April 1, 2013 – RI Future

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

RI Supports Fred Ross Sr. For Presidential Medal

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Google may be taking flack from the conservative blogoshpere for honoring Cesar Chavez on Easter, but no such criticism from this site for Rhode Island’s congressional delegation’s collective decision to support the man who mentored Chavez.

All four members of the delegation have signed onto letters asking President Obama to award Fred Ross Sr. a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“For nearly half a century, Fred educated, agitated and inspired people of all races and backgrounds to overcome fear, despair and cynicism. He was a pioneer who fought for racial and economic justice,” reads a letter that Congressman David Cicilline and Jim Langevin signed onto along with 60 other members of the House. Here’s a copy of the letter Senators Reed and Whitehouse sent to the president.

Ross is best known for mentoring Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta. But he’s also a real-life connection between the “Grapes of Wrath” and the grape boycott by the United Farm Workers. In the 1930’s, Ross ran the Arvin Migratory Labor Camp in Central California – the government-run unemployment camp made famous by Steinbeck’s classic novel as the alternative to oppressive private sector camps where the Joad family and others suffered. Then, in the 1960’s he was instrumental in helping Chavez and Huerta organize a nation-wide grape boycott that led to better working conditions for migrant farm laborers.

ABC News has a great profile on Ross and his legacy, with this photo gallery.

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

Kate Brock: Goodbye OSA, Hello Governor’s Office

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The local progressive movement isn’t losing an activist, we are gaining a voice inside of government. Kate Brock is leaving her job as the executive director of Ocean State Action to take a policy position in Governor Chafee’s administration.

In an email to OSA supporters this morning, she writes:

It is with both heaviness in my heart and excitement for the future that I am writing to bid you all a fond farewell.

The past three years have been an amazing journey for me, and for Ocean State Action. We have made important changes in Rhode Island – both in the laws, and in the hearts and minds of Rhode Islanders. And we did it by walking on picket lines, rallying, collecting postcards, canvassing businesses, training new activists to be campaign managers and data geeks, educating voters on issues from voting rights to tax equity, making phone calls, and knocking doors, and we did it all together.

But now it is time for a new page in my life, and I am both honored and humbled to be joining the Governor’s policy team up at the State House. I am greatly looking forward to getting back to my roots, not the grassroots ones, but my roots in the environmental community.

It has been a privilege to work alongside each and every one of you both in the trenches of Get Out the Vote and through long, long nights at the Statehouse. We’ve done a lot together, and there is a lot to still be done.

I am proud to leave Ocean State Action in the capable hands of Kristina Fox and Mark Gray who will keep fighting the good fight. If you haven’t met them yet, send them an email or give them a call and get more involved with Ocean State Action.

And never forget the immortal words of Dr. King – “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” Stand tall, agitate, organize, and demand progress!

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

Don Anderson: Let There Be Payday Loan Reform

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Rev. Don Anderson, president of the Rhode Island Council of Churches, says there are religious reasons for supporting payday loan reform.

“In every religious tradition, the concept of usury is addressed,” Anderson said, at an State House event last week to call attention to payday loan reform.

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Anderson, who is also an important advocate for tax equity legislation, added, “Concern for the poor transcends all faiths.”

The Bible has many – or unethically high interest rates. But one not need to read scripture to understand why payday loan shops like Advance America are preying on the poor.

Annual interest rates can be as high as 260 percent, and customers are sometimes cajoled into thinking it will be easier to pay back than is realistic. Rhode Island is the only state in New England to allow predatory payday loans.

A recent Pew report concluded that payday loans “fail to work as advertised” and most people who use them have other options that they often use to get themselves out of the payday loan debt spiral.