Good Morning, Baltimore.

I listen from London as rumors concerning the National Guard intervening in Baltimore flutter about an old friend circle. Army vehicles line up I-95, shielding Marylanders from an unseen threat. Unlikely rumors, but not unwarranted ones. Twenty-eight murders in one week, “Are we headed down the same path as Detroit?” My mother asked me on FaceTime one evening, concerned. Another friend provided an answer in a different conversation, “We’re just as bad.” A grim conclusion.

Baltimore-Detroit: a connection hard to ignore as news of Detroit’s bankruptcy poured in. As I read on the widening gap between promised pensions and companies ability to pay them to their employees, dim statistics about Maryland’s similar pension schemes floated to the top of my mind.

A long history of Maryland politicians have promised heightened pensions to constituents, a cop-out:  it’s easier to push the promise to the future rather than raise wages in the present. Maryland politicians Stephanie Rowlings-Blake and Martin O’Malley tried and failed to put pension reform at the head of agenda, only to be drowned out by merciless screams of crime victims that propel Baltimore to number 9 on Buisness Insider’s list of 25 most dangerous cities, claiming its place as “Heroin capital of America”.

 Maryland is riddled with corrupted (and naive) government; highlighted by Sheila Dixon’s recent 2009 trial, the only upside of which stripped her of an $83,000 pension to be put back into the dwindling money pot. Simultaneously, Bob Erlich blithely voted to raise pensions for Maryland teachers (the education system being a conversation for an entirely different time).

But what can be done to solve the pension crisis, when Maryland’s voters are being murdered before they have a chance to speak their opinions? Firstly, we need someone to step forward to organize. Someone who can place the problems in an identifiable loop that will allow us to determine which problem set off the domino effect that is destroying our state. Secondly, someone who can reunite the discouraged police force, and enforce legislation that will demand gangs leave. Thirdly, positivity: though The Wire is bringing big money to Hollywood tycoons, it is advertising Baltimore’s bad reputation and giving gangs a bar to measure themselves against.

I only lived in Baltimore for 7 years before moving away for University. It was long enough to fall in love with it. I want people to know of our quirky traditions, to experience a crab feast in summer warmth, to know Old Bay, to watch an Orioles game at a student night. To be able to smile when people sing the opening line of Hairspray, knowing how perfectly that movie embraces our small town.

It makes me sad to hear these rumors from the place I used to love, but it gives me hope thinking that one day, eventually, surely, someone will step forward to help restore Baltimore to the place it used to be.