Guilt and Guts

IN the spring of 1992, the day after the Los Angeles riots, I went down to South Central L.A. with a group of friends to help clean up. In our jeans and hiking boots and T-shirts emblazoned with progressive slogans, we spent the day piling rubble and ash into curbside mounds and bagging litter. The litter, of course, wasn’t strictly related to the Rodney King verdict, but it was there, and so were we, and there really wasn’t that much we could do anyway, but we were in our twenties, and had never been to that part of Los Angeles before, and we had plastic bags, so . . . connect the dots.

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About the Author

Rob Long

Rob Long is a writer and producer and a co-founder of Ricochet.

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IN the spring of 1992, the day after the Los Angeles riots, I went down to South Central L.A. with a group of friends to help clean up. In our jeans and hiking boots and T-shirts emblazoned with progressive slogans, we spent the day piling rubble and ash into curbside mounds and bagging litter. The litter, of course, wasn’t strictly related to the Rodney King verdict, but it was there, and so were we, and there really wasn’t that much we could do anyway, but we were in our twenties, and had never been to that part of Los Angeles before, and we had plastic bags, so . . . connect the dots.

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