I have seen the mayor of Baltimore wringing his hands about what is happening in the city and asking for the public’s help (“Baltimore Mayor Young calls recent police union tweets a ‘distraction,’ plans to meet with FOP leadership,” Aug. 28). If he is serious about solving Baltimore’s problems, I suggest that he give up some of the long-standing liberal values. He might want to start with the following ones.
1. Stop lying about the crime and other problems in the city. Stop accusing those who are honest about them as being racists. To tell the truth is not racist. To hide the crime levels of a race is racist. Stop blaming poverty for crime. There are plenty of poor areas in the United States that have low crime. Stop blaming the gun and not the mind and morality of the shooter. Enforce gun laws.
2. Stop the failure of the Baltimore City School System. Stop its leadership from lying about its problems and blocking citizens’ inquiries into problems in the system. Stop the liberal teachers groups’ control over what is taught or not taught in the city. Return God and the Ten Commandments to the schools. Without God, people choose to do their worst desires, even shooting children. Stop passing children who are not in school most of the year and stop lowering standards. If you can’t read, you cannot work at a job with a living wage.
3. Stop lying about drugs and their abuse. Drug abuse and crime go together. Abusers cannot stop using without a change in their worldview and help with the problems they are facing.
4. Stop being an open, welcoming city. You are not taking care of the problems you have or taking care of the city’s infrastructure. Taking care of undocumented immigrants is only hurting your ability to deal with other needs, like hiring the proper number of police officers.
5. Stop building the cycle of a “give me” society. People who are on the dole have no stake in the problems. Their behavior uses others and things given them over and over again. End welfare after six months and replace it with retraining for jobs, taking care of housing, raising children or whatever skills are missing from their skill set.
Do this, Mr. Mayor, and you will slowing be building a new city that cares, works, makes moral decisions and has no drugs or drug warfare on its streets. You will also stop the spread of blight throughout the state.
Rev. Michael T. Buttner, Forest Hill
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