Paul DiPasqua
Second Event Blog Post
Baltimore
Ceasefire
This past Thursday, my roommate and I decided to attend
an event centered around reducing gun violence in the city of Baltimore. The
two speakers, Erricka Bridgeford and Ellen Gee, touched upon Baltimore’s rise
to the top of the national murder rate list, and their effort to reverse the
city’s descent into violence through projects like the Baltimore Peace
Challenge. This event changed my perspective of gun violence, as well as the
city of Baltimore at large.
Over the summer, Erricka Bridgeford decided to take a
stand against the gun violence that is sweeping the city and responsible for
the deaths of her brother and stepson. She did this by organizing a
three-day-long ceasefire, which consisted of events like prayer circles and
cookouts across Baltimore. While the speakers know that this couldn’t possibly
‘cure’ gun violence in this city, they wanted to show people what could happen
when a beautiful city comes together in opposition to the poor reputation it
has garnered. Indeed, it couldn’t cure gun violence, as I learned that at least
two people were shot and killed during the ceasefire, which deeply disappointed
me as I was hoping it had been successful. Erricka and Ellen’s event made me
start to wonder why and how Baltimore has reached a point where a weekend of
not killing anybody could be considered next to impossible.
In a strange way, the ceasefire event made me think of
Baltimore in the context of “The Birthmark”
by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I related the city to Georgiana, specifically thinking
of the shootings in Baltimore as an imperfection upon a wonderful city. All the
violence occurring here every day mars the appearance of a historic city just
as Aylmer believes the birthmark mars Georgiana’s face. This resentment felt by
Aylmer is the same resentment that the residents of Baltimore feel when they
read the news about another shooting, or the record-breaking murder pace that
the city is on this year. The difference, though, is that this ‘birthmark’ is
growing and unlike in the story, its removal will save the city rather than
kill it.
Moreover, I thought of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth when Ms.
Bridgeford spoke about the personal effects of gun violence she has
experienced. It would have been very easy for Erricka to give up hope in
Baltimore after losing so many family members because of shootings, but she
organized a great program instead. The narrator in Wordsworth’s story is similar
in the sense that they could accept their loneliness and live in isolation, but
they decide to experience life and appreciate its beauty instead. This mindset
is the kind that provides motivation for everyone to overcome the obstacles
that will inevitably be hurled at them in life, even the biggest one of all –
loss.
Although I enjoyed the event hosted by Bridgeford and
Gee, I left that day with an empty feeling in my stomach. I had come to a clear
realization that I am living in such close proximity to the war zone they had just described, and it made everything they said feel like a
warning. Despite this, I did witness two people who care about their city get
up in front of a room full of students and tell them that there is an issue
that needs to be fixed. Their acknowledgment that there is a system in place
that keeps escalating the violence took me through the minds of city residents
who don’t know much else besides guns and violence. If I couldn’t say anything
else about last Thursday’s event, I would only say that it woke me up to the
harsh reality laying underneath the Charm City.
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