Safest cities in Maryland .. (lower-class, condo, income)

[Orwelleaut]

Cumberland is among the safest cities in the U.S., and Hagerstown isn't too bad. Otherwise, crime is pretty high in Maryland

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by vanyali

Do Cumberland and some of these other rural/small town areas you're talking about have a big problem with methamphetamine? I know the rural areas here in North Carolina, especially toward the mountains, are just full of meth-heads, exploding trailers, the works. But I think North Carolina is especially bad in that regard.

Here in Ohio, meth is a big problem in the rural areas of the NE part of the state. And who are the meth heads, mostly??Wiggers. Young white males who are into the gangster rap/hip-hop culture. The best hedge against drugs and meth in rural America is keeping the teens and twentysomethings away from the violent, women-hating gangster rap culture. Unfortunately, too many whites are afraid to speak out about this, as they think they will be branded as racist for speaking the truth about violent gangster rap culture.

There is nothing remotely racist about hating the gangster rap culture. Most older black people hate this stuff, because they know what it does to youth, and what an insidious grip it can have on their thought processes. Young men become lazy, drug peddling, male chauvinist wife beaters, and think they are cool, because this is what rap teaches them. White adults over 30 in small town America need to wake up and smell the violent intentions, and get their kids away from gangster rap music!!!

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by Dragonsbutterfly

Hello. I have recently moved to Cumberland MD from Baltimore. I was doing a general search online for Mobile home information when I came across the ignorant post by Iscalder about Cumberland and its trailer parks and shacks. I right away joined this site so that I could take the time to reply to this very narrow minded persons comments. I must say that for starters if being poor and living in a trailer means that I don't have my head stuck so far up my own ass that I can't see how stupid those remarks were that have been made then I will gladly not only find a way to get a trailer but forever live that way so that I have no risk of catching stupidity because I am under the impression that from money stupidity develops by this persons attitude. I have always grown up poor not by choice but by circumstances. I came from NY where I grew up not having much money at all. I am now married and have two children and I am still not well off but again not by my own choice. I am not saying that there is no abuse in poor households but it is really stupid and narrow minded to make the assumption that it only exists in poor homes. I have known women of good fortune that have not only been abused but seemed to put up with it more because of the money involved where as most of the women I have known of poor backgrounds tend to be more proud in a number of ways and will not put up with being treated as badly because they tend to be stronger. I like Cumberland personally and I am looking forward to my kids growing up here. I mean where I was living in Baltimore there was a guy who tried to hit a police officer with a car and got himself shot not even 100 feet from my front door. I was always finding crack vials in my back yard where I couldn't let my kids play. There was a little girl taken from my sons elementary school property and instead of the police doing all they could to find the child fast they told the family it hadn't been long enough. In the end the child got away on her own from her abductors and got home. I couldn't let my children outside for too long due to the drug dealers that lived down the street on the opposite side of the road and the hooker house that was on my own side of the road. My son wasn't getting the education that he deserved in the school that he was in and that was only the beginning. Since being here I have had no issues with anything of this nature at all. If you feel that just because some of us has so little means we are all criminals then you must not want know many people of a poor background. Most of the people that I know whom are of a poor background including myself would give the shirt off their own back to help someone else who needs it because we know how it feels to need help. I find that I see so many people who have never even had to find a way to survive have a narrow mind and are the ones who see such suffering going on in front of them but because it doesn't directly effect them walk away. It is the poor who put the food on your table and build your big rich houses. It is the poor who transport the medical supplies that save your lives and so on. These are the blue collar lower income people that you sooooo very badly have insulted and put into a place of being trash. Meet someone like me who grew up in a trailer and is deep down a truly good hearted person and get to know me and then tell me that I am a criminal when I have never even been in trouble for anything at all. It is that kind of closed minded belief that has made it hard on those of us trying to survive in life to get anywhere. I should hope that you never end up needing anything in life that a poor trailer person might have put their hands on because if that is something that you use as a reason some place is safe or not then you need to make sure you use nothing that most of these hard working, strong hearted, good natured people have given their blood, sweat, and tears to bring you so your life can be more simple in the long run. I always say I am allergic to stupidity and this is why.

Three cheers for you, Dragonsbutterfly!! You have spoken proudly for the good, hardworking folks of Appalachia!! There is a basic decency in places like Cumberland, Wheeling, WVA, Parkersburg, WVA, East Liverpool, Ohio, Johnstown, PA, and Waynesburg, PA that a lot of other places could use a little more of. I'd rather be poor and live among folks who care about each other than in these places where the attitude is "me, myself, and I". God Bless You!!

[KeyserSoze]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

Here in Ohio, meth is a big problem in the rural areas of the NE part of the state. And who are the meth heads, mostly??Wiggers. Young white males who are into the gangster rap/hip-hop culture. The best hedge against drugs and meth in rural America is keeping the teens and twentysomethings away from the violent, women-hating gangster rap culture. Unfortunately, too many whites are afraid to speak out about this, as they think they will be branded as racist for speaking the truth about violent gangster rap culture.

There is nothing remotely racist about hating the gangster rap culture. Most older black people hate this stuff, because they know what it does to youth, and what an insidious grip it can have on their thought processes. Young men become lazy, drug peddling, male chauvinist wife beaters, and think they are cool, because this is what rap teaches them. White adults over 30 in small town America need to wake up and smell the violent intentions, and get their kids away from gangster rap music!!!

Yea, I suppose music that encourages kids to be self-indulgent has nothing to do with it. Music that encourages them to take drugs, have sex, be depressed and cut themselves, or even go as far as committing suicide has nothing to do with it. Not at all.

Open your eyes and view the world around you, instead of the cliche "blame hip hop" phrase.

[tercel95]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

Here in Ohio, meth is a big problem in the rural areas of the NE part of the state. And who are the meth heads, mostly??Wiggers. Young white males who are into the gangster rap/hip-hop culture. The best hedge against drugs and meth in rural America is keeping the teens and twentysomethings away from the violent, women-hating gangster rap culture. Unfortunately, too many whites are afraid to speak out about this, as they think they will be branded as racist for speaking the truth about violent gangster rap culture.

There is nothing remotely racist about hating the gangster rap culture. Most older black people hate this stuff, because they know what it does to youth, and what an insidious grip it can have on their thought processes. Young men become lazy, drug peddling, male chauvinist wife beaters, and think they are cool, because this is what rap teaches them. White adults over 30 in small town America need to wake up and smell the violent intentions, and get their kids away from gangster rap music!!!

This made me laugh... This just shows how out of touch older people are... How do you explain this? I am 21 and I have lived on my own since I was 18. I grew up in the city but moved to southern MD when I was about 13. While having a few rough teenage years I managed to get out of it ok. I work for a defense contractor as a software developer, and have a security clearance. I have had this job since I was 17, yet I listen to rap. It never made me rob or stab people... In fact I will listen to some rap on the way home from work to walk my 15lb terrier. Sounds real thuggin to me.

Music is not the problem, the lazy parents of today are the problem... Completely willing to medicate their children and push the blame on everyone and everything but themselves...

[Orwelleaut]

hahahaha!!!! Got a rise out of a few of you, eh? Psychological studies have been done on violent musical lyrics in all genres of music. Some violent rock and metal lyrics were found to increase ASB (Adversarial Sexual Beliefs) significantly in young listeners, but gangster rap lyrics were found to increase ASB the most in study participants.

To the objective person, this is no surprise. I've heard plenty of these violent, sexist lyrics, more than I have ever wanted or intended to. Based on what they speak about with such self-importance, these gangster rappers are obviously living in a writhing cauldron of ASB. With this lent credence by a scientific study, don't give me that tired twentysomething speech about how you can listen to this filth and not be affected by it. I've heard it before, and I don't buy it.

If you think you can convince a person who grew up before gangster rap existed, and who watched it emerge as an adult, that gangster rap has not had an insidious effect on the current generation of youth, think again. I know what my peer group was like, and I see what teens are like now. It may be a couple of decades ago, but I remember my teen years like they were yesterday. Were my parents stricter than parents now? Absolutely. In my teen years, Judas Priest was the metal band parents were rightfully worried about. No I knew got away with listening to them, either. You are right about the parents as far as this.

[KeyserSoze]

If you blame something simple like music as a reason why something complex like crime is committed, then you are a fool. I guess a study on a correlation between violence & films with violent content should be done, as well. Or how movies or songs with strong sexual content promotes people to engage in sexual acts. Lyrics or movies don't tell you to kill. Stop making excuses to justify your opinion.

[Orwelleaut]

Things like violent lyrics are obviously not the cause of violent behaviors. They can be contributing factors, though, as the studies have shown. Objectively speaking, the studies proved that listening to violent lyrics contributed to violent ideations. Ideations do not always lead to action, but frequently do. If a suicide hotline speaks to a suicidal caller with suicidal ideations, for example, the caller is definitely taken seriously. Waiting for ideations to lead to concrete actions is an act of extreme faith, and is generally unwise. If one looks back at the Columbine school shooters, for example, it was very clear that teachers and school officials should have paid more attention to the ideations of the students who became the shooters.

If you a teen or twentysomething these days, and cannot admit that, despite it being so popular among your peers, rap has some bad effects on your generation, you are not seeing reality. I grew up in the eighties listening to hard rock and metal, and still enjoy a lot of hard rock and metal. Do I pretend metal did not have some bad effects on my peer group? Never. Period. To this day, I am all too aware of the potentially harmful messages a young person can hear listening to Judas Priest, Slayer, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine. I knew quite a few of my peers during the early nineties who were into violent bands, and who were also very aggressive and troubled youth. At this time, I could tell a person older than me which metal bands did not have potentially harmful messages, and was open to discussion of the message a band sent with a person older than me. If I had been into stuff like Judas Priest or Tool, I surely wouldn't have been shameless enough to drive around in the car with it turned up to distortion level. I would have expected to be seen as A DELINQUENT BY MY ELDERS!!! Where is this sense with you Generation Y'ers?? If you want to impress your elders, riding around with gangster rap with violent, sexist lyrics blaring at distortion level is not the way to do it. You should feel rebellious and a little embarrassed listening to this stuff at all, especially if you are a responsible person. Don't blame your elders when we think you are drug addled, meth addicted wiggers. Put the blame where it belongs. With yourself. If you really are some whiz kid A student, prove by conducting yourselves as young gentleman in public instead of behaving like a drug dealer.

[KeyserSoze]

Movies, television, novels, music, etc. They don't control your fate. They don't tell you to have sex, or commit heinous acts, or engage in raunchy behavior. City Data didn't tell you to register, and to start posting. Stop making excuses to justify your opinion. Next thing you'll be complaining about is that the sun's shining in your eyes, and your shoe's untied.

[westsideboy]

Youth culture is all about rebelling against one's parents generation. The difference between rebelling by listening to white dudes with mullets and strech pants telling you to party hardy is very different than the urban hip-hop thug culture rap about selling drugs, demeaning women, and carrying weapons.

Does music decide someones outcome in life? Certainly not. But it does give you ideas on how to act out and rebel.