This weblog "connects the dots" created by news stories about major domestic policy issues. Particularly important are health care, nation security, financial markets, and education.
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
I see the aftermath of Baltimore violence on the ground today; small protests in DC this evening
Today, I took a “day trip” on the MARC train to
Baltimore and visited the Sandtown-Winchester area of Baltimore, including the
intersection of North and Penn, where the CVS store was burned by rioters.
It was about a mile walk from Penn Station. I had already seen some of West Baltimore
from the upper level of the Marc Train, which has a local stop in the area. I
walked along North Ave (Rt 1). I stopped
for coffee in a McDonalds and was the only white person there. As I walked, I noticed nothing for a
while, except for one high rise apartment with a "Black Lives Matter" sign in the window.
After I walked into the Sandtown
neighborhood, I quickly encountered run-down and abandoned row houses and
stores, as well as bars and even stage theaters and art exhibits.
I walked along Presstman until I got to
Pennsylvania Ave. I walked north, and
talked to one African-American male, who affirmed that most of the blight had
been there before the riots, and that few young men seemed to have jobs. I got to the intersection, where there was a
Billy Graham representative preaching, and various other voices, and many media
outlets. There were some white people,
working as reporters or interns from news organizations, and a few young white
men who probably came from the LGBT community. There was also an older white man wearing
Washington Nationals baseball cap and shirt wanting to volunteer with the
cleanup. (That makes the Nats look
good.) It was very orderly. The transit station, which would have taken
one to the Mondawmin Mall in about a mile going north, was closed.
There was a large peaceful demonstration in Baltimore
at Penn Station just after I left.
The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox
in a game played before an intentionally empty stadium (although people watched
the game in bars). The Orioles will be the “home team” against Tampa Bay and
bat last as the weekend games are moved to Florida for security.
There has been controversy in the media about calling the rioters "thugs".
This evening, there was a small demonstration in
Washington DC, which I reached near the White House. Some of the signs were very interesting,
saying that white silence actually amounts to aggression. The group (which had started in Chinatown) went up 16th Street, and then to the U Street Corridor, around 14th St.
There was also a substantial demonstration in New York
City, at Union Square, a few blocks north of where I lived in the 1970s (in the
Cast Iron Building).
Update: May 5 Former Baltimore deputy state's attorney Page Croyder makes a strong case critical of Mariyln Mosby's quick action to indict six police officers, here. There are legitimate and factually unresolved questions as to whether Freddie Gray's knife was in violation of Maryland law. The knife may have been in violation of a Baltimore ordinance without violating state law.
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