Skip to main content

No Invisible People


 

One year ago today I could not write. The news from Baltimore about the Key Bridge loomed over the day like an enormous cloud. 

Six construction workers perished:

Miguel Ángel Luna González, Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, José Mynor López, Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, and Carlos Daniel Hernández. 

Today I want to send you over to Baltimore Beat to read a piece about the workers who lost their lives that night and how the Baltimore Museum of Industry is working to honor them.

No invisible jobs: Baltimore Museum of Industry exhibit will highlight immigrant workers who died in the Key Bridge collapse, Grace Hebron, Baltimore Beat 

“They were living and working what is, in many ways, a typical experience for immigrants who come in and do that middle-of-the night work that nobody else wants to do. We wanted to honor that,” BMI’s executive director Anita Kassof told Hebron. 

There’s no paywall. There’s never any paywall at Baltimore Beat.  

It’s a free paper. Subscribe and it will come to your inbox. At the same time, it is distributed in print from specially made Beat Boxes within Baltimore. And since it is a free publication, they rely on donations. The seed money - - a $1 million gift from Baltimore-based Lillian Holofcener Charitable Foundation - - got them started. Continued financial support, both big and small, keeps them going. 

You really can’t find the kind of work that they do anywhere else in Baltimore. It matters that they tell those stories. We can’t know what we don’t see and we can’t care about what we don’t know.  

Right now the powers that be are systematically scanning government databases and removing every story that is not white. Struggles, accomplishments, bravery, contributions: if they were Black or brown or LGBTQIA or women or…(it goes on and on) their stories and honors are being purged. 

Who will push back against this suppression of America’s story? Independent news organizations who make it their mission to speak the truth about their communities are in the best position to do that, because they are doing it already.

Just as many folks these days don’t seem to understand that the value of vaccination comes not merely in protecting oneself from illness but also in protecting those around us, I think we sometimes forget that supporting this kind of journalism isn’t solely about its value to us personally. When we invest in independent local journalism we are also making that information available to others, as well. Think of it as herd immunity against sensationalism and disinformation. 

Rather like libraries. But that’s another story altogether. 

If my blog post today had a subtitle it would have to be: 

No invisible people: Baltimore Beat highlights the stories of Baltimore that other media outlets neglect.


Village Green/Town² Comments


Learn more:

Baltimore Beat

Baltimore Museum of Industry 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

What Kids Are Thinking

  It’s a Monday in February, and if you guessed that a lot of Howard County students have the new cell phone policy on their minds, you’d be right. It will mean big changes and it will be stressful, no matter how much good we hope it will do in the long run. But on this particular Monday cell phones might not be top of mind, as amazing as that seems. Some kids will go to school wondering if they or family members will be seized by ICE. Some will fear that their parents’ employment will be purged by the ongoing rampage of Elon Musk and his cronies through Federal Government. Some fear heightened and renewed racism as programs that supprted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vilified and destroyed.  Some worry that it soon won’t be safe for them to use the bathroom in school anymore. It goes without saying that some kids fear going to school every day because of the prevalence of school shootings.  And look! Here’s something new to fear. That old hate group, Libs of TikTo...
1 comment
Read more