“Competent white men must be in charge,” Darren Beattie, President Donald Trump’s new acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, posted on the website formally known as Twitter last October.
And that pretty much sums up President Donald Trump’s motivation as he’s attempted to upend much of the way this country is run during the first few weeks of his presidency. This isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a surprise. Trump is operating not only out of the Project 2025 playbook that he distanced himself from while on the campaign (the plan was put together by right-wing and ultra-conservative policymakers to greatly expand presidential power in a way that favors their political leanings) but operating out of the United States’ original playbook and reason for existing. This is a country founded on chattel slavery and land theft, after all.
He and his allies think they are the only ones who should be in charge, as they mostly are. But that’s not enough. They’d also like the rest of us to never have the opportunity to touch a fraction of the wealth they enjoy.
A lot of the violence that the United States has enacted both on its own citizens and abroad has been softened through polite, liberal language over the years. But Trump and his allies have done away with all that now.
And what do the rest of us do? Survive, as we have always done.
In this issue, which is dedicated to all things related to love, Baltimore Beat News Editor Sanya Kamidi wrote about Parks & People. The organization fosters a love of the land in city youth — and has been doing so for 40 years.
“For us, we have an opportunity, in our way, to do some repairing,” CEO Frank Lance told Kamidi. “And so we can repair the psyche, if we can repair the hope, if we can repair the dreams, if we can get rid of a building and show you something beautiful instead of blight, we are in a way repairing.”
For those of you who really love music, or if you’re still in need of Valentine’s Day date night ideas, Arts and Culture Editor Teri Henderson wrote about Keystone Korner. The Harbor East jazz club has been here since 2019. The first iteration of the club opened in San Francisco over 40 years ago.
There are few people who love Baltimore sports more than Reeta Hubbard. In this issue she asks, “Is Lamar Jackson a victim of his own success?”
Finally, Dominic Griffin writes about ’90s era Spike Lee classic “Girl 6.” In this piece, he explores sex and loneliness in the days before internet porn.
“‘Girl 6’ is a thematically complex work that celebrates female agency while painting its intersection with capitalism as a recipe for horror rather than freedom,” Griffin writes.
Thank you for reading and please take care of yourselves.
Correction: In a graphic published with the story “Bail remains a never-ending problem in Maryland. Is the state searching for a solution?” the line “Pretrial defendants, who are considered legally innocent, make up the vast majority of the local jail population in Maryland today.” was incorrectly attributed to Debra Gardner. We regret this error.
The post Letter from the editor – Issue 55 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.