Strange as it might sound, the Baltimore riots are troubling to my wife and me in a way we didn’t quite anticipate.
We spent a week in that beautiful city in the summer of 1996.
We attended a meeting of editorial writers and columnists. I was a member of what was then known as the National Conference of Editorial Writers. I had the pleasure of attending several of those national conferences over the years: Lexington, Ky., Phoenix, Ottawa, Seattle, Kansas City, Mo., Providence, R.I. — and Baltimore.
Of all the places my wife and I attended together, Baltimore is the one city she said she’d visit again and again.
Now these riots have hit us harder than they would have had they occurred in virtually any other great American city.
The Inner Harbor with its row houses, the crab cakes, Fort McHenry and the general ambience of the city charmed us to no end.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — who also served as a Baltimore mayor — believes the city will recover from this dark chapter in its storied history. I do hope he’s right. I, too, believe the city will recover — eventually.
Two former visitors to that lovely city — my wife and I — are pulling hard for the city to reassemble itself and return to the charming place we remember.