Updates
The details have been finalized! We will have a public gathering this Sunday, July 20 at 9 am next to the Farmers' Market under the JFX. I know 9 am is early after a fun Saturday night out with friends but please come so I'm not standing there by myself feeling lonely!! My friends and I will be at the Saratoga Street entrance. Info about the Farmers Market can be found at http://www.bop.org/index.cfm?page=events&id=3. If you don't know where you're going, just find directions to 407 East Saratoga St. There is plenty of parking around the area so no worries there. The event will be held rain or shine since we'll be covered by the bridge.
Please come and show your support! I would love to see the support that came out for Neighbors' Night Out! You will truly make a difference by coming, and my friends and I will tell you how you can make even more of a difference. Bring your friends and/or family and lets all work together to change Baltimore for the better. You can meet me and all the other supporters. Bring a video camera to document, please. And if you come, you can multi-task by getting some grocery shopping out of the way by visiting the Farmers' Market, which has amazing, locally produced items to please everyone's taste buds.
And in the meantime, please continue to contact your city council representatives. The only council member to offer his/her support and agree that Margaret Burns should be dismissed is Jim Kraft, who represents my district. Go, Jim Kraft!! So, please, continue to contact your city council person, tell them what you think, and ask them if they agree that Jessamy should fire Burns. Seriously, it's important that you do this! It's simple question with two simple answer choices - 'Yes' or 'No.'
And don't forget, I'll be on the Ed Norris show today around 3 pm. And I just got word that Jim Kraft will be on the Ron Smith show at 4 pm discussing his support in the firing of Margaret Burns! And I'll be on around 4:35 promoting the event on Sunday.
As always, keep checking back here for more updates as there will be many in the coming days.
And of course, thank you!
The rally on Sunday was great!! I met a bunch of supporters and unfortunately, other victims of crime too that want to see a change in this city. I finally had a face to the name for many of the posters on Zach's website. It was so great to meet everyone. I know that it was hot, humid, and early so thank you for coming and supporting. You guys are the reason I'm still in Baltimore - the community. And together, from all parts of Baltimore, we can work together to see this change happen. Do not forget about the insensitivity and incompetence of Patricia Jessamy and Margaret Burns in 2010 when you vote for a new State's Attorney. Please register to vote!!
OK, on to phase II - a press conference at noon, in between Mitchell Courthouse East and West this Thursday! I want to personally deliver all the letters that you've written to Margaret Burns and Patricia Jessamy (no hate mail, no profanity, no threats) so if you have a letter that you've written, please email it to [email protected]. I'll print them out and deliver them on Thursday. And we are putting together a petition for you to sign to ask that Jessamy Fire Burns!
If you couldn't come on Sunday (and even if you did), you can still help by spreading the word about the Press Conference this Thursday, noon, Mitchell Courthouse (111 N. Calvert Street) AND by contacting other elected officials. Contact them and remind them about Zach, remind them about the comments made by Burns and ask them point blank if they agree that Jessamy should fire Burns. Councilman Jim Kraft (District 1) has already come out to support and just recently, Councilman Ed Reisinger (District 10) came out to support the firing of Burns as well. You can find all city councilmembers' contact info here and most importantly, don't forget to contact Mayor Sheila Dixon at (410) 396-3835 or [email protected]
Media coverage on the rally:
And just imagine if you were me and the rest of Zach's family. Imagine having to go to the hospital and identify your loved one b/c he came into the hospital as a 'John Doe.' Imagine wondering if he would live until tomorrow morning. Imagine going home at night and knowing that your husband is only a few blocks away from you in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. Then imagine going to court and not feeling justice. But worst of all, imagine the State's Attorney's Office coming out months after your husband has passed away and saying he wasn't hurt that badly, could have had a pre-existing condition, benignly fell, and then attacking you for not having an autopsy and calling you a liar, when all you've tried to do is help other victims and raise money for a brain trauma research fund. Imagine calling the State's Attorney's Office to ask for an explanation but only getting 1 return phone call after many contact attempts. And instead of an immediate return phone call, you get a letter that is far from an apology. You call the SAO again and finally get a return phone call. You politely ask for a public retraction and apology but they will do no such thing. The SAO is an organization that is supposed to HELP victims not ATTACK them. God forbid this happens to you. But it's happened to me, and Margaret Burns and Pat Jessamy need to go! Burns can go now and Jessamy can go in 2010 when we all go out and vote.
Of course I think about Zach every second of every day but just wanted to remind you guys of what a great person he was.
Today's the big day! Let's work together to make this city a better place. Let today be the day that we stop letting our elected officials take advantage of us. Come on guys, I can't do this alone! Come out and help me help this City!!!!!
What: Press Conference calling for the removal of Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for Patricia Jessamy, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City. This event has been called due to State Attorney’s Office's refusal to publicly retract and publicly apologize for the damaging and false remarks about the Zach and Anna Sowers made by Burns in Exhibit A Magazine on May 28th. These remarks have caused undue pain and suffering for the victim’s family, and have put Anna Sowers’ legislative and fundraising efforts in jeopardy and have publicly damaged her credibility.
Anna’s speech will focus on how this case is an example of what is wrong with the criminal justice system here in Baltimore City, and how this city’s residents can work together to bring about positive change.
Where: Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse (Median b/t both courthouses)
111 North Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
When: TODAY - Thursday, July 24, Noon
Burns and Jessamy are just waiting for the day that this all blows over, because they 'know' it will. They're probably waiting for today to end so they can go back to making plea deal after plea deal and blaming everything else on Baltimore City Police Department.
They're waiting to go back to their normal lives, in world where the name 'Sowers' isn't ever mentioned and everyone in this city has to 'play nice' with Jessamy and Burns or nothing gets accomplished. In fact, I even tried to 'play nice' with Jessamy. I met with her this past Spring to see how we could work together and she told me that she didn’t need any help at the moment but if either of us thinks of anything, we'll call other. And what happens? Months go by and then I hear that Marty Burns and Pat Jessamy (since Jessamy hasn't stated otherwise) have attacked me and stabbed me in the back!
They are hoping that this City goes back to not caring about anything and they can continue to take advantage of your tax dollars and your apathy. They are hoping for the next big story that pushes this one aside. For every case that goes through the SAO, I want you to think whether an office that blatantly lies to its public is really representing the victim.
They are hoping this all gets swept under the rug like every other scandal in this City. They want to strong-arm journalists since Burns is their main source and she loves to 'leak' info to the media whenever it's convenient for their office. Read this very interesting article – scroll halfway down to “Feeding the Press.”
And of course, don't forget to contact Mayor Sheila Dixon at (410) 396-3835 or [email protected]. And contact your City Council representatives, senators and delegates by clicking http://mdelect.net/
Page Croyder, former Assistant State's Attorney who has all the inside skinny on Jessamy's office, will be on the Ed Norris show today at 4:30. Tune in to get the dirt!!
And check out this article where Judge Glynn calls M. Burns a LIAR!
You may already know that States Attorney Pat Jessamy released a totally lame statement saying that she will not make any statements related to the Zach Sowers case.
Jessamy’s press release:
“I continue to be focused on doing the job the citizens of Baltimore elected me to do. I have learned over the past several months anything I, or individuals in my office, say or do in reference to the Zach Sowers case will in all probability be misstated, misquoted, misrepresented, misinterpreted and/or misunderstood. Knowing this, I therefore decline to make any statement regarding past, current or future events related to this case.'
Jessamy released the statement right after the rally on Thursday. These are her first public comments regarding her insensitive, lying spokeswoman, Margaret Burns, who was out of town for the rally. Both women are a disgrace to victims and poor representatives of our justice system.
As for the rally, it was great to meet more supporters. I delivered all the letters to Pat Jessamy’s office. I was lucky to even deliver them because I was originally told that I had to leave the courthouse. I asked on what grounds and was given an insufficient answer. Finally, after some debate, I was allowed to deliver the letters as long as a law enforcement agent escorted me. I never saw Jessamy. I left the letters with her assistant.
A great recap of the rally can be found on the MD Daily Record website.
I still can’t believe that our elected States’ Attorney - a public servant - can speak such lies and get away with it in Baltimore City. Where is the accountability?! Have either Burns or Jessamy or anyone in their families ever been a victim of crime? The answer must be NO for them to both make such horrific comments with no remorse.
For us to think that we will never see Zach again, not even for a minute, is devastating enough. And then to feel ambushed by SAO is just unfathomable. And then I found this article from Nov. 2007 about Jessamy and the Five Things She Has To Have and it made me so angry. It’s awful. She lists a bunch of materialistic things that she just has to have. The only one thing I want is my husband back. And if not my husband, at least justice. Now, I have neither.
But you can help Zach’s name live on when we lobby for Zach’s Law in Annapolis and you can donate to The Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund at Johns Hopkins (click “How Can I Help?” above). Please donate. It's tax exempt!
Thanks
If you didn't listen to Page Croyder's interview on the Ed Norris show yesterday, you MUST listen to it now and tell everyone you know to listen to it.
http://www.fmtalk1057.com/pages/219796.php
click 'Former SAO employee Page Croyder' under Podcasts.
Croyder worked under Jessamy and has all the dirt on what a horrible person Margaret Burns is. Jessamy is just as horrible for being an ineffective 'leader.' Jessamy and Burns MUST GO!
Continue to contact the Mayor, City Council, Senators, Delegates, the national media - the pressure has to come from everywhere to get Burns out. Jessamy is elected so she can't be fired but remember to vote in 2010 so she's not re-elected.
And on a lighter note, I've been labeled the Noble of the Week by the Washington Times for my efforts this past year! Thanks everyone for supporting me.
The petition is ready: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/burnsmustgo
Please sign it and let everyone you know sign it. Email it to friends. Post on discussion forums. Just get people to sign it.
If you haven't listened to Page Croyder's, former Baltimore City SAO employee, interview with Ed Norris, you seriously have to listen. Click http://www.fmtalk1057.com/pages/219796.phpand then click 'Former SAO employee Page Croyder' under Podcasts. It's unbelievable.
And if you want to hear my interview last week on The Ron Smith Show, where two listeners called in to state they weren't happy with the media attention Zach's case has received, listen here
And lastly, check out the Jessamy article in this month's Baltimore Magazine.A few things to note:
- 'At roughly $225,000 a year, she's the second highest-paid city employee in Baltimore...'
It's disgusting that she makes $225,000 a year and that Margaret Burns makes about half that - all paid by you and me - city taxpayers
- 'But Jessamy, a self-described perfectionist at the helm of an imperfect system, defends her record by emphasizing that everyone is entitled to justice—a line one might expect to hear more from a public defender.'
Why the hell would the city's top prosecutor say something like that? I don't pay her to defend. I pay her to prosecute. That should be her #1 priority every single day that she walks into her large corner office.
-'Sowers could keep company with defense attorney Warren Brown, an African American who has made a career of defending those prosecuted by Jessamy's office. Brown says the city state's attorney's office has been weak on crime long before Jessamy arrived.'
Even a top defense attorney has publicly stated that Jessamy's office is not tough enough on crime.
- 'After two years as state's attorney, Jessamy began formally promoting to city officials what she calls her 'three-pronged' approach to fighting crime. '
She is STILL talking about that ineffective three-pronged approach that she came up with 11 years ago. Has she thought of nothing else since? At a SE community relations meeting last year, I asked her about what her office was going to do differently in the coming years and she defensively started talking about her useless 3-pronged approach as if she'd won a noble prize for it.
-O'Malley makes a comment about her lack of effort to try the Sewell case and Thelma T. Daley, then-president of the city chapter of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, comes to Jessamy's defense and says. 'Mrs. Jessamy was on the receiving end of it. We knew her record, her credibility, her integrity, and we also thought it would break down the barriers for women in general.'
So Jessamy knows what it's like to have her credibility and integrity attacked by an elected official and doesn't even care that Burns attacked me and Zach's family. Wow, what a respectable lady she is.
-'When it comes to the media, Patricia Jessamy has a very thin skin. In fact, the only news coverage she seems to approve of is stories that focus entirely on her civil rights days.'
Maybe if Burns weren't lying all the time and if Jessamy would prosecute more, she'd have stories to approve of. Just a thought.
'When Jessamy wants to escape the rigors of her job, she and her husband, Howard, travel down to a little house they keep a few blocks from the shores of Virginia Beach.'
How nice. Jessamy gets to escape Baltimore City, filled with all the criminals she lets back out, to her second home near Virgina Beach. Hmmm, must be nice. I can barely afford to pay my BGE bill while she flies down to her beach house.
-' 'I felt like they were trying to destroy me,' she says of the media and the endless barrage of criticism. 'I was a woman and I was black and I think some people didn't want to acknowledge that I was getting things done.''
What is she getting done?! I wanted to work with her office and look what she did to me? She lied and attacked me.
'While Jessamy has considered running for mayor, she says she now thinks fighting crime is more important.'I am happy now where I am,' she says. 'I love this job and I think I am good at it. And if I don't do it, who will?'
What a joke. What she does barely constitutes as crime fighting. Lets hope someone decent runs against her in 2010.
First, some good news. I am now officially done with my MBA! I haven't had time to post a new update b/c I was so busy studying for my final exams. I took my last final on August 6. I did, however, go straight from MBA classes to LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) classes. I take the LSAT on October 4. Wish me luck!
Also, the City Paper's Best of Baltimore poll is still out: http://www.citypaper.com/bob/poll.asp. The last day to fill it out is August 29. I think there are dead-on things that you can nominate Patricia Jessamy and Margaret Burns for and some things that you can nominate me for. I would consider myself a worthy candidate for Best Do-Gooder, Burns a candidate for Best Scandal, and Jessamy a candidate for Best Politiician in Need of A Slap Upside the Head. But you be the judge and fill out the Best of Baltimore Survey. Only 1 vote per person. You must be able to vote in at least 25 categories and cannot use the same answer in more than 3 categories. It's a fun poll - fill it out before August 29. http://www.citypaper.com/bob/poll.asp
I also saw this on the Thoughts & Prayers section - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25066703/ . Nominate me if you can; this can help shed national light on Zach's story and the crime and scandal taking place in our City!
We have 762 signatures on the petition so far. Lets get to 1,000! Let your friends know. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/burnsmustgo
Thanks for sitting in front of our computer and filling out a ton of online stuff for me.
And lastly, Zach's birthday is this coming Saturday. He would have turned 29. And as his former colleague, Tonya Grier, wrote on the Thoughts & Prayers page (Thanks Tonya!), Zach loved chocolate cake. I think he loved any form of homemade cake. And brownies too. I would usually make him brownies or cake for his birthday, and I am not a very good baker so I'd always have to ask Zach when the cake/brownies were ready to be taken out of the oven :) I'd say that Zach considered himself a brownie connoisseur. And Zach loved his mom's homemade icing on her yellow cake too! We'd often go back to his mom's house for a special homemade birthday dinner, complete with dessert. For Zach's last birthday before he was attacked, his 27th, we all went duckpin bowling at the Patterson Bowling Center. It was the first time many of us had ever bowled at the Patterson Center and it was such a fun, memorable experience. For Zach's 28th bday last year, after the attack, we all went back to Patterson and bowled for him. And our childhood friend, who shares the same birthday, flew up and spent the day with Zach and me at the hospital and at bowling. I can't bowl for Zach this year b/c of an LSAT diagnostic and a family engagement but I'll be thinking about Zach's last b-day celebration in 2006, when we were all happy-go-lucky 20-somethings enjoying city life and enjoying each other's company. Happy 29th Birthday Zach. We love you!
I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy studying for the LSAT, one of the most academically challenging things my brain has ever encountered.
So much has happened in the past month.
First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to Ken Harris' family. I was away at a close friend's wedding this weekend and heard about this horrible tragedy. A brilliant life taken much too early. I don't know what to say except that I'm so sorry for his family's loss and sorry for Baltimore's loss of a great human being.
Unfortunately, my friend and her boyfriend were also victims of crime this past weekend. They were both walking up Linwood St (by the tennis courts) after dinner in the Canton Square when they were held up at gun point by a young teenage couple walking behind them. Fortunately, no one was physically hurt. It was only 10 pm on Saturday night and the mugging happened practically in front of her house. Like I've repeatedly said, no one is safe in this City. Some of you may have noticed my Op/Ed piece in this Sunday's Examiner, (also below) where I discussed Pat Jessamy's reaction to the Abell Report whose mission was to study the disparities between Baltimore City jury outcomes to those of surrounding counties. It's a report that Jessamy should be thankful for - a report that reveals findings that could help her prosecutors - but she wanted the report shelved.
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Jury bias, spineless prosecution hamper Baltimore's war on crime
By Anna Sowers
Examiner Guest Columnist 9/21/08
Pat Jessamy’s rejection of the Abell Foundation’s report on the city’s jury problems exposes her self-defeating “leadership” style in a way that should frighten every city taxpayer.
The study idea came from Jessamy’s own hardworking deputy prosecutors. The report’s mission was to see whether Baltimore juries behave differently from those in surrounding counties.
Yes, it turns out, they do. And the report cites dramatic statistics on how and why.
Yet even before the study’s completion, Jessamy said she wanted it shelved. Why would a chief prosecutor want to suppress information that could aid her fight against violence?
The report is an earnest attempt to help Jessamy’s prosecutors prevail against the city’s criminals — four of whom killed my husband.
When Zach’s prosecutors explained why they wanted to cut a plea deal with the attackers, they explicitly told me the harsh realities of Baltimore City jurors.
It’s no secret that Baltimore City juries are notoriously biased against prosecutors and cops. The notion is that the mostly black jury pool distrusts the mostly nonblack justice system, and freeing black defendants is their way of settling old scores. The Abell report boldly tries to separate myth from reality.
Though the study avoids attributing the bias to racial issues — preferring the language of cultural inequities that afflict our mostly black city — it nevertheless reveals disturbing truths that no authority can ignore. To wit: Jessamy’s prosecutors are 30 times less likely to convict criminals of their worst offenses than prosecutors in nearby counties.
As part of our reform efforts, my friends and I have contacted dozens of people over the past year in trying to draft legislation we call “Zach’s Law.” We’ve talked with folks like victims’ rights icon Roberta Roper, Rep. Elijah Cummings, state Sen. Brian Frosh, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People head Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, city Circuit Judge John Glynn, City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, local Guardian Angels commander Marcus Dent — and many, many more.
We even had a cordial 90-minute talk with Pat Jessamy on Feb. 12. We asked if we could help on any of her crime-fighting efforts. Of specific interest was city juries. To our surprise, Jessamy said she didn’t believe jury bias even existed here. She rejected our jury ideas on first blush.
We left her office thinking we had formed an alliance. We were wrong. In retrospect, that meeting paints a clear picture of Pat Jessamy as an ostrich with her head in the sand.
We have seen further evidence of this when State’s Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Margaret Burns contradicted the accepted facts in the case against Zach’s killers — facts agreed upon by Jessamy herself, facts I rely upon in presenting my “credentials” as an emerging activist, facts that are all provably true. Despite my best protest efforts, Burns’ deceits remain unretracted by her or Jessamy.
Who are these people? Don’t they work for us? Aren’t they supposed to help victims?
For a more vivid take on the city’s jury problems, consider this: At a pretrial hearing last fall, a TV crew was interviewing me outside the courthouse when a car full of black youths sped by and shouted: “Free my [N-word]!”I found the incident shocking but learned quickly that it wasn’t an uncommon mind-set. It was an issue Cheatham knew too well. I met Cheatham for lunch before the trial. Cheatham offered to sit with me in the courtroom as jurors were chosen — to “send a signal,” he said. He wanted to make it clear to the mostly black pool of city jurors that racial issues should not be a factor this time. It would not be “business as usual.”
Doc kept his promise and sat with me on that awful day. But it turned out the plea negotiations were already well under way. Just another day in Pat Jessamy’s Baltimore.
With leadership like Jessamy’s, is it any wonder why famed Baltimore filmmaker David Simon has found it so easy to call our city “Bodymore, Murdaland”?
Anna Sowers is an activist with the Web site zachsowers.com. Her husband, Zach, was beaten into a coma in 2007 during a random street robbery and died this year shortly after the men who did it pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Anna is advocating for a law to allow murder charges against attackers who put victims into a persistent vegetative state for more than four weeks.
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How can anyone feel safe in a city with a State's Attorney's Office that is 30% LESS likely to convict than prosecutors in nearby counties. A city where the SAO re-victimizes victims, former City Councilmembers are slain, emails about friend's being attacked are a weekly occurrence, and the Mayor is also possibly involved in scandal. It feels like a lawless city, completely run by criminals.
I was talking to a University of Michigan alum at this weekend's wedding, and he said that although he liked the program at the University of Maryland Law, he had a dislike for Baltimore City. I did not disagree. I don't know what this city needs but it's most certainly neither Jessamy nor Burns.
I attended the City Paper's Best of Baltimore Party because I won Best Do-Gooder in the Reader's Poll!! Thank you all for voting for me. And I even met a great lady who not only voted for me as best do-gooder but also scored herself some tickets to the event. Thank you, Sheri, for introducing yourself and for all of your thoughts, prayers and support! I hope you had a great time at the event. I wouldn't have been at the party it if weren't for you and everyone else that voted for me.
Page Croyder, former assistant state's attorney, won Best Insider Perspective.
And Margaret Burns even won a Best of - Best Flack
I'll be buried in LSAT books for the next few weeks but I'm still not done with Burns and Jessamy. And I'm still working on Zach's Law and trying to raise money for Zach's Brain Trauma Research Fund.
If you're ever in the mood to donate, you can write a check to '“Johns Hopkins Medicine' with 'Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund' written on on the check and mail it to:
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
600 N. Wolfe Street, Meyer 8-140
Baltimore, MD 21287
Attn: Dr. Marek Mirski
Donations are tax exempt.
I’m back! Since my last update, I’ve taken time to enjoy life. I’ve attended a best friend’s wedding with college girlfriends, celebrated with Zach’s sister and family as she got married in California, visited another best friend’s newborn son, and more. And I’ve done very simple things like go out to dinner, see a movie, watch the Michigan Wolverines suffer through a re-building season while Penn State soars to #1 in the Big Ten. It feels good. It feels like I’m slowly healing again. And I hope it continues. I do it for myself and for Zach. I want to live the life Zach will never have.
Some good news. Pazo has agreed to reschedule the fundraiser for the Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund for Sunday, March 1. SAVE THE DATE. It’s going to be a fun party. A party Zach would have attended and loved—a party where everyone feels young and alive.
Tony Foreman, his wife, Cindy Wolf, and their amazing team have agreed to donate everything for the evening! If you can donate any silent auction items or help in any way, please contact me via the Email Us link at the top right corner of the page. I’m excited to start planning this fabulous event in Zach’s name. More info about the event to follow.
Also, today’s City Paper has a tell-all feature story about my activism efforts. Check it out at http://citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17227. Feel free to share your thoughts.
An excerpt from the article:
“But Sowers was wading into troubled waters. As newspaper stories, columns, and broadcast news reports dramatized her husband's attack, and talk-radio hosts pounced on Zach's beating as a symbol of urban failure, many started to question why such a fuss does not accompany the deaths of the hundreds of African-Americans who die every year in Baltimore.
Many local leaders evaded, obfuscated, or deflected issues Sowers raised. Some simply ignored or stopped returning her calls. Some say they did not understand what she wanted from them. Some say her approach was wrongheaded. Others concede they feared a negative reaction if they went too far in support of an Asian-American woman whose white husband had been attacked by black youths.”
Lastly, I’m still working on Zach’s Law. Stay tuned!! I’m back and ready for action.
Happy Holidays! Thank you so much for very kind words left in the thoughts & prayers section. I don't consider myself a 'hero' but it was moving to read your comments. I was also delighted to see that people read the City Paper article and/or continue to follow Zach's website.
I spent Christmas with Zach's mom and little sister at a family friend's house. We did the usual: opened presents, ate way too much food and watched a 10-ft Christmas tree fall over! No one was hurt from the Christmas tree fiasco but it will definitely make for a memorable Christmas. The holidays this year have been easier to deal with than last year, at least for me. I think it's because I'm not at the hospital every day panicking about what might happen next.
The City Paper article was definitely an interesting read. I was annoyed with the term Anti Hero that they used. According to Webster's, an anti hero is 'a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities.' Of coure I'm biased but I don't think it was me lacking in any qualities. I have tried my hardest to make a difference in a city with leadership that has turned its back on me. I don't even live in Baltimore anymore and I still want to see change happen for my friends and the other the hard working residents that live there.
And more importantly, the article completely played down the trauma of Zach's attack. Maybe it's b/c they assume everyone knows the severity of Zach's attack that they only mention it briefly. Zach's attack that lead to his death is clearly the reason why I called every political/community leader in Baltimore to ask what could be changed. I wasn't spending my free time outside of the hospital meeting with people for the sake of stirring the pot. I met with and/or called every Who's Who of Baltimore b/c my husband had been ruthlessly beaten into a coma and it seemed like city leaders didn't even blink an eye. That's why I meeting with Cheatham, Mitchell, Dixon, Cummings et. al.
I will be reaching out again to Zechariah Hallback's mother, April Owens. She doesn't remember me calling her when I first learned about the news that another innocent person named Zach had died in Baltimore but I hope to talk to her. I think we have much in common
Interview with Owens in City Paper article:
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As far as race is concerned, Owens doesn't think it should be a factor in any discussion related to violence. 'Color doesn't matter,' she says. 'It's about what you choose to do.'
And if Anna Sowers was used by the media, or by the police union, or Keiffer Mitchell, to undermine Sheila Dixon in an election year, then April Owens figures she doesn't feel a whole lot different. Asked if she feels civic leaders used her son's death--albeit briefly--to advance their own agenda, she says, 'In a way, I do. You don't hear a lot from those people until it hits the cameras. And once that dies down, you don't hear anything anymore. They need to do better.'
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Lastly, the article made it sound as if I've been so defeated with the system that I've given up but that is not the case at all. In fact, I have a meeting with Kristen Mahoney from the governor's office and Delegate Hammen on January 7 to discuss Zach's Law, and I'm trying to solicit items for our silent auction for Zach's Fundraiser on March 1 as well as celebrity guests.
That's all for now. Have a happy new year! I'm going to be in Chicago for NYE with my Michigan friends - Go Blue! Good bye 2008. Hello 2009! I can't wait!