A Life For Itself

Category: thoughts

  • Goodson: Not Guilty on All Charges

    You can follow @baltimoresun or @wbaltv11 or any Baltimore news source or their reporters. They’re all covering it.

    I pretty much figured this was coming when the judge admonished the prosecution on their conduct concerning evidence.

    What now?

    If the State could not secure a conviction on the most serious charges against any of the officers, what does this mean for the trials for the rest of them?

    What does this mean for Marilyn Mosby? There’s talk that she should drop the charges against the rest of the officers, that getting a conviction against them may be harder now; there’s even talk online that she should resign.

    And what does this mean for the community, the neighborhoods, the City? At this hour, there is protest outside the courthouse, born of all of the hurt and fear and anger from the relationship of the police and the criminal justice system to people in Baltimore. How will this be addressed? Will it be addressed?

    Presumptive mayoral-elect Catherine Pugh has already issued a statement, but what will she do as the City’s next leader, in the wake of this verdict and the others?

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Day 3

    Day three is in the books down here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference.

    Kids and Food

    I avoided the kids again this morning, as I went to another unnamed fast food restaurant to enjoy a quality breakfast sandwich of some type. This also allowed me to get a little more welcome sleep. Always appreciated.

    I skipped lunch to go on my brief excursion around the County, so didn’t see the kids there, either.

    At dinner, I showed up just before the dining hall opened at 5:30. I was hungry after not eating much for lunch, plus I wanted to beat the boys there, which I did. By the time they arrived around 5:45 or so, I was pretty much done eating.

    My co-participants had begun streaming in around that time and the retired teacher I described the other day, told me that the boys would be singing at 6. I waited until after to get oatmeal raisin cookies so I could get a video of them singing. I won’t be posting it here, but take my word for it — they’re really good.

    Craft Talk

    No craft talk today. Workshops were done in the morning and in the afternoon, there was an organized hike up to Calvert Cliffs State Park. Of course, you’re not surprised I didn’t go.

    I heard some folks went kayaking. You’re not surprised I didn’t want any of that action, either. That kayaking action. No thanks.

    Workshop

    Today, Angela gave us a brief lesson about the New Journalism. One of my favorite terms in literature and writing. That and “Creative Nonpoetry,” a term I incorrectly attributed in class. That was the idea of Patricia Hempl.

    We had a great discussion about form and truth in nonfiction and discussed Joan Didion’s Goodbye to All That. What a great essay. Prose like this and James Baldwin’s Letter from a Region of My Mind energized me when I was younger; I wanted to write like that. I still do. I almost felt like I was back home and doing my summer reading for 9th grade English class, like I was in class marveling over how people could write such prose. I was rediscovering both a piece of writing I admire as well as some part of my own passion for writing.

    I needed it because the freewrite at the beginning of workshop and the prompted write at the end both followed Natalie Goldberg’s 7th rule of writing practice. Those were painful. I won’t rehash them here, nor did I read the first one in class (the second, Angela described as intense). The content may eventually show up in more formal pieces of writing down the line. Still, I needed the pick-me-up that the discussion gave me.

    Lecture

    Angela and Jerry Gabriel both read. Not surprisingly, I was drawn more to Angela’s lyric essay. I love those. And we just so happen to be covering those in class tomorrow. That’s going to be a good time.

    On Friday, I’m going to ask her about doubt, whether she has any (don’t all writers?) and how she overcomes it. The artist-teachers have covered much technical and artistic ground in their lessons thus far, but still have not covered something that affects many writers, myself included: how to keep yourself coming back over and over again.

    Yes, I’ve read books by Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg and I’m a huge believer in habit as a driving force for getting yourself there, but sometimes it’s hard to face that page. I’d like to know how Angela (and even the other writers there) face it down and still manage to get their work done. Moreover, how they manage to hit the send button for their agent, editor(s), or whomever. That’s what I want to know.

    Other good stuff …

    The parking situation has become comical in how much it’s changing. Public Safety came calling last night, asking where I was parked. They wanted to be totally sure this time nobody was parked behind the townhouses. I was out in the lot where I was told we could park. However, this morning, we received an email telling us we could park at DPC, right near where we’re staying, like within a hundred feet, if we could find a spot there.

    So this afternoon, I got a really good spot. But I gave it up before dinner. However, there was another good spot afterwards, which I gladly took. Weather Channel app says it’s supposed to be raining/storming in the morning and being able to walk a short distance and grab the car is a much more desirable choice than having to walk across campus to dining.

    Hopefully they won’t change their minds again.

    #

    After the reading, the young lady participant I previously described (the Improv thing) and I chatted in the dining hall parking lot. She says she’s convinced now that she wants to write and will be changing her major from psychology. She said she thought she could just go and get a Ph.D. and go practice, but what she really wants to do is write (she does want to write about the mind of serial killers, so the classes she’s taken in psych should help in some way towards her goal).

    Her father, she said, had wanted her to major in computer science because of the number of jobs in technology –growing in the area, as I’ve said– and she’d taken several classes in the major, finding them boring.

    She said she was glad to find out that the kind of writing she did in grade school wasn’t the kind of writing she would have to do in the “real world.”

    I was so happy for her. I told her, yes! (and I rarely use exclamation points), write. Please write. If that’s what you want to do, please. Don’t be like me and allow the voices of others to steer you away from something that’s your passion, I told her. She probably didn’t need to hear me say it, but I’m sure I saw myself at her age with that kind of pressure and needed to say it to the 17, 18 year old me, the 22 year old me. Even the 38 year old me. Definitely in this place.

    Pictures

    I took over 200 pictures between campus, Historic St. Mary’s City, and Point Lookout and before I could get them uploaded into Google Drive, I ran out of space. I’ll figure it out and get a few online.

  • Five Things – 22 June 2016

    1.

    Mets took down the two-game series vs. the Royals on the latter’s first trip back to Citi Field since last year’s World Series.

    Despite the pyrrhic victory, some getback from last year feels good, but the Mets’ issues weren’t solved in this series with the Royals. They need to keep hitting. It might help to go out and get a bat.

    I’m ignoring Murph’s Nats stats … ignoring them … ignoring them … wow he’s really cooled off. Batting just .352 now. Whew.

    O’s beat the visiting Padres to sweep their two game series.

    Nothing much going on in Ravenstown. That’s good news.

    2.

    Tomorrow, Judge Barry G. Williams will read his verdict in the trial of Caesar Goodson, one of the six Baltimore Police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. The trial didn’t start out well with the judge excoriating the prosecution concerning some of the evidence. Since then, my feeling has been that Goodson will be found not guilty. Actually, before that point, since the moment that Goodson requested a bench trial, that’s been my feeling.

    We’ll see what happens tomorrow, 10 AM.

    I hope, in the event of a not guilty verdict, if there are protests, the rights of individuals to protest the decision are respected. I’ll leave that there.

    3.

    It’s tough coming up with things when 95% of my time is taken up by writing, being taught about writing, and talking about writing. This is a good problem to have, though, so no complaints. Still, I’m paying minimal attention to the O’s, Mets, Ravens, everything outside of here.

    4.

    Aside from the fact that I watched last night’s episode of Major Crimes, which was really good. Maybe they’ll give Rusty a better arc this year with his still-shaky relationship with Gus and now his mother’s revelation that she’s pregnant.

    I’m really looking forward to Murder in the First’s season premiere Sunday night. I’ll be back home watching it, so I need to leave really early to get home and write so that I’m not up writing late instead of watching.

    5.

    I’m not thinking too much of going home. I’m enjoying myself and worked through the issues that plagued Sunday and part of Monday. The writing activities and process have really helped.

    I think I’m going to resolve to do even more writing in the mornings. Like getting up earlier, like 6, and getting it in, before work. And perhaps hiding with my notebook more. Not eating lunch at my desk. Maybe I’ll haul a desk into the big network closet to be a writing desk for myself.

  • Five Things (St. Mary’s Edition) – 22 June 2016

    1.

    Maybe it’s because summer session is going, but the college used to be much more strict about where people could park their vroom vrooms.

    Yeah, they don’t want the workshop participants parking behind the townhouses at night, but as Public Safety explained to me, that was because the grounds people couldn’t get back there easily last time (which I saw first hand).

    Still, I parked right outside of the circle at DPC to walk around the “central” part of campus and take pictures. Then I went a couple other places and just parked wherever I wanted while I took more. I had a good time just putting the vroom vroom any place I could.

    I did get a bunch of pictures, even a few from Historic St. Mary’s City (I never went over there as a student). They’re not uploading from my phone, so I transferred them to my Chromebook to upload to Google Drive. If they’ll upload from my Chromebook or Google Drive (via my Chromebook) into the site later, we’ll be in business.

    2.

    I decided after my campus picture taking to drive down to Point Lookout and get a few shots down that way.

    The drive was much shorter than it seemed the last time I was there. The Confederate Cemetery also seemed much further from the state park last time. And the huge Confederate battle flag was absent this time. However, I got a couple of shots of the flag being flown elsewhere along the road.

    I didn’t feel like paying to enter the state park for just a few minutes of picture taking, so I turned around. Maybe I’ll come back down here one day for at least a few hours, perhaps to fish, and get some pictures of it there. The confluence of the Bay and the Potomac is really beautiful.

    More on this in a future essay, I think.

    3.

    After my quick jaunt down to Point Lookout, I needed to go to CVS and I wanted to get a quick, small bite to eat since I’d skipped lunch in the dining hall to go out and get pictures.

    Halfway between campus and Lexington Park, I figured I’d make the left onto Great Mills Road and see what new I might find there, whether it had become as built up as the rest of the county I’d seen thus far (save everything south of campus along Route 5).

    And it was. More gas stations, shopping plazas, all that stuff. There was even a place selling ox tail and curry chicken, as well as a Latino market further down back towards Leonardtown Road. Even a car dealership. Way different than I remember.

    4.

    Back here on campus, I noticed that with one of the newer buildings there, vehicular access from the back of campus near Mattapany Road to the Dorchester Circle (which I’m not even sure that area is even called that anymore — and that’s weird because so many areas on campus are named circle or quadrangle or something). There were a couple of young, student looking guys on a Club Cadet (seriously, where do they get those from; they weren’t the only two people using one that looked like students) riding around the still-paved driveway near Dorchester and Prince George’s dorms, but I have no clue how they got there other than driving across the grass.

    I do have pics of all this.

    5.

    I kinda wish I had the time to drive to Leonardtown and back and see how things have changed out that way. Unfortunately, no time, and I wasn’t planning on going that way when I leave out of here on Saturday. If I do come back down this way again (perhaps, next year for the conference), I’ll go all the way down Route 5 that time. Hopefully it won’t be the 6th Borough by the time I get there.

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Day 2

    Day two is in the books down here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference.

    Kids and Food

    I did NOT beat the kids to the dining hall this morning. In fact, I didn’t go to the dining hall for breakfast. I woke up feeling like I had a cold or something coming on, so I decided to get some vitamin C.

    I also got a breakfast sandwich from a well-known fast food chain whose name I will not mention so as to avoid the inevitable shaming from my girlfriend. Suffice it to say, the sandwich was really good and I don’t regret the decision in the least.

    I went to lunch as quickly as I could after craft talk and I beat the kids. After workshop, I did the same and beat the kids. One of the student staff members sat next to me towards the end of dinner and informed all of us workshop participants at the table that if we wanted seconds, to go now; the rumor was that “the boys” would be there in five minutes.

    He was right, too. Fortunately, I didn’t want seconds. I’d gotten all the protein (again) that I wanted. So I went and got a couple of cookies to see how those were. The oatmeal raisin ones were really good.

    Craft Talk

    We had two. The poet Liz Arnold and the all-around writer Matthew Hall both presented.

    Liz presented on poems using Germanic and Latinate words in English. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Not just because I love poetry, but because during the presentation, she asked us to identify roots of words in the poems and I did pretty well. More importantly, I took some great notes, especially concerning going and exploring how I use sound and the physicality of words in my writing work. All of it, not just my own poetry (whenever I work it, but that’s neither here nor there). I think I want to come back next year, but for poetry.

    Matthew Hall’s presentation was about using Improv theatre skills to help develop characters.

    The participation in his lecture involved several groups of students getting up and doing Improv and then afterwards, all of us discussing how that particular game could inform character.

    One of the participants, who’s also in workshop with me, was urging me to go, but I refused at every turn. I’ve never been good at Improv and it’s never been fun. Whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never just gone along with the scene partner; my writerly instincts kick in and I want to write the scene instead of being in the scene and allowing the creation of it to be collaborative. I’ve also had apparently, the same problem in my conventional (with a script) acting. So I wasn’t going.

    Still, this sort of thing is good for creating and fleshing out characters. Sometimes, it’s the stuff around the goals your character has, that you need to make the characters truly three dimensional and believable.

    Workshop

    We talked about the personal essay. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation as I’m a huge fan of the form. We read and discussed The Invitation by Barry Lopez and a fabulous essay, The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf.

    One of the things we discussed was staying in the moment and being present to experiences unfolding in front of you and delaying thinking about writing about them until later. Whether that’s a good thing. If it is, are you able to do that. It was a fun conversation. I’m enjoying still thinking about it.

    Afterwards, Angela had us to choose a color, then go outside and walk around campus for 15 minutes, looking for all the things of that color, then using something you found outside as the starter for an essay.

    I chose red and I was going to write about the red in the many bricks used to build the buildings and walking paths on campus and how they remind me of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, but I decided to instead write about the Flag of Maryland. I’m working on that essay after I leave here, so I will not be talking about any of it in this blog.

    Still, the beginning fragment of the essay started us on a pretty in-depth and fascinating conversation. I can’t talk about the conversation until I make some traction with or finish the essay. Just know it was a great conversation. Some very interesting items came up.

    Lecture

    Angela gave today’s lecture. But she didn’t speak on anything a length, so much as she gave us a short primer on film essays, then showed us several. One of them reminded me of the book Reality Hunger by David Shields with its combination of images, found video, narration, and quotes flashing on the screen.

    She told us yesterday that her husband is a filmmaker and one of the films she showed was his. She’s going to be getting into screenwriting to work with him. She’s really doing the damn thing.

    Other (somewhat) good stuff ….

    One of the dining hall employees and her mother have worked at the college since the time I was a student. The mother was there today and said she remembered me. She gave me a hug and caught up on how much things have changed at the college and in town.

    She said that some of the sort of crime you see in suburbs has crept down here into St. Mary’s. I was dismayed to hear that. Back in the day, that was pretty unheard of. She said they’re building too much down here. All of the construction I saw the other day and even the stuff I saw earlier –even more developments in Hollywood– confirms just how much the place has grown. I’m not surprised that the issue that you find in those areas have migrated south. I just hope it doesn’t become too bad. Most of the biggest development seems to have taken place in the last 15 years and that’s a really short period of time for a place to grow and learn to take on some of the problems of bigger suburbs and cities.

    Talked more O’s and Ravens with one of the student-staff members. He’s been at some classic O’s games and he knows quite a bit of O’s history, at 23. I feel so glad for the folks in his generation, now coming of age to have a winning Orioles team. When I was his age, the O’s were into a decline that wouldn’t end until I was well into my 30’s.

    I’m also happy to meet and talk to fellow O’s and Ravens fans down here. I don’t know how it is during fall and spring class sessions, but way back when, the PG folks dominated that sort of talk. But, the Ravens were just getting started and baseball wasn’t that big among my social groups.

    I’m still able to watch TV using my tablet across the Internet. Even though I’m “away” and concentrating on writing during the day, it’s good to have some part of my regular life available. That and talking to my S/O online really have helped.

    My fellow participant who was urging me to Improv is from the area and has seen all the changes around the county, too. She was describing everything that’s different from her point of view. She’s in her early 20’s, so she was growing up around the time that I was just leaving the area, so she saw all the changes first hand, just like the lady at the dining hall. They agree about how much is different.

    Weather Stuff

    Weather Service had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch down here for the afternoon and evening hours. I kept watch on the Weather Channel app. Skies were really dark around the time that we got out of workshop. I went straight to the dining hall and sat on the patio balcony since I was there before the start of dinner. The storm blew over, thankfully. It did rain, but I don’t think it was anything like what areas north of here received.

    Pictures

    Took a bunch today. Not uploading properly. I’m going to take a bunch more tomorrow. I’ll go off-campus and upload them and hopefully tomorrow night, the upload into the site will work. I may have to share them via Google Photos, even though I want to put them on this site.

  • Obsolescence?

    I’m sure by now all the iPad Pro owners, iPhone … latest … whichever one it is … and all of those folks looking to buy the new iPhones and iPads surely to be released in the near future with iOS 10 are all excited, anxious for the day that the new tech will grace their hands and pockets and desks and messenger bags.

    However, at times like these, there are also the sad moments, the end of the line for the tech that’s served us well, but might not survive much longer into the next generation.

    iOS 10 Will Make These Apple Gadgets Obsolete

    Launched in 2011 as the hardware vanguard for Siri, the iPhone 4s was a big software leap for Apple. But iOS 10, which even focused on making Siri better than ever before, will not work on the iPhone 4s. Sad!

    Source: gizmodo.com/ios-10-will-make-these-apple-gadgets-obsolete-1781949615

    Every Device Apple’s Making Obsolete with Its New Operating Systems

    Yesterday, Apple paraded out iOS 10 and the newly dubbed macOS Sierra, but what they didn’t mention was all the devices that won’t work on the new operating system.

    Source: lifehacker.com/every-device-apples-making-obsolete-with-its-new-operat-1781954431

    Last time around, my poor iPod Touch was on the list. It wouldn’t get iOS 9. It would be stuck forever with the old-style app switching and the other now-dated features of iOS 8.

    But that was okay. I’d used the thing as much as I could. I’ve cracked the screen. Twice. Fortunately, I had SquareTrade on it, so I’ve gotten it fixed. Even as more and more apps won’t work and the screen’s developed a roving dead area, I still use it. Mostly for music while I’m at work. I plan to continue until none of the apps work on it or the thing won’t turn on anymore.

    This time around, my iPad 2 falls off of Apple’s supported devices list. I’ve been more careful with my iPad than my iPod and I’ve never done it any damage. I’ve still had a good run with it. Done a ton of video chatting on Hangouts, Oovoo, and FaceTime. And Zoom, too, I think, that one time. Read my Kindle books. Even used it to do a bunch of writing, using the Apple Wireless Keyboard. I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

    And I’m sure if I felt like it, I could jailbreak either or both and get even more usage out of them.

    So even as Apple is at the point of deeming these devices obsolete and moving even further into the next generation of devices, my trusted ones are still holding on and holding up under my, sometimes harsh, usage demands.  So while some might be disappointed at the twilight of their devices’ lifetimes, I’m cool.  I’m going to keep on going as I have.

    I’m not an Apple purist (or fanboy), but I’m very happy with those purchases in years past. Much happier than I’ve been with Samsung (and T-Mobile) and their seeming abandonment of the Galaxy Note 4.  T-Mobile’s site has said for months now that the Note 4 will be receiving Marshmallow. I’ll believe it when I see it as well as regular security updates like newer phones are receiving.

    I love Android and I don’t plan to give it up anytime soon. But I do plan to get a new iPod Touch in the future and possibly a Macbook one day, if I like the newer ones and decide to save up for it. They’re quite a monetary investment. But for the time that they’re usable, they’ll probably be worth it, even after Apple says they’re disavowing these devices’ very existence they won’t be supporting them anymore.

  • WWDC 2016

    Not much of interest coming out of WWDC 2016. Now I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get to stream it earlier. No word on any new Macbook Pros, so not sure if I should start saving up.

    OS X becomes macOS

    Since I don’t own a Mac, neither the name change from OS X to macOS, nor Siri’s impending presence in the OS are really important to me. I hardly use Siri on my iPad as it is.

    Hopefully this won’t become an annoyance when I have to ask people if they’ve upgraded their Macs to macOS and they look at me as if I’ve asked the question in Klingon. The folks with whom I might have that interaction do not keep up with tech news, nor do they read this site.

    Apple Pay

    Don’t use it or any other contactless payments system. Still not sure which one I want to use, but I’m sure it won’t be Apple Pay. I’m not getting an iPhone or Apple Watch anytime soon, if ever, and I’m not about to lug around my iPad to make payments.

    Apple Pay is another one of those things that I’d probably use if it were on Android. But it won’t be.

    iOS 10

    The lock screen updates seem interesting. More like Android. I’ll probably take advantage a lot for news and weather.

    Photos

    Don’t do much with photos either way, so nothing for me here. I like Apple’s current photos app, for what it’s worth.

    Maps

    I’ll still use Google Maps, even on iOS. I quite like Google Maps for iOS.

    iMessage

    Nothing I was hoping to hear. Not that I expected it. Gizmodo thinks it’s inevitable for iMessage to open up. We’ll see.

    Don’t care about message animations or any of that stuff. Guess I’m not in their target audience.

    The rest of iOS

    Don’t use Apple Music (Amazon and Google Play) or News (Flipboard), so not interested much in their next versions of those.

    Deleting Apps

    I guess I’ll delete the Apple pre-installed apps that I don’t use. Their presence has never been much of a bother, so I guess to cut down on the number of screens on my iPad, I’ll go ahead and delete them when I can.

    Actually, I’ll probably delete Apple Music and News first.

    tvOS

    Don’t own an Apple TV. I’m a Roku guy. Live channels sound cool, though.

    watchOS

    Don’t own one. Not buying one.

    #

    So far, I’ve been disappointed by both of the major developer conferences. Nothing really much of interest earlier and not only did Google not announce a new Nexus 7 at I/O, they started the countdown on my Chromebook (it’ll still be usable by the end of the year, but won’t be having access to Android apps).

    Looks like I’ll be standing pat for a while longer, technology-wise. And that’s all good. I can save up for a while in case someone decides to put out something that I really want.

  • A Brief Meandering on the Possibility of the Ravens Leaving One Day

    Russell Street Report’s Tony Lombardi posted a commentary that may give some Ravens fans —e.g., older fans who remember 1984— a reason to be relieved. According to him, last June, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti called the idea of the Ravens playing anywhere other than M&T Bank Stadium “preposterous.” It certainly feels better than “I have not any intentions of moving the goddamn team. If I did, I will tell you about it, but I’m staying here,” but that’s mostly because of the person saying the words.

    Still, Lombardi is not subtly hinting that at some point in the near future, The Bank, as it’s known, will undergo some kind of renovation. Again, assuming that the Ravens’ plan isn’t to build another stadium or perhaps move to another city. Whuh?

    To even think this, let alone say it, would be as close to blasphemy as one can get for a Baltimore guy and Ravens fan. A day one Ravens fan. The problem is, before anything gets done between the Ravens and Maryland Stadium Authority, before Bisciotti makes any final decision, the NFL will have its say in the matter.

    #

    I’m sure if the NFL doesn’t know now, they will at some point, that Baltimore City is doling out a lot of development money in the form of TIFs and other public moneys these days. Upwards of $400M is going to Michael Beatty’s Harbor Point development, the new local home for Exelon, the owner of the local electric utility. Actually, it’s probably more, since he bought some of the bonds himself and will benefit from the interest paid on those.

    Then, there’s the 20 year/$535M TIF being debated in public and soon to be voted on by City Council that will go to Sagamore Development, the development arm of Under Armour owner Kevin Plank, to develop their Port Covington project. Part of the project will be a new corporate home for Under Armour, other parts slated to be public parks and other such amenities.

    While I’m sure the NFL won’t be concerned with local laws concerning the running of the electrical utility or the number of jobs Sagamore claims it will bring to Baltimore, they’re seeing big dollar figures being moved. Even in a city known for its striking areas of poverty. Forget the fact that stadiums aren’t even a totally local concern in Baltimore (except for the Baltimore Arena, somehow). When it comes time to discuss the stadium situation in Baltimore, the league is definitely going to inquire about the large sums of money being spent by the City to develop real estate projects.

    #

    Still, other than public statements to the effect that Bisciotti doesn’t want to move the team elsewhere, does Baltimore/Maryland have any leverage to keep the Ravens?

    The growing sentiment around the country may be swinging towards kick rocks when it comes to public financing of sports stadiums. Las Vegas seems willing to say yes to the Raiders as we wait for their current home, but Oakland might not be interested in committing that much money. San Diego may ultimately be willing to part with the Chargers and spend that money on other things. In the event that those teams moved, their cities would be open, but would they have changed their minds about stadium financing?

    What other non-NFL cities are there lining up? The league itself feels public financing is getting harder to get from cities.

    While the situation between the Ravens and Baltimore is different, as they deal directly with the State and its more vast resources than a city and with Las Vegas seemingly ready to come off the map of possible NFL cities, where else could the Ravens go and get as good a deal as they currently have? The stadium deal that Art Modell eventually took was a sweetheart deal he used to get himself out of the financial straits he’d put himself in back in Cleveland. Before L.A. and now Las Vegas, Baltimore was the city the league used as the relocation threat. Most of the TV markets larger than Baltimore are occupied with teams already. In moving to Vegas, the NFL would be moving from the 6th largest TV market to the 42nd. Would they want to stomach that again?

    Having said that, I’m sure that most Ravens fans would rather not tempt fate by asking the question for real and hope that the Ravens and Stadium Authority can work out the future of the Ravens’ tenure in Baltimore, with the least input from the Jerry Jones’ and Stan Kronke’s of the world. Reportedly, the Ravens and Stadium Authority have had a great operating relationship through the years, so there’s no reason now to believe they wouldn’t be able to work out terms of a renovation of the current stadium. Or more.

    Besides, losing the Ravens, if it came to that, would equal political suicide for anybody in charge for letting a 2nd NFL team leave Baltimore on their watch. Baltimoreans have long memories and besides, Ravens fandom in Maryland isn’t confined to any political party or the political boundary lines of Baltimore City (even back in the day, the Baltimore County Executive became involved alongside Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer in the effort to keep the Baltimore Colts. The outcome of this was the impetus for the creation of the Maryland Stadium Authority). Annapolis is as wedded to the Ravens as Baltimore is.

    #

    I want to say I know they’re not leaving now or in the foreseeable future. But it’s not that simple. I don’t want to be that naive. Bisciotti may think Baltimore is the best home for the Ravens, but what does the league think? The L.A. decision wasn’t just about one team.

    The Falcons are barely 20 years into the Georgia Dome and they’re moving into a new stadium after this season. The Vikings are moving into a new stadium. The Rams’ move to L.A. was predicated upon their new stadium. Chargers and Raiders will be moving into new homes at some point. Even the Bills are talking about moving into a new stadium. The league is more than willing to take the PR hit from pulling up stakes. That shameless press conference announcing the Rams’ move is proof-positive that they don’t care.

    All I can do as a fan is support my team and if this one decides to go, pack up my jerseys next to my Baltimore Colts pennant and get up the next morning like last time.