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Wild West Baltimore • Burglars rape, murder, burn high school junior • Dylann Storm Roof • Jamarion Lawhorn update • Lacey Spears update
Category Archives: Local news
A solution for homelessness?
A third phase has begun.
Saturday 2015-05-02
A third phase has begun, with yesterday’s filing of charges against the six officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest; but perhaps more importantly, with the press conference given by the Gray family’s attorney, Billy Murphy, that afternoon. I will attempt to link here to, or embed, a complete video of that press conference; or, alternatively, copy the complete transcript here. Continue reading A third phase has begun.
The riots in Baltimore
As of Wednesday 04/29/15, I am beginning a new post (compare last Monday’s), as events prior to Monday afternoon 04/27/15 could be called “demonstrations,” but beginning that afternoon can instead be called “riots,” and I don’t want the two terms confused. Continue reading The riots in Baltimore
The Freddie Gray demonstrations
As of Monday, 04/27/15, let me say this. We had five days of completely orderly demonstrations. Only after that did the interlopers arrive, and only after that did any trouble begin.
Everybody, I think, wants certain things. We want to find out the facts. We want appropriate prosecutions, if warranted. We want …
I’ve just read this article, which indicates interlopers were indeed allowed to address the crowd at the original gathering Saturday 2015-04-25. They said things I do not believe any native Baltimorean would have said. They had to rationalize their presence, and in my judgment, failed.
God will wipe away every tear
Isaiah 25:
6On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. 8Then the LORD GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
A case on point about choosing thoughts, feelings
From my diary for Friday 2015-05-01:
Ta-Nehisi Coates has had two “provocative” HuffPost columns in two days. Wednesday she decried calls for calm in Baltimore. Yesterday she used the incident of Toya Graham’s confrontation of her son, to blame white people for every incident of violence among blacks. [P.S. 12:00. Correction: The latter was by Stacey Patton.] I may yet respond to the latter, but it’s best I not do so today. I need to direct my thoughts and choose my feelings, and I feel immeasurably better when I focus on my own affairs than when I allow myself to get engaged with her turmoil. Today’s task is to prepare materials for the prayer course; and it will be no excuse if I tell my students I came unprepared because she distracted me.
Originally posted 2015-05-02.
Celebrities, go home!
(Originally posted 2015-04-29, in the midst of the Freddie Gray riots.)
… if you’ve never lived here, if you’ve never worked here …
Now that Baltimore is the center of national media attention, an endless string of celebrities and celebrity-wannabes can’t wait to come here and get their share of the limelight …
… at our expense.
The mayor’s conference on black-on-black crime …
… apparently went just as anticipated.
City leaders call on black men to mentor youths and stop the violence
“The usual suspects” — those you’d expect — all showed up — and none of the people who needed to.
Continue reading The mayor’s conference on black-on-black crime …
The great questions of our time
In recent weeks it has been a matter of some chagrin to me that my Yahoo! News feed keeps bringing articles from major outlets that prove in my estimation to have far less merit than my own; while my own work continues to be ignored.
Frankly, it seems to me that my work is on a par with that of the Washington Post columnists. I see myself as in that league. If I can find my way there, my goal would be not so much to set forth my own views, as to alter the direction of public discourse; to influence, perhaps even at a national level, the way people talk about the great questions of our time.
