Everyone Has a Reason for Entering Politics | a Compton Origin Story

Interview by Penelope Roberts

Penelope: What were the three motivating factors to run for Governor of California?

Louis: One of them is an interaction I had with a student from Compton. When I first started teaching after leaving the Nissan Strategy & Research division for product development, I was a substitute teacher who visited many campuses all over South Los Angeles.

I went to schools I never saw again. One of them was a middle school in Compton. When I was leaving the only day that I was there, a little girl followed me as she saw me leaving campus.

She said, "Hey!" I turned around, and she was small, a sixth grader in a special ed class who had pigtails. "You coming back here?"

"Probably not," I said.

"They send me everywhere," I told her.

"It's not fair," she said. "They don't care about us at this school."

"What do you mean?"

"Our teacher just talks about being an actress, and the counselors don't care. Nobody cares. Nobody talks to us like you did. Nobody cares.

"I already had the keys to my car in hand, and I was remembering all the headshots I had seen in teacher's classroom above the white board. I also recalled going into the teacher's lounge; there were a group of older male teachers joking about how all the Special Ed teachers drive Mercedes.

They barely said hi back to me when I introduced myself. There was no decorations; it seemed like pure blight, a bunch of chain-link fences; and a tan campus from the 1960's. I even had trouble finding the sign to the school that morning.

It was looked like a war zone, probably one of the only campus' I had visited with so few trees. I looked at her tiny face from a distance; her mother had put her together well - the pigtails revealed the domestic effort.

That interaction repeated in my consciousness over and over again. I didn't understand for a long while; but the event would sometimes keep me thinking about its meaning. I was unsettled.

It was like that little girl had given me a prompt to begin my research. What did that interaction mean in my story? Why had that little girl chased me down the hall that way?

I was a new teacher who was just figuring out how to teach; I found it fun to interact with kids; and teaching is probably the single most difficult skill I've acquired over time. It was a lot harder than one might think. Just to even begin the conversation with a classroom was something that would take me years to figure out – my experience in the classroom had been limited.

I was more ambitious about developing my style of communication; I changed the way I did it every year after observing other teachers; I would experiment; I had fun with it; teaching kids is a complex social environment; my interface with the kids felt effortless, and it made teaching something I enjoyed a lot - an escape from the corporate world that had diminished my spirit; teaching had brought me back to storytelling because that is the teacher's best interface - playing a character who tells stories that introduce learning concepts. I was having fun until LAUSD initiated a retaliatory narrative against me.

Penelope: What does storytelling have to do with politics?

Louis: It's the interface with the people to make them a part of a local story where they choose their own path. That's the concept of "The Golden Road" - an interactive story where participants become characters. To explain how this will l work, I've began to use social media channels to begin explaining the concept through:

1) Text (X and Ghost)

2) Photos (Instagram)

3) Video (YouTube)

You can get the links to the socials at the following address: louis4governor.com

Those three media formats are enough to begin showing the framework of transparency through the "Governor Wanted" Campaign. It's sort of like a cool arrival parade for the kids to interact with while the adults watch the kids be kids. Before I get the bank account open, I will clarify just exactly who I will be working with and how much it would cost to get the public to pay attention. Boredom is a battle we're all fighting.

This campaign focuses on storytelling as a conduit for the people to participate. I've written the campaign as a interactive literary concept in the style of "Back to the Future Want" - I will work with locals in the Sacramento areas to show off the local talent.

Penelope: What's a second reason you chose Politics?

Louis: Beside the little girl from Compton, I'd say it's seeing how LAUSD behaved; it is shameful, actually, embarassing that our State's resources are being used in such a manner; this was a well-developed retaliation process I refer to as the "Kraken" in my research. Now that I am aware of it, an intervention in our educational system will occur. I will lead a team of people I know to transform the LAUSD personally. That' means I'll recruit a superintendent who will collaborate on an interest-based vision for education.

Penelope: What's a third reason?

Louis: I have a closer relationship with GOD now because of my experience. I have been his student for a very long time. Our Creator gifts us all with a story we're supposed engaged with with a constructive attitude; that means taking action on what you know.

When LAUSD came after me, it made me realized that my training with God was coming to an end; that I'd have to take action eventually. Before, I didn't really believe there was a reason to try very hard. I was happy enough; but when I saw how LAUSD is truly the Temple of Doom driven by the greed of a handful of Beverly Hills locals, it bothered me enough to motivate me to create an interface where everyone wins. Success is a math formula that can be guided with balance in a story; it's about the scenes in your life, not the. money in your bank account; that's God's way, and I'd like guide the process now that I've been unwittingly studying it since 2013 when I did the Global Learning Xprize under the name Class Nube.

The insights that stemmed from that project convinced me that an interface could be created to hand anyone a device that would help you find your way in the world no matter who you are - storytelling is a fascinating construct. I believe we are in a firmament, and the Bible is God's intervention on our timeline these last six thousand years. We all must look within to identify our resonance, a feeling that guides our energy and purpose. That's storytelling.