Baltimore's BELIEVE campaign -- $2 Million Later and It's 1984 All Over

As most of you know, I recently returned to Baltimore after a 15 year hiatus in the Outreamer (California, Vegas, Texas, Oregon, Australia, etc). It seems I began to miss things like rampant crime, soaring murder statistics, teenage pregnacies, single parent families, streets awash with drugs, illiteracy, racial vitriole, public housing neighborhoods buried in trash, and well worn paths to welfare -- all things that Baltimore has become famous for over the years.

In an effort to combat these seemingly systemic problems, years ago Baltimore's leadership came up with effective slogans-- like BALTIMORE: The City That Reads; a moniker that was quickly lampooned. BALTIMORE: The City That Bleeds or better yet; Baltimore: The City That Breeds. When this didn't work, Baltimore became Charm City; although one can be forgiven for not seeing the charm in Charm City. Baltimore: HARM City is probably more apt since your chances of being harmed are so much greater than being charmed-- as reflected by Baltimore's own police data.

Baltimore's latest bit of sloganeering is the somewhat nebulous BELIEVE campaign... complete with it's own website no less.

This whole BELIEVE thing really struck a raw nerve with me... and maybe it's just me. On the way downtown this morning, I passed dozens of blinking blue camera set ups aimed at the street to keep watch over us. Each one had the word BELIEVE on it. It was positively creepy.

Forget for a moment that some advertising company was paid $2 million for it's trouble... it smacks of Orwell's 1984.

Work.
Consume.
Obey.

and yes... BELIEVE!

I, for one, don't enjoy being watched as I go about my daily affairs by some quasi-governmental intrusion telling me to BELIEVE. What exactly am I to BELIEVE... more of their bullshit??? Honestly, this whole concept of "If I believe something hard enough... it'll become reality" has a Kumbayah aspect to it that makes me suspect the BELIEVE campaign had a liberal-democrat origination.

Whoa.... I was right.

What a shocker!

Despite the claims on the BELIEVE campaign website... we're not doing any better than we were in 2002. Baltimore still leads the nation in murders, although Detroit sometimes bumps us to #2 occasionally. And while I think we're no longer #1 in teen pregnancies and single parent households, this is only because our crack-adled youths are less able to procreate. The Dems were running things then... and they're still running things today. That's progress for you.

I hate getting political because that's not what this blog is all about... but I have to say that if you went to some hard-bitten Republican fat-cat asking for $2 million for this drivel you'd get thrown out of his office. He'd much rather use the $2 million to level some old-growth forest to make way for a Walmart.

As if one word could turn things around...

It's positively criminal that someone in city planning gave the okay for this campaign. Like the citizens of Baltimore need to be accosted by this piece of Big Brother nonsense in order to make a better life.

Well.. if one word would do the trick... my campaign for Baltimore would be much simpler and less ambiguous... STOP.

Stop doing drugs.
Stop committing crimes.
Stop killing one another.
Stop having babies at age 13.
Stop throwing trash on the street.
Stop regarding social services as a substitute for fatherhood.
Stop regarding Welfare as a substitute for employment.

and STOP thinking my tax dollars exist solely to subsidize and enable your dysfunctional lifestyles.

In short... BEHAVE



Good job, Baltimore. George Orwell would be proud. Millions out the window and nothing to show for it except these silly BELIEVE stickers.

I better stop... Big Brother is Watching!

More on Baltimore's attempts at urban fantasy:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0105/p20s01-lihc.html