Honeyblade t1_j4m6l0m wrote on January 16, 2023 at 6:25 PM

Reply to comment by CorpCounsel in Came across this bumper sticker and I actually like it, too! by LegitimateMarzipan58

I appreciate your comment here - but the sticker was created as backlash to Trump calling Baltimore a "shithole city" if I recall correctly. I think a lot of the people who probably put that sticker on their vehicle do it as a point of pride. I don't ever think it was intended to be "inspirational" as you put in your post though. Just, that there are good things here, that people who don't live here don't see, because FOX news is busy demonizing this city. I don't honestly know the demographic of people who put this sticker on their car, but I can tell you that I feel like the message of it is that there is more to this city than what outsiders think.

CorpCounsel t1_j4mazzi wrote on January 16, 2023 at 6:52 PM

Oh yeah, of course. I think it comes from the best of intentions, but I also understand why a lot of folks roll their eyes at it. I've also taken to task some of the Fox articles that get posted here, including the ones about the Mosbys, for the same reason. They write "MOSBY ACCUSED OF $1,000,000 FRAUD" but really it is just because she said she was living full-time at a property valued at $1,000,000 on her mortgage application. Is it wrong? Yes. Should she be held accountable? Yes. But she also did something that many property buyers do to avoid taxes - lie and say its a full-time residence. I'd bet most my salary that Trump has frequently bought property and put on a mortgage application a different purpose than what it was actually used for. It wasn't some grand scheme to defraud Baltimore, it was a common scheme to avoid a few thousand of federal taxes.

My neighbors have this sticker on their car, and they are both well paid, well educated white people that live in a nice neighborhood and commute away from the poorest parts of the city, but truly, they also could move their office to Timonium or White Marsh or Columbia and don't and they are out doing charity work on the weekends and supporting city owned businesses. Can they truly understand the average Baltimore resident's life? No, never. Are they good citizens and is their pride in our city a good thing? Absolutely!