David Simon, creator of The Wire, speaks on culture, Baltimore city

By: Lisa Dolan

Posted: 9/27/07

Writer, journalist and native Baltimorean David Simon had an interesting take on the theme of this year's Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium in a speech at Shriver Hall Wednesday night. Instead of "Renewing American Culture," he said, he preferred to focus on its collapse.

Simon, a former crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun, has gone on to create two critically acclaimed TV shows based on his experiences. He delivered a bleak analysis of the city's political, economic and educational institutions - including Hopkins - and how they fail to serve the public.

"There's a lot for Hopkins to be ashamed of," he said of the Hospital's role in the deterioration of East Baltimore, now the scene of a controversial urban renewal program that has razed dilapidated neighborhoods in favor of a Biotechnology park.

"For 30 years, Hopkins let that place go to [expletive], and didn't lift an eye," he said. "You want credit for saving it, but you were part of the problem, you really are."

He went on to explain that his current show, The Wire - acclaimed by scores of critics for its gritty realism and unique "visual narrative" style - chronicles the ravages of unfettered capitalism and a failed war on drugs and how each devalues the lives of poor and middle-class Americans more and more each day. Simon hypothesized that America is going to become a coarser and brutish place; there will be more resentment between classes and more mediocrity within the media because the mass media cannot offend anyone.

But despite this cynicism, he has found in the production of The Wire a medium where he does not need to worry about placating the masses; a medium where he can tell the truth, where he can tell his story of Baltimore's inner city life.

The Wire, Simon said, is dissent; it's apolitical; it's an angry, dark story. Such a story cannot be told if it is necessary to stop every 12 minutes for commercials.

However with the introduction of cable and premium cable such as HBO, he realized that he could have a future in television. He could do true storytelling in a virtual media and did not have to worry about appealing to the masses, but rather have the opportunity to portray his message that human beings are worthless; and the degradation of human beings' worth is raw capitalism.

"It's about the triumph of saying you've solved the problem when you haven't even addressed the problem," he said. "Any place that's experiencing the problem of 'two Americas' is watching The Wire."

He went on to offer a stark diagnosis of Baltimore - a city of crumbling row houses and a flourishing drug trade alongside pricey development projects and condos.

"You're going to have to go back the last 30 years and undo this disaster brick by brick," he said, calling the rapid deterioration of the city's poorest neighborhoods - and the devaluation of its middle class - a "slow motion holocaust that happens generation after generation after generation."

"The middle class that was really the backbone of the consumer class that made us great after World War II, that's what's under siege," he said.

He also offered a strong indictment of the drug trade - one of the central themes of his work - calling it "the worst subversion of our judicial system you could possibly have."

"Your chance of being the victim of violence in this city if you're white is no different than Omaha, Neb.," he said. "There are two Americas."

"There's no politician that has the courage to do what needs to be done to get rid of these draconian drug laws," he added.

Simon's speech was a drastic departure from the previous MSE speaker, Christopher Hitchens, who spent the majority of his speech berating religion.

Simon spent a significant amount of his speech answering audience questions about Baltimore, especially regarding Gov. Martin O'Malley, who was previously the mayor of Baltimore.

O'Malley will be the next speaker for MSE, followed by newly-added Howard Dean (D-Vt.) and actor Danny Glover.

It is a rarity for the symposium to be able to bring in acting politicians, as they tend to have conflicting schedules. O'Malley and Dean, as active politicians, will be speaking at no cost to the school.