Reflections on the Baltimore Riots

The craziness of the past couple of weeks with events in Baltimore has made me think about some things from my own past.  The riots there are shameful, and the corrupt government of that city shames its true legacy - my own family's history and my personal story are tied into that true legacy.   I am not going to address the riots so much as I am going to relate my own memories and experiences of spending a portion of my childhood in Baltimore, so I hope that as you read this you can appreciate this perspective.

Baltimore has always been a sort of an opportunity for many West Virginia families, due to its close proximity to the state and the economic benefits working in a higher-paying city job offered many mountain folks who were dirt-poor and had few other options.   Baltimore, from about the 1940's onward, was for West Virginians much like Columbus and Cincinatti were for people from Kentucky, and a great exodus of West Virginians flowed into the city and established many small neighborhoods, in particular the western edge of the city near Wilkins and Frederick Avenues.  My family was one of those, and at one point between 1965 and 1975 we had our own "hillbilly ghetto" there.  The West Virginians who settled in Baltimore were generally industrious people who sought to prove themselves and make a decent life for their families, and many actually did quite well - some even made enough of a living to comfortably retire, as did many of my aunts and uncles - back in their hometowns in West Virginia.  It presents a different picture of the rioters we've seen there in the past couple of weeks, who expect entitlements and the government to allow them to run amok over the city, targeting innocent businesses and wreaking havoc on the city's economy (Baltimore, you should learn from Detroit on that, seriously!).  That being said, yes, I think a lot of the looters and rioters causing the problems are deadbeats looking for an excuse to cause trouble, because they simply don't want to better themselves, and that is their own fault - they have no one to blame except a corrupt government and their own lack of motivation for their issues.

What a difference these destructive hoodlums are compared to our mountain folks who at one time populated many of the same neighborhoods where the riots took place!  Many of the mountain folks were as poor as, if not more so, as the rioters causing trouble.  Yet, the difference is that the mountain folks had the gumption to utilize their circumstance and make it work for them, and as a result many of them succeeded - they may not have produced a lot of doctors or lawyers, but they did produce good families and stable households.  I am proud of many in my own family - in particular my Uncles Teak and Joe Turner, my aunt and uncle Angie and Chod McDaniel, and many of my cousins who even today still live in the city - for what they were able to accomplish back in those days, and they are what the true legacy of Baltimore is.  I also have many fond memories from my childhood days there myself - going to kindergarten at Steuart Hill School on Gilmor Street, eating delicious Chesapeake oysters at Bay Island Seafood on Pratt Street as well as those donut-sized onion rings at Kibby's on Wilkins, hanging out with my cousins in my Uncle Ken's basement on Frederick Avenue, and my mom's job at Caton Manor Nursing Home.   Also, going downtown as a little tyke with my Aunt Angie and having some good fried chicken off a food truck (yes, those were around in the mid-1970's!) and washing it down with an orange soda from the Jewish grocer who had the what-not store down on Pratt.  Those were some great times.  Some of those things - such as Bay Island - are still there, while others have gone away with time.  And, now, new people - many of them not quite as respectful as the mountain people who once lived there - have come into the neighborhoods many of our family and friends lived in, and they have let the place go to hell and a virtual slum has been created where vibrant and clean neighborhoods used to be.  At one point, I remember on a Google street search recently even seeing someone taking a leak on a stop sign - with people like that, who neglect and destroy once-vibrant neighborhoods, it is little wonder that those riots happened.  I also remember the row houses - they had a charm of their own, and were actually nice to live in.  Today, almost 40 years later, many of those nice old houses have become havens for crackheads, rats, and roaches, as they are in disrepair and decay.  It is truly tragic to see a part of my own past deteriorate like that, and these riots incited it more.  Shameful!

Well, I have ranted enough on that, but at some point I think I may do a reflective article on my youth in Baltimore years ago, just to show people how nice it used to be.  The state of Baltimore, unfortunately, may be the fate of the US if we don't watch ourselves - we are allowing too many special interests, funded by big corporations and advanced by corrupt career politicians,  to destroy the American infrastructure (Ferguson, anyone??).  With cops being too scared to actually do their jobs, the "mob mentality" is running rampant, and it is frightening.  That is why many of us who hold to a more traditional values system need to take back what rightfully is our legacy, and not let a bunch of radicals and destructive troublemakers steal it from us.  Have a good day, folks, and just remember that as long as some of us still possess the conviction, a restoration is possible!  Let's hope it can happen before it's too late.