Adam works with people who are economically oppressed, politically excluded and socially marginalized, and likes to believe he is undermining the dominant ideology and political economy that create poverty and housing deprivation. The growing gap between those with the greatest wealth and the other 99% of us, coupled with an increase in poverty and a decline in stable housing, are a testament to the urgency of this struggle—and to Adam’s ineffectiveness. He has worked in the belly of Baltimore’s nonprofit industrial complex since the beginning of the millennium, and for the past 11 years at Health Care for the Homeless, trying to maintain his employment and integrity. 

Having come to believe that he has little to contribute to the struggle for liberation and social justice, he has tried to inspire others to act successfully in the wake of his failures—facilitating learning in philosophy, political theory, social work, public health and public policy at several area colleges and universities. Beginning in the fall of 2016, he will resign himself to complete obscurity as a full-time faculty member of the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work. 

Perhaps he has given up on—or worse, betrayed—the revolution he has ostensibly sought. Or, perhaps he has rededicated himself to the slow, tedious and demanding process of building an autonomous movement of poor and working class people, through which foundations of revolution can be built. Let’s be honest, it’s probably the former.