PREFACE
POWER of CHOICE is an interactive experience that
sheds light on one example of the everyday life of a young adult
living in a tough, urban environment. Once you start this
journey, you will be required to make multiple choices and
dictate the direction of the story.
This book evolved from many years of involvement with and
observations of a particular society for which is greatly
suffering due to illiteracy and mass incarceration.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan where my entire family who
were spread across the entire city raised me. My life was very
interesting. I lived in a predominantly white neighborhood but
spent a lot of time roaming the streets. What was bizarre about
my life was that I was considered a “nigger” because most of
my neighbors were Caucasian, and we were reminded daily
that we were not welcome. On the flip side of things, whenever
I spent time in the streets, I was constantly tested by my
brothas and sistas who thought I wasn’t “nigga enough”
because of the location of my neighborhood where I laid my
head at night and my dialect. Over the years I met people from
all facets of life, which gave me a unique perspective of how
people think, act and how society in general perceive us all. In
a way, you can say this book was written from the ideas, eyes
and minds of two people (The man from the streets and the
man from corporate America).
Once I obtained my B.S in Industrial Design, I worked in the
Engineering field for 14 years. Much of my fieldwork was done
in urban communities on the east coast of the United States. I
eventually met people from all over the world, which opened
my eyes to an ongoing epidemic. Keep in mind that I was aware
that some members of the older generation such as my
grandparents never had a formal education but were very
successful in their endeavors. I never truly realized that such a
large number of people within my current generation and the
generations after me have a major problem with literacy. Not
only was illiteracy a problem, but a large percentage of people
who were incarcerated did not know how to read. I spent
countless hours trying to figure out a way to alleviate this
problem and hopefully help as many people as I could. I would
send pages of books to inmates and tutor whomever I could. I
would also meet with friends with similar ideas such as myself
to come up with possible solutions that would help children in
the beginning stages of learning. After a while, I felt like I was
not doing enough, so I figured I would construct something
that certain people could relate to and one tactic was
developing POWER of CHOICE.
Above all, POWER of CHOICE has one main goal-
MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO READ
It is my hope that this book will inspire you to read, strive for
better and reach for greatness.