"Some people might look at Baltimore, from afar, and see nothing but hopelessness. I see, in Baltimor..." — Martin O'Malley

When I was in Grade 9, there was an election for high school president, and one of the candidates told us that if we elected him, he would abolish homework. He promised this to the entire student body from the stage in the school gymnasium.

The most fearless hearts, the audacious dreamers, have always maintained a sense of optimism that often flies in the face of the available evidence.

When the citizens of Baltimore banded together to repel the British during the War of 1812, three in five were immigrants, and one in five was black - some were free, some slaves.

Civil rights was not an impossible dream. Thousands of brave African Americans stepped forward to make it happen.