Talking About Rich, Fat-Cat, Arrogant, And Elitist Radicals Pretending To Be Liberals

"And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." --Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Well, is it still there? Is it? Or has it been lowered over Fort McHenry? Has Baltimore and other American cities surrendered to blight, to an irreversible downward spiral? Is American going to go cheering into decline, praising itself for its environmental purity, high-mileage autos, pristine multicultural manners?

A few years ago I was on a book tour in Baltimore. They put me at a nice downtown hotel and I had some time before the evening event. So I decided to eat something at the coffee shop in the lobby. But it was a bit cool so I went upstairs to put on a jacket. When the elevator opened on the lobby the door was blocked by a gurney. Medics were wheeling out a dead body. Police guarded the entrance of the coffee shop, not letting anyone go in. Someone had been shot dead.

I went on to the bookstore and begged a sandwich there. Well, that’s not fair to Baltimore, of course. But it’s a true story. It is a wonderful city and fond to me for two reasons.

First, growing up in the artificial, tax-payer funded paradise—well, no, but that’s another story—of Washington DC, for me Baltimore was the real America. A harbor, a real baseball team (postpone discussion of Washington Senators); industry and real workers, people who actually did something productive for a living. Not to mention Fort McHenry; and later the aquarium; the science museum; and the USS Torsk, a World War Two submarine that played a very important part in my life (that story for another time); the USS Constitution and the USS Constellation.

More