Last month, conservative activist Scott Presler organized a volunteer cleanup of Baltimore’s Easterwood neighborhood following President Trump’s criticism of the city garbage overflow and rat infestation, explicitly referring to it as a “hellhole.”
Keeping his promise to come back, he organized round two of the cleanup in the same neighborhood on Monday, September 9th with over 140 volunteers. I decided to take the four-hour drive down to Baltimore to get dirty and sweaty in an area that needs it the most.
Driving into Baltimore had a tapering effect. What began as regular looking, neatly kept houses slowly began to fade into a depressed area with the overwhelming feeling of lost hope. It becomes increasingly difficult to identify occupied structures. You began to see crumbling brick failing to support windowless and boarded-up houses, often surrounded by piles of garbage and overgrowing vegetation.
The smallest shred of hope or positivity ceased until meeting the volunteers and Scott, the organizer. Combining residents fed up with the community’s failure to act on the issues along with people like myself who had came from different parts of the country, I now was integrated with individuals who would be some of the most exceptional people I’ve ever met.
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