Reflection: The Wire and the Truth It Reveals

The viewing of The Wire is an intense experience. The way someone watches television is very important in relation to how one will feel about the show, The Wire. Somebody could easily dismiss anything on television as simply “TV”. However, it would be wiser to consider television, at the very least, thought provoking. A show like The Wire is based on commonplace events of Baltimore city. The shocking truths that plague our city are truths that need to be realized and dealt with, not ignored and thrown aside. The Wire is a show that makes the mind wander. Is this what Baltimore is really like? Are all other American cities like this? While imagining global meltdown and turmoil, the negativity of David Simon seems all the more apparent. The Wire is not just a television show, but also a brutal wakeup call to how our society lives.
My 1st semester in the city gave me an insight into the hardship and conflict of Baltimore city. As a tutor at Highland Elementary School in the EBLO program, I saw the problems within education and even the problems on the streets. Gangs and beggars frequent all the street corners, appearing to hopelessly attempt at helping their own plights. Inside the classroom, some students are brilliant. Beacons of light in a dark tunnel, I had the pleasure of helping kids who did not need help. Some children did all the work and learning for themselves. I can only pray that it is these children who grow up to help the city. As David Simon calls us to find the solution to all the cities problems, I know that it is students with determination that will make a difference. The sad reality was that these students are a dime a dozen. The majority of the students are uninterested and without good role models. Broken homes and unqualified educators are among the main problems that I witnessed. The positive things that I took out of the EBLO program were a great sense of hope. There were so many great kids to whom I grew attached. I know that while some of them may not make it out of the slums of Baltimore, some will, and it makes me feel good that I could help make a difference in eventually changing a child’s life. The Wire depicts children involve in drug deals and murders. For so many children, school is an afterthought, a lost cause. Baltimore is not alone in this problem. America is one of a kind in so many ways, which is often not a good thing. While Barbara Hamby's Ode to American English can bring to light all the great quirks of American culture, Simon and The Wire see other quirks that are not so pleasant. In the majority of America’s big cities, gangs plague the streets, recruiting young adults to aid them in illegal activities.
I feel that reflecting on The Wire and on the problems of America’s cities are just like David Simon’s talk and just like the thought of school to children: a lost cause. America can often hinder the cause of these children. As Hoagland talks of America's complexities, he realizes that we often fuel the problematic fires in our country. Greed and gluttony transform the working Americans into materialistic people, forgetting school and thinking of the short-term gratifications. Drugs, fast cash, and material possessions are what motivate children to do the wrong thing. This cannot go on; we need something new and fresh to sweep in and cure the world’s problems. However, optimism and wishful thinking are not on the agenda for so many people, especially those in the streets of Baltimore. The Year of the City must bring these two aspects to the lives of Baltimore City’s residents. Loyola College needs to change Baltimore as best it can. We know that we cannot make the immediate change, but to be a difference, is all that we can do. Prayer and action will hopefully someday lead Baltimore and the cities of American to a happy realization, the realization that The Wire is merely fictional; a haunting memory of the past.