Over the Christmas holiday, Mary and I drove from West Virginia to visit her widowed birth mother who lives in Baltimore. I'll call her Ruth. Mary and I grew up in the Baltimore area.

Wow! What a striking decline in our beloved hometown, once renowned as Charm City. We saw countless blocks of empty trashed row-houses.

Baltimore is also known for great neighborhoods; Fells Point, Little Italy, and so on. We drove through Highland town, pronounced, “Hollin” town by locals. I was shocked to see so many Highland town businesses which once thrived were gone, the storefronts boarded up. They should have grown rather than failed.

Upon our arrival, Ruth excitedly greeted us with a hug.

Ruth has lived in her Dundalk home for 39 years, a block from the city line. Her companion is Corky, her old fat hound dog. She said thugs from the city have begun spilling over into her neighborhood. There is a party house a few doors down from her with loud music filled with expletives. She called the police a few times but nothing has changed.

We were told that the East Point Mall, once a hub of family activity, has become a place to avoid, infected with drugs and criminals.

Ruth said her old female friend barely escaped being carjacked in Baltimore in broad daylight by locking her doors before thugs could open them. Ruth does not venture into Baltimore unless it is absolutely necessary. Baltimore hit a new record high for homicides over the holidays.

Because Ruth is white and I am black, I sensed Ruth's discomfort expressing how horrible Baltimore's black female mayor has been. Ruth said, “I heard her say the police should allow rioters to destroy businesses to get out their frustrations.” I told Ruth that she heard correctly. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “We also gave those who wish to destroy space to do that as well...”

Democrat-controlled cities are insanely obsessed with pandering to criminals and illegals against the safety, best interests, and rights of law-abiding citizens. NYC Mayor de Blasio's latest soft-on-crime initiative includes giving freed inmates gift cards and cell phones. The gift cards are ending up at liquor stores. Democrat presidential candidates boldly proclaim that if elected, they will declare war on law enforcement, which includes ICE and police.

Ruth served Mary and me delicious cake she baked from scratch. She moved to Baltimore as a child with her mother and baby brother. The word in West Virginia was those folks in Baltimore don't want to work. Ruth's mom moved to Baltimore for a job. Her mother was never without a job. Ruth's dad stayed in West Virginia working in the coalmine.

Ruth shared a horrible story about a relative who got too close to the fireplace. Her robe caught fire. She pushed her two children outside the house but could not save herself. Grandparents raised the two children.

Hearing Ruth share about the lives of her and her family, Mary and I later discussed how clearly Ruth's generation were not whiners. They simply kept moving forward doing whatever they needed to do to survive. They were not snowflakes.

Mary and I made sure to get-outta-Dodge (Baltimore) before dark. It is truly tragic what fifty years of Democrat control has done to a once great American city.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

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