power

At the age of 8, Kalimah Priforce (then named Karl Lormand) was a child in a municipal New York City foster home. A precocious reader, he had exhausted the home’s small library of donated books, and though he wanted to read more, he could not. He could not visit a public library because children were not allowed to go anywhere but school without an employee escort, and the home provided escorts only for group trips and medical reasons. He could not convince the house’s management to buy more books for the house either. They said it was impossible due to lack of funding.

So he started starving himself.

Three days later, after the on-site staff had switched from ignoring him to contemplating having him committed, he had a chance meeting with an offsite director. The director berated the staff for not alerting him to the situation and for ignoring Kalimah’s requests. The day after that, the foster home gained boxes of new books and Kalimah received special permission to leave the house alone to go to the borough library and museum (with entry fees waived, no less).

My initial thoughts were that this kid was self-centered, manipulative, and powerful, therefore probably dangerous. Sure, sure, there’s the “do the right thing” angle, and “think of the children”, but this kid played hardball with people’s lives and livelihoods. Surely that’s not to be taken lightly?

Fortunately, I got hit upside the head by perspective after a bit of thought. Yes, technically, this person threatened someone’s life, extorted tax money, and grabbed more political power for himself while he was still in grade school than most Americans dream of having their entire lives. On the other hand, one common mugging by one common mugger causes more harm than Kalimah has probably caused over his entire life, and almost certainly more than he’s ever intended to. It calls to mind the proverb that it isn’t guns that kill people.

(In all honesty, Kalimah didn’t get what he wanted because he threatened physical harm. After all, the person he endangered lacked the authority to grant his demands. The real reason his ploy worked was because he threatened people’s jobs. It was inadvertent and unintentional, so he shouldn’t be credited too much.)