August 7, 2013 – RI Future

August 7, 2013August 9, 2013

Priest to legislators: I will campaign against you from church

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A Catholic priest is said to have sent an email to legislators who voted for same sex marriage threatening to use his bully pulpit as a church leader to get them unelected.

“I’m praying for each of you, that you turn back to God,” said an email purportedly from Father Brian Sistare, who is now the priest at Sacred Heart in Woonsocket. “I’m also going to let my Parish know exactly how you voted, so come re-election time, you will not be re-elected.”

As non-profit entities, churches are legally forbidden from engaging in political campaign activity.

The email was sent to the 26 state senators who voted for marriage equality and was signed and seemingly sent by Sistare. Sistare, who was a priest at St. Rocco Church in Johnston at the time, did not return a call for comment earlier this week to RI Future and has since declined to comment to other media outlets as well.

Sistare is said to have told married gay parishoners that he would not serve them communion unless they ended their marriages. Divorce is considered a sin to devout Catholics but the church does have an annulment process.

Here’s the full email sent to state senators:

Dear RI Senators who voted for “marriage” between members of the same sex,

Yesterday was a very sad day for our little state of Rhode Island. I’m still shocked that each of you took it upon yourself to take the place of God and redefine what He has established. Marriage has always been understood as the union between one man and one woman. This is a 5,000 year old fact! I’m wondering what you will do when a mother comes to you and asks to be married to her son, or a cousin wants to marry her first cousin, or when a man wants to marry 2 or 3 women, or a human being wants to marry his animal? What will you do, now that you have decided that Marriage is no longer a sacred union between one man and one woman?

For those of you Senators who are baptized Catholics, I invite you to go to the Sacrament of Confession to receive God’s Mercy and Forgiveness for your grave sin of voting against God yesterday, so you’ll be able to receive Holy Communion again in the Catholic Church.

For those of you who claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, I also invite you to repentance in your own faith tradition; and to those who claim no religious affiliation, I pray that you also see the error of your ways.

Your decision yesterday will have a lot of consequences on those of us who hold God’s definition of Marriage between one man and one woman. Already my Pastor from my hometown of Westerly is being accused by a confirmed lesbian, of violating the tax exempt status of the Catholic Church for telling his parishioners to contact Senator Algiere about his upcoming vote – unfortunately, Senator Algiere, you betrayed your own Catholic Faith and your constituents in voting for sodomy yesterday. Also, my little niece Giana was coming out of school the other day when her fellow 4 year old classmate remarked to her that 2 women could marry. Thankfully, my niece told the little boy the TRUTH that this isn’t the case, that Marriage is only between one man and one woman.

I’m praying for each of you, that you turn back to God. I’m also going to let my Parish know exactly how you voted, so come re-election time, you will not be re-elected.

Fr. Sistare

St. Rocco Church

Johnston, RI

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013

Kristina Fox elected president of YDRI

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Kristina Fox, erstwhile of Ocean State Action and a champion for so many progressive causes, is the newly elected president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island. I caught up with her on Facebook earlier today as she was waiting at TF Green to fly to the Young Democrats national conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Here’s most of our conversation:

Hi Kristina, and congrats on being elected president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island!

Thank you, Bob! I’m quite excited and honored to be the new President of YDRI

I’m excited for you and the Young Dems! Can you tell me a little bit about your organization? What do you do, and why?

I’m happy to! YDRI is an organization made up of young folks (young defined as less than 36 yrs old) who work to improve and empower our RI community in keeping with the principles of the Democratic party: equality, diversity and inclusiveness. All of us became involved with YDRI because we care deeply about RI, and want to ensure that we get back on the path to success. As wonderful as our home is, there’s a lot of unjust things happening. We want to change that.

So, why limit your group to those under 36 years old (says the 39-yr-old)? why do young Democrats caucus like this without us old folks?

The age limit is set by the national YDA charter. Age is no barrier to being part of the movement though! As I’m fond of saying, we mean “young at heart” as well.

So what do the YDRI do? Other than meet and talk politics…

Right now our top priority is building building building up our membership! We want young dems from Woonsocket to Westerly involved in our work. To that effect, we’ll be having an event at the Galilee Beach Club in Narragansett on Monday August 19th. It kicks off at 6:30pm. I’m really looking forward to it

Me too … I love Galilee! What a nice place for young Democrats to converge! Did I see there is a South County chapter now, too?

We’re working on starting a SoCo chapter. This event at GBC is a kick off for that. A great group of women have been instrumental in organizing this: Abby Godino, Danielle Dirocco and Ann Little. Ann is also the YDRI Women’s Caucus Chair

I look forward to meeting up with you liberal whippersnappers at the beach! How do you plan to make a difference politically?

I’m glad that you’ll be joining us!

Most importantly we want to empower and involve young folks in the political process. Unemployment, affordable housing, access to quality affordable health care, work supports, education, civil rights: these issues, and a whole host of others, deeply impact young Rhode Islanders. Yet, for the most part, we aren’t at the table when decisions are made. That needs to change. When we make our voices heard, we have a better RI.

Your group seems not only young but also pretty progressive?

Young people overall tend to be more politically progressive. YDRI is proud to be a deep shade of blue

Do you have many centrist Dems in your ranks? Or, let me propose this hypothetical: what if a 28-year-old Doc Corvese-type wanted to be a member of the YDRI … would he or she be welcome?

Like the general Dem party, we’re a big tent. If a person identifies as a Democrat, that person is 100% welcome in YDRI. A twentysomething self-identified Democrat who doesn’t believe in marriage equality, a woman’s reproductive rights or tax equity? I’d love to have tea with this person and understand where they’re coming from.

Then she had to board her plane. Congrats Kristina and have fun in San Antonio … here’s hoping next year’s Young Democrats convention is held in Providence or Newport (or both).

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013

Barrington affordable housing project lives

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Good for the Barrington Planning Board for unanimously approving a controversial affording housing project.

I think.

“Multiple conditions” were placed on the project, according to the Providence Journal, including that at least 10 of the 40 units only have one bedroom. This condition would effectively limit the number of families with children that could live in the proposed Palmer Pointe development.

Barrington Patch reported that the applicants, the East Bay Community Development Corporation, will need to reassess the project. “Three representatives for EBCDC … were very pleased with the outcome, although [housing consultant Frank] Spinella said: ‘We need to determine whether it remains feasible with the conditions.'”

The proposed affordable housing project was controversial because an organized group in this upper-income suburb don’t think it’s fair that poor people get to live in subsidized housing in their community, and that the new development would increase traffic.

Barrington, nicknamed Borrington, has the highest real estate value, median income and NECAP scores in the state. It’s also been pretty good at keeping affordable housing projects out of town. State law requires there be 527 units of designated affordable housing but there are only 160.

August 7, 2013

Upper Narragansett Bay, aka the Providence River

The Providence River doesn’t technically become Narragansett Bay until Conimicut Light in Warwick, but for all aesthetic, commercial and ecological purposes it’s brackish water – a mix of salt and fresh water – that we manage as part of The Bay.

If you aren’t familiar with it from the water, this is what it looks like:

And some pictures:

pvd narragansett bay — Downcity, Providence from the upper reaches of The Bay.

And here's downtown as seen from behind the Field's Point windfarm. — And here’s downtown as seen from behind the Field’s Point windfarm.

Field's Point wind farm — Field’s Point wind farm

There are two lighthouses in the Providence River/upper Bay area:

Conimicut Light, in Warwick, is where the Providence River technically gives way to Narragansett Bay.

These next few pictures are of a giant road salt pile at Field’s Point that I fear is probably contributing to the pollution in Narragansett Bay. The salt probably isn’t as bad as whatever the salt is mixed with.

August 7, 2013August 8, 2013

Judge: Ed. Board should discuss NECAPs in public

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The Board of Education must discuss the NECAP high stakes graduation requirement in public or not at all, a judge ruled yesterday after the ACLU appealed the board’s decision to discuss the politically-charged issue at a private “retreat” rather than at a public meeting.

“This is an important victory for the public and for transparency in government,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU.

It’s also an important victory for the broad coalition asking the Board to reconsider using the NECAP as a graduation requirement. The group, which ranges from organized inner city students to suburban parents to a majority of state legislators, has waged a high profile campaign that has drawn significant attention to the problems with using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement. Civil libertarians say high stakes testing unfairly favors the affluent, while psychometricians say the NECAP wasn’t designed to test individual assessment.

It’s also a important loss for board chairwoman Eva Mancuso as it is the second time in as many weeks as she’s been front and center in an issue flouting the public interest. Recently, Governor Chafee nominated her to oversee higher education in Rhode Island but she withdrew from contention because public board members are not allowed to be given jobs with the organizations they presided over.