Illustration by Josh Hagler

Ten years ago today, the verdict was announced in the Rodney King beating trial. Subsequently, this is also the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots that left more than 50 people dead and more than $2 billion in property damage. King had been in trouble with the law, but the Los Angeles Police Department handled him as if they had stepped back into the 19th century. ćCanāt we all just get along?ä Rodney King asked. Apparently we couldnāt. The trial was a circus with a ludicrous outcome, and things went from bad to worse when the riots broke out. All the anger, resentment and frustration boiled over in the form of broken windows and inflamed cars.

Ten years have passed and things have only changed on the surface. Scratch a little deeper, and the truth is painfully clear. More than $3 billion has been spent renovating the facades of the buildings so businesses could re-open, but the people of South Central live with a 25 percent unemployment rate. LAPD had to pull its reputation out of the mud, but consistency has eluded it. In only 10 years, four different police chiefs have tried and failed. And Rodney King, the fallen hero, what became of him? Today, on the 10th anniversary of the verdict, he is living in a drug-rehab clinic and back in trouble with the law.

King represents the countryās drug addicts ÷ a life filled with the sick pendulum of addiction to sobriety and back to addiction. He also represents the misdemeanor crowd, the three strikes and youāre out failure, the cycle of violence. Once in trouble with the law, always in trouble with the law. More than anything, he represents the underclass. The United States is the worldās leading nation, but it suffers from the terrible disease of the caste system. Born into poverty to die in poverty. And itās just not right.

The underclass is made up of the countless thousands who are the forgotten Americans. They are the homeless, the welfare recipients, the mentally ill, the addicts, the disabled and they are every good American who has to live paycheck-to-paycheck with no security blanket to help them in times of trouble. Each time the government passes another tax break, society shuns them a little more. And every day, babies are born into the underclass of this great nation. They may persevere and fight for the so-called American dream, but they are nevertheless fated to deal with years of poverty, misery, drugs and violence. Some will succeed; most will not be able to break free.

In the early 1990s, there was a big push for the homeless cause, but after some success, it died away as if it had been nothing more than an upper-class fad ÷ like building a summer home or buying a third car. It was embarrassing to be the richest nation in the world and have citizens still living in Third-world conditions. And it was embarrassing for another reason. South Central Los Angeles like other underclass prisons, isnāt made up of whites. The underclass is primarily African American and Hispanic, shoving racial, economic disparity in our faces. And itās just not right.

Two kinds of people grow up in America. One kind goes through life searching for success, trying to find the good, looking for the happy ending. The other kind goes through life searching for success, trying to find the good, looking for the happy ending and carrying a 50-pound backpack uphill. The latter half should receive extra care and attention but instead people like our president write them off. During this war on terrorism, President Bush has also been busy in his first year giving away taxes to the rich and pushing legislation that makes it harder and harder for a level playing field. It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said that economic inequality was the twin of racial inequality, and thatās still true today. We never learn the lesson ÷ not since his time, nor in the last 10 years. And itās just not right.

ćWhat happens to a dream deferred?ä Langston Hughes asked. It explodes like it did 10 years ago in Los Angeles. One smiling, happy, baby boy Rodney King once was. Pobrecito. How was he to know all the terrible mistakes he would make or the opportunities he would never get? He wasnāt lucky to be born with a name like Bush where one can so easily erase mistakes like D.U.I.s, bankruptcies and alcohol addiction. Kingās past? No, thatās our presidentās track record.

One was born lucky, the other not. And itās just not right. Not here in America.