A Weekend in August

The big event of the weekend, for those of us who would push and pull Rhode Island toward a healthier political culture, was the summer meeting of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition, audio here.

In an Engaged Citizen post, Kathy Santos lists some critera by which voters should gauge their state-level representatives. A reader email about the state's relationship with small businesses that collect taxes on its behalf provides an example of an advisable change in perspective.

On the related front of employment, I suggested that among the state's services to Rhode Islanders who haven't been able to find work, here, for over a year and a half should be the provision of information and assistance relocating somewhere that might be a better professional match. Although, perhaps Monique points toward another solution, with her mention of the young lady in New York who is suing her institute of higher education because it failed to place her in a job.

Monique also took a look at some legislation that would continue Rhode Island on its path of providing a quality of education that, if not litigable, certainly deprives our children, on average, of their due (for all we pay for it).

On a political note, Monique wondered why the Board of Elections seems intent on confusing the nascent Moderate Party. And on healthcare, I suggested that recipients of foreign "single-payer" benefits probably have a more complicated set of emotions and motivations than would tend toward objective assessment of their systems, and in any case, they ought to think twice before recommending that the United States follow their lead.