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RI Future contributor Katrina Chaves and her partner Caylene Pillsbury hope to be celebrating later today.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on marriage equality today at 4:00 p.m. Equality opponents are certainly shocked that we have come this far, and they’re flooding Senators with calls and messages. For those who stand on the side of love: Please make some calls today, contact your legislator and let your voice be heard … there are no guarantees here.
Hopefully, we will never have to do this again.
As for me? Tonight I will be busy with my oh-so-scandalous, oh-so-deviant bisexual life: Running errands after work, and giving my partner a celebratory kiss & hug when we -(fingers crossed)- hear the good news.
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Rhode Island will remove the last obstacle standing in the way of marriage equality today when the full Senate votes today at 4 p.m. If I’m right, we’ll become the 10th state in the nation – but the last in New England – to abolish same sex marriage discrimination.
WPRI had a great take on how public opinion shifted on this issue, thanks in large part to the efforts of local activists. Referring to the affirmative committee vote yesterday, Ted Nesi/Dan McGowan wrote:
The bill won the support of three committee members who were considered potential no votes just months and in some cases only weeks ago: state Sens. Paul Jabour, D-Providence; William Conley, D-East Providence; and Leo Raptakis, D-Coventry.
“I listened to my constituency and I found that overwhelmingly they wanted me to support this legislation,” Jabour told WPRI.com.
Jabour – who represents one of the most traditionally Catholic districts in Rhode Island, stretching from Federal Hill up through Mount Pleasant – said he was willing to put aside his personal beliefs and listen to the voters in his district.
“I feel that my responsibility was to follow what it was that my constituency wanted me to do,” Jabour said. “It was people from all walks of life in my district. There was a common theme that people want to be treated fairly and equally.”
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Last night a lengthy Twitter discussion erupted about the Senate Republican Caucus unanimously supporting marriage equality which is a first among legislative caucuses; according to the Human Rights Campaign. It was about as substantive as one can be with 140 characters, including people’s handles. Mainly, it sought to suss out the reason why the Senate GOP would back marriage equality so dramatically, enough to garner coverage in national press outlets.
In the interest of brevity, I’ll sum up my reading of the debate (with all the attendant failures of interpretation). One side suggested that the stance would harm the Republicans among social conservatives, who have formed a significant faction of the party for the last generation or so. Another group was of the opinion that the move undercut the Democratic Party among its socially liberal partisans; a stance highlighted by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dominic Ruggerio exercising his status as an ex officio member of the Senate Judiciary committee to help lessen the losing margin. Suffice it to say, with the Senate Democratic leadership so obviously opposed to marriage equality from the Judiciary chairman to the Senate President, why did Senate leadership allow themselves to be maneuvered into this position where they appear at odds with their own base while the Republicans look like brave heroes?
For one thing, the Senate Republicans have it far easier. The Dems have a 32-member caucus. The Republicans have a 5-member caucus. It is easier to reach consensus in a 5-person group than in a 32-person group. Helping is that the most conservative Senate Republicans lost to Democrats in the last election. Democrats, with a popular appeal that has widened over the last century, are naturally going to be more fractious.
Added to this is the intense scrutiny that Democratic Party legislators have faced since before the last election cycle. More than a few socially conservative Democrats were removed in primaries, while others retired. Those that made it through have faced a massive lobbying campaign from marriage equality supporters and also faced pressure from their counterparts in the House of Representatives.
However, our observers on Twitter were attempting to figure out the political calculus. And perhaps that’s what’s confounding about the situation; it’s not as simple as political repercussions. Perhaps all five Republican senators determined that it was the right thing to do.
Marriage equality is not a simple piece of feel-good legislation. It’s one infused with emotional, moral, and societal implications and arguments. It’s also a heavily religious battle, especially since a huge proportion of these state contracts are granted during an important religious ceremony. Hundreds of years of importance are being placed on this ceremony. On one hand, you have people who openly define their views as “traditional” and seek to prevent change. On the other, you have people who are genuinely in love, and whose sexual orientation has been persecuted for thousands of years. Homosexuality was still listed as a mental disorder as recently as 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association; the World Health Organization took until 1990 to make the correction.
Sometimes, when the motivating factor is love, we cannot find a political reason for political action. Sometimes people act not on what will be best for them, but what they believe is right. This ability, to do the thing you think is right even when it may not be the best thing for you personally, is a lesson we attempt to teach our children. It might shock the worst cynics among us that as children our legislators may have absorbed that lesson. The Senate Republican caucus has done the right thing. Maybe it’s as simple as that.
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Tax breaks, or expenditures, are the entitlement programs that nobody seems to complain about. Though maybe we should, given they cost Rhode Island more than $1.7 billion a year in 2009. That same year the state took in just over $3 billion. In other words, we gave away more than half as much as we actually collected. The idea is that we’re getting something for these giveaways. But nobody really knows how this $1.7 billion investment is doing for the state because nobody is paying attention to the money we aren’t getting.
A bill being heard by the House Finance Committee today would remedy that wrong. It’s sponsored by Rep. Teresa Tanzi of South Kingstown and reps. Walsh, O’Grady, Valencia and Ferri have each signed on. They’ve got a strong ally in the Economic Progress Institute, too, which released a report on the issue that will do a far better job than me at explaining why this is a no-brainer for the Ocean State.
Here’s the condensed version from their release:
To ensure Rhode Island uses its available resources in the most effective way possible, it’s time to subject tax breaks, that cost the State over $1.7 billion a year, to the same scrutiny given to money spent through the state budget.
Like other states, Rhode Island increasingly writes into law provisions that allow people or businesses to reduce their taxes if they meet certain criteria. But Rhode Island is among the states that pay the least attention to whether tax breaks for businesses achieve their stated goals, according to a recent study by The Pew Center on States. The reputable research organization listed Rhode Island among 26 states that are “trailing behind”—Pew’s lowest ranking—because the State met none of the criteria for the scope or quality of evaluation key to determining whether tax breaks are worthwhile policy.
Pew found that while no state “regularly and rigorously tests” whether tax breaks for businesses are benefiting a state, 13 states are “leading the way” in generating answers about the effectiveness of their state’s tax breaks.2 Rhode Island should follow the lead of the exemplary states, including neighboring Connecticut, that are taking important steps to more carefully examine some or all of their tax breaks, particularly those enacted with the goal of creating jobs.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee made history today with the passage of two bills regarding same sex marriage, and the defeat of a bill that would have put the question of marriage equality to a ballot vote in 2014.
In a vote of 7-to-4, the committee passed SB 38, which redefines marriage as a union of two adults, regardless of sex, thus moving marriage equality to the floor of the Senate.
Supporting Committee members of the bill entered the hearing room to applause, Sen. Donna Nesselbush was given a standing ovation.
Nesselbush, the bill’s prime sponsor, said, “I have been on the other side of the table supporting this issue for many years. I am so proud to be the lead sponsor, and I’m proud that we can move forward on this historic legislation. This has been a fight that has taken, literally, two decades to get to this point.”
“Personally, it’s a huge moment in my life. After years of thinking that, because I’m gay, I’ll never be able to get married. That is a huge setback in anyone’s life.”
Back in March, the committee heard over twelve hours of testimony on the proposed change of the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. Proponents and opponents filled the halls of the statehouse that day, and the ratio those who testified in favor of the change outweighed the opposition by 2-to-1.
“It’s a culmination of years of lobbying, advocating and education. This is an affirmation that we are part of society; we are OK,” said a visibly emotional Rep. Frank Ferri, lead sponsor of the bill in the House, “and that all of the things that people have said about us over the years – that we’re not normal or moral – have just made us stronger. Today is the exhibition of that strength.”
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Congrats, Lil’ Rhodey! Remaining true to the uniqueness of this state that I have found so endearing, Rhode Island made history BEFORE voting on same-sex marriage.
The Rhode Island Senate Republican caucus announced its support for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, becoming the first legislative caucus in the nation to unanimously back marriage equality.
The President of HRC referred to this as a “game changer,” noting that issues of equality are gaining bipartisan support as time marches on.
Rhode Island has a higher percentage of LGBT adults than all but two states that have legalized same-sex marriage, according to a 2012 Gallup survey. At 4.5%, the state ranked No. 5, overall, but above the national average of 3.5%.
However, this will not only change the lives of LGBT constituents; this is bound to improve the quality of life for children of LGBT couples, and have a vast “ripple effect”
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Pat Crowley, Gary Sasse and Michael Downey all testified in favor of taxing the rich more last session.
What’s an understaffed progressive news website to do?
There’s marriage equality in the Senate Judiciary Committee, marijuana legalization at Brown and – rounding out the trifecta of local progressive issues – a briefing on a bill that would tax the rich in room 211 of the State House.
Tax equity advocates, including labor leaders, municipal leaders, Providence public school students, small business owners, economists and others, will gather to testify in support of bill S527, which would create a 2% income tax increase on Rhode Islanders making over $250,000.
The proposed tax increase will add an estimated $66 million in revenue to the state, which may be used to return money to cities and towns to lower our property taxes, fund public programs and help our schools and students. In the last 17 years, tax cuts for Rhode Island’s wealthy families have failed to stop the state’s rising unemployment rate, proving that tax cuts do not create jobs.
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While local legislators debate marriage equality on Smith Hill today, two national experts on drug policy will be debating another progressive issue on College Hill: legalizing marijuana.
Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former Obama adviser on drug policy, squares off against Aaron Houston, the national director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy at 4:30 in the List Art Building (68 College Street), Room 120 at Brown University.
From the press release:
Colorado and Washington recently passed voter initiatives to make the sale and cultivation of marijuana a legally regulated industry — should other states follow their lead? As marijuana legalization is being considered by lawmakers in Rhode Island and nationally, two sides will argue for and against more liberalized marijuana laws.
The event, hosted by the Janus Forum and Brown SSDP, will be held today, Tuesday, April 23 at 4:30 p.m. in Brown University’s List Art Building (68 College Street) in room 120.
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Ray Sullivan, of Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, in East Providence last night.
For Rhode Island progressives, it’s the most widely-anticipated day of the 2013 legislative session. For anyone who values equal treatment under the law, it’s even bigger than that. Today is the day the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on marriage equality.
The House already passed it overwhelmingly, the governor is a big supporter too and the Senate is highly unlikely to reject it if and when it ever reaches the full chamber. On Smith Hill, issues are won or lost behind closed doors, and those outcomes become evident at the committee level. So today the Ocean State learns if, collectively, we are ready to recognize same sex marriage.
From a practical matter, there are three people who control its fate, and two whom will be casting votes today. Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed is famously opposed to marriage equality, but said she won’t weigh in.
Rookie committee members Lou Raptakis, of Coventry, and Bill Conley, of East Providence, have held their cards close and Rhode Islanders United for Marriage have zeroed in on both of them in this home stretch.
That there are two bills up for a vote today – one backed only by the most socially conservative state legislators, out-of-town hate groups and Catholic priests and another that pretty much everyone else likes – gives them some political cover: vote for them both and let the full Senate flush it out.
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NOM-RI’s Chris Plante is becoming increasingly desperate in his efforts to block marriage equality in Rhode Island. The Westerly Sun reports on Plante’s newspaper ads that contained unveiled political threats against Republican Senator Dennis Algiere:
If he ends up voting ‘yes,’ we will do what we can to unseat him. He will have broken with the Republican Party, and he will have also broken with the people who have elected him.
These are strong words. But does Plante actually have the ability to carry through with his threats? Plante points to New York and Iowa as places where NOM was influential in removing republican state senators and judges who voted for marriage equality.
NOM has a very good track record on unseating Republicans who vote against traditional marriage. The issue is job security, what every politician is concerned about.
I think it more likely that Plante’s job security is at stake: NOM-RI only exists as long as same-sex marriage remains against the law. When he loses this battle he’ll probably go back to selling dangerous, unscientific and discredited “abstinence only” sex education programs to gullible school administrations.
The Sun reports that Plante claimed, “Of the four Republican state senators who joined a Democratic minority to help New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pass a same-sex marriage bill last year, one was defeated in a primary, another defeated in the general election after barely surviving a primary, a third opted not to run for re-election rather than face a primary challenge, and only one was re-elected.”
NOM Exposed, a site dedicated to refuting NOM’s lies claims, in a piece entitled NOM’s Empty Threats Against New York Republicans sees NOM’s influence a little differently, pointing out that “NOM Claimed It Would Spend $2 Million To Defeat Republicans Who Backed Marriage Equality In New York, But It Raised Less Than $50,000 And Spent Less Than $40,000.”
Mark Grisanti, the Senator Plante says was taken out during a primary was known to be “The Most Endangered Republican In The Senate.”
Senator Stephen Saland, defeated in the general election, lost because a third party candidate fielded by the Conservative Party split the vote, allowing his Democratic challenger to unseat him.
Senator James Alesi decided not to run because of personal problems and because of ongoing problems with the Republican Party: He only voted with his party 52% of the time. He was hardly a senator with Algiere’s record.
In every case NOM’s influence on these elections was minimal to non-existent. Plante is grossly exaggerating NOM’s political influence.
In a phone call with Kevin Nix of HRC, who heads up NOM Exposed, Nix expressed surprise that Plante mentioned Iowa because the judges in Iowa, though elected, are not party affiliated. Further, Nix points out that in the past NOM has made similar claims about Illinois, with equally weak facts to back up their case. MOM is “all bark and no bite” says Nix.
Locally, Plante’s threats sound even more hollow. Algiere is one of the highest ranking Republican politicians in the state. The Rhode Island Republican Party has nothing about marriage equality in its platform, and Republican Senator Dawson Hodgson is an almost certain yes vote on the issue. Plante’s suggestion that a yes vote from Algiere means the Senator has “broken with the Republican Party” is hyperbole at best. Polls show that most Rhode Islander’s want marriage equality and the idea that anger over the issue will still resonate with even the most conservative voters through the next election cycle despite Algiere’s conservative track record is silly.
As usual NOM-RI and Christopher Plante are engaging in bluster and bullshit.
Thank you to Charles Joughin of HRC for help in researching this piece.
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I’m working with Rep. Henry Waxman and other colleagues in Congress to draft legislation to put a price on carbon. Big polluters have had a free pass for far too long. Not only will a carbon fee reduce carbon emissions, it will force big polluters to pay for the damage their pollution does to public health and the environment, generating billions in new revenue for the American people.
He writes the piece for a new web zine called Medium … I like what it stands for: “Medium is based on the belief that the sharing of ideas and experiences is what moves humanity forward. The Internet is the greatest idea-sharing tool ever imagined, but we’ve only scratched the surface of its capabilities. More concretely, Medium is a system for reading and writing. A place where you can find and share knowledge, ideas, and stories—specifically, ones that need more than 140 characters and are not just for your friends. It’s a place where you can work with others to create something better than you can on your own.”
Click on the image to read Sheldon’s full post on Medium.com
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The Rhode Island business community has overwhelmingly endorsed marriage equality, and largely stands opposed to the religious exemptions in the Ciccone bill.
John Duffy, president of the PR firm Duffy & Shapley and chairman of the Greater providence Chamber of Commerce was quite clear, “Discrimination is expensive and bad for business,” he said on a conference call today. “The business community stands opposed to the exemptions in the Ciccone bill.”
He said marriage equality will increase the ability of Rhode Island businesses to attract and retain top talent in our state.
Sally Lapides, president and chief executive officer of Residential Properties Ltd, says that she has specific examples of people being offered jobs and passing on offers in Rhode Island because of the discriminatory nature of of laws.
“If someone is offered a job at Yale, Harvard or Brown [they might] choose to not come to Brown because Rhode Island does not equally respect people.” She added that it is embarrassing for Rhode Island to be the only state in New England without marriage equality. Even when people choose to work in Rhode Island, they often choose to live just over the border in neighboring Massachusetts, which decreases house sales in our struggling state.
Kirsten Dichiappari, president and founder of the Chatter Group, a collaborative consulting company says that business entrepreneurs in the LGBTQ community is a fast growing business sector, and those businesses are largely avoiding setting up shop in Rhode Island.
When asked if business leaders are concerned about any kind of backlash from those opposed to marriage equality because of their stance on the issue, Matt McTighe, who spearheaded Maine’s marriage equality effort noted that experiences in states that have passed such legislation shows that it has been great for business. Non-judgmental businesses, it turns out, have a competitive advantage.
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Fenway Park, seven days before the Boston Marathon bombs. (Photo by Bob Plain)
There’s no doubt September 11 was more destructive and horrific and game-changing, but the week of terror that just played out in Boston hit a lot closer to home for me.
The target was not only physically closer but philosophically closer as well. For those who grew up in pre-Providence renaissance Rhode Island, Boston was our big city. I grew up wanting to be “Mayday” Malone pouring beers in Beantown, not Gordon Gecko making millions on Wall Street.
As such, I have been celebrating Marathon Monday since the long-gone days when we thought Rosie Ruiz was the biggest black mark that could ever happen to the world’s greatest road race. That, of course, all changed last Monday, when two homemade bombs probably forever skewed the security-to-civil liberties ratio at American sporting events.
A childhood friend, with whom I have enjoyed many a Patriots’ Day Bloody Mary, pinged me about it just before it hit my social media feeds. Not Boston, I responded. I shrugged it off as confusion with some car bombs that went off in Iraq that same day and ever-so briefly went back to not caring about terrorism. Seconds later it hit my Twitter timeline – my sorry, 21st Century stand-in for a real Walter Cronkite.
Terrorist bombings killed at least 33 people in Iraq on April 15, 2013 and, here in Boston, three. But it’s proximity, not volume, that makes terrorism effective. I very well could have been in Boston that day – in fact, just seven days earlier I was. One friend couldn’t find her sister-in-law who ran in the race, and another knew the Newport woman who was injured in the blasts. That was plenty close enough.
Then, on Friday, it got even closer. The day began with a post I wrote a month earlier going viral as the internet misidentified the man as a suspect. It ended when I learned the dead suspect was married to a woman who lives less than three miles from me. My Facebook feed exploded with kids I grew up with who living in the area, driving into the city or deciding to stay home.
My cousin who lives in Cambridge happened to be crashing at my mom’s house Thursday night. I spent the better part of the day texting with a good friend who lives in nearby Somerville. Another friend has a cousin who is a Cambridge cop, and his dad went to Cambridge Ringe and Latin High School. This was essentially a home game for me, to use a sports analogy.
Like most of America, I woke up to one of the most terrifying news cycles of my life: the suspects had killed again, carjacked an SUV and engaged in a shootout with police – in which they used homemade grenades – and one of them had eluded capture and was on the lamb.
A sort of de facto martial law had been declared to find what initially seemed to be a bad guy version of James Bond. As it turns out, it’s not easy for 9,000 law enforcement officers to locate one bleeding-to-death 19-year-old in the suburbs. I’m not sure which scenario is scarier for America.
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To get ready for the big marriage vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday watch this great Labor Vision (for which I am a sometime contributor!) segment on why local labor unions are working so hard get same sex marriage passed this year. Jim Parisi, of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, interviews Cranston Rep. Art Handy, the annual sponsor of the marriage equality bill in the House and Jim Riley, who represents the United Food and Commercial Workers in Rhode Island.
Labor Vision’s , in-depth
released a one-hour special on why it’s such an important issue for the union movement.
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It’s a hugely important “weekend of action” if we want to win marriage equality for Rhode Island this legislative session. Devin Driscoll of Rhode Islanders United for Marriage has the details:
With a vote expected any day, momentum is continuing to build behind marriage equality legislation pending before the General Assembly. Rhode Islanders United for Marriage will host a Weekend of Action this Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and 21, to connect supporters with their senators and urge them to vote yes on S38.
Volunteers will gather at RI United’s Action Center (3 Central Street, Providence, RI 02907) at 11:30 am to hear from a faith leader, State Representative Frank Ferri and RI United Campaign Director Ray Sullivan. They will then head out to neighborhoods across the state to canvass in targeted senate districts, or phone bank other supporters from headquarters.
Event Details: Rhode Islanders United For Marriage Weekend of Action
Who: Volunteers and supporters of the freedom to marry, local faith leaders, State Representative Frank Ferri, and Campaign Director Ray Sullivan
What: Action Launch
When: Saturday, April 20 at 11:30 am.
Where: RI United Action Center, 3 Central Street, Providence, RI 02907 (near Central & Classical High Schools, off of Broad Street).
The local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee will hold a vigil today – 5pm at the Providence Friends Meeting House, 99 Morris Ave. – for those who want to spend time with peaceful people as the Boston Marathon bombings morphed overnight into a manhunt this morning. One of the two Chechnyan brothers suspected of planting the bombs was killed during an early this morning shootout with police in Watertown, Mass. and the other escaped and remains at large.
Here’s AFSC-SENE’s press release:
The American Friends Service Committee will hold a vigil this afternoon at 5pm at the Providence Friends Meeting House (99 Morris Ave, corner of Olney St).
“As the situation unfolds in Boston, we want to offer people an opportunity to gather in solidarity with the people of Boston” said Martha Yager, Program Coordinator of the South East Office of the AFSC.
“The situation is unfolding, so we will shape the event as the day unfolds” said Yager. “We will open the Meeting House at 3:00 pm as a place for quiet gathering and hold a more formal vigil at 5pm”
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The Day of Silence is an annual protest organized by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, to protest the bullying of LGBTQ students in High Schools and college campuses across the country. The event, originally a grassroots effort started in 1996, was adopted by GLSEN in 2000 and in 2013 the 18th Day of Silence falls on today’s date, April 19th.
Unfortunately, here in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, this week is April vacation, so either the day will not be observed or will be rescheduled to a time when classes are in session. Either way a feeling of national solidarity will be lost, which is too bad, because this event could serve as a powerful statement in some schools where bullying is a potential issue.
LGBT students are at risk for bullying. Bullying Statistics.org reports that “about 9 out of 10 LGBT teens have reported being bullied at school within the past year because of their sexual orientation,” “gay and lesbian teens are two to three times as more likely to commit teen suicide than other youths” and “about 30 percent of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis.” These numbers are shocking and should serve as a call to arms.
However, several groups on the religious right have decided that it’s not the rights of LGBT students to live lives free of bullying that we should be concerned with. We should instead be concerned with the rights of Christian students who wish to proselytize to their LGBTQ classmates. The argument is made that a Christian student’s right to tell an LGBTQ student that they are going to Hell trumps an LGBTQ student’s right to live a life free of such abuse.
This is the same tactic used to oppose marriage equality on the grounds of religious freedom. It’s not about the rights of same-sex couples to marry, it’s about the religious right to discriminate against same-sex couples. In the case of school bullying, it’s not about an LGBTQ students right to feel safe and unmolested, it’s about a religious student’s right to express their disapproval of the LGBTQ student through taunts, intimidation and yes, hate speech.
Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute has said about the Day of Silence in her state, “The means by which [GLSEN seeks] to end bullying is to eradicate conservative moral beliefs about homosexuality or to make it socially impossible to express them. That’s what people need to understand. This isn’t centrally about bullying.” Of course, Laurie Higgins is wrong: the Day of Silence is all about calling attention to the problem of bullying and raising awareness about the issue. (In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that Laurie Higgins protested a talk by my niece Jessica Ahlquist when she went to Illinois to talk at three High Schools there about being bullied as an atheist in the wake of the Cranston prayer banner decision.)
In concert with 34 groups, including the aforementioned Illinois Family Institute, MassResistance is suggesting to parents opposed to preventing the bullying of LGBTQ students to “Keep your kids home that day!”
When you have to work that hard at hating people, it almost seems not worth it.
The idea of twisting freedom of religion into the freedom to discriminate may seem compelling to the unreflective when it is about the right of photographers to discriminate against same-sex couples getting married or the right of pharmacists to deny women birth control if it violates their conscience, but it seriously breaks down when we talk about the rights of bullies to drive LGBTQ kids to suicide.
Suddenly the betrayal of logic that might seem peculiar, strange or even humorous becomes destructive and deadly to our children. It is well past the time that we call those who peddle such views on their bullshit and start understanding what religious liberty really is.
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Ever since 38 Studios went bankrupt some folks in the state have suggested that a “Moral” Obligation bond means you don’t REALLY have to pay the creditors, unlike a General Obligation bond. Nonsense. Both mean that the state will stand behind its word. If RI does’t, why would anyone ever believe what the state says or guarantees again? If a moral obligation is meaningless, why did we make it?
RI should cover the 38 Studio bonds because:
It is an obligation. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a General or Moral Obligation guarantee, they are both given by the state to show it stands behind the lenders. It doesn’t make any difference what the amount is, it’s still an obligation.
Defaulting on the bonds would negatively impact RI’s credit rating. This is a no-brainer. Would it improve RI’s credit rating? Of course not. This is all common-sense. (Yes, negligible consequences are possible, but they are not likely. Especially see former URI Business School Dean Mazze’s comments.) (Note: I am on the URI faculty. I don’t always agree with Dean Mazze.)
Because of RI and American values. We stand behind what we promise. If we stop doing that then there is no reason to believe anything the state of RI says (through the legislature), it can’t be trusted.
Counter-arguments, and why they’re wrong:
“Moral” in finance does not mean the usual “moral.” All of the definitions I have seen indicate that the meaning is the same whether in finance or common speech. The implication is that as long as it is feasible to pay off the bonds, one must.
It costs too much. RI is not on its last legs. We have faced worse financial situations before; remember the savings and loan crisis. RI paid over a billion dollars to depositors. If it became annoying to pay off your mortgage, would you just stop making the payments?
Insurance will cover it. This is like burning your house down to collect the covered amount. C’mon, people!
It’s a payoff to Wall Street. Unfortunately, some RIers have brought unrelated politics into this. This has nothing to do with supporting Wall Street or supporting the 99%.
(Before the name-calling begins, let me note: I am no fan of Wall St. I’m on the Executive Board of Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America. I did not support the forcing of pension revisions on the unions by Treasurer Raimondo. And so on.)
I believe that Reps. MacBeth and Lima are wrong to introduce bills to keep RI from paying its debts. Just the act of doing so tarnishes our reputation. (Note: I ran unsuccessfully against Rep. MacBeth in 2012. We disagree on a lot of things.)
Much of the discussion in the press on 38 Studios has gotten into dollars-and-cents cost-benefit analysis. We are all about so much more than just $$$. We can afford this. Let’s just grin-and-bear it, start paying off our 38 Studios debt, and get back to business, like creating jobs.
The Andre the Giant Has a Posse sticker is probably up there with Cross pens, costume jewelry and calamari as the Ocean State’s most popular ever exports. While its creator, Shepard Fairey – then a RISD student and local skate punk who went on to design the Obama Hope poster – might not be as famous as Seth MacFarlane, Billy Donovan, John King or Amy Carter, how many of them can boast that they took on Rhode Island’s most well-known icon: Buddy Cianci.
Here’s the highly-anticipated, highly-dramatized 20 minute movie about how a unknown art student took on the most famous mayor in the country … and won! Political buffs will love the portrayal of Cianci, played by Keith Jochim of Providence.
Hi. My name is Julian Marshall. I am a 22-year-old film director from Washington, DC. I am currently a senior at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I recently directed a short narrative film about the early life of Shepard Fairey and the origin story of his OBEY GIANT street art campaign. The film is set in Providence, RI, in 1990 when Shepard was studying illustration at RISD. In an illustration class, titled Style and Substance, Shepard received a historic assignment that would later establish his legacy in Providence. Each student in the class was given a fortune cookie, and tasked with illustrating his or her respective fortune. Shepard’s fortune read: TO AFFECT THE QUALITY OF THE DAY IS NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT. He then decided to paste his Andre graphic over the face of notorious former Mayor of Providence, Buddy Cianci, on his re-election billboard, located in the heart of the city.
PPLA: Shepard is an artist with much acclaim in the community and both positive and negative publicity throughout his twenty plus year career. What made you decide to focus on the Buddy Cianci incident?
JM: That seemed to be the perfect story for me to tell, being a ‘RISD story’ and me being a RISD student. So it made sense for me to make a story about another RISD student 21 years before I attended the school. I wanted to get down to the moment where this thing was still new and fresh for Fairey and he was just reacting. The time before he had the controversial publicity that he has recently experienced, like right now with the associated press lawsuit or the way some people seem to react to his OBEY clothing. I wanted to keep it simple and I wanted to tell a story similar to The Social Network– a “where did this thing come from” feeling. A lot of people don’t quite understand where this movement came from and they just see what it is now and take from it whatever they want.
PPLA: Agreed. Not many people are aware Fairey’s initial ideas or intentions. You have a street artist pre-Obama where work was looked at by most as vandalism or “street art” as we call it. How was it that you learned about what led up to the Buddy Cianci billboard incident? It’s not as if Fairey woke up one day and said, I’m bored and I’m just going to slap an Andre the Giant face over Buddy Cianci’s.
JM: I can speak to some of that. The jumping off point for the story was me seeing and reading the story in Fairey’s book. There are plenty of people still currently at RISD that were around at the time of the billboard-teachers of Fairey’s that are still here- so I amassed all of the research myself by interviewing people and ultimately found what I believe to be the black and white truth. I pulled everyone’s contributions together and then basically looked at how to build the best story from that. I thought, ‘How can we build the best, intricate, but still factual story from those accounts.’
Alisha Pina of the Providence Journal also has a good story here. She writes:
Plans will officially be New vision emerges revealed Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Providence Biltmore Ballroom. Governor Chafee and Mayor Angel Taveras are hosting the event. Honorary chairmen are U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Representatives David Cicilline and James Langevin.
Wood says the entire project could cost $20 million and take, depending on how quickly they raise the money, four years to complete.
This I think is a fantastic project for Providence, i think. I note that the rendering includes street cars, which would also be a great thing for the Capital City.
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The Day of Silence is an annual protest organized by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, to protest the bullying of LGBTQ students in High Schools and college campuses across the country. The event, originally a grassroots effort started in 1996, was adopted by GLSEN in 2000 and 
Ever since 38 Studios went bankrupt some folks in the state have suggested that a “Moral” Obligation bond means you don’t REALLY have to pay the creditors, unlike a General Obligation bond. Nonsense. Both mean that the state will stand behind its word. If RI does’t, why would anyone ever believe what the state says or guarantees again? If a moral obligation is meaningless, why did we make it?
