As an unspoken rule, we are all allowed to rag on our home states. However, it's also unspoken that bad things will come to an outsider doing the same thing. I'm not sure if we all abide by these rules, but I know for a fact that I do. I've lived in MD all my life. MD has some good things going for it: most of my family is here, there are friends here, Annapolis is beautiful. But I've never been in love with it like I am with, say places like, London or New York or San Francisco. It's small. It's cramped. It doesn't have the energy of bigger cities. There's no huge theatre district like Broadway or the West End.
Though, you wouldn't know that based on my attitude regarding Maryland in the media. I have a huge problem with the way we're portrayed. Anthony Bourdain is one of my favorite humans, but he framed his "No Reservations" episode featuring Maryland (titled "The Rust Belt" mind you) as an episode of "The Wire" (an HBO show portraying the drug wars of Inner City Baltimore). He even used one of the stars of the show, who was an ex-drug dealer, as his tour guide. He only visited that section of town. And for the most part, that's what these hosts show when they come to Maryland, which causes the general public to make sweeping generalizations about the entirety of the state. People in Podunk Iowa will watch these shows and vow never to visit for fear of being shot in the street. And this ticks me off!
Every state (for the most part) has a neighborhood like our Inner City. Yes it's rough but we have an amazing government and Police force that is working very hard to clean those issues up. Not to mention Baltimore is only a very small part of Maryland. There's Annapolis, which also known as the sailing capital of the East. Or the Eastern Shore with farms out the wazoo. Or how about Ocean City for good old fashioned (fairly ridiculous) fun. Or even the Inner Harbor of Baltimore that just hosted thousands of sailors from around the world with hardly an incident. Maryland is not just Baltimore. People need to see this. Do you hear me Bourdain!?
Why, you ask, do I bring this up today? Well...I take all this time to defend my little neck of the woods and what do I get to show for it? Baltimore is named the 3rd dirtiest city in the USA. Really?! How the heck am I supposed to defend that? Work with me people!
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