The following is a student's response to the events of Sept. 15. It appears here unedited and in its entirety. The Editor wishes to take this opportunity to endorse the proposals contained herein. We hope the author's effort will contribute positively to the ongoing dialogue.
Dear Editor,
I am a senior at Hopkins and I am going into my second year living off-campus on 33rd street. I graduated high school from Baltimore City College, which is about a mile and a half down 33rd. Another mile and a half, and you get to the home I grew up in. I know Baltimore pretty well, and what happened on the morning of Sept. 15th still shocked me.
We've all heard about the incident, which occurred a block away from my home. My heart goes out to my fellow student, and to the community as a whole. There is a part of me that would like to bemoan the lost innocence of the University community, and pray that an incident like this will never happen again. However, as part of the Hopkins community who remembers the passing of certain Hopkins students just before my class arrived on campus, it is not with cynicism but with honesty that I say this:
If we do not enact fundamental policy changes concerning how students living off-campus are to be kept secure, the violence will continue.
This cycle is closely connected to the cycles of poverty and addiction that have Baltimore in its grip. We cannot wish away the desperation that drives some criminals - and we certainly cannot dissuade those who simply decide to make their lives better at the expense of others with rhetoric. It is imperative that we take steps to protect ourselves. On some level, there are investments that students need to make in our own security, myself included, but sometimes even added locks and chains are overcome by these criminals.
My own home has been burglarized twice since my friends and I moved in during the summer of 2008. I have since found out that the room that I am in right now was the scene of an altercation between a would-be burglar and a Hopkins student, who fended off the assailant with a baseball bat. My home has had thousands of dollars worth of property taken, but fortunately, everyone has remained safe. I count my blessings, but fear for the future, as something seems fundamentally wrong when I so readily embrace the pacifistic silver lining of my own experience with criminals stealing my property.
What will the reactions of criminals be in Baltimore after hearing of the news? Will it be to avoid Hopkins students all together, fearing for their own safety? No, they will just come better armed, and more wary of retaliation. As I enter my final year at Hopkins, I welcome President Daniels to the community that I have been a part of for so long, but I do so with apprehension: We have had violence around our campus before, and while I can see more cameras and the flashing lights, houses are still being broken into.
I propose that Hopkins hosts a commission where the University, students and members of the Charles Village community can work together to make our walk to Eddies' for lunch as safe as falling asleep. Karen Stokes, the executive director of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation, is interested in considering these issues further, and several members of the SGA have expressed interest as well. It is terrible that it has taken a not-so-exogenous shock to our system to mobilize for action, but we cannot let that stop potential progress.
The cliché that I've heard time and again is that we live in a bubble; that Baltimore is something we are "separate" from. This could not be further from the truth. We are in the heart of Baltimore City, and with it we have the opportunity to take advantage of all of the great things my hometown has to offer.
I have had enough of simply accepting the bad with the good. It is time for a change.
Sincerely,
Samuel Ball-Brau
