April 29, 1992 - Los Angeles Riots - 25th anniversary -

      My family moved to Southern California from Chicago in 1974 when I was 12 years old.  After going off to college, the only other time I lived in Southern California was for a year, from 1991 to 1992, right after my mom passed away, when I lived with my dad before he moved into a nursing home.  I worked for a CPA firm that year.  I was in downtown LA on the morning of April 29, 1992 having the final meeting with an audit client.  When I was leaving downtown Los Angeles, the Rodney king beating trial verdicts were announced - not guilty.  By the time I had crossed into Orange County that afternoon on my drive home, I was listening to the radio as there were numerous reports of violence across Southern California.  My sister Heather and I were glued to the TV that evening as we saw what was happening in our little corner of the world.  When so many people feel like their voices have been taken away and that they don't even matter any more, the result is the Los Angeles riots.  It does not seem like it was 25 years ago.  I also remember when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, with violence erupting all over Chicago.  Unfortunately, as a society, I don't think we have learned very much from those events.