Rhode Island Culture
The two perspectives on what constitutes the root causes of poverty and, therefore, how to resolve them, emerged when the six gubernatorial candidates met with the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition. On one side: Republican John Robitaille, Governor Carcieri’s former communications director, said the large number of single-parent families in poor communities is a key factor…
The anecdotes provided by John DePetro in this piece are, unfortunately, entirely predictable: Callers from North Providence were calling in to my show on WPRO regarding the FBI arresting three members from the council. Some of the comments: * “It wasn’t taxpayer money they took.” * “25 grand ain’t a lot of money. It ain’t…
It’s been a running theme — of accelerating urgency on an individual basis — whether Rhode Island’s vaunted “quality of life” justifies the cost of building a life, here. My view is that high culture, wonderful scenery, history, and so on don’t amount to much for families that must work so hard simply to survive…
The “arts community” has drawn pretty tight ideological lines around itself, but there are those of us with pretensions to art, in some medium or other, with a different understanding of the world. As such a one, I think Governor Carcieri was wrong to give in and cancel his plans “to eliminate a program that…
It’s been a few days since the main players were divulged, so–based on information gathered in various stories–here is an attempt to show the links between the known players in the Providence PD drug ring and others. These links aren’t to be inferred as an accusation against those not charged, but they are interesting in…
Perhaps Rhode Island’s problem is it’s size. I mean, looking at the map that accompanies the results to Gallup’s poll concerning Americans’ well-being, one can hardly tell that we’re in the “lower range” category. I mean, the bottom half of New England is “midrange,” and Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine made the “higher range” category…
In a general sense, the front-page, top-of-the-fold story in the Sunday Providence Journal isn’t really news at all. Rhode Island led the region in job losses, over the last decade, and its 3.85% drop compared with a national average of 2.2%. The message to readers: get used to the pain. Of particular concern is that…
I suppose this Projo editorial opposing the newly legislated board for statewide health insurance benefits for teachers is better late than never, but the editors continue to keep two and two from being joined: Obviously, Rhode Island can do much better than rushing through a new system whereby a panel of special interests reward themselves…
At a time when common wisdom is marching straight toward a cliff labeled “consolidation” (at the bottom of which are sharp rocks of incumbency, special interests, and political corruption), I’m encouraged to see that the independent spirit lives on in some corners of the state: Started in early December by Prescott Avenue resident and Riverside…
Ed Achorn makes a familiar observation when he writes: Ocean State politicians have long supported a two-tiered society in which there is a privileged class of public employees — about one in six workers in Rhode Island two years ago, probably a higher percentage today — and an underprivileged class of private-sector drones. We should…
