Last month, conservative activist Scott Presler organized a volunteer cleanup of Baltimore's Easterwood neighborhood following President Trump's criticism of the city garbage overflow and rat infestation, explicitly referring to it as a "hellhole."

Keeping his promise to come back, he organized round two of the cleanup in the same neighborhood on Monday, September 9, with over 140 volunteers.  I decided to take the four-hour drive down to Baltimore to get dirty and sweaty in an area that needs it the most. 

Driving into Baltimore had a tapering effect.  What began as regular-looking, neatly kept houses slowly began to fade into a depressed area with the overwhelming feeling of lost hope.  It becomes increasingly difficult to identify occupied structures.  You begin to see crumbling brick failing to support windowless and boarded up houses, often surrounded by piles of garbage and overgrowing vegetation. 

The smallest shred of hope or positivity ceased until meeting the volunteers and Scott, the organizer.  Combining residents fed up with the community's failure to act on the issues along with people like myself who had come from different parts of the country, I now was integrated with individuals who would be some of the most exceptional people I've ever met. 

The local media, especially the Baltimore Sun, have been highly critical of the cleanup event from day one.  They've been quick to associate the political affiliations of the organizer with some alleged sinister plot to clean up the city, you know — because Trump.  Whatever. 

Despite Scott's cordial invitation to the Baltimore Sun staff to assist and volunteer for round two, I couldn't find a single one of them with a set of rubber gloves on.  They chose not to go.  I also did not see a single "deplorable" face out of all the volunteers.  I saw and had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of Americans who care about hazardous issues as such in the community.  We spent the day not talking about politics, but instead taking action together in an American neighborhood that needs help.

In just ten hours, we collectively removed seven tons of trash from the neighborhood.  The loose findings included rotting garbage, eroded pieces of structures, dead trees, overgrowing vegetation, syringes, and copious amounts of broken glass.  A row of abandoned houses without a front or back door showed mass piles of garbage and fallen debris that bulky rats ran across like bridges.  The cleanups are scheduled to continue every month, and I plan to make that drive again to continue helping. 

The day was an incredible experience where I met several people from different backgrounds, some of whom became almost instant friends.  But, as one of the local volunteers put it to me, there needs to be more done. 

Cleaning up garbage and landscaping is a huge part of the issue in Baltimore, but the infrastructure is a nightmare.  Accompanied by that, a block in the same neighborhood ranked #1 on a Neighborhood Scout 2018 report, "The Most Dangerous U.S. Neighborhoods of 2018," with a violent crime rate 19 times the national average.  Your chance of becoming a victim in the neighborhood is roughly 1 in 13 as of late 2018.  There is no way to sugarcoat it: this is presently no place you'd want to raise a family.  Calling it a hellhole was not an understatement by the president. 

But it doesn't have to be like this.  The unanimous agreement from every volunteer was that it's unacceptable in America, and change starts in the community.  Behavior that leads to the erosion of a once beautiful city must be identified and rejected, or the community will inevitably fail. 

Bobby Harr is an independent journalist and freelance writer who has been featured in the Western Journal, American Thinker, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Twitter: @TheDailyNoble.

Photos courtesy Bobby Harr.