We may not like the way our city is depicted in the news or on fictional albeit realistic TV shows, but we should rejoice in the tremendous energy and assets in our community, especially in response to last year's unrest. We are beginning to see how we can each play a part in shaping a new future for the city; it is not as hopeless as Mr. Simon may have portrayed it. My own contribution is in the classroom, where students largely from somewhere other than Charm City ache and weep over the issues and inequities found here and then aspire to make the city better thanks to "The Wire's" humanizing of the drug users, the drug dealers, the children in failing schools and the adults in failing institutions. With humanity in mind, we are able to see that the way forward is to move past the manifestations of the social determinants of health and attack the root causes.