Man of the People.

 I want to share with you one of my oldest memories. It's an important one though, probably the most important one I have.

I was in 1st grade, and was already reading at a 8th grade level. I was a smart kid; always observing and thinking, you know, the kind of kid that gets beat up first, usually while the teacher is watching.

i couldn't tell you the day of the week, the name of my teacher or classmates, heck, I am not 100% sure it was 1st grade and not 2nd. I do remember it was directly after recess.

We had just returned to the classroom when we were ushered into a different class, joining the kids already there. I remember it was right after recess because the teacher for the other class was the duty teacher from the recess before. The one that made eye contact with me while two older boys were beating me up, and then walked away.

We were doing a science thing that morning, and we were there to watch a show on octopus and squid. It was probably an hour or two long, and we learned all about how they lived and reproduced, what they ate, how they interacted with their environment, and above all, how smart they were. This was the mid-80s, but even back then scientist were well aware of how intelligent they were. They solved puzzles, used levers, and could be shown to understand some pretty complicated ideas.

I couldn't help but think that they were smarter than some of my classmates, and at least one teacher.

Then after the lovely presentation, we were served fried octopus...

Fried octopus, you know the intelligent creatures that we had just spent the last at least hour be told how intelligent they were.

I told them I wasn't hungry.
I was encouraged to try it.
I said I didn't feel like it.
I was told it wasn't optional.

The next clear memory I have is throwing up in the bathroom. Not because my body rejected it.

That day I came to the firm conviction of a truth that has been proved over and over again in my life. If you are different enough from someone else, they do not see you as a person, no matter how much evidence to the contrary there is.

If you are a sea creature or a kid that is too smart, doesn't matter.

I am not surprised by a lot of the problems facing the world together. 

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