I have often found a lot of peace in being a Baltimore journalist running a Baltimore news outlet. The world is chaotic and vast, and focusing on local news means that I can try to narrow in on where I can be helpful. At the same time, Baltimore doesn’t exist in a bubble and things that happen nationally and internationally color our world here.
Donald Trump, who has in the past called this city a “rodent-infested mess” where no human would want to live, was injured when shots rang out at a Pennsylvania campaign rally held on July 14. This happened as we prepared issue 44 for print. It was immediately followed by political posturing, more hatred, more disinformation, and, for many, even more confusion about the current state of our political world.
I have thought a lot about what journalists need to do in these times. I think about how a lot of what I was taught in school about journalism did not help tell the truth about people who were Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, poor, or marginalized in any way. The world that a Trump presidency could usher in is one that has the potential to make all of the groups I just listed less safe. That’s because of Project 2025, a conservative-led initiative that seeks to further dismantle the social safety net.
“The policy agenda is expansive, detailing how to use the federal apparatus to repeal gains made in a variety of arenas, from education and infrastructure to health care and LGBTQ issues,” wrote Capital B, a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on the Black community. “These rollbacks would, to no one’s surprise, disproportionately harm Black Americans.”
Trump has said he knows nothing about Project 2025, but many of his closest advisers have helped craft it.
According to CNN, “six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation.”
“The agenda being pursued has deep roots in the decades-long effort by conservative legal thinkers to undercut what has become known as the administrative state — agencies that enact regulations aimed at keeping the air and water clean and food, drugs and consumer products safe, but that cut into business profits,” The New York Times wrote about Project 2025.
We live in scary times, but, for many of us, there has never been a time in this country that we didn’t have a great deal to fear. That doesn’t mean that I am fearful. But it does mean that I’m committed to bringing you information that is true, thoughtful, and helpful. Because that’s what helps us not only survive, but thrive.
As usual, we have an issue packed with lots of information about what’s going on in Baltimore City.
For example, Jaisal Noor wrote about Tubman House. The organization was established to help feed Baltimoreans as part of their larger vision of community care, but organizers have hit a rough patch. Also, Teri Henderson talked to Jonathon Heyward, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director, about their efforts to make classical music something for everybody. Find those stories, and lots of other important coverage, inside these pages.
Thanks for reading.
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