As a historian/psychologist who grew up in Baltimore, and returns there frequently, I have seen the consequences of generations of racism. One of the oldest cities in America, (and formerly one of the most beautiful), Baltimore was literally built by slaves and was for a century a center of slave tradiing, famous for "selling the slaves south" to even worse conditions in the Gulf states.

After slavery, Jim Crow laws ensured that the city remained segregated and institutionalized poverty. In more recent years, white flight and the end of the steel industry destroyed the tax base so the city was too broke to fix its own problems. Then heroin and crack took over much of the city and continue to ruin lives. Now gangs of teens with guns rule the streets.

Are people everywhere still responsible for their own lives? Yes, I believe that they are, but there are still huge obstacles that make change really hard. Just ask the families of any vicodin, heroin or meth addict in America's heartland, struggling after all the jobs have left their communities, never to return.

People in this country, both urban and rural, need a break so they can start to heal.