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LOCAL Commentary :: Baltimore MD : Education
A letter from a hunger striker
Author
- Bryant Muldrew
Date Created
- 31 May 2008
Date Edited
- 31 May 2008 10:06:26 AM
License
This work is in the public domain.
I've lived long enough to watch my city descend through some levels of the underworld. I ask: Who will stand up to fix the problems of my Baltimore?
We students in a coalition called Peer-to-Peer Enterprises are aware of the injustices city youths face.
Peer-to-Peer organizations employ older youths to teach their younger peers skills and knowledge.
In the past few years these organizations have employed hundreds of youths, helped increase test scores, kept young away people from violence and drugs and established "families" outside the home.
These programs should be expanded and need sustained investment to grow their accomplishments.
The Peer-to-Peer coalition has requested $3 million from the city's budget to create an additional 700 to 1,000 jobs and provide services to thousands more peers.
We students in a coalition called Peer-to-Peer Enterprises are aware of the injustices city youths face.
Peer-to-Peer organizations employ older youths to teach their younger peers skills and knowledge.
In the past few years these organizations have employed hundreds of youths, helped increase test scores, kept young away people from violence and drugs and established "families" outside the home.
These programs should be expanded and need sustained investment to grow their accomplishments.
The Peer-to-Peer coalition has requested $3 million from the city's budget to create an additional 700 to 1,000 jobs and provide services to thousands more peers.
The funds would allow youths to participate actively in a knowledge-based economy. Peers help peers learn all kinds of things: public speaking and debate, algebra, theater and playwriting, drumming and dance, video production and much more. These technical skills help students plan successful futures.
The City Council unanimously approved a resolution in March requesting that the mayor include this $3 million in the city's budget. But Mayor Sheila Dixon has refused the council's request.
The City Council recently missed an opportunity to do something to help us by refusing to fund Peer-to-Peer Enterprises with the interest on the city's rainy day fund ("Youth fund boost denied," May 29).
The interest this year will be approximately $3.5 million on a total fund of $88 million.
We don't understand why an investment in our youth can't be made from the interest on money that isn't even being used. In effect, we're just asking for the loose change under the cushions in the sofa.
Why would the City Council unanimously pass a resolution in March but then tell us in May that we aren't worth a little interest?
Having exhausted all other courses of action, we have decided that participating in a hunger strike is a way to take action against injustice.
We dedicate our bodies in solidarity with our peers. Educationally, we're starving already. We choose now to represent voluntarily what's already happening to us against our will.
We would love to eat of the fruits of knowledge-based jobs and quality education. But our city, not our peers, keeps us hungry.
Bryant Muldrew
Baltimore
The writer is a student at Baltimore City Community College who works for one of the Peer-to-Peer Enterprises groups and is one of the hunger strikers demanding city funding for the Peer-to-Peer program.
The City Council unanimously approved a resolution in March requesting that the mayor include this $3 million in the city's budget. But Mayor Sheila Dixon has refused the council's request.
The City Council recently missed an opportunity to do something to help us by refusing to fund Peer-to-Peer Enterprises with the interest on the city's rainy day fund ("Youth fund boost denied," May 29).
The interest this year will be approximately $3.5 million on a total fund of $88 million.
We don't understand why an investment in our youth can't be made from the interest on money that isn't even being used. In effect, we're just asking for the loose change under the cushions in the sofa.
Why would the City Council unanimously pass a resolution in March but then tell us in May that we aren't worth a little interest?
Having exhausted all other courses of action, we have decided that participating in a hunger strike is a way to take action against injustice.
We dedicate our bodies in solidarity with our peers. Educationally, we're starving already. We choose now to represent voluntarily what's already happening to us against our will.
We would love to eat of the fruits of knowledge-based jobs and quality education. But our city, not our peers, keeps us hungry.
Bryant Muldrew
Baltimore
The writer is a student at Baltimore City Community College who works for one of the Peer-to-Peer Enterprises groups and is one of the hunger strikers demanding city funding for the Peer-to-Peer program.
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