Day 184 Ignite Baltimore



June 11, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.) 

How we connect and what evolves from these connections are important. I went to Ignite Baltimore tonight at MICA’s (Maryland Institute College of Art) Brown Center. At these events, usually sixteen speakers each get 5 minutes to show 20 slides and give a presentation about ideas. Here are some things I learned tonight:

* Within the distance of about five miles between the neighborhoods of Roland Park and Sandtown, Freddie Gray’s neighborhood, there is a difference of 20 years in life expectancy.

* Baltimore is hyper segregated, among the top eight most segregated cities in the country. Dr. Lawrence Brown called it a type of apartheid that “restricts opportunity.” He says that we have to “dismantle segregation”.

* Protester DeRay McKesson, talked about the importance of how we tell the story. Was it Baltimore’s riot or was it an uprising? He chooses to use uprising. McKesson pointed out that this year so far, there have been only nine days when police did not kill someone in the United States.

* Myra Margolin made a good point when she said, “We are criminalizing rather than developing people.” Baltimore city has put more money into policing but cut funds for education, parks and recreation, health and job development. 

* Dr. Polly Bart who has traveled around the world related a conversation she had with a Buddhist monk. She observed that she feels God in nature but not when she’s with people. The monk answered, “See people as trees.”

Tonight I looked at shadows on a wall as we were talking with some friends we ran into at MICA. The shadows reminded me of the potential of connections, the ambiguity of shadows, the importance of connecting the dots, and our choice in how we interpret and tell the narrative. 

My gift today is shadow ideas on a wall.
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> Day 185: Remote Possibilities

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

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