There will be a book sale on February 3rd from 9 am to 3 pm at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Greenwich. Proceeds from the sale will go to support the St. Cecilia’s children’s choir, of which my daughter is a proud member. While the rest of the world is obsessing over what snacks to serve for the Superbowl, you can be in East Greenwich browsing a great selection of books and scoring some deals. Hope to see you there!
Category Archives: Rhode Island news
Providence and the Non-profits
Once again, Providence politicians are looking to the city’s private colleges for money to help shore up the city’s poor finances. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says these non-profit institutions shouldn’t be seen as cash cows for the city. There has been more rhetoric than reality in the latest dispute between Brown University and Mayor Angel Taveras and his city council allies. With city government awash in red ink, the pols are hungrily eyeing the tax-exempt Brown property on College …
Scott MacKay considers the question of whether Brown University should pay more to the city of Providence.
Occupy Providence Setting up More Permanent Camp in Burnside
From the notes posted on the Occupy Providence community page on Facebook, it appears that the movement is building an encampment that they hope will last the winter. Hopefully their legal defense will hold up as long as their physical encampment, as they have reportedly hired Miriam Weizenbaum (of DeLuca and Weizenbaum,the firm where Taveras Senior Legal Counsel Matt Jerzyk used to work — small world!) to represent them legally in the eviction case filed by the City of Providence.
Amend the Constitution Now, Before Elections Get Even More Distorted by Corporate Money
Senator Whitehouse and others have introduced legislation to amend the constitution so that corporations can not qualify as people who can give unlimited cash to campaigns. From Whitehouse’s press release:
In 2010, the Supreme Court concluded in a highly contentious 5-4 ruling that corporations deserve the same free speech protections as individual Americans, enabling them to spend freely from their corporate treasuries on campaign advertising.
“The flawed Citizens United decision allows corporations, including international corporations, to use their vast wealth to drown out the voices of the American people, and it allows them to do so anonymously from behind shell organizations,” said Whitehouse. “We must ensure that government works for the American people, not powerful corporations. The constitutional amendment we are introducing today will undo the Citizens United decision, putting people in charge as the Founders of our country intended.”
Given the shocking amounts of money flowing into elections now, including school board elections such as the recent Denver School Board elections in which the winners were mostly cash coffer candidates for oil companies and other powerful corporate interests, it is becoming glaringly apparent just how much damage the recent Supreme Court ruling has done to our election process. We are being inundated with corporate pressure to change our educational systems in ways that make everything “data-driven” and, in my opinion, strip much of the humanity out of education.
If you want to think about what might be done to improve education, I recommend reading Aaron Regunberg’s post that gives attention to the evolving “Student Bill of Rights” — a student-driven movement to define what students want and need to succeed educationally. Interestingly, there is nothing in their bill about needing more data-driven analysis and standards that declare whole systems (usually systems in poor urban areas) to be failures. The students come back to the basics: that they need good food, access to health care, and access to the full range of educational (including the arts and humanities) in order to benefit fully from their education.
Occupy Providence Today
UPDATE: A picture of the throngs in downtown Providence!
From the Occupy Providence Facebook Page, a public service announcement…
On Saturday, October 15th at 5pm Rhode Islanders will gather in Burnside Park (Downtown Providence) to express a feeling of mass injustice and stand in solidarity with those occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square. This will be done as part of an international day of action in conjunction with the occupation of dozens of other cities around the country and the world.
If you feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world, the members of the Occupy Providence General Assembly (OPGA) are your allies. Members of the OP General Assembly have been meeting in Burnside Park everyday since Oct 1st, and are committed to non-violence; to maintaining a safe, alcohol free, drug free, and harassment/discrimination free space for all voices to be heard. The OP General Assembly does not endorse any political candidate or party in any way.
The Occupation of Burnside Park will begin at 5pm, followed by:
1. A rally & march against corporate greed and corporate crime2. An autonomous picnic: bring your own food but also consider that an unaffiliated group known as “Food Not Banks” suggested that it may be bringing enough share!
3. The October 15th Occupy Providence General Assembly (where folks share ideas, come to agreement, and vote on how to move forward)
4. Entertainment (songs, stories, dancing, meditation, music, and more)!!
5. Vigil
This is an inclusive event for people and families of all ages:
Drugs, Alcohol, Discrimination, Harassment, and Violent behavior are NOT WELCOME.The Occupation starts at 5p and will last, I hope, for as many days, nights, weeks, and months (?) as it takes to come to a consensus on how best to challenge corporate greed, which places profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality; the corporations which run our government, destroy our environment, and control our lives.
We are the 99%, standing in opposition to rule by the 1%.
Come to Burnside Park at 5pm on October 15th and let your voice be heard!
THINGS TO BRING:
lanterns, flash flights, batteries, video cameras, signs (your sign is your legal proof of political expression and your right to exercise free speech), writing materials, tarps, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, warm clothes, food, water, games, yoga mats, books, patience, respect, ideas and information to share, friends who are lawyers, friends with CPR and medical training, friends with non-violence training, & other fitting supply donations for an indefinite occupation!THINGS NOT TO BRING:
bullhorns, amplifiers, amplification systems, generators, propane grills, gas grills, anything with an open flame, drugs, alcohol, weapons, excess garbage; anything the police can say violates a noise or other city ordinance or requires a permit we don’t have; any thing that will give the police leverage to disrupt the occupationOP GENERAL ASSEMBLY SAFE SPACE REQUIREMENTS:
*Occupy Providence is a completely non-violent movement; violence and property destruction/defacing are not welcome, and do not represent us.*Discrimination or harassment based on race, sex, gender, orientation, age, or anything else are not welcome. This includes any sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, racist, or ageist behavior, speech, chanting, writing, etc.
*We are a drug and alcohol free assembly and occupation. Cigarette smokers are asked to please smoke at a respectful distance from non-smokers.
Please forward widely this invite WIDELY.
If you have ideas on how to help with press stuff, please contact: OccupyProvidenceMedia@gmail.com
Sincerely,
~Jared
(member of the Occupy Providence Direct Action Working Group)
The Providence Journal reports that organizers are coordinating with public safety officials…
PROVIDENCE — Members of the grass-roots group Occupy Providence met Thursday with Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré for what were called fruitful and amicable discussions about a protest planned for Saturday in a downtown city park.
The city is willing to waive the $10 application fee for the park-use permit and a requirement that the group get $500,000 in liability insurance, as is typical for gatherings of 100 or more, Paré said.
“The thought is we’re going to accommodate them,” Paré said late Thursday. “They certainly have something they want to say. They are, in my mind, a peaceful group.”
Occupy Providence is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, a protest in New York City’s financial district that has stretched across a month and attracted thousands of supporters dismayed by the state of the economy and the political system. Protests, which emphasize nonviolence, are planned Saturday in 1,400 cities, including Providence.
As of this writing, the sun is up, the sky is blue– looks like good weather for a day in the park.
CIVIC: Today at 10am, a group from Occupy Providence is cleaning the park, and would welcome volunteers. Please carpool if you plan to attend any Occupy events today.
DON’T FORGET: Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘nonviolence strategy’ was not just moral, it was pragmatic. Anyone trying to incite may be a provocateur, or just a loose cannon. Civility is the tool of the powerful, and we have the power.
I’m not making this up
It’s a little before 8PM with an occasional flash and rumble. I was doing visits and listening to the radio all day. NPR was saying in their measured tones that we might just want to kiss our roofs goodbye. So far on the East Side it’s a solid but ordinary thunderstorm, and the air is still heavy and humid.
My husband wanted some cake, so I used the weather as an excuse to go to Whole Foods (motto: Resistance is Futile).
“The world is ending,” a man said to me as I walked into the store.
“Well, my mother thinks so,” I said, “but I’m not ready to go yet.” He smiled.
I bought some chocolate mousse and ice cream and some cherries on sale to cancel out the calories. I went to the express line, but the clerk was trying to unravel a tangle of register tape.
“I’m not being very ‘express’,” she apologized.
“I’m not in a hurry.” I said. For once, I thought.
The rain was still warm and gentle when I walked out. I saw a bald-headed person standing in the fire lane. Chemo?, I wondered. No, more like shaved with a cheap disposable. I checked the person out from the front. Brown baggy jacket and pants, a black shoulder bag.
“Are you a monk?” I asked.
“Yes.” a woman’s voice answered.
“A nun. Where are you from?”
“The West Coast, but lately I’ve been in British Columbia.”
“Well, enjoy your stay in Rhode Island. It’s the center of the universe.” I said with justifiable local pride.
“As is everywhere.” she replied.
Wow. I just got Zenned.
On the way back I saw Channel 10 cruising the back streets. Looking for a downed tree or forked lightning to film, I thought.
And one block further on Forest Street there were yellow flashing lights and a downed tree.
More light than sound so far, but there must be some serious wind tunnels, I’m glad I’m home.
End of the world in the center of the universe. As is everywhere.
I’ll have to think about that.
Do We Value Experience in Teaching? and Other Big, Hairy Questions
I try not to think too much about the Providence teacher terminations (my inner therapist says I should be exercising instead) but I can’t help but ask a couple of questions.
Here’s my first big, hairy question about the teacher terminations: if Providence gets away with it, how long will it be before they try it in Cranston and every other district in the state and country?
Which brings me to my other big, hairy question: Do we value experience in teaching? Or will there be a general trend to get rid of the experienced teachers in favor of the newer teachers who are hip to all the mandatory testing and really good at test prep?
But that’s a big, scary topic. Let’s not go there. Instead, let’s go watch the Jon Stewart show and have a good laugh at how ridiculous it is to be hating on the teachers.
Bob Walsh Responds to Mayor Taveras on Teacher Terminations
Mayor Taveras asked on Facebook for people to respond to his decision to send out the termination notices to Providence teachers, and NEA Executive Director Bob Walsh replied:
Since you asked: I think the terminating rather than laying off teachers is not only a violation of the law, it is a violation of the trust that so many have put into you. Please fix this awful mistake.
One consequence of this misguided action is that every experienced Providence teacher in shortage areas becomes easier for the districts outside of Providence to recruit (see how many left Central Falls High School for other districts after last year.) Another is the chilling effect this will have on efforts for collaborative relationships in the future. A third is the cost of 1926 legal appeals!
I know you well enough to know that you don’t want to be compared to the Governor of Wisconsin. Please respect the contract, respect the law and most importantly, respect the teachers.
While I come down on the side of teachers taking some concessions to help with the budget crisis, I do not agree with the decision to send out termination letters. It really bothers me, and I am not even a teacher.
All You Need is Love….And Unions
Just read this long piece by Kevin Drum about why unions improve life not just for union members, but for the entire middle class. The ultimate fact, as research in Drum’s article shows, is that politicians don’t do things for the middle class or the working class. We like to think Senators Whitehouse and Reed just love us because we’re their li’l peeps and they want to take care of us, but the truth is that politicians respond to powerful lobbying forces, and the past 30 years has seen a marked decline in powerful lobbies for the middle class. Drum presents two things you need to understand to get why our politicians have become so unresponsive to the needs of the middle class:
The first is this: Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-’70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money from everyone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.
Second, American politicians don’t care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early ’90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that’s not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don’t respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that’s not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don’t respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.
Testimony at the State House
We waited in room 313 for about seven hours to testify, but we were grateful to have chairs. I give credit for everyone who stuck it out, regardless of their point of view. Even Chris Young waited until after he had testified to start with the cops and get thrown out.
This is my written testimony– by the time we were called we had decided to shorten our remarks as it was after 11:00 and people were wilting. Wild night, but now I have to get to work.
Marriage is not just a privilege, but a responsibility. I’ve had patients whose spouses were introduced as ‘friend’ or ‘room mate’. They were afraid of how the staff might treat them, but love is hard to conceal. We knew when we were dealing with a couple.
There’s a saying in nursing, ‘discharge planning begins on the day of admission’. You look for a responsible party, usually family. If it were not for the support of family and friends, the state would be impossibly burdened and still fail to meet the needs of citizens suffering illness, accident or misfortune.
Married people care for one another in sickness and in health, for better or for worse.
John Green and I were married 22 years when we got a phone call that his mother had died, suddenly and unexpectedly. As we faced this loss together, I knew that I would someday need to lean on him. Marriage sustains us when we must say goodbye to our parents and elders.
There is great benefit to society when committed couples marry. They publicly and legally take responsibility for each other.
What benefit to the rest of us justifies denying homosexual couples the right to legal marriage? Who are these people who claim to be protecting my marriage? I’ve been married 28 years and they don’t speak for me. They slander my friends and acquaintances who happen to be gay. They act like my church, which has blessed same-sex unions since the 1970′s does not exist. They say gay couples are a threat to marriage, but Massachusetts is doing just fine.
Rhode Island is facing challenges to do right by our families and children. Education, employment, safe streets and affordable housing need our urgent attention. This is what will really protect our families. Encouraging couples to take on the responsibility of marriage will lift a burden from the state, and bring justice to our citizens.
