B2 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 , 2019
BY JULIE ZAUZMERThis time President Trump
lashed out at a target close to
home. The city of Baltimore,
which Trump recently called
“very dangerous & filthy” and “rat
and rodent infested,” is just 40
miles from Washington National
Cathedral, the seat of the Episco-
pal Church.
But the response of the ca-
thedral’s leaders was about more
than proximity. Trump’s Twitter
attack on Baltimore was just the
latest in a long line of remarks
considered by many as racist, in-
cluding tweets last month about
women of color in Congress. And
to them it raised a question.
“As faith leaders who serve at
Washington National Cathedral
... we feel compelled to ask: After
two years of President Trump’s
words and actions, when will
Americans have enough?” they
wrote in a statement titled “Have
We No Decency? A response to
President Trump.”
They wrote:
“We have come to accept a level
of insult and abuse in political
discourse that violates each per-
son’s sacred identity as a child of
God. We have come to accept as
normal a steady stream of lan-
guage and accusations coming
from the highest office in the land
that plays to racist elements in
society.
“This week, President Trump
crossed another threshold. Not
only did he insult a leader in the
fight for racial justice and equali-
ty for all persons; not only did he
savage the nations from which
immigrants to this country have
come; but now he has condemnedthe residents of an entire Ameri-
can city. Where will he go from
here?
“Make no mistake about it,
words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s
words are dangerous.
“These words are more than a
‘dog-whistle.’ When such violent
dehumanizing words come from
the President of the United States,
they are a clarion call, and give
cover, to white supremacists who
consider people of color a sub-hu-
man ‘infestation’ in America.
They serve as a call to action from
those people to keep America
great by ridding it of such infesta-
tion. Violent words lead to violent
actions.
“When does silence become
complicity? What will it take for
us all to say, with one voice, that
we have had enough? The ques-
tion is less about the president’ssense of decency, but of ours.”
The liberal-leaning Episcopal
Church, a small but historic main-
line Protestant denomination
with about 1.8 million members,
was not the only Christian de-
nomination to condemn Trump.
Others have focused largely on his
words attacking House Oversight
Committee Chairman Elijah E.
Cummings (D-Md.) and his dis-
trict, which includes parts of Bal-
timore City and Baltimore Coun-
ty.
In a joint letter, bishops and
pastors who head most of the
major mainline Protestant and
Catholic denominations in Mary-
land — including the local heads
of the Presbyterian Church
(USA), the United Methodist
Church, the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America and the Cath-
olic Archdiocese of Baltimore —responded to Trump’s tweets
about Cummings.
“You publicly slurred our be-
loved City of Baltimore in a tweet.
We will not dignify the slur by
repeating it. It was horrible, de-
meaning and beneath the dignity
of a political leader who should be
encouraging us all to strive and
work for a more civil, just and
compassionate society,” these
ministers wrote. “... Cities, which
bring together diverse races, lan-
guages, cultures, economic and
social conditions, are frequent
targets for those who cannot — or
will not — see their beauty
through the eyes of God and in
their inhabitants. To their detrac-
tors, cities are seen only through
the lens of social evils such as
poverty, crime, violence and rac-
ism. To God, however, cities are
seen primarily as vessels of hope,lights of God’s reign, and oppor-
tunities for living in blessed com-
munity.”
The letter was not signed by
any evangelical Protestant pas-
tors. Evangelical Christians —
who tend to be more politically
conservative — have supported
Trump in very high numbers
throughout his administration,
while mainline Protestant groups
have criticized his ethics.
As Trump continued his days-
long Twitter attack on Cummings,
he also tweeted Monday: “Look-
ing forward to my meeting at 2:00
P.M. with wonderful Inner City
Pastors!” While many might scold
him from their pulpits around
Maryland, around Washington
and across the nation, he seemed
to say, other ministers were shak-
ing his hand at the White House.
[email protected]THE DISTRICT
Leaders at National Cathedral blast Trump’s ‘violent dehumanizing words’
which the president described on
Twitter as a “rodent infested
mess.” The president called Cum-
mings “a racist and a bully,” and
tweeted that Baltimore, Mary-
land’s largest city, was a “very dan-
gerous & filthy place.”
No state or city officials ap-
peared at Carson’s news confer-
ence, which was announced Tues-
day night and was originally slat-
ed to be held on an open lot that
belongs to a church, across the
street from the eight-story apart-
ment complex.
The event was hastily moved
to an alley behind the complex
after Gregory Evans, a member
of Morning Star Baptist Church
of Christ, told Carson’s aides that
no one had asked permission to
hold an event on the church
property. Evans said that Carson
was trespassing and that if the
federal government wanted to
hold the event there, it should
have asked the church. “This is
our property,” he said.
CARSON FROM B1 Evans declined to address
Trump’s tweets but said it is “obvi-
ous” the federal government has
not done enough to help the city.
“You can see the dilapidated hous-
ing,” he said.
Carson, the only African Ameri-
can member of Trump’s Cabinet,
was touring the apartment com-
plex when Evans approached his
staff. Carson said the church’s re-
fusal to allow the news conference
on its lot was an example of “ani-
mosity” that is stifling efforts to
address problems.
“It’s so important that we’re
willing to talk and to work togeth-
er,” Carson said. “A church said to
‘get off of our property’ — a church
— when we’re talking about help-
ing people.”
He did not make any policy
announcements at the news con-
ference but highlighted opportu-
nity zones, a tax-incentive effort
pushed by the Trump administra-
tion to boost economically dis-
tressed communities.
And he tried to lessen the war of
words between the White House
and the city, saying there “are a lot
of good things in Baltimore, but
there are a lot of bad things, too.”
Carson said he has spoken with
Trump in recent days about whatcan be done to improve Baltimore,
and the president is “very willing”
to work with city leaders and with
Cummings.
“We have to learn to work to-gether and realize we’re not each
other’s enemy,” Carson said.
As a Democrat heading the
Oversight Committee, Cummings
has played a lead role in investi-
gating Trump administration pol-
icies, including reports of inhu-
mane treatment at migrant deten-
tion centers.
Wednesday’s news conference
was the second time in three days
that Carson forcefully and public-
ly defended the president.
On Monday, hours after the Rev.
Al Sharpton chided Trump for
“bigoted and racist” remarks and
for having a “particular venom for
blacks and people of color,” Carson
appeared on Fox News and echoed
the president’s depiction of Balti-
more.
Carson also rejected criticisms
of Trump’s tweets as racist, citing
rising wages and a drop in the
unemployment rate, the presi-
dent’s efforts to help the manufac-
turing sector and his embrace of
prison reform.
“All of these things are happen-
ing,” Carson told Fox. “These arenot things that a person who is a
racist would do.”
Not far from where Carson
spoke Wednesday, a woman in a
wheelchair sat outside Hollins
House in the morning heat. She
said she was angry over Trump’s
comments about Cummings and
Baltimore and thought the re-
marks were racist “because he
knows black people live here.”
“I live here. I don’t have trash; I
have a clean place,” said the wom-
an, who is African American and
declined to give her name.
She added that Trump needs to
“look at his own family,” noting
that the president’s son-in-law
and senior adviser, Jared Kushner,
owns Baltimore-area housing
complexes where there have been
code violations and reports of in-
festations of mice.
“First of all, what city doesn’t
have rats?” the woman said. “He
picked on Baltimore because our
congressman is talking about how
they are treating the people com-
ing into the country.”
[email protected]Carson points to Baltimore’s problems in defense of Trump’s criticism
Matthew Crenson, a retired
Johns Hopkins University politi-
cal science professor. “It’s diverse
in race and income and geogra-
phy. And Cummings remains
popular among all sectors.”
Lexington Market, at the
southern end of the district, is a
prominent stage for that diversi-
ty. Every day, a rich blend of city
residents and suburbanites line
up for crab cakes and oysters at
Faidley’s Seafood, in business
since 1886.
“We get all kinds of people —
the president of the bank and the
guy operating the street cleaner,”
said the owner, Nancy Faidley
Devine, 83, wearing a crab neck-
lace as she greeted patrons.
“They stand communally at our
tables and talk — black, white —
all kinds of people. It’s beautiful
what happens here.”
A Republican, Devine and her
husband, Bill, live in Howard
County and are among Cum-
mings’s constituents. She de-
clined to assess the details of
Trump’s portrait of her district or
her congressman, except to say
that trash remains an enduring
problem and that there are some
“lovely neighborhoods” that
“need to be reconditioned.”
A year ago, Devine recalled, a
rat got loose in the market and
found its way into a bakery dis-
play case, a moment captured in
a patron’s cellphone video that
went viral on social media, caus-
ing a spasm of negative head-
lines.
Bill Devine, 88, said he hoped
that Trump’s criticism would
spur change: “Maybe the damn
citizens will get a broom and
clean up the ’hood.”
A couple of miles away, near
the epicenter of the 2015 unrest,
Daisy Bush sat outside her con-
venience store, a broom in her
hand.
“I gotta sweep up out here
three times a day,” she said, as
BALTIMORE FROM B1 clusters of men and women con-
gregated nearby, some openly
selling drugs. “It’s always dirty up
in here. They dump trash every-
where — black, white, every race.
It’s disgusting.”
Referring to Trump, she said,
“He’s telling the truth.”
Her husband, Durwood, who
was behind the counter, nodded.
“I wasn’t offended about what
he said about the trash,” he said.
“But I was offended by what he
said about Elijah.”
“He’s a good man, Elijah,” Dai-
sy Bush said, after moving inside
to make a patron a slushy. “A
good Christian man. Trump
shouldn’t have talked bad about
Elijah.”
Cummings, 68, is a pillar of
Baltimore, where he grew up
after his parents, South Carolina
sharecroppers, migrated to the
city. A graduate of the University
of Maryland’s law school, he
served in the Maryland House of
Delegates before winning the
congressional seat vacated by
Kweisi Mfume when Mfume be-
came president of the NAACP.
He is now in his 12th term in
Congress.
The congressman has de-
scribed himself as a resident of
the “inner inner city.” He spoke at
Gray’s funeral and, after rioting
began, used a bullhorn at the
intersection of Pennsylvania and
North avenues to implore crowds
to abide by a curfew and return
home.
“I’d die for my people,” he told
reporters at the time.
The shells of vacant homes
dominate a block two streets over
from where Cummings lives. But
his street is well-kept, lined with
elegant rowhouses from the early
20th century, one of which was
bought this year by Troy and
Cindy Wallace, a white couple
from Howard County, who paid
$350,000.
Sitting on their stoop this
week, they said they were initial-
ly drawn to the area after the
rioting, volunteering with local
organizations because they want-
ed to help people in need. “A year
and a half into it, we decided that
for us to be a part of it, we had to
be here,” said Cindy Wallace, 59,
who volunteers at the Eutaw
Marshburn Elementary School.
“So we started house hunting.”
Her husband, a construction
manager for Veterans Affairs, de-
scribed their street as “nice,”
though surrounded by “crazy” —
drug dealing, addiction and pros-
titution, the evidence of which
they sometimes find in their
backyard.
“There are parts of this neigh-
borhood that break my heart, and
I can’t imagine living there,” Cin-
dy Wallace said. “But I love my
neighbors.”
Across the street, Darrine
Timpson, 22, who is African
American and has lived on the
block his entire life, said the
area’s challenges are common to
struggling neighborhoods in
many cities.
A few years ago, he said, thestreet was besieged by a “rodent
problem,” after which the city
distributed new trash cans. Other
concerns persisted, including
people using the corner play-
ground to smoke crack, shoot
heroin and have sex. Timpson’s
answer was to take a saw and
dismantle the wooden play
equipment, hoping to eliminate
some of the places to hide. He
said he completed his work a few
days ago.
“We call it ‘High Park,’ and you
can see people are still using it,”
he said, pointing to small crack
vials on the ground. “Nothing is
really going to change around
here. The block isn’t going to
change. The neighborhoods
won’t change.”
He said he plans on moving
away as soon as he can, maybe to
Denver, where he hopes to get
involved in the “cannabis cultiva-
tion industry.”
“I don’t want to die here,” he
said.
Jerry Cothran, a retired policy
analyst, has no plans to leave.More than a decade ago, he and
his wife paid $275,000 for a
one-bedroom apartment in the
Mount Vernon neighborhood, a
block from Baltimore’s version of
the Washington Monument and
around the corner from the Wal-
ters Art Museum.
At the time, they were living in
Alexandria but spent weekends
and vacations at their place in
Baltimore. A few years ago, they
moved to the city full time.
Cothran said he was aston-
ished to learn recently that his
congressman’s district also cov-
ers the Sandtown-Winchester
neighborhood, where Gray lived.
Cothran said he learned from his
brother that news reports were
showing disturbing video of va-
cant housing and blight in the
area.
“I had heard people talk about
the rats and the trash, but, my
God, I didn’t know it was that
bad. I’ve never been through
there,” he said.
His corner of Cummings’s dis-
trict, he said, “is fine, except forthe occasional litter.”
“I feel safe here. I like it, and
they keep it beautiful,” he said
while walking Jacko, his wire-
haired dachshund.
Jacqueline Ross, 56, decided
four years ago to move from East
Baltimore to Baltimore County,
to a townhouse complex in the
7th District known as the Pleas-
antview Apartments. The devel-
opment is among thousands of
units that the family of Trump’s
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, owns
in the Baltimore area.
Standing in her doorway, Ross
said she prefers the quiet of the
suburbs to the chaos of the city.
But she said she wished Cum-
mings had fought back more
aggressively after Trump dispar-
aged the city in which she lived
for most of her life.
The president’s words are “in-
sulting to everyone,” she said.
“Different parts of Baltimore
need work, but so do a lot of
things. You just keep working at
it.”
[email protected]From 7th District,
a di≠erent picture
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Reisterstown Road, near Mondawmin Mall in western Baltimore, is located within Rep. Elijah E. Cummings’s 7th Congressional District,
which President Trump has disparaged in recent days on Twitter as a “hell” in which “No human being would want to live.”JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Journalists wait for Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Ben Carson at a property where he had intended to hold a news
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