Blog

Blogs from Gaza

CEM — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:25:27 -0800

On todays show you are going to hear an interview with Martha Myers from CARE International. For 14 years, CARE has been implementing programs in Palestinian communities in agriculture and natural resources, economic development, education, emergency relief, health, water and sanitation and civil society strengthening. Meyers spoke to us from Jerusalem, but CARE has a lot of their staff in Gaza. Staff members have been sending blog entries to CARE and we've republished one of the most moving below. More to come, we hope!

Care Project Manager Jawad Harb writes:

While the Gaza strip is currently facing some of the toughest challenges in the Palestinian territories, I’m writing my own very personal story. But it is also the story of 1.6 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

The 28th of December, 2008, was a day to remember. It was 4:30 p.m. I was sitting with my six kids at my house which is 500 metres away from the Egyptian border. The darkness was surrounding us like a monster, and a few candles were lighting our path to the kitchen and bathroom. It was a moonless night, full of unpredictable, unknown fear. I was telling my kids stories to distract them, when suddenly it was like an earthquake - six consecutive air strikes shook the house up and down. The house was like a piece of paper swinging in the air. The kids were screaming, running in all directions, seeking to escape the chaos of the airstrikes. It was uncontrollable panic every where. What made the situation more complicated was the screaming of kids all over the quarter. It was the only thing you could hear after the airstrikes. All the children in the neighbourhood ran downstairs to the main road, crying and screaming in such away I have never witnessed in my whole life. The street was full of parents trying to find their kids and bring them back home. Among this chaos, I barely gathered my own children and went back home.

We sat again in darkness and I started talking to them again in an effort to calm them down. Yazan, my 12-year-old son suddenly asked, "Dad, are we ever going to live in peace again? I like to climb, I like to swing like a monkey, and I like to fly like a bird. Why can’t we play like those children we watch in kids’ TV programs every day?"

A burning teardrop rolled down on my face, and all of a sudden, I was not able to say a word.

Yazan continued, "Isn’t it Christmas holiday now dad? Are we not supposed to have a party and eat some cake?"

As I was trying to answer him, another air strike shook the house again, and this time all of my kids snuggled to me like small birds. My body was grabbed by small hands everywhere, and I wished, at that moment, that I had ten hands to hug them all, because this was exactly what they needed.

The last thing I said to them, with pain: "This is temporary." My 16 year-old-daughter replied, "Dad, yes, it is temporary forever."

Posted here.

Begin 2009 by supporting independent voices in media!

CEM — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:43:07 -0800

Dear Friends:

Times are tough. Our job is to follow the news very closely so we know as well as anyone just how much people are struggling.

Maybe 2008 wasn't, as far as the economy goes, the best time to try and launch the new phase of a non-profit organization. But, you have to play the cards you are dealt in life and approach everything as an exciting new opportunity.

That's what we have done at the Marc Steiner Show during the past year. We haven't folded in the face of adversity. We've flourished in spite of it. We've not only kept creating new content, we've done things we have never done before-like broadcast live from the Democratic National Convention and launching a website where you can stream all our shows and talk with other listeners.

The team at the Marc Steiner Show believes in the mission of public radio. That is why we are all still working to bring you the best in news analysis, arts and culture.

But we need your help. 75% of our production costs are not covered by WEAA. And the troubled economy means that charitable foundations and corporations have less money available to support nonprofit organizations like ours.

So your support is more essential than ever. We know you value The Marc Steiner Show. Your emails, phone calls, and letters to the editor have demonstrated that. And now we are asking you to help us continue bringing you what you value in 2009.

If at some point this year, you have said you were going to support The Marc Steiner Show but never got around to it, now is the time! End this year by making clear that you value and support independent voies in media.

Just click here to find out how to make your contribution to The Marc Steiner Show

. Your support means to much to us.

Thank you to all of our listeners and supporters. Best Wishes for a bright New Year!

Marc Steiner Clare Gorman Jessica Phillips Justin Levy

President & Executive Director Producer Producer Executive Producer

Register for the Annapolis Summit January 14!

CEM — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:06:38 -0800

January 14, 2009, 7-9:30 AM
Phillips Seafood Restaurant
12 Dock Street, Annapolis, MD 21401

Your chance to ask questions that matter to you!

Join Marc Steiner for a live two-hour broadcast on the opening day of the 2009 Maryland General Assembly Legislative Session. For the 6th year, Marc will interview Maryland's leaders covering pertinent topics such as the financial crisis hitting Maryland and the country, environmental issues, the death penalty legislation and BRAC.

A breakfast buffet begins at 7:00 AM, followed by Marc's interview with Senate President Miller and Speaker Michael Busch from 7:30-8:30. Governor Martin O’Malley will be interviewed from 8:30-9:30. In each hour, time will be set aside for audience members to ask questions. The show will air on WEAA FM 88.9, in Baltimore and WSCL 89.9 FM in Salisbury.

Advance tickets can be purchased for $15 via Paypal by clicking here.

If you'd like to pay by check, please send to:

Center for Emerging Media

Attn: Annapolis Summit

3000 Chestnut Ave Suite C

Baltimore, MD 21211

Tickets will also be available at the door for $20.

For more information, call (443) 934-1111.

Marc on Mayor Dixon's raise

CEM — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:29:18 -0800

We all deserve a raise. City workers, police and fireman, got their small increase but lost much of their overtime. Police patrols of our city streets have been curtailed. City middle management will not get raises because of the city budget deficit. We are in a time of deep financial crisis. The news in January promises to be even harsher. I think we will see some of the city’s largest developers selling off property like crazy in their rush for liquidity and to pay off debts. Many working class folks may lose their homes because of the mortgage crisis. This will disproportionably affect the African American and Latino communities. It is an insane time, and one that calls for frugality-substantive and symbolic.

Click READ MORE below!

This is why it so hard to understand Mayor Dixon’s agreeing to take a salary increase, along with members of the Baltimore City Council. Sure, it is only 2.5% and sure the increases for our top city officials are less than a drop in the bucket of our total city budget. But is now the time? Couldn’t she behave like Howard County Executive Ken Ullman and some of our city council members, who have said "I am going to defer this or give to charity until we are solvent again."

I suppose it was the sheer arrogance of her anger at being questioned that bothered me the most. She deserves a raise, we all do, but a public official living in a land of deficits and furloughs should be a shining example of leadership and inspiration. She appears so petty and greedy at the moment. I think she is better than that. We all have kids, mortgages, college tuition but most of us don’t make $151,000 a year with a chauffeur and the perks of being a Mayor.

And, if as she claimed, she believes that this raise was fair and justified at this moment, why then did the Board of Estimates do everything they could to keep the sunlight off these raises? Not only did they vote on these on the day before Thanksgiving, but they also coded the raises as "salary adjustments" and instead of referring to the positions directly they called them "position job categories 88E, 887E, 83E and 81E", without any indication of what those referred to. As the Baltimore Sun pointed out, other personnel items on the agenda included job titles as well as job categories. And finally, there was no discusson at the pre-board meeting or the board meeting during which this vote took place. If Mayor Dixon believes that these raises are appropriate at this time, why did the Board of Estimates do everything they could to keep these raises from being noticed? It seems like they tried to sneak this one by us. Why?

It is not near as bad as the actions of Governor Blagojevich of Illinois but what they have in common is the hubris that political power seems to breed in some.

-Marc

Can Swiss drug program work here?

CEM — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:29:36 -0800

In her latest article, Page Croyder takes a look at a drug program in Switzerland. Could it work here? Click here to find out more.

Marc on movies, politics, and more

CEM — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:33:37 -0800

Movies and race

I am heading to the movies today to see Cadillac Records. I got on the internet to find out where it is playing in the metro area. All of the locations from here to Annapolis and up to Harford were in multiplexes with large Black populations. I get so tired of all the marketing geniuses that segregate our life in small and large ways. This is supposed to be an incredible movie. Why aren’t they playing it everywhere?! It reminds of when the great documentary Hoop Dreams was in theaters. This film followed inner kids who played basketball. Some made to the NCAA and some ended up on the streets. It was a powerful social statement of a film, well done cinematically and won best at Sundance and film festivals around the world. Did it end up a the Charles or even Hunt Valley? No, it languished briefly at the Security Mall. Sure, play it there but play it elsewhere too! Marketing geniuses in Hollywood and their Neolithic understanding of race and culture in America, I am just sick of them.

Speaking of movies, don’t miss MILK starring Sean Penn. It is at the Charles. Penn is just a brilliant actor. He dives so deeply into the heart of his characters. His soul, as any great actor, is that of a chameleon. He lives and breathes Harvey Milk. He changed his body and his voice. He became that gay man who loves younger men, who breathed the fire of human rights and justice. The director Gus Van Sant, known as a gay man who does a lot of movies with gay themes. He brought a certain sensitivity to this film that few could. All of the acting was superb Emile Hirsch, James Brolin was Dan White, and he even looked like Dan White. Alison Pil, James Franco. Wonderful performances. It is perfect timing that this film premieres on the heels of Proposition 8 winning in California. It is an important story in the history of human rights in America. It is also a damn good movie.

Click READ MORE below!

Local Politics

In local politics, I must give kudos to President of the Senate Mike Miller for appointing Robert Neall to the commission that will determine who is awarded the contracts for slots parlors in our state. Now, I was a real agnostic on this referendum. People will gamble and should have the right to gamble without going to jail for it. However, the way they waged the slots campaign was dishonest from the wording of the referendum to its false promises of funds for education. It is still a bunch of wealthy gambling interests making money off of the rest of us. Given all that, Bobby Neall, former State Senator and Anne Arundel County Executive, Republican turned Democrat, fiscal conservative will have only one thing on his mind and that is the best interests of the citizen of Maryland. He will be our watchdog on this.

National News

If you do not get or read the New York Times on Saturdays then go on line to read the op-ed by William Ayers. Remember he was the one they said was a terrorist and friend of Barack Obama’s. He stayed quiet during the campaign to avoid becoming more of a lightening rod in the efforts of right wing swiftboaters determined to sink Obama’s campaign.

At any rate, check what Ayers wrote. I think he lays out interesting facets of all this while raising some troubling ideas about the Weather Underground that generates an interesting moral ethical social political debate in 2008. What do you think?

-Marc

Bailout for nonprofits

CEM — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:46:48 -0800

On today's show, we are welcoming Teresa DeCrescenzo, who is the executive director of GLASS Youth and Family Services, based in Burbank, Calif. She wrote an opinion piece titled "Where's the Bailout for Nonprofits?" that first appeared in the Los Angeles Times and then reprinted in the Daily Camera Boulder.

Where's the Bailout for Nonprofits?

by Teresa DeCrescenzo

I am a social worker, not an economist, and what I know is this: The stock market is in free fall, financial organizations are being bailed out and the Detroit automakers might yet get financial help from Washington, D.C. But what about those of us in the nonprofit world? Where's our bailout?

Nonprofits depend on government funding and the generosity of business and individual giving, and those of us in the health-care field are facing the bleakest of landscapes. Where is the storm of media coverage, the persuasive rhetoric, the public outcry to save critically needed services, such as child care, assisted living, home health care and hospital services? Who is documenting our agony? Where are the desperately needed cash infusions to help us restructure in this troubled economy?

My child-care agency, supported largely by government contracts -- federal and state dollars partially matched by county funds -- went nine years without an increase in the rate of funding it receives. During those years, the cost of a child-care worker rose from $23,000 a year to $29,000 a year. Multiply that figure by our 100 child-care workers, and we are facing a $600,000 shortfall in just one job category. No industry in the public or private sector could have survived nine years of flat funding.

How will we make up that shortfall? Fundraising? Unlikely, in this economy. And investment losses have had a profoundly negative effect on endowed organizations. We need a bailout.

Earlier this year, the venerable River Oak Center for Children in Northern California announced the closure of its 42-year-old residential facility. Calling the closure heartbreaking, River Oak President Mary Hargrave said that the nonprofit agency has lost money on the residential care facility for years -- $1 million last year alone. In October, Kids First Foundation closed its residential child-care site in Los Angeles. Hathaway Children's Village, Vista del Mar, Hollygrove and other Los Angeles-area agencies have either eliminated or cut back the number of residential beds available.

State and county officials claim that foster homes and kinship care can absorb the children no longer in residential care. A national study, however, found that foster parents are paid less than the cost to kennel a dog, according to a 2007 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of foster parents and the children they serve.

Unlike some of the executives whose companies are getting bailed out, I have never received a bonus, although I did lend my pension money to my agency a few years ago to stave off insolvency. That money is all gone now. Maybe I could serve as a role model for the guys getting the $20-million golden handshakes. They could give back a couple of million to help their companies survive.

American Express has just informed me that the $100,000 balance on my corporate credit card is now my personal responsibility. That balance represents payments to house homeless children in $40-a-night motels while case managers searched for permanent housing for them. American Express said something about all corporate chief executives being personal guarantors of the company charges. I never really thought of myself as a corporate CEO. They even took away my accumulated points, despite the fact that the points were earned from fully paid card balances. Those miles are the only way I can afford to travel. Unlike the Big Three automakers, I don't have a corporate jet.

Sometime soon -- probably within the next 60 days -- our agency will file for bankruptcy protection. Nearly 200 employees, including child-care workers, case managers and social workers, could lose their jobs. The hundreds of children we serve will lose the protection we have provided for them. They are homeless, abused, abandoned and neglected. It would take $3 million to $4 million to save the day. That's million, not billion.

Where's my bailout?
© 2008 The Daily Camera

Marc on the killing at Lemmel Middle School

CEM — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:42:28 -0800

THE STABBING

In 1962 there was a sixteen-year-old kid who had to survive in the streets of this city, terrified.

He was a confused kid in a lot ways. He read Hemingway, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Spinoza, Bertrand Russell and Marx. He was a non-violent warrior in the civil rights movement who experienced the terror of violence by white mobs and cops. He was also a street corner boy. A jitterbug with his 20-inch pant cuffs with pleats, banlon shirts and porkpie hats. Drinking wine, shooting nine ball, looking for parties, talking shit and sometimes getting into trouble. All over the place he was, in the midst of violence but not violent, going for bad because you had to and standing up even when you knew you would be hurt. You had no choice on the corner.

This kid hung out on the Heights, the next neighborhood over was the Junction. Now the boys on the corner from the Heights and the Junction knew each other, didn’t war, walked through each other’s zones, intermingled and went to the same parties often but had different corners they owned and different pool halls and basketball courts they played on.

One day he went into Arundal’s Ice Cream parlor on the Boulevard, that long stretch of street that connected the two corners. Arundals was in Heights territory. They always had better spots on the Heights. Big Hand Bey and Blue Eyed Plu and the some of the boys from the Junction were hanging out there. As was custom, this kid walked up to Bey, a titular top dog from the Junction, and held out his hand palm down to slap five with Bey. Bey didn’t offer his hand, just a glare with a broke down mug that signified something was up and it wasn’t good. The other boys with him just postured and stared.

So, this kid knew something bad was going on and that these guys meant him some harm for some reason. He remembered just months before when Big Hand Bey beat down Blue Eyed Plu into submission on the corner. It was a bad beating but Plu now ran with Bey. At this point discretion was the better part of valor and that ice cream soda could wait a while.

Later that day he went over to the elementary school yard where the boys from the Heights hung to talk, play basketball, shoot craps and do whatever. When he got there Ronald said he should split because Bey and them had been up here earlier looking for him with a .45. All the brothers in the yard turned their backs on him, because he was a marked man and no one would stand with him.

It was a terrifying moment. He was alone. He turned to his walking partners Scott and Methu. They called Phillip Methu because he looked so much older than everyone else. Methu was short for Methuselah. Even though he was 16 he could pass for 21 and often bought the wine and malt liquor everyone loved. Methu was scared of no one.

At any rate, he turned to Methu and Scott and to his best friend Little Billy for help. He knew Scott and Methu would stand, or he hoped they would. Little Billy had taught him how to dance, fight with a knife, talk to girls and survive the streets. There was a deep bond between the two. All three said they would stand with him, as would Taz and Jerry. Taz was Ronald’s brother. Where Ronald was mean and a terror, Taz was sensitive, smart but a brave stand up guy and Jerry was cool. Always dressed cool, knew how win the ladies over and was a damn good boxer and a bit country to boot. Against Bey and them that wasn’t many guys but you knew they had your back.

They said we need a war council, so they all met at his house. To his surprise two of the older heads on the corner who were also two of the baddest boys around, period, Benny Lee and Meathead, showed up at the council that was held in the basement of his house.

Most of them thought that the only way to avoid a throw down with a much bigger force was to have him fight Big Hand Bey straight up, one on one. That was a terrifying thought. Bey was big, strong and bad. He had seem him fight before and knew that he could not win and would be badly beaten in a face off with Bey. He knew he may have no other choice.

If it came down to it on the corner or at a party everyone would throw down with him, come whatever. He knew they would stand with him, have his back, but his loyalty to them did not want to put them through it. The meaning of real and true friendship was defined as never before. That definition would define his life from that moment on.

He couldn’t understand why all this was happening? What was it? What had he done to incur the wrath of Bey and those boys!?

A few weeks earlier everyone had thrown in some money to buy some wine and malt liquor up at the bowing alley. This boy, Binky, took the money to buy everything. When he returned empty handed he gave some of the money back to everyone but him. So he said to Binky, where is my dollar? Binky said he wasn’t going to give him his dollar. Fuck you, Binky said. So, he said, Boy you are going to give me my money back. As Binky took off his coat he knocked him out with a flurry of punches. Then took a dollar from Binky’s pocket and walked away. He thought he was cool but Binky was one of Bey’s boys.

Then there was that night a month or so before when there was a party over on Bentalou. One of those blue lights in the basement parties. He was slow dancing with this girl who this other boy wanted but he kept on with her. He pulled her not the other dude. They went off together but the other boy threatened to fuck him up. He payed that no mind, the girl was just too fine, phat and willing to be with him to worry about that threat. Didn’t know the boy but he might have been one of Bey’s boys, he thought.

Or, was it because he was white? The only white boy on the corner, there weren’t too many like him. An easy mark for many … boys who did not like him, the cops or other white folks who saw him as a traitor and a freak.

Probably it was all of that but being white didn’t help … did not help at all …

One night he was going to visit his girl friend. The same girl he met at the party. Beatrice, really beautiful girl who was down from Harlem for the summer to visit her aunt. It was late. He was walking down a street with few lights but a peaceful, warm, quiet night. Earlier, he was going to go to a dance at the hall in his neighborhood but Scott and Methu said the Junction boys were there and it be best if he did not go. So, he split to see Bea.

As he walked a couple of blocks past the club on a residential street, a car slowed down. He could feel it sliding slowly over his left shoulder. He was aware of it, very conscious of everything around him, then a shot rang out, then another. The boys in that car were shooting at him.

He took the hat from this head and ran hard. Through the bushes, leaping a fence, another shot rang out, he leapt another fence was then faced by a Doberman, but he kept running, the Doberman hard at his heals, but he leapt another fence over into an alley as another shot rang out. He hid, then ran, then crept, knowing they were driving around looking for him. He saw them, but hid in the shadows behind a garage in a dark alleyway.

Then he made a dash for it down the alleys, around the corner and down another alley. He got to Bea’s crib, banged on the door, she answered, he pushed her inside, panting and out of breath, disheveled, socks falling down around his shoes, pants torn, drenched in sweat and fear. He spent the night there in her basement curled up beside her.

Little Billy had given him a switchblade. He wanted a gun. He carried the switchblade everywhere. At night he would walk with it open, up his sleeve. The handle of the knife rested in his palm, the blade resting on the underside of his forearm as he bopped with that pimp walk that was how you did back in the day. He was keenly aware of every shadow, every movement and would walk out into the street when he got to alleyways. He would turn to look down the alley, always terrified, always nervous and jumpy, leaping with fear at the slightest abnormality or sound.

One night he was coming home from a party. Scott and Methu peeled off to head in the opposite direction to their homes, Taz and Jerry walked a way but then they too left, walking west to get to their houses. He was once again alone for the next seven blocks to his house, switchblade open against the sweat of his forearm, head pounding with fear that made the eyes and throat dry and tight.

As he passed an alleyway he sensed some movement. A figure darted out, grabbed his left arm, spun him around. Then another figure punched him hard in the right side of his head, sent him twirling, almost losing his feet from under him. They were on him. The switchblade slid down his palm twisting the blade end out, He lashed out stabbing and slashing blindly as fists swung around him. He felt the knife hit something hard then soft, it was sickening sensation. He kept slashing and stabbing, one boy fell to the ground, and a knife skidded from his grasp down the alley. The other boy staggered back down the alley. He heard screaming and moaning as he glanced at the scene before turning on his heel to run. Run, he ran hard, scared, not stopping for blocks until he got to his house. The knife still in his hands as opened the front door. He ran to the phone, dialed the Operator, said two boys were stabbed in an ally, then hung up the phone quickly. He stumbled into his room, falling into his bed. His hands were covered with blood, his shirtsleeves were red with blood, blood all over his clothes.

What the fuck had he done. What was he going to do? Had he just killed someone? What was he going to do?

I stayed awake all night thinking about those boys. Did I kill somebody?! What was going to happen next. I knew they would find me, my hat was in the alley, they would snitch, one of them would die. I would go to jail forever, no one could save me, just like no one, not my parents, not the cops and not my brothers on the street could save me from the Junction.

COMMENTARY ON THE KILLING AT LEMMEL

I could not get this story of my past out of my head after reading about that 14-year-old child who was stabbed and killed at Lemmel Middle School on Friday. My first reaction was wondering what happened. What fear drove them to carry weapons? What madness lived under the reason for the killing?

At first people were saying it was gang-related. Now, one of the stories surrounding this young man’s death is that he was a bully and the kid who killed him was one of his victims. The child who did the stabbing turned himself into the police.

Many people do not understand the fear that so many of our children in the inner cities of America live with every day of their lives. I would venture to say that the vast majority of young people who carry weapons, be they knives or guns or clubs, do so out of fear and self-protection. You have to live with a mask of neutrality and fearlessness on your face at all times. That joy of youth that so many children in our nation enjoy cannot be allowed to blossom for most inner city kids. When gentleness can be a weakness, the hard cover you are forced to wear keeps the joy at bay.

So, if it is true that the poor boy who died was a bully, and this kid who stabbed him then turned himself in was in a corner with no where to go but slashing his way to escape, then what should our response be as a society who judges actions of others like this?

What do we do with this boy who took a life perhaps defending his own in a world where no one can protect you but yourself? What are we as a society and our government willing to do to invest in these children to be able to learn, live and find joy in their schools? Will we send an army of counselors and therapists into that school to help the children and their teaches cope with what just happened? Will we teach alternatives to violence? Will we invest in recreation centers staffed with counselors to reach out to street kids? Will we invest in the green economy to put their parents to work so we can build stable families?

Can we show we care? Can we build a society that cares enough to put people to work, to eliminate poverty and invest in our children the way we do highways, McMansions and prisons?

We can if we have the will. We can’t lose another child to the streets.

Cool event this weekend!

CEM — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:22:23 -0800

Hey All,

Check out this cool event at the AVAM this weekend. As part of an entire day of events and programming about Music & the Brain, Marc will be hosting a really interesting panel discussion with some experts. Check out the flyer below! The audio from this panel discussion will be made available on our website next week.

Go here for more information!

16 Arrested During Election Night Celebration in Charles Village

CEM — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:21:32 -0800

Here's a letter that we received and wanted to share with everyone. If anyone else would like to publicize first-hand information about the police misconduct in Charles Village on Election Night, or has other Election Night experiences they'd like to share, please post your comments here or email us at cem@centerforemergingmedia.org.

Marc,

During the night following the election, my roommates and I walked
down to 33rd and St. Paul and started celebrating the election of
Barack Obama. We quickly gained support of local students, and our
group of seven quickly grew to over 400. What was a beautifully
patriotic evening, filled with unity and gentle celebration, quickly
turned into fear and chaos as the Baltimore Police Department randomly
(and illegally) assaulted, intimidated, and arrested many members of a
peaceful crowd.

Last Spring, President Ungar invited you to speak at Goucher to a
group of Goucher students, faculty, and staff. President Ungar
personally invited me at the last moment, claiming it was essential
that I hear you speak. Your discussion inspired me to want to get more
involved with our city, and this semester several of my friends and I
moved down to Charles Village from Towson, in order to become true
Baltimoreans.

On November 4, the six of us - all sophomores at Goucher, voted
for the first time. Sending in my absentee ballot to my native
California was one of the most exciting things I have ever done, and
we were all excited to partake in making history. Just a month before
hearing you speak at Goucher, I had the opportunity to shake now
President-elect Obama's hand at an election rally in Wilmington. I
took the train up to Wilmington by myself, and I instantly befriended
a group of students from the University of Delaware. The feeling of
unity was overwhelming, and I instantly knew this campaign was unlike
anything else in history.

The night of Nov. 4th was no exception. My roommates and I had to get
outside to celebrate. People joined quickly and we were suddenly
flanked by members of the community, students from several
institutions, schoolteachers, and professors - all united and chanting
"USA! USA!". The Hopkins Campus Security respected the crowd and kept
it under control, and it became a truly beautiful event. I was
surrounded by people I had never met before, of all colors: black and
white, Muslim and Jewish, old and young, from near and far all
celebrating under American flags.

You have already heard about what the police did last night. They
arrested two of my roommates and another one of my friends, for
reasons that were never disclosed. I stood and watched while my
roommate, a 19-year-old girl from New Jersey, was grabbed by the
throat by two policemen twice her size and had her arms bound so
tightly behind her back, she was screaming in agony.

I have talked with Goucher President Sanford Ungar, and he has already tried to help us get our
voice heard. The fact is that this happens every night in this city,
without a single mention in the Sun or on the local TV news. These
students and the professor that were arrested were never told their
rights and were fingerprinted, photographed, intimidated, and forced
to spend hours in cells with people charged with violent crimes.
Fortunately, my friends and the rest of these aforementioned sixteen
that were arrested are lucky enough to be backed up by institutions
like Goucher College and Johns Hopkins University.

I know this letter is far from brief, and I appreciate that you have
taken the time to read this. I was inspired by your discussion at
Goucher, and wanted to know what I could do to change something in
this city. I think Baltimore is a beautiful place buried in an
inconceivable amount of filth. Before election day I couldn't fathom
how I could help, or what I could even help with. I now know the
intricacies of how the Baltimore Police Department detains citizens
without Mirandizing them, charging them, or respecting their basic
freedoms. I feel I can speak on behalf of everyone who witnessed
Tuesday night's atrocities when I say that we want to help.

The sixteen people arrested last night were picked randomly. It could
have been anyone. I have spoken with and know personally several of
those arrested and can tell you that they were all respectable and
respectful citizens that have done so much already to make this city a
better place. Will these volunteers, public school teachers, artists,
and professors voices be drowned out?

I hope not.

Thank you again for speaking to us at Goucher. Baltimore needs you,
and is lucky to have you.

Thank you,

Nick Bourland
Goucher College class of 2011