What is it like to be perceived as a nobody? To be invisible? What is it like to know that on one side of an imagined line is the road to hunger, reckless behavior, despair and potentially prison, and on the other, freedom from the dangers of poverty — and possibly a path to success and purpose in life?
Tragically, millions of Americans know the answer to those questions, but few put themselves into a position to effect positive and lasting change. Tom Seeman was able to cross that imagined line, find success and enrich lives of those less fortunate.
Just over a year ago, I was introduced to Seeman by a mutual friend who felt — because of my own childhood framed by poverty, dysfunction, evictions and homelessness — that Seeman’s childhood and story would resonate with me. It did.
As a white child and teenager, Seeman grew up living in a predominately Black housing project in one of the tougher neighborhoods of Toledo, Ohio. Fate had deposited him into a family of 14, where alcoholism and anger regularly reared their ugly heads.
During several conversations, he told me that as a survival skill within his neighborhood, he learned to both take punches from and make friends with the young Black and white men whose home life was as chaotic and uncertain as the streets.
Because of his home life, come the fourth grade, Seeman made a shocking — but liberating — announcement. When his teacher asked his class to name the........