Still a Slave

     I am free to read, write, say and do what I please. To myself slavery was a thing of the past, referenced in books and taught as a long forgotten obstruction in American history, becoming almost like the stories heard of medieval times and the fantastic romanticized wars retold. But not long ago was there terror and pain spread through out our great country and until we gained concise of our evil deeds, and those deprived and once ignorant of their lives stood up and fought back, did our world change.
     Have we forgotten the bewilderment of our past and subdued ourselves again to a form of slavery? Growing up as a lower middle classed Latino I can see my people (including myself) have not yet opened their eyes to the clues left by others in books and in knowledge. That which we lack-the drive to learn and be educated-has been enslaving people since the beginning of time. A mental chain. We have been surrounded and manipulated to forget our education and instead driven to work in the fields, getting jobs at early ages and earning a struggling income to conform to a materialistic America.
     Like blacks in the 1800’s that were fooled into believing that slavery was their best bet, there only upcoming, given slack once in a wile to stop rebellions, the same is happening with people today. They have been fooled by our capitalist nation to believe that if you “bling” then you have made it, considering that a nice car-that will consume half your months income-is an indication of making the American Dream. What fool I have been to let myself be overtaken and swept in such a manner, letting my ignorance and materialistic mind enslave me to my state of incomprehension. Frederick Douglas, a slave, set himself free from his bewildered mind and learned the secret to his enslavement. In his book, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas an American Slave he reiterates, “…and a little experience soon demonstrated,…that education and slavery were incompatible with each other.” (44)
     To this day it holds true, education and knowledge will set a man free from his brute state of being, rendering himself free from the shackles of others and himself. Although the answer might seem easy enough; the fight will be considerably challenging. Years of manipulation by media have molded young Americans today, confusing my own mind to a great extent. Those seen as making it with large sums of cash have been show to be thugs, gangsters, and dealers, living in the ghetto but living in splendor: Tools to fool.
     How frightened are the leaders that they fear our knowledge. Public school have become under funded and districts with good schools draw boundaries separating children that can and can’t go to the schools, separating economic classes and leaving the poor with a declining education and excelling the wealthy. Although it irrupts a ravenous beast within myself when I think if such enslavements I laugh and think of the fear that those people have instilled in them, knowing that If we were to get a glimpse of the light-education-we would be a threat in taking what they now hold so dear. They fear us.
     Where do I point the finger? Whose greed has sercome to enslaving people for the shear purpose of the “mighty dollar” or fear? I can honestly say that partly at fault is ourselfs, letting our own personal greed impatiently overtake us, enslaving ourselves to our corporate masters and fearing those who fear us more. Unlike the old masters and overseers of the south our masters and overseers that are putting the blinds over us are unseen and unknown, considering running away would be useless, knowing that they are everywhere and can easily track us down and hunt us. But just like so many slaves were able to be liberated we too can break the shackles that hold us down. Education must be a priority, giving us the strength in knowledge to fight back our masters and make those decisions without that blind of ignorance over our eyes. Here I am still a slave to my materialistic masters, confused and manipulated, I have found my strength and pray to God to guild me in my path of knowledge.