Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis
On February 18, 2015, members of the Haitian and Dominican communities in Rhode Island came together for an evening of community discussion and contemplation as they tried to come to grips with what has been a difficult history on the island both states share. Hosted by the World Affairs Council of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island College Unity Center, it featured musical as well as academic presentations and was a moment of great enthusiasm for all those involved.
“The sheer amount of support you have been getting from everybody,” said Baha Sadr to a room full of refugees and community supporters, “the Syrian community, Christian community, the Jewish community, everybody… is amazing. In the past 15 years that I’ve been working refugee resettlement, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Sadr, Director of Refugee Resettlement and Case Management at the Dorcas International Institute of RI was speaking at a welcoming party hosted by Sterk Zaza and Noor J Memon for three refugee families; the Al-Hariri family, the Ghazala family, and the Sadat family consisting of 4 siblings from Afghanistan.
Baha pointed out that Syrian refugee Bdoor Ghazala, who is pregnant, will soon give birth to a United States citizen. “So your son could become a US president,” he said. As his words were translated there were smiles, wonderment and laughter throughout the room.
Noor J Memon spoke to the recent arrivals as well. She spoke as someone who had opened her home to the refugees and had volunteered her time to make their transition easier. “We can’t change what happened,we cannot change that,” she said, “you came through lots of hardship. But what we can do is offer our help, our support, our time, whatever you need. We will be there for you. Any time, rain or shine.” There were over a hundred members of the refugee community and their supporters in the room. They all nodded and applauded in agreement.
Omar Bah, executive director of the Refugee Dream Center is a Gambian refugee and recently became a citizen. “If you look at my face I might not look exactly like the people from Afghanistan and Syria, but we are one people,” he said, “We are all refugees. We share the same journey, the same experiences and that is what I wanted to acknowledge here.”
Bah continued, “You are coming to Rhode island at a time when a lot of exciting things are happening. You may get a lot of attention. It’s difficult coming to a new place and everybody’s coming to you. It’s overwhelming, but it’s a good thing, and let’s make use of it in a positive way.
“Just to start with, there’ a lot of debate and argument in the media, especially in the Republican debates. That is not America. That is not Rhode Island. That is not who this country is. It is just a small minority that is screaming that kind of argument.
“The notion is that everyone from Syria is a Muslim or that every Muslim is a bad person. That is not the truth because there are at least six or seven million Muslims in the United States already.
“So that argument about Islam, about immigrants- don’t pay attention to that. We are all equal. We are all in this country as the same people. This is about, basically, ‘who came first,’ but we are all the same here. The welcome you see here,” said Bah, gesturing to the room, “from the different parts of the community, is real. This is the true spirit of what America is about.
“There will be challenges here. There may be traumatic events, there will be distress but if you persist you will find that there is not any place in the world that provides as many opportunities as you will find here. Within a year all these children will be reading and writing English. You won’t need translations because your children will be so established. They catch up so fast.”
Baha Sadr agreed. “Right now the US is kind of resistant of Syrian refugees but next year we’re going to see a lot more. The year after that, a lot more.”
I used to live in fear. Fear of being separated from my family and fear of being forced away from my home, away from everything and everyone I had ever known. I am not a criminal, but my life has been criminalized. I have lived in Rhode Island for practically my entire life, having moved here from Europe when I was merely ten months of age. My visa expired when I was a young child and just like that, I became an undocumented immigrant.
For much of my life, documentation has been an obsession. Angst consumed me as a teen. My status constantly raised basic questions about life. I worried that I would never be allowed to drive. I worried about getting a job. These were recurring, pervasive thoughts in my thirteen-year-old mind.
Fortunately, in 2012, President Obama announced his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) memorandum. This decision granted provisional presence to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. Finally, I felt a sense of relief. I applied for DACA and underwent a background check. My application was approved. Thanks to DACA, I was now allowed to get a driver’s license.
Possessing a driver’s license means everything to me. This document allows me to work, to pursue higher education and to volunteer in my city. A license gives me a sense of being, by allowing me to fully participate in the community. Unfortunately, thousands more are not in my position. Many undocumented immigrants in RI are terrified that they will be pulled over while driving to their jobs, homes, or schools. I believe that these undocumented immigrants should not live in fear. They deserve a chance to apply for a driver’s license.
Despite enormous hurdles, undocumented immigrants continue to contribute to their communities. They have paid approximately $33.4 million in yearly tax contributions in RI, including income taxes, as reported by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. With an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number provided by the IRS, millions of undocumented immigrants throughout the United States contribute billions to local, state and federal governments. Nationally, immigrants comprise 13% of the population, but contribute 14.7% of the total economic output in the US, as shown by the Economic Policy Institute.
Unfortunately, there has been a systematic effort to distort the contributions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with the intent of keeping them mired in the immigration process. Lobbying groups, such as the private prison industry, have echoed many of RI Rep. Nardolillo’s sentiments in his February 28th op-ed. Private prison corporations such as GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America stand to gain financially from undocumented immigration. For instance, between 2000 and 2010, the industry has doubled in size, while simultaneously spending over $32 million on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. In addition, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which Nardolillo cited, has a track record of affiliating with white nationalist movements. The founder of FAIR, John Tanton, has a record of association with former Klan lawyers and Holocaust deniers, as shown by correspondence archived at the University of Michigan’s library. In fact, FAIR is identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As a result, the benefits of immigration are lost in debate. Immigration reduces overall budget deficits, as shown in a study by the National Resource Council. The issue here is not that undocumented immigrants are stealing two and three jobs each while paradoxically qualifying for every government assistance program in existence. The issue is that corporate interests stand to gain from a system that deports members of working families while inflating the profit margins of the private prison industry and appeasing white supremacists.
I strongly believe that Rhode Island should grant drivers’ licenses to the thousands of undocumented immigrants who file taxes, as the legislation requires. The thousands who live in fear only wish to better the lives of their family and children, an unequivocally American value.
I urge everyone to stand with me to end this cycle of fear and contact the legislators on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to support H7610 and S2333.
Waiting for Bernie Sanders in the press line outside Milton High School in Massachusetts ahead of Super Tuesday, I talked to Rita Colaco, a journalist from Portugal. She’s surprised that I know where Portugal is, because most Americans she talks to think her country is part of Spain, or Puerto Rico. She was at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Boston earlier in the day, and now she’s covering a rally for Sanders. She’s in the United States for four days to cover Super Tuesday.
“So what do they think about this election in Portugal?” I ask.
“They think what you’re thinking over here,” says Colaco, “They see the popularity of Trump as funny.” The way she says funny, she doesn’t mean “Ha-Ha” funny. People from around the world are worried about what a Trump presidency means.
“I wouldn’t be here from Portugal if it wasn’t for Trump,” says Colaco. She hasn’t been able to find a rally for Trump in Massachusetts yet, though.
Inside the rally I meet an older couple who support Sanders, but they are realists, and will happily switch to Clinton if they have to. “We can’t let Donald Trump or Ted Cruz win,” says the woman, “That would be terrible, and I’m too old.”
John May from Franklin holds home made signs in support of Medicare for All. He knows the sales pitch well. “You can’t tell me that we can’t afford to do, in America, what every civilized country on Earth already does,” says May.
May lost two friends to pancreatic cancer years ago. They were diagnosed within weeks of each other and they died within weeks of each other. Their treatment was the same. The only difference between the two is that one friend lived in Denmark, the other in the United States.
The friend in Denmark, says May, spent his last six years of life with family and friends, unconcerned about the economic impact of his disease on himself and his loved ones.You can only begin to imagine the last years of the life of his American friend. That massive qualitative difference made May a supporter of single payer healthcare, and by extension, a supporter of Sanders.
My last conversation was with three girls, between 10 and 12 years old. They monkeyed around in front of my camera and were eager to be interviewed, but the adult with them asked that I not use the footage, since he wasn’t sure about their parent’s permission.
I asked the girls who they’re voting for.
“We can’t vote,” said the oldest, “but my Dad’s voting for Trump.”
“Trump?” I asked.
The girl shrugged. “Whatever.”
“I can’t decide between Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio,” said the second girl.
“Really?” I asked, “how does that work? They’re not much alike on the issues.”
“I don’t know,” she said, honestly. “I just like them.”
“I’m still deciding between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders,” said the youngest girl, “That’s why I’m here, to listen to what Sanders has to say.”
“You know,” I replied, “that makes sense.”
Then Sanders took the stage.
Rep Mike Chippendale is already distancing himself from the State house event planned for 2pm today in which Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich), a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, will call on Governor Gina Raimondo to reconsider her unconditional welcome to Syrian refugees. Listed in the original press release for the event, Chippendale disavowed any connection on Twitter, telling @jefflevy “I am not speaking at the press conference.”
Charles Jacobs, who runs the Orwellian named Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT). Founded in 2008 as a “pro-Israel” group, APT has actively worked against the interests of the Muslim community in Boston, fighting to prevent the opening of the Roxbury Islamic Center and mosque. Though Jacobs claims to represent the Jewish community in his antics, in 2011 a “group of seventy Rabbinical community leaders together published a letter in The Jewish Advocate… calling upon Jacobs, ‘to discontinue his destructive campaign against Boston’s Muslim community, which is based on innuendo, half-truths and unproven conspiracy theories.’ The Jewish religious leaders also called ‘upon members of our community to reject the dangerous politics of division that Mr. Jacobs fosters.'”
As for Representative Hoekstra, he’s little more than a paranoid fear monger in the best tradition of Fox News. For just a taste of his batshittery, see here. Rest assured, there’s much more.
Fortunately, Rhode Island, founded by religious refugees, is meeting the lies and hatred straight on. A counter protest is planned to coincide with the APT event at 2pm, and a multi-faith response to their demand that Governor Raimondo rescind her invitation is scheduled for directly after their event, at around 3-3:30pm.
The APT event is in the Bell room, the responses are planned for the main rotunda. Consider attending and showing support for the refugee families fleeing terrible violence, like this one:
A family of five Syrian refugees, a mother, father and three children ages 6, 7 and 8 arrived in Rhode Island early Thursday evening. About 30 people from the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, the Refugee Dream Center and the RI State Council of Churches were waiting for them with welcoming signs, gift baskets, warm smiles and hugs.
After being warmly greeted, the family was taken to their new home where a large home cooked meal and basic food necessities awaited them.
Rhode Island has a long history of welcoming refugees and immigrants. As I waited at the arrivals escalator with the reverend Don Anderson, he told me that he was due to be a speaker at an event in East Greenwich entitled, “What Would Roger Williams Do?” When he heard about the arrival of the refugees, he was first worried that coming to greet them might make him late for his event.
“And then I realized,” said Anderson, “That Roger Williams would be here to greet the refugees.”
A one-day conference, Seizing the Means of Reproduction, that seeks to explore “reproductive labor and social reproduction as contested sites of struggle” will be held at Brown University on February 19, and organizers have arranged an excellent slate of presenters. Organizers Arlen Austin and Beth Capper describe the conference as tracking “the multiple historical sites, geographic locations, and activist genealogies that form and inform our collective imagination of,” reproductive labor and social reproduction. “At the same time, [the conference] aims to recalibrate contemporary diagnoses of post-Fordism by foregrounding and historicizing Marxist feminist theorizations of racial capitalism, the welfare state, and neoliberalism. ”
Pretty heady stuff, but organizer Arlen Austin stresses that “all the speakers involved have one foot in academia and one foot in grassroots organizing and activist work. (Of course the two realms aren’t mutually exclusive but have been more or less intertwined historically)… I absolutely think that it is meant to be for grassroots activists and young people just developing an interest in socialism, feminism and Marxism as well as people who have had the opportunity to study these traditions in a focused way through an educational institution.”
There will be opportunities for local groups at the conference as well, says Austin. “We are planning a table for local organizations to present their outreach materials and hope to have representatives make brief statements about their work between presentations if we can successfully coordinate this.” Groups interested should get in touch with Arlen Austin and Beth Capper.
The conference will also “revisit the legacy of the 1970’s Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights movements in relation to pressing issues of contemporary social inquiry and social struggle: the international division of domestic, sexual, and caring labor; the assault on welfare in an age of neoliberal austerity; the rise of the prison industrial complex; and the question of the ‘commons.’”
In conjunction with Seizing the Means of Reproduction, organizers are “launching a digital humanities archive on the international Wages for Housework movement. Drawing on materials housed in the collections of the Lesbian Herstory Archive (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and the personal archives of women involved in the movement, this digital platform will make publicly available, for the first time, photographs, manifestos and other media, many of which are unpublished or not previously available to researchers.”
Seizing the Means of Reproduction is Friday, February 19 at 9:45 AM – 6:15 PM
Location: Pembroke Hall, Brown University, 172 Meeting St, Providence, Rhode Island 02906
You can RSVP on Facebook
Mimi Abramovitz is Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Policy and the Chair of Social Welfare Policy at the Hunter College School of Social Work. She has published widely on issues related to women, poverty, human rights, and the U.S welfare state. Her books include the award winning Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States (Monthly Review Press, 2000) and Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial Times to the Present (South End Press, 1996). She is currently writing a book on the history of low-income women’s activism in the U.S.
Aren Aizura is Assistant Professor in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the co-editor of the Transgender Studies Reader 2 (Routledge, 2013) and his writing has appeared in the journals InterAsia Cultural Studies and Asian Studies Review, and books such as Queer Necropolitics, Transgender Migrations, and Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies. He is completing a monograph titled Mobile Subjects: Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment. His new project considers transnational circuits of reproductive labor, the political economy of immigration, and queer and trans theory.
Silvia Federici is Emerita Professor in Political Philosophy and International Studies at Hofstra University and a long time feminist activist and writer. She has written widely on feminist theory, women and globalization, and feminist struggles, and is the author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation (Autonomedia, 2004) and Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (PM Press, 2012). She is cofounder of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa and a member of the Midnight Notes Collective.
Selma James is the founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign and helped launch the Global Women’s Strike. She is the author of numerous publications, including The Power of Women and the Subversion of Community (Falling Wall Press, 1972), Strangers and Sisters: Women, Race, and Immigration (Falling Wall Press, 1986), and Sex, Race, and Class – The Perspective of Winning (PM Press, 2012).
Sara Clarke Kaplan is an associate professor of Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies and the founder and co-convener of the Black Studies Project at the University of California, San Diego. She is a scholar of Black feminist and queer theory and African Diaspora literary and cultural production. Her book, The Black Reproductive: Feminism and the Politics of Freedom (forthcoming this fall from University of Minnesota Press) explores how the expropriation, administration, and imagination of Black procreation, reproductive labor, and sexuality have been both necessary to and an endangerment of the creation and maintenance of racial capitalism in the United States. Her published and forthcoming work appears in a number of journals, including American Quarterly, American Literary History, Callaloo, Rhizomes, and the Journal of Black Women, Gender, and Families.
Priya Kandaswamy is associate professor and chair of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Mills College in Oakland, California. Her research focuses on the role constructions of family play in grounding forms of state power that simultaneously produce and regulate race, gender, sexuality, and class. Her work has appeared in journals such as Sexualities, American Quarterly, and Radical Teacher as well as numerous edited anthologies. Her current project develops a comparative analysis of marriage promotion and forced labor programs targeting women of color in the Reconstruction era and the late twentieth century.
Premilla Nadasen is a Visiting Associate Professor of History at Barnard College and has previously taught at Queen’s College (CUNY). Nadasen is a longtime scholar-activist and works closely with community organizations. She is the author of Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women who Built a Movement (Beacon Press, 2015) and Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (Routledge, 2004). She is currently coediting, with Eileen Boris, a special issue of the International Working Class History Association journal on organizing domestic labor. She has written for Ms, the Progressive Media Project, as well as other media outlets.
Neferti X. M. Tadiar is the author of the books, Fantasy Production: Sexual Economies and Other Philippine Consequences for the New World Order (Hong Kong University Press, 2004) and Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization (Duke University Press, 2009). Her current book project is entitled Remaindered Life, a meditation on the disposability and surplus of lifemaking under contemporary conditions of global empire. She is currently Director of the Program in American Studies and Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and Co-Editor of the New York based Collective and journal of interdisciplinary cultural studies, Social Text.
Frances Fox Piven is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the co-author, with Richard Cloward, of Regulating the Poor: TheFunctions of Public Welfare (Vintage, 1971) and Poor People’s Movements (Vintage, 1978). She is author of numerous books, including The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush’s Militarism (New Press, 2004), Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (Polemics, 2006), and, most recently, Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate (New Press, 2011). She has received career and lifetime achievement awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association.
Kathi Weeks is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at Duke University. Her primary interests are in the fields of political theory, feminist theory, Marxist thought, the critical study of work, and utopian studies. She is the author of The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries (Duke University Press, 2011) and Constituting Feminist Subjects (Cornell University Press, 1998), and a co-editor of The Jameson Reader (Blackwell, 2000).
Soyoung Yoon is Program Director and Assistant Professor of Art History & Visual Studies at the Department of the Arts, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School. She is also a Faculty at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program [ISP]. In 2015-6, she is Carol G. Lederer Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pembroke Center at Brown University as a part of its research seminar on “Fatigue,” the first installation in a five year series on “War.” Yoon received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, and holds a B.A. from Seoul National University. Yoon has published in Grey Room, Millennium Film Journal, Film Quarterly, Shifters, among other journals and books. Yoon is at work on two book projects around the redefinition of the status of the “document” in the postwar period: Walkie Talkie, regarding the rise of cinéma vérité and critiques of the hermeneutics of the self, amidst anti-colonial struggles and development of new techniques of policing; and Miss Vietnam: The Work of Art in the Age of Technowar, a project on feminist mediation, which re-frames technological reproducibility via the framework of reproductive labor.
Rep. Aaron Regunberg and Sen. Harold M. Metts have introduced legislation to reform the controversial use of solitary or “segregated” confinement in the Rhode Island prison system, saying the practice causes psychological damage and often exacerbates the very problems it is intended to address.
“The United Nations has condemned the use of solitary confinement, saying it can amount to torture,” said Representative Regunberg (D-Dist. 4, Providence). “And the research is very clear that prolonged solitary confinement causes psychological problems that can damage inmates’ chances of rehabilitation. It’s a vicious cycle that is destructive rather than corrective, and it particularly impacts already vulnerable populations, including the very high proportion of our prison population affected by mental illness. Add this to the fact that segregation units are by far the most expensive facilities to operate, and it should be clear that we need to put responsible limits on, and devise humane alternatives to, the use of solitary confinement in the prison system.”
Said Senator Metts (D-Dist. 6, Providence), “We cannot in good conscience call our prison a ‘corrections’ institute when the system relies on a punishment that is essentially designed to cause mental breakdown, particularly when so many of those subjected to it are already mentally ill. We have a moral imperative, as well as a constitutional mandate, to ensure we are not employing cruel or unusual punishment, and it is time we recognized that solitary confinement, in many cases, is cruel. Its use must be limited, and our prison system must stop using it on people who are particularly susceptible to the lasting effects it can have. We have to strive to find a better balance between rehabilitation and punishment.”
Many studies have found that long-term solitary confinement can produce psychological damage with symptoms such as hallucinations, hypersensitivity to noise or touch, paranoia, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), increased suicide risk and uncontrollable rage or fear. The risks are higher for juveniles, whose brains are still developing, and for those with mental illness.
Those effects can result in inmates having more difficulty complying with prison rules, defeating the purpose of solitary confinement. Even those who aren’t mentally ill when they enter solitary confinement can be left with lasting psychological effects that they take with them when they are released from prison into the community.
“Solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment,” said S, a current inmate at the ACI who has asked to remain unidentified for fear of retribution. “I have seen people get years in segregation, and get locked in solitary for non-problematic reasons, like identifying as LGBTQ, filing lawsuits, or sharing political views. I have witnessed people in solitary confinement break down, start talking to themselves, become paranoid, play with their own feces, and worse. When you go to High Security [the solitary confinement facility] for causing a problem, they don’t help you, they don’t give you any mental health services, they just lock you in a cell for 23 hours a day. So when you go back to the normal facilities, you’re worse off.”
The legislation would prohibit the use of solitary confinement — also called “segregated confinement” — for specific vulnerable populations, ensure that conditions in segregation are humane, and limit the use of solitary confinement for all inmates to 15 consecutive days, and no more than 20 days within any 60 day period.
The bill (2016-H 7481) has support from a wide array of inmates’ rights activists, mental health advocates, civil rights groups and families of incarcerated individuals.
“Solitary is a very dehumanizing experience that leaves a person broken and unable to function,” said John Prince, a member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality with first-hand experience of solitary confinement in the ACI. “You hear nothing, see nothing, have nothing to think about almost 24 hours a day. You lose all perspective of time. Human beings are not meant to live like that for weeks or months on end. My experiences in solitary were extremely painful, and I have many friends who were left unable to relate to people, even their families, after prolonged segregation. There have to be limits that keep this from being used for long periods or on people who are likely to suffer lasting damage from it.”
“Even mentally healthy people lose their faculties in solitary confinement, but for people with mental illness, it is a particularly unhealthy situation that impairs an individual’s ability to maintain healthy relationships,” said Michael Cerullo, a psychotherapist with extensive clinical experience in the juvenile and adult criminal justice system. “Without positive relationships in the community and with oneself, meaningful rehabilitation is significantly compromised. People with mental illness suffer serious trauma that cannot be undone when they are released either back into the prison population or back into the community, and that damage has ill effects on them and the people around them. We have to stop using this counterproductive approach with human beings challenged by mental illness for their sake and for the sake of the whole community.”
“Across the country, states are reducing their reliance on solitary confinement,” said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the Rhode Island ACLU. “Long-term isolation costs too much, does nothing to rehabilitate prisoners, and exacerbates mental illness — even in those who were healthy when they entered solitary. More than a century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court noted not only the extreme toll solitary confinement takes on those subjected to it, but that those who are affected may never recover well enough to reintegrate well into the community. Yet, the use of solitary confinement persists. States that once relied heavily on solitary confinement are now instead focusing on policies that promote safe communities and fair treatment — at the same time saving their states millions and reducing violence in the prisons. It’s time for us to do the same here in Rhode Island.”
The House bill has 38 cosponsors, including Representatives Scott A. Slater (D-Dist. 10, Providence), Jean Philippe Barros (D-Dist. 59, Pawtucket), Raymond A. Hull (D-Dist. 6, Providence, North Providence) and David A. Bennett (D-Dist. 20, Warwick, Cranston).
[From the press release]
When Governor Gina Raimondo attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland for four days this week, she’ll be one of many political leaders having private, off-the-record meetings “with high-ranking representatives of the world’s leading corporations.” Putting aside that many of the corporations that fund WEF and set the forum’s agendas “have criminal records, are under investigation for potential criminal activity (e.g., bribery), are mired in significant legal/ethical issues, or have blatant conflicts of interest,” there is the question of what, if anything, actually gets done there.
WEF attendees talk a lot about the problems of the world, such as Climate Change and Economic Inequality, (This year they plan to talk about “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution” for instance) but the tools participants have at their disposal to deal with these problems, economic and political power, are not the tools that will effect real solutions.
“The governor’s top priority is creating jobs and turning around our economy so everyone has the opportunity to make it in Rhode Island,” said Raimondo spokesperson Marie Aberger, “An important part of her job is selling Rhode Island to attract new businesses and opportunities to our state.”
Sure, some billionaire may move a few jobs towards Rhode Island if Raimondo can catch the right ear, but this does nothing to address the systemic issues mentioned above.
Failed tax policies and wasteful investments in fossil fuel infrastructure can be dealt with through smart policy adjustments without having to travel to Davos. In a recent Brookings Institute report on inequality where Providence fared especially poorly, the authors suggested that, “Housing is an area where local officials—mayors, city councilors, county executives and commissioners—have somewhat greater scope to address needs, at least by influencing the supply side of the market.” This is something Raimondo could help begin to address from her State House office, no trip to Switzerland required.
But there is another reasons to make the pilgrimage to Davos.
WEF has been criticized for being populated with corporate “transnationalists” who “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.”
A journey to Davos, then, could be wasted on a gamble to court the favor of the criminal corporate elite and to beg financial indulgences from the masters of the universe, or the journey could be one of neoliberal salvation, a chance to transcend petty human concerns and perhaps join the ranks of the those who live far above the law and make decisions not based on compassion or human rights but on the basis of profit and power.
This is the apotheosis…
…transcendence though capitalism.
This is the true promise of Davos.
The decade-long partnership between Family Service of Rhode Island and the Providence Police Department, and their work on sex trafficking issues, will be a focus of an upcoming international conference in San Diego on Wednesday, January 27th.
The 30th annual “San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment” is sponsored by the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, and the University of California School of Medicine in San Diego. The conference’s focus is on multi-disciplinary best practices to prevent, investigate, treat and prosecute child and family maltreatment.
Col. Hugh Clements, Jr., Providence’s police chief, and Family Service of Rhode Island senior vice president Susan Erstling, PhD will present “Partnering With Police: Current Practices and Lessons Learned around Early Identification of Rhode Island Minors at High Risk for Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.”
Family Service of Rhode Island, a statewide non-profit, has partnered with the Providence Police for more than a decade on crime prevention and victim services. Family Service of Rhode Island also partners with the Rhode Island State Police and the East Providence Police on similar initiatives.
As part of the presentation, Family Service of Rhode Island has developed a video featuring Providence Police Detective Koren Garcia and Family Service of Rhode Island’s police liaison Carla Cuellar discussing how they work together with victims on issues relating to the legal system, emotional trauma, and medical care, and the role of Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s Child Safe Clinic.
https://youtu.be/zk5SADffDc8
“I urge everyone interested in sex trafficking issues, particularly persons in law enforcement and social work, to watch this video. It provides a real-world look at the day-to-day problems confronting victims and first providers,” said Dr. Erstling. She noted that January is “Human Trafficking Awareness Month.” Dr. Erstling is senior vice president of trauma, loss and children’s services at Family Service of Rhode Island, which is the regional site for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
“We are pleased to share the firsthand practical knowledge we have on helping traumatized victims with professionals from across the nation and beyond,” said Margaret Holland McDuff, CEO of Family Service of Rhode Island, who helped create the agency’s partnership with the Providence Police a decade ago.
Col. Clements and Dr. Erstling will be joined at the presentation by Amy Goldberg, MD, pediatric specialist at the Lawrence A. Aubin Child Protection Center, Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Dr. Goldberg will address the pediatric and medical aspects of child sex trafficking as well as collaborative strategies in conducting interviews, medical evaluations, and follow up care to reduce re-traumatization, avoid criminalization and to recognize the significant developmental and physical aspects of having been commercially exploited.
[From a press release]
On January 12, 2010, the Republic of Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest to ever hit the Western Hemisphere. This disaster cost thousands of lives and displaced many more until today.
Therefore, it is difficult to find words that will adequately express my shock and sympathy over the tragic earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and caused the loss of over 200,000 with many more suffering and displaced. Some of the Haitians have fled to other countries to pursue happiness.
Some family members are still experiencing trauma and need psychological assistance and social interventions to help them recover. The pain of losing family members and friends shall never be forgotten. I remember that I had just finished talking to my own cousin, Lukencia Desptre, only to later receive the devastating news that she had died in the earthquake.
Sometimes, I do not want to talk about it because it is the hardest moment I had to go through, losing some of my family members and friends. I know that no words I can offer have the power to ease the loss, including the toughest, roughest, hardest moments that Haitians experience. However, it is my earnest hope that the many memories of family members and brothers and sisters will be sustained during this difficult time.
In commemoration of the 6th anniversary of the earthquake, I honor the lives lost during this disaster and offer my most heartfelt condolences. I wish my people strength, healing, and peace in the difficult times ahead.
The last day of Chanukah was celebrated in Providence last night by Jewish Voice for Peace Rhode Island, a group determined to rekindle their commitment to justice. Nine people held signs, made in the form of a menorah, declaring their opposition to Islamophobia and racism, and in support of refugees and #BlackLivesMatter. As the sun set the menorah was lit and people read their signs out loud.
The nine signs read:
Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise. People perceived to be Muslim have been shot at, assaulted and threatened. Mosques have been the target of hate crimes and arson. One site lists 19 such attacks in the last week. And so hundreds of Rhode Islanders representing many different races and faiths (and no faith) gathered in Kennedy Plaza to reject hate and fear and embrace freedom, peace and human rights.
The rally in Providence was a chance to stand against terror.
Recent events in San Bernardino and Paris have been used by the Republican presidential candidate front runner Donald Trump as a way to foment fear and bigotry. Parallels have been drawn, without irony or exaggeration, to the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s.
At the rally, Imam Farid Ansari quoted German pastor Martin Niemöller, who famously said, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
“Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Here in Rhode Island, a line against the horrors of the past has been drawn. So on the same day that the far right parties in France were routed by voters turning out in force to clearly reject of the politics of fascism and fear, Rhode Islanders came together to support and defend our Muslim neighbors. Hundreds of people crowded Kennedy Plaza to say, unequivocally:
“Not here and never again.”
To be present at this rally, to watch the children play, to see the people smile and laugh together, to hear one speaker after another call for compassion, reason and courage in the face of the murderous ideologies of ISIS and to call for an end to hate speech was to see Rhode Island at its best.
Our state is the cradle of religious liberty and freedom of conscience, and on this day we honored that legacy.
I can’t recall a time that I have felt more proud of my state.
The event was organized by the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement, (RICMA) the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, the Board of Rabbis of Greater RI, MAE organization for the Homeless, the Refugee Dream Center of RI, PAKPAC, and the Association of Pakistani Physicians of RI (APPRI).
News broke that a “historic” deal had been stuck in Paris by the largest gathering of states in human history at the COP21 United Nations conference meant to address climate change. Yet despite the self-congratulation, adulation from the lame-stream press, and over-glorified silliness, activists and scientists were adamant that the whole affair was simply a gigantic ruse, with Friends of the Earth International (FEI) calling the agreement “a sham”.
“Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that we are left with a sham of a deal in Paris. Through piecemeal pledges and bullying tactics, rich countries have pushed through a very bad deal,” said Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator. Dipti Bhatnagar, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator, said “Vulnerable and affected people deserve better than this failed agreement; they are the ones who feel the worst impacts of our politicians’ failure to take tough enough action.”
At the core of the deal currently being touted as a success are the following policy goals:
Yet as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! reported all week from the City of Love, the agreement has always been lacking several key elements. It fails to protect women and indigenous peoples and does not include a mechanism allowing for states to claim damages from the large polluter nations and corporations that have already affected millions of lives with climate change. Consider what Dr. Bill Nye told The Huffington Post at the beginning of the month about how climate change had caused the war in Syria:
The news is filled weekly with stories of natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change, that cause cataclysmic events throughout the world. And when one considers that it has recently been revealed that the Exxon oil company knew in the 1970s that climate change existed and was caused by the burning of fossil fuels, one can easily see a clear-cut case of industrial malfeasance that resulted in catastrophic consequences for the population, not unlike the case of tobacco companies, especially since both the petroleum and tobacco companies intentionally misled the public about the harmful affects of their products. This would create the opportunity for governments throughout the world to file massive class-action lawsuits against the oil companies and even perhaps the nation states that aided and abetted this cover-up. Furthermore, as reported on Democracy Now! when Goodman interviewed Dr. Kevin Anderson, things are far worse than the public believes.
Well, those of us who look at the—running between the science and then translating that into what that means for policymakers, what we are afraid of doing is putting forward analysis that questions the sort of economic paradigm, the economic way that we run society today. So, we think—actually, we don’t question that. So what we do is we fine-tune our analysis so it fits within a sort of a—the political and economic framing of society, the current political and economic framing. So we don’t really say that—actually, our science now asks fundamental questions about this idea of economic growth in the short term, and we’re very reluctant to say that. In fact, the funding bodies often are reluctant to fund research that raises those questions. So the whole setup, not just the scientists, the research community around it that funds the research, the journalists, events like this, we’re all being—we’re all deliberately being slightly sort of self-delusional. We all know the situation is much more severe than we’re prepared to voice openly. And we all know this. So it is a—this is a collective sort of façade, a mask that we have. [Emphasis added]
How bad is it? Consider this recent article in Science Daily. A rise of 6*C in ocean temperatures, something that could happen by the end of the century, would cause phytoplankton to stop photosynthesizing. These phytoplankton are responsible for 2/3 of the planet’s oxygen, which would cause the planet’s air to have a massive drop in oxygen content, resulting in a massive die-off of animals and humans, something not dreamed of seriously perhaps since John of Patmos delivered his Book of Revelations.
Now consider also recent developments regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The deal, revealed recently to massive outrage, would severely impact the ability to file class-action lawsuits against corporations and entities over consumer safety issues. Poorer nations, especially those island nations in the Pacific Ocean that face massive land loss within the next fifty years, should be able to sue for damages. Yet instead, the COP21 agreement foists onto these nations proposals for a neoliberal loan package that will entail greater hegemony for capital, parasitical debt resulting in cuts to vital social services, and no protection for those most impacted by climate change and who find themselves on the front lines of the battle. It as if an arsonist were to light your house on fire and then offer to sell you a garden hose to put the blaze out with a caveat that you become their indentured servant for an unspecified amount of time!
To quote the Bard at this point seems almost cliche. Yet I cannot help but recall the words of Cassius:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves
As a medical doctor who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Mali, West Africa in 2001, I saw firsthand the tremendous healthcare difficulties that underserved populations, especially women and children, faced due to poor policies.
For example, during my two-year internship at Point G Hospital in Mali, the pulmonary service had two main units. One set aside for patients with non-tuberculosis diseases was never full, but the one designed for patients with tuberculosis functioned beyond its capacity, turning away many patients and redirecting them to other facilities. Despite poor working conditions, long hours, and minimal essential resources, I dedicated myself to my patients and made a personal commitment to increase the hospital’s resources, never again turning away needy patients or denying medical care.
Another experience that shaped me was when a 12-year-old boy in the final stage of pulmonary tuberculosis died in my arms the day after admission. The boy came from a remote village where health care facilities and road infrastructures for easy access to the closest health center were non-existent. This made me realize that there are too many children in Mali who don’t have access to proper health care.
These events and other experiences in various clinical settings fueled my determination to help underserved populations in my homeland and other West African countries. Since then I’ve been in the United States gaining more education in the highly specialized field of public health, particularly in infectious diseases, so that I can soon become a part of an effective health care system in West Africa.
A lot has changed in West Africa since 2001 with the enactment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of 8 global goals for reducing the root causes of poverty by 2015. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 2014 data, improvements have been made to the health systems in Mali and other West African countries. Mali has reduced by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015, and maternal mortality has been reduced by three-quarters. Senegal, Benin and Nigeria have also made much progress. Niger has achieved the MDG for child survival by reducing by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate.
Despite the progress made on achieving the MDGs, challenges still remain in West Africa’s health systems. UNICEF’s Progress Report (2015): A Promise Renewed indicates that although Niger has made progress, it still remains among the ten countries with the highest under-five mortality rate with 96 deaths per 1,000 live births, or nearly 1 in 10 children dying because of a lack of basic maternal and child care. Mali, Nigeria, and Benin are in similar situations.
Sadly, the 2014 Ebola outbreak further weakened the health systems in other West African nations, putting the healthcare of women and children at significant risk. Due to fear of being infected at health facilities, women stopped going to clinics for non-Ebola-related services such as family planning, pre- and post-natal services. The number of women giving birth in hospitals and health clinics dropped by 30%, according to a report by the United Development Group.
Save the Children’s 2015 report, A Wake-Up Call: Lessons from Ebola for the World’s Health Systems, reveals that 97% of children in the Monrovia suburb of Clara Town had routine vaccinations before the outbreak, yet during the outbreak only 27% were getting vaccinated. In Sierra Leone, coverage of the measles vaccine has fallen by 20% across the country in a year. Three epicenter countries suffered three to four times more cases of measles in the year of the Ebola outbreak than in the previous year. Children have been left untreated for preventable diseases. For instance, there was a 40% fall in the number of children under five treated for malaria between May and September 2015 in Sierra Leone. Moreover, travel restrictions and low agriculture productivity during the outbreak led to food shortages. As a result, children under the age of five were at serious risk of acute malnutrition in the three countries. Children also lost school hours, which makes them more vulnerable to poverty and diseases.
More recently, I experienced another personal tragedy. One of my closest friends died from postpartum hemorrhage in hospital, in Bamako, the capital of Mali, after a cesarean section. The baby did not survive either. Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal deaths in Mali. In addition to a lack of continuing medical education of specialized health care workers in urban settings, a large proportion of births occur at home and deliveries are carried out by unskilled birth attendants in rural areas. Furthermore, the proportion of births attended by skilled providers in health facilities remains low. The overall antenatal care coverage in the country is also insufficient.
Through my personal experiences and study of healthcare systems, I am constantly reminded that public health challenges are still ahead of us, and we still have a long path to walk to reach the unreached in West African cities and rural areas, especially women and children. No child should die from preventable diseases, and no woman should die from giving birth in the 21st century. We need to act.
The good news is that efforts are underway to help us become the greatest generation on accessing health care. The bipartisan Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015 was recently introduced by Senator Collins and Coons and Representatives Reichert, McCollum, Lee and McCaul (S. 1911 and H.R. 3706). The bill lays out a road map for ending preventable maternal and child deaths by 2035 largely by reforming current efforts to enact smarter and more effective approaches to saving more lives. Returns will be measured in lives saved and healthy prosperous communities.
The Reach Act enshrines into law the need for:
Senators Reed and Whitehouse, and Representatives Langevin and Cicilline have expressed support, but have not yet cosponsored the bill – they should cosponsor in the increase the likelihood that these important reforms are enshrined into law. In passing the legislation, they will enhance US leadership on serving underserved populations, especially women and children; furthermore, this strategy that puts kids and mothers first give us the chance to make sure every child regardless of where he/she’s born has healthy start to life. The bill does not call for additional dollars, only that we make the best possible use of the dollars we do spend. As I discovered in my work in Mali, policies can make all the difference in the world.
Five women were arrested on Spectra Energy property in Burrillville this afternoon, during a protest in which they attempted to plant tulips where Spectra wants to expand pipelines and near where Invenergy wants to build a new methane gas power plant. Police said that three other protesters were arrested after they made it onto on the construction site via the woods behind the the new compressor station, bringing the total number of known arrests to eight.
Among those arrested was Mary Pendergast from the Sisters of Mercy in Pawtucket. in a statement she said, “By taking action today, I’m following the directive of Pope Francis to put our lives on the line for care of the earth.”
Andrea Doremus, a high school teacher and mother of two from west Roxbury, was also arrested. In a statement she said, I’m outraged that Spectra is allowed to recklessly endanger the safety of my two children for their own profits.”
Also arrested was Lauren Niedel, of the RI progressive Democrats. After her release Niedel wrote on Facebook, “I thought it was critical from someone in NW RI to be part of today’s civil disobedience event. I was literally arrested planting flowers on Algonquin property. Charged with simple trespassing.”
The arrests came towards the end of a march and rally outside of Spectra’s property in Burrillville. Attendees from 11 states representing local groups opposed to the build up of methane gas infrastructure from throughout New England and as far away as Pennsylvania and Maryland were in attendance.
The ProJo lists those arrested as Sally J. Mendzela, 68, of North Providence; Stephanie Strub, 28, of Pawtucket; Marisa Shea, 29, of Lowell, Mass.; Andrea Doremus-Cuetara, 57, of West Roxbury, Mass.; Gabriel Shipiro, 19, of Ithaca, N.Y.; Kyle Shulz, 26, of Worcester, Mass.; Lauren Niedel-Gresh, 53, of Glocester; and Mary Pendergest, 69, of Pawtucket.
UPDATE: Many of those arrested are in the process of being released as of Saturday evening.
I’ll have more information as this story progresses. Here are some photos of the arrests.
Seena Chhan and Abe Vargas are Providence high school students and board members of the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI).They will be traveling to Paris with EJLRI Executive Director Dania Flores Heagney for the United Nations’ Conference of Parties 21 (UNFCCC COP21) from December 3rd -13th, where they will be joining more than 100 other delegates from dozens of climate impacted communities as part of the “It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm” delegation.
The It Takes Roots delegation is a broad alliance of leaders and organizers from US and Canadian grassroots and indigenous communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. It joins together three powerful international alliances: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ), the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), and the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA). The delegation is calling for a global climate agreement based real solutions, while speaking out against the proposed agreement, saying it falls far short of what is needed to avoid a global catastrophe. Inadequate action and false solutions will result in extreme consequences for the planet that will have notably disproportionate impact on the peoples of the Global South, as well as working class communities, communities of color, and indigenous and marginalized peoples living on the frontlines of the escalating climate crisis.
A major climate change issue for Rhode Island is the expanding use and dependence on natural gas produced by fracking, which is worse for the climate than coal or oil due to the potent nature of methane as a greenhouse gas. EJLRI is fighting National Grid’s proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility in the Port of Providence, and drawing attention to the environmental racism of having so many hazardous fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities concentrated in a low income community of color. Throughout the Global South and in many part of the US, frontline communities are already facing the devastating impacts of governmental climate inaction, from concentrated pollution to the impacts of heat waves, floods and droughts. “We need to mobilize and show to the whole world that we are not taking it anymore, that it is time for a change and the change has to be at the core of the system”, said EJLRI Executive Director Dania Flores Heagney.
Climate justice is about ending the systems of oppression that caused climate change, and centering the leadership of those who are most impacted especially youth of color. “We’re always told that we are the next generation of leaders but we are not given the opportunity and guidance to grow, learn and shine. It’s like they are saying, you are the next generation of leaders but it’s not your turn yet”, said Seena Chhan, EJLRI Youth Organizer and Board Member.
As a youth oriented organization, EJLRI is bringing intergenerational youth delegates to COP21 to represent frontline communities in New England. As the birthplace of industrial revolution, in the region today people are dealing with asthma epidemics, expansion of natural gas, and rising seas in a low lying ocean state with many old contaminated sites from industrial revolution, which are now in floodplains in urban communities of color. “This is why youth being a part of this big opportunity is so important to us because we are helping pave the path for youth to grow and shine, whether it’s locally, nationally or internationally”, said Abe Vargas, EJLRI Youth Organizer and Board Member.
EJLRI is a small nonprofit that has been promoting environmental justice in Rhode Island through advocacy, education, networking, organizing, and research for the past 8 years. EJLRI’s mission is to promote safe and healthy environments for ALL by building power, leadership and action in the communities most affected by environmental burdens. The organization depends on the support of the community. By donating to help send members to the delegation in Paris, people will be supporting the continuation of this work to build our communities and give us the opportunity to develop our youth to become the leaders that they rightfully are.
Donations for the trip to Paris can be made here.
[From an EJLRI press release]
GAZIANTEP, TURKEY – For the past three years I have been working with a Syrian NGO whose aim is to build democracy and a stronger civil society in Syria. Until recently I worked from home in Rhode Island, but now I am based in our main office in southeastern Turkey.
Along with dozens of Syrian colleagues, I am immersed in the ongoing tragedies that take place every moment and in every part of Syria, our minds still reel from the tragedies that occurred recently in Beirut, Iraq, Ankara, Egypt, Mali and Paris. Just like people who care about justice and peace throughout the world, we are asking “Why?” and “How?” with renewed urgency.
Why has this violence taken place? How can we stop it from continuing?
We don’t have all the answers, but we believe that it is more important than ever to raise the voices of the peace builders and democratic change seekers – the ordinary people who are on the ground counteracting extremism and authoritarianism by healing their communities and finding nonviolent solutions. And those brave souls are always there, even when a situation may seem impenetrably dark from the outside.
Through our Women for the Future of Syria program we have helped nearly 500 women found peace circles in their communities, which are located throughout Syria as well as in some refugee areas. The peace circles are linked together in the I Am She network for women’s leadership. With our support, the peace circles organize for peace and justice locally. Peace circle members are negotiating ceasefires, opening schools in besieged areas, advocating for political prisoners, bringing together ethnic and religious communities to reduce tension, and so much more.
These Syrian women community leaders are risking their lives every day to non-violently push for peace and justice – in the heart of some of the places where extremism has taken root. We think their stories are powerful and can change things at an international level. Their stories need to be told to the whole world.
While we mourn for the victims of terror attacks, in Syria and throughout the world, and try to follow the high level discussions that world policy-makers are having about ISIS, I urge you to support one of the solutions that has been proven to work time and time again in the history of social change; solidarity with the community leaders on the ground who are implementing solutions that work.
If you’d like to donate to our work, click here.
Ahead of the COPS21 Climate Change Summit convening in Paris today, and in solidarity with what was supposed to be a massive climate march in Paris that devolved into a clash with police clamping down on demonstrators in the wake of terrorist attacks, one of the hundreds of world wide solidarity marches took place in the appropriately named Peace Dale, Rhode Island, “to demand an ambitious, binding, and just treaty to avert runaway, catastrophic global warming and save our children’s future.”
Hosted by Lisa Petrie of Fossil Free RI, the march began in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County meeting house. Climate activist Robert Malin gave a great talk setting the march within the context of the global climate movement. Two high school students, Jessica Ivon and Allegra Migliaccio presented must-see short talks about the challenge of confronting a future shrouded by climate disaster. (see video below) The participants then marched to the Dale Carlia Shopping Center, carrying signs and chanting, as passing motorists honked in solidarity.
The event was sponsored by Fossil Free RI, RI IPL South County Action Team, and the Green Task Force of the UUCSC, in partnership with the Sisters of Mercy, RI Interfaith Power & Light, and AFSC-SENE.
The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats vehemently opposed bill H.R. 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies SAFE Act. On November 19th this bill passed the House by a vote of 289-137, with only 47 Democrats voting in favor of it. Sadly, Representative Langevin was one of them.
This bill is a continuation of an overreach by the right wing conservative majority that has over taken the House of Representatives. The vetting process for refugees entering this country is already more than sufficient. These additional layers of bureaucracy are completely unnecessary. They put an undue burden on our security departments, and they will unnecessarily increase the time that it takes for Syrian refugees to be admitted. And with a military budget of $600 billion we should all wonder why the implementation of effective and expedited screening isn’t already in place.
It can take years for refugees to be allowed to enter this country. With these additional redundant and unnecessary security checks it could delay the process even longer. President Obama has promised to veto the legislation and one would think that a Democratic Representative of a supposedly blue state would support the President on such an important issue.
By siding with the Republican right wing majority, Langevin sets himself apart from the compassionate and understanding legislators who know that there needs to be a balance with security and timeliness in getting refugees vetted and resettled in this country. His actions show, once again that the D next to his name means nothing. He has shamed the state, our founding father Roger Williams, and all of the great people of Rhode Island who want to do more for the people of Syria.
The people of Syria have no choice but to leave their homeland due in large part to the United States destabilizing the region in the first place. The people of Syria are not Daesh. They are civilians who want to live in peace, who want to have shelter, who want to save the lives of their children.
Langevin’s reaction to this crisis is just another reason why 2016 should be his last year in Congress.
