.a. SC South -- there was joy and there was more

joy. Heck, there was even more joy than that. After all, you can’t

turn your head in most parts of the community without seeing a USC

flag waving cardinal and gold above a front door.

“Fight on” was indeed the cry of the week. Just not in that other

city, populated by, perhaps, a few actual Sooners, Bruins-a-plenty, a

Cal Bear here and there, and maybe, just maybe, closeted, but

nevertheless feisty, Fighting Irish.

They weren’t cheering. They were the ones cringing at the

trumpeted cheers and business folk acting half their age.

A painful week it was for them.

But hope springs eternal. And it levels every playing field.