September 3, 2015 – RI Future

Mohegan Bluffs, Block Island (Photo by Bob Plain)

Nick Kirkpatrick in the Washington Post speculated a few days ago that Block Island might be a candidate for renaming in the wake President Obama’s executive decision to revert the name of Mt. McKinley back to the Native American name Denali. As Kirkpatrick explains it:

“For thousands of years, Native Americans called this pear-shaped island in southern Rhode Island ‘Manisses‘ (‘Island of the Little God,’) until it was visited in 1614 by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who renamed it after himself. Block? Have you ever heard of him?”

Boston.com elaborated somewhat on the history, saying, “War soon broke out between native groups and colonists,” and suggested that, “Given Block’s legacy, maybe the island, as the Post suggests, deserves its old name back.”

I called Blake Filippi, the independent Representative whose district includes includes all of Block Island (as well as Charlestown and portions of Westerly and South Kingstown,) what he thought of the idea. Though he wouldn’t comment on the idea’s merits, he did point out that in his opinion, Block Island residents would have to vote to amend the town charter, and that such a name change could not be done through executive action, as was the case with Mt. Denali.

Filippi also corrected my pronunciation of “Manisses” which is properly “Man-uh-sees” and doesn’t rhyme with “missus.”

I placed a second call to Nancy Dodge, town manager of New Shoreham, located on Block Island. I asked her if the residents of Block island were open to the idea of changing the name from “Block island” to Manisses.

“I don’t sense a groundswell of activity on this,” said Dodge, adding that such a change didn’t seem likely.

Congressman David Cicilline met Wednesday with local child care workers to discuss the need for high quality care that pays a living wage.

“It’s time for Congress to take action to ensure that high quality, affordable child care is accessible for every American family,” said Cicilline. “And that the childcare workforce can access the training and wages they need to make a living.”

Cicilline joined a forum of 11 child care workers, state representatives, and local parents to discuss House Resolution 386, which recognizes the need for better child care for the working parents.

Among possible solutions identified by the participants on Wednesday, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour for child care workers was the most popular.

“They want us to better ourselves, but we need help,” said Nichole Ward, a certified nursing assistant and mother of two. Ward spoke of the difficulties finding care for her two children while working and going to school at the same time.

Ultimately she had to ask her family to watch her children as childcare proved too expensive, a common solution for working families. Ward explained that her children had “fallen behind.” in their educations. Her mother and sister “aren’t teachers,” unlike the child care providers, and cannot provide the vital early childhood development.

“Between 2007 and 2015, funding for Rhode Island’s subsidized child care program shrank by 30 percent (from $71 million to $51 million),” said Rachel Flum, senior policy analyst at the Economic Progress Institute. “The reduction was primarily in state support for the program which was accomplished by reducing eligibility – causing hundreds of families to lose coverage.”

Cicilline cited a University of California, Berkeley study that found child care workers are paid less than $10 an hour and wages have stagnated with no real increase since 1997 while at the same time child care costs have doubled.

“Pay the workers like their work matters,” said Marti Murphy with Fight for 15, an advocacy group currently celebrating victories big and small across the nation.

Cicilline expanded that childcare is becoming the “biggest number, bigger than rent, bigger than food.”

“Things are different now than 25-years-ago,” he said, talking about the need for Congressional action. “We can’t pretend it’s 1950…and recognize the reality that both parents are working.”

Added Chas Walker of 1199 SEIU New England, “From 1-5-years-old are the most important years in a child’s life. We have to value the people providing the care for them.”

Day: September 3, 2015

If Denali can change it’s name, should Block Island?

Cicilline stands with child care providers