Wandering with Reckless Abandon

The Baltimore Crime Blog turned me on to this Wall Street Journal article about the City of Baltimore and her unfortunate tax policies through the years.

Two economics professors, one from Hopkins and one from Loyola, look at what they see to be the real reason that the city has seen such a steep decline. Read through this, and let me know what you think.

I watched this this morning and thought it was very well done. For those who have never seen the best drama on the face of the planet, David Simon is the creator of HBO’s The Wire.

Thanks to Baltimore Grows for putting me on to this.

UPDATE: Special thanks to David Simon for giving me a hankering for a Faidley’s crabcake. BEST LUNCH EVER.

So this morning started out like any other morning since I moved into Bolton Hill.

I opened my eyes, kissed my beautiful wife, and got ready for work. As I emerged from our apartment, freshly showered and smelling springtime fresh, I headed to my truck, thinking all was well with the world and ready to begin the last day of the month, which is a big day in the car sales world.

As I opened my truck door, I noticed something sitting on the floor of the driver’s side. It was a present!!! Behold, my present:

After staring in wonder at my present for a minute, I started to wonder, where oh where did my present come from? About that time I looked at the rest of my truck and noticed that something was not right:

That’s right, my truck was broken into last night.

Apparantly someone was wandering down Mosher, and had nothing better to do than smash out my window with a large rock and rip through my truck. They scored an ipod (complete with all the music played at our wedding reception) and my cell phone charger. Now the ipod I understand, and while it is annoying, it makes sense. The cell phone charger… well that just pisses me off, they were playing dirty when they took that.

My other annoyance with this whole experience was that whoever decided to break into my truck missed on his first attempt to throw the rock through my window, and created a sizable dent in my truck. So, now I get to pay the $500 deductable for my insurance, and be without my truck for a few days.

On a more positive note, Officer Mingo of the BCPD was a true proffessional, and we did get to meet one of our neighbors and have a good conversation with him.

When I was a youth pastor I would often use the term re-entry after a retreat. Our students would come back on a spiritual high and then head back into the real world.

The last ten days have been a blur:

The wedding was beautiful, I cried through much of it, Theresa looked truly radiant, and so many of our friends and family came out that we lost count.
Our reception was fantastic, I just wish it was longer so that we could have visited with more people.
The honeymoon was incredible. Jamaica is proof of God’s creative genius, and the resort we stayed at was the perfect balance of privacy and stuff to do. Theresa and I both needed the vacation, and it was wonderful to spend it together as man and wife.

So here we go, we are in the re-entry stage. Learning to live together in the same place, share the same bathroom (she got the worst part of that deal), and starting to do life together on a far more intimate plane. I am excited, but anxious… we have much to do as we adjust to one another, and we need to learn how to carve out time together.

As we begin our marriage, we need to consider how we can build into one another well… and I need to wrestle through whether selling cars is the best way that we can do that. The idea that I need to be at work five or six loooooong days each week, is not one that excites either of us, and so we find ourselves trying to figure out what is in our best interests: both relationally and financially.

And while we have some heavy stuff to wade through, there is a whole lot of pure, unadulterated joy to be shared as well. I am now living with the woman that I love, and we spend a good chunk of time laughing and giggling at one another, but also enjoying how we are continuing to learn how to love each other well…

I am going to be posting pictures soon, but for now you will have to be satisfied by this one:

I told you that she was absolutely radiant… I am a very, very fortunate man.

So I am sitting in my hotel room, getting ready for my last day as a batchelor.

Tomorrow this little girl:

And this little boy:

Are starting their new life together. I am excited, nervous, and ready. The buildup over the last months is about to come to fruition, and I think we are both ready and eager to begin our marriage.

We will be back in Baltimore on the 23rd… tanned, rested and ready, stop by and say hi!

Ok, so, I havent posted much on here of late. Forgive me.

I doubt that I will be doing much posting until after the wedding and honeymoon…

Put just so you know that I am alive, I am. The wedding is progressing along quite well, and in two weeks my bride and I will be headed to Jamaica for some much needed rest and together time (stop it).

Pray for us as we are in the home stretch.

Heated toilet seats? I need to get me one of them…

If you are not aware of the story of Sarah Kreager you are a fortunate soul indeed. Sarah was the victim of a beating by a group of nine middle school students in Baltimore’s Hamden neighborhood. On Wednesday, Judge David W. Young made this statement at the sentencing of 15 year old Nakita McDaniels:

Baltimore Circuit Judge David W. Young sentenced 15-year-old Nakita McDaniels for attacking Sarah Kreager aboard a city bus. The following statement was made in court on Wednesday.

I came to Baltimore 37 years ago from Hagerstown to attend UMBC. Growing up in Hagerstown, I didn’t see a lot of things. I didn’t see lawyers of color. I didn’t see women attorneys or doctors, doctors of color. The first six years of my life I went to segregated schools.

Not withstanding all of that, when I got to UMBC and I saw the city of Baltimore, and I said this the other day, I thought I was in heaven, and I literally decided that I was going to make Baltimore my home.

In 1985, I became a judge. I’ve done thousands of cases. I can’t think of more than three or four in 23 years that have reduced me to tears like this case. And when I say this case reduced me to tears, it reduced me to tears.

I just wonder what has gone so wrong, so wrong, in our families, in our communities, in our churches and schools. It’s been painful for me. I didn’t get more than three hours’ sleep. I didn’t want this case. I didn’t get more than three hours’ sleep for a couple of months.

My staff will tell you I got literally dozens of phone calls. I got phone calls from people who said they’re only picking on these kids because they’re black. I got phone calls from people who said, “You’d know they did it if you’ve ever ridden a bus in this city.” I’ve had people literally come up to me on the street, and I’ve had to walk away from them.

I only point that out because this case grabbed the attention of our community. I got e-mails from our state and, sadly enough, from our nation. And Nakita is not responsible for that. We are as a community.

Something is wrong. The good Lord has a way of revealing the truth, and I don’t even know what movie it’s from. But one of my favorite movie lines is where Jack Nicholson says, “You can’t handle the truth.” And I just think in many ways, we are ignoring the truth that’s as plain as the noses on our faces.

A house divided cannot stand. And our house is divided. Our city is divided. Our country is divided. Nobody likes anybody. It scares me.

Men are angry at women. Women are angry at men. Blacks don’t like whites; whites don’t like blacks. Latinos. We’re homophobic. We’re ethnocentric. We’re moving to the right in terms of our intolerance.

And so what this case represents to me was — and I don’t doubt that Nakita is an intelligent young woman — but what it points out to me is the crying need for early intervention. I reviewed the psychological report. I reviewed the court file. I reviewed the report in her prior case. This young and gifted young lady has needed help for a long time and not gotten it.

On Dec. 4, caution went out the window, compassion went out the window, and reason went out the window. You know. And so, it’s, it’s sad to me.

It’s also sad to me — and the reason I ordered DJS to staff her case — is because I’ve been in juvenile [court] nine of the last 12 years of my life. And one thing I am certain, if we don’t intervene, it doesn’t get better. It gets worse.

I’ve done homicide cases as a juvenile judge. I’ve done attempted murder cases. And I’ve not dealt with many people — juvenile or adult — who I am convinced given the proper provocation would kill. I don’t say that lightly.

I actually wept when I heard the testimony of Mrs. King. When she yelled, “That’s not a dog. That’s a person. And you’re going to kill her.” I believe, but for Miss King, this case would have been much more tragic. I just really believe it. I believe the pack mentality kicked in.

And the person who could have led them in staying on the bus — led them in doing the right thing, who, according to her counselor, being vice president of student government — chose to lead her troops in another direction.

There are many types of leaders. I’m not going to call them by name, but there are leaders for positive and for good. And there are those leaders who choose to use their leadership abilities to do wrong.

But I do know this. In my heart, in my belief and in my experience, unless and until Nakita gets in touch with what is making Nakita explosive and angry, the next person who argues with her may be a homicide victim.

And that to me is born out in the evaluation, where she says, “If I fight somebody, I really try to hurt them.” And the doctor says, “She does not fight often. But when she does, it’s as if a switch gets turned on. She loses control.” The 10 or 12 homicide cases I’ve done, that’s what happened.

She has had the benefit of prior probation. I do not think probation is in order, nor do I think community-based placement is in order.

Nakita McDaniels … this court now finds you delinquent. This court also finds that it is in your best interest to commit you to a secure residential placement outside of the community.

From the Baltimore Sun

I am haunted by this line:
I just wonder what has gone so wrong, so wrong, in our families, in our communities, in our churches and schools.

What has gone wrong in our families, our communities, our churches, and our schools?
How do we begin to pick up the pieces?

Thoughts?

I live! To prove it to you I am going to give you the digest version of my life right now, and then I am going to bed. I have had so much that I have wanted to write about lately, but time has just not been available. Here is what is going on:

• It has been just over three weeks since my nephew was born, and he is still the coolest kid ever (until I have mine sometime in the future)…
• Who knew that you could pull off a wedding in the NYC area in June cheaply on ten weeks notice? It looks like I really am getting married on June 14.
• In case you are wondering, we have a wedding website, check it out here.
  We are getting married here, having our reception here, and having our honeymoon here.
• The car business has been rather slow of late. The constant barrage of bad news on the economy has made people hang on to their money, and discouraged them from buying cars. I am currently sitting at 6 cars for the month, with a week to go. While this is bad, I am doing better than a good bit of the guys that I work with. Pray for us, we need to pay our bills this month.
• The Garden is progressing quite nicely. We still have a great deal of money to raise, but we are putting together a plan to work on that, and we are seeing people join us more and more as time moves on. Joel is currently at the National New Church Conference in Orlando. I was supposed to be there with him this week, but with the way the month was going at the dealership, I could not afford to miss four days off of the sales floor. If you are interested in supporting this ministry, please click here.

I think that pretty much is the quick recap on my life… I should be able to post again after invitations are mailed out…

This is my nephew, Shane who was born yesterday afternoon (no foolin!).
He is a big fella, eight pounds and change (my sister is not all that big… she is tough!).
Anyhow, it is only a matter of time before I start teaching him all the important things in life that only uncles can teach (belching the alphabet, rolling around in mud, you know… that kind of stuff)…