Now that some of the dust has settled in Baltimore, I thought I would add my two cents. I went to school there for several years, so I do have some experience with the city.
People ask me if I recognize the buildings they’re showing on television. First of all, I tell them, it was almost 40 years ago since I lived there. Secondly, my initial recollection was that I didn’t venture off campus much (it turned out I didn’t have to to get mugged – but that’s a story for a different day).
I started to think about the times I left what was then called Loyola College of Maryland’s campus. I left to go to Alonzo’s on Cold Spring Lane for a bite to eat and Jerry’s Belvedere for a pint after a sports event. I remembered that I would also hitchhike to Towson to get my haircut. I can’t recall the name of the guy that cut what was a whole lot more hair than I have now, but I know he did a great job.
And then I thought about all the running I did on the streets of Baltimore. Since I didn’t have a car – and it was BG (before Google), I pretty much knew where the train station was and where the campus was in relation to it – but that’s about it. If memory serves me correctly, Loyola’s baseball team, after we got the heave-ho from the soccer field on campus, would practice on diamonds all over North Baltimore. Oh, and I also remember playing midnight flag football in the Inner Harbor back when it was just being built.
So I suppose I was somewhat familiar with parts of the city. But East Baltimore was and is as distant to me as certain parts of Philly are today. I just never go there.
The Inner City
The penile blood vessels are around 1/3rd the size of arteries tadalafil generic of the heart. Across the room, you sildenafil online canada see a very attractive woman. Fiction: Erectile dysfunction condition is “all in viagra tablets 100mg the mind”. prescription du viagra It has sildenafil citrate embedded in gel like edible structure. I suppose in a multitude of ways Baltimore is a city like many others. It has rampant crime, unemployment and juvenile delinquency. There is racial tension there as there is in many other places around the country. I don’t want to pretend to know a whole lot about what it’s like living in the inner city.
But I am encouraged by the story of Donte Hickman, pastor of the Southern Baptist Church. Fire destroyed his senior citizen center in the unrest there last week. The development included plans for 61 units of affordable senior housing, workforce development and a place for teenagers to go. While the center had been scheduled to open in November, he now has set his sights on opening it in the spring of 2016.
Growing up, he was expelled from three high schools, living a rough life. It seemed as if he would become just another statistic.
Then he turned his life around. He passed the GED exam without preparation or success beyond the tenth grade. In 1994 he earned his bachelor’s degree. In ’97 he earned his Masters of Divinity. And this Saturday, May 8th, will mark nine years since he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He’s doing some amazing things.
Options
I don’t believe a Marshall Plan for inner cities, as Tom Brokaw suggested, is the way to go. The answer is not about throwing money at the situation, as evidenced by the revelation that Baltimore received over $1 billion in state aid and yet hasn’t been able to improve the plight of its disadvantaged citizens.
Donte Hickman is living proof that with faith, parental guidance and an inner determination, there’s hope. And those are three things that all the money in the world can’t buy.
