First things first: I’m not a native. I’ve resided in the Ocean State for well-nigh ten years now and am still getting used to it all. You all know the litany of “things Rhode Island”: Coffee milk, cabinets, hot weiners, Del’s, etc. After nearly a decade, I now feel comfortable calling myself a Rhode Islander, though I also realize that I have a good 20 or 30 years to go before “real” Rhode Islanders acknowledge me as one of their own. Nonetheless, here I am. This is my home and I have an interest in making things better for both myself, my family and for my neighbors.
Now, it’s not as if I came to the Ocean State from Mars. What I most definitely am is a lifelong New Englander: born in Vermont, interlude in Massachusetts, raised in Maine and parents who now reside in New Hampshire. As such, I am a Yankee through and through. I understand the work ethic, the wit and the sense of community as well as the wry cynicism, the provincialism and attitude that the rest of the world is screwed up while New England is indeed the “Shining City on the Hill.” Well, maybe that was once true, but, as the recent election all too clearly has shown, New England is becoming isolated from the rest of the nation politically, socially and, unfortunately, economically.
While on the face of it Rhode Island is the most Democrat of the six New England states, I don’t believe it is the most liberal, which is an interesting dichotomy. As such, I believe, along with Justin and Andrew, that progress can be made within the Ocean State towards providing the citizens with an alternative to the same “good old boy” network they have come to know and, almost perversely, enjoy. It seems like many in our state take pleasure in Rhode Island’s reputation of political corruption and that they are, at the very least, resigned to more of the same. We at Anchor Rising don’t think it has to be that way. We’ve manned the Anchor windlass and applied some tension to the chain and now we need some help to actually bring this thing up. Care to come aboard?