Fifteen years ago from yesterday, there was without a doubt one of the largest riots in America’s history. Los Angeles erupted into rioting and the entire nation suddenly paid attention.

For those of you who were either too young or apathetic to know what was going on, I’ll redirect you to the Wiki page with all of the gory details. Retrospectively, people had grown tired. They were tired of being oppressed, tired of being poor, tired of their fellow man, and tired of being tired. The only way most people knew to react was by assaulting, killing, burning, rioting, looting, and destroying anything they wanted. The whole thing was sparked by the trial of the Rodney King beatings, but turned out to be just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

In the end, America hasn’t changed much. There is still oppression, negligence, hatred, racial tension, and turmoil as much as existed in 1991 and 1992. The only lesson to learn is America has selective short term memory.