For me, education was the both the escape from the internalized pain I developed on the streets and the tools i used to emerge from poverty. Yet, I’m still angry. But, why am I angry, and at who? Who is my enemy?

To answer, imagine you and I are about to play checkers, only, you’ve never played before. All that I tell you about the game is that the pieces can move one space forward at a time and that pieces can jump the opposite colored pieces one at a time. I don’t tell you about double (or triple) jumps, or about crowning pieces once they’ve reached the opposite end of the board.

After I told you a very limited way to play the game, we begin to play. Of course, when you see me making moves that I never told you about; you may question the moves. But, I would not answer you. I would just continue the game winning making moves that you don’t know how to make. I would keep several of the rules to myself so that you couldn’t win. The game would be rigged and you would lose.

Life in the United States is like this game of checkers. There are untold rules hidden from people like me so that we are already set up to lose. Those untold rules are my enemy. You may disagree with me, if you choose, but your disagreement probably means that you know the rules and know how to use them to your advantage.

Society’s game is about the acquisition and maintenance of power. I played the game for years without knowing the rules. I lost miserably. If it weren’t for a computer, a Commodore 64, that my parents gave me when I was twelve years old, I would not have the education that should be my escape from anger. I would not have the guts to face my enemy and show you how you, too, can overcome the untold rules and find and express something inside yourself that’s meaningful and important: Everyone has something worth expressing.  Until we all know that, I will keep on fighting.