I taught a Media Arts course in Baltimore City Summer School last summer. It was hard. What kept me going back everyday though, was the hope that I could reach just a couple of these students— that I and WE could just convince ONE of them that they are LOVED and despite their circumstance, that they MATTER. Each day, on my way home, I prayed that all of my students would avoid the violence of the city… the allure of the street life and make it back to class the next day… These were not “bad kids”… not by a long shot. They were just as smart, just as creative and had as high a natural ceiling as anyone, anywhere else. But they were born into an environment that no child deserves to spend a day in— nonetheless a lifetime. They were born into a hell. When I hear about the mass shooting in #Baltimore over the weekend— a tragedy in which 30 ppl were shot, half of them the ages of THESE children… my heart breaks. Many of our children’s innocence is taken from them the second they ...