“It is incomprehensible to us that he has yet to be fired, and WPRO management should be ashamed that they employ such a person,” said Maureen Martin, chairwoman of For Our Daughters, the group leading the campaign against DePetro.
Martin and other activists organized the For Our Daughters group specifically to target DePetro. By highlighting his often obnoxious and insulting behavior, the group hopes WPRO will take him off the air.
According to a For Our Daughters press release: “The coalition will be distributing the video to WPRO management, Cumulus management, WPRO’s current and potential advertisers, and other state, elected, and business leaders. They also plan to widely distribute the video over YouTube and social media.”
The entire congressional delegation, nearly every statewide politician (with the very notable exception of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin) and more than 70 state legislators have refused to appear on his radio show. You can see the full list here. “We are very proud of the elected officials and candidates who are participating,” Martin said, “and this video will reassure them that they are doing the right thing by taking a strong stance against his vile brand of hatred.”
The boycott has noticeably crippled his show. (Last week he rebroadcast most of RI Future’s entire 25-minute with gubernatorial candidate Clay Pell, presumably because he is unable to book news makers himself. His addition to the interview was teasing the candidate for his effeminate voice and calling him “Clayboy” Pell.)
To date, WPRO has stood by DePetro. The new video, released yesterday, indicates that the For Our Daughters group is not going away for campaign season, a critical time for WPRO to book guests and advertisers.
“The boycotts will continue until John Depetro is off the air,” Martin said. “For anyone who thinks we are going away, we are not.”
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“The people have won. The atheists have lost! The people have won. The atheists have lost,” crowed John DePetro as he began broadcasting last Tuesday, May 6th, about the Supreme Court decision Greece v. Galloway that ruled that the “practice of beginning legislative sessions with prayers does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”
Was DePetro’s contention that the Supreme Court decision was a victory of “people” over atheists (not “people”) a fair or complete assessment? Given DePetro’s penchant for playing rather loosely with reality, you probably know the answer. But there was an odious undercurrent to DePetro’s celebratory monologuing that morning, a strain of something far darker and more historically dangerous. As DePetro celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision as a victory for Christianity over atheism, he was also celebrating a victory of Christianity over Judaism.
Susan Galloway, who is named in the case, is Jewish, not an atheist. Linda Stephens, her co-plaintiff, is an atheist. The pair were represented not by the ACLU, but by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, among other Jewish organizations, filed amicus briefs. If the decision can be celebrated as a victory of “the people” over atheists, it can equally be celebrated as a victory of “the people” over Jews. Moreover, the Supreme Court split along religious lines, as all “five justices in the majority were Catholics, and three out of the four dissenters were Jewish.”
Imagine if DePetro had declared this ruling as a victory of Catholics over Jews. We would have immediately recognized such speech as hateful bigotry. Why is it different when he goes after atheists?
Cranston City Councillor Michael Farina spoke* to Gene Valicenti that morning, and DePetro used the clip endlessly on his show. Farina said, “We don’t typically try to push religion on anybody in the city. That doesn’t mean we can’t. This ruling, I think, will give us the ability, if we wanted to say a brief prayer, we could.”
Which prompted DePetro to say, “You would think that this idiot in Cranston would implement [prayer] right away, instead of cowering like the cowards they are, to the ACLU and the atheists” and “Cranston is the worst. First they fold to the ACLU and the atheists with the banner, and now they’re ‘Oh, we’re not pushing religion.’ No one is pushing religion.”
Try this experiment. Replace the word ‘atheists’ with ‘Jews.’ After all, a Jewish woman was at least 50% responsible for bringing this case, and many Jewish groups were involved.
“Cranston is the worst. First they fold to the ACLU and the Jews with the banner, and now they’re ‘Oh, we’re not pushing religion.’ No one is pushing religion.”
“You would think that this idiot in Cranston would implement it right away, instead of cowering like the cowards they are, to the ACLU and the Jews.”
Using the Greece v. Galloway decision as an opportunity to attack atheists reveals Depetro’s ugly bigotry. By neglecting the facts of the case, and pretending the case was brought entirely by atheists, DePetro omitted the fact that many religious minorities and including Jewish Americans, are equally marginalized by such prayers.
Ignoring the opinions and even the very existence of Jewish Americans involved in this court decision is tacit, if not overt antisemitism. I would be interested in hearing DePetro explain exactly how atheists are “mean spirited individuals” for bringing this lawsuit but Jews are not. I’d be interested in hearing John DePetro explain the opening words of his broadcast, “The people have won. The atheists have lost! The people have won. The atheists have lost!” in such a way as to dismiss the humanity of the atheist woman who brought the suit but not the humanity of the Jewish woman involved.
Atheists according to DePetro, are not people. Following DePetro’s logic, neither are Jews, or any other religious minority, for that matter. After a while, one wonders if there is any group, aside from rich, white, non-union Catholic males, that DePetro considers worthy of consideration and humanity.
John DePetro is contemptible.
You can listen to the entirety of his comments on Greece v. Galloway below.
*When will people learn that there is no difference between going on WPRO News and WPRO Talk? Did Cranston City Councillor Michael Farina know that his soundbite for the Gene Valicenti newscast was going to be played relentlessly by DePetro, or that DePetro would spend a half hour of showtime calling him an idiot? How often do I have to point this out?
]]>You are a pathetic individual . There was nothing racist regarding my comments or conversation on the radio. You seem to think you are so clever titling ” John DePetro is not a racist” on YouTube, to attempt to stick that word with my name,( or a misleading headline I was defending sterling). Just grow up you immature jerk.
You just make things up without any regard for truth. And I was never suspended( another lie).
Thank you from DePetro.com
To be clear, I never explicitly wrote in yesterday’s post that John DePetro is a racist. I said that he makes racist comments and maintains an atmosphere on his show conducive to racist behavior and talk. Only John DePetro knows what is in his heart.
On the other hand, is there a difference between making racist comments and being a racist? Personally I don’t think so, but calling someone a racist is a big charge, and not one I am all that comfortable making. That is why I very carefully chose my words in yesterday’s post, trying to show that DePetro seems very aware of where the line between talking about race and being racist is, and that he enjoys pushing the boundaries of that fuzzy line as much as he can.
Along the way, racism happens on the John DePetro Show. Callers cross the line (with DePetro’s fully deniable endorsement) and entertainment is had by all. It’s not as if DePetro went after a black caller just because that caller was black, making fun of the person in ways that if not explicitly racist, are at least racial in nature.
Nope. DePetro didn’t do that on yesterday’s show.
He did that last week. The caller was Eric, a naturalized American citizen from Africa.
“Is that what they taught you in Africa, to yell at the white man?”
“Do you hate all white people or just me?”
“Listen, you got to let go of your anger towards the whites. I had nothing to do with the slave trade. I want to go on record right now. I was against it.”
“You’ll be happy to know, Sunday night I watched 12 Years a Slave. Very violent. Very violent.”
Comedy gold, right? Just the kind of thing the Associated Press looks for in its best radio talk show. (And by the way, DePetro is campaigning heavily for Best Radio Show Host on Rhode Island Monthly. A win there should embarrass that magazine greatly.)
The caller, Eric, was trying to make a point in defense of a previous caller DePetro abused because she was a Jehovah’s Witness with a foreign accent. Eric seemed to be trying to say that all Christians, whether Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness or other should stick together. DePetro abused the caller for five minutes before the poor guy finally gave up in frustration, saying “May God be with you” and “Shalom.”
But this is just DePetro being funny. He’s not being a racist, right?
]]>The racist comments allegedly made by Clipper’s basketball team owner Donald Sterling to his girlfriend V. Stiviano provided local talk radio jerk wad John DePetro the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his race-baiting skills.
Under Depetro’s careful shepherding, callers were invited to defend Sterling’s comments because he’s a tired, possibly drunk old man who doesn’t fully understand modern society, or more ominously, because Sterling’s a victim of a conspiracy hatched by former basketball player Magic Johnson, who wants to buy the Clippers for himself. See, it’s not the old racist white guy’s fault that he’s an old racist white guy, it’s the black guy’s fault.
Along the way DePetro proved the point I made last week about how there is essentially no difference between WPRO News and WPRO Talk. When Jim Vincent, President of the Rhode Island NAACP appeared on Jim Valicenti’s morning news program, did he know that his words would be used against him repeatedly during DePetro’s broadcast? DePetro hoped that the mere mention of the NAACP would stir the racist “hearts” of his listeners, riling them to say nasty things on the air.
(Vincent’s comments allowed Depetro the opportunity to tell the audience that he didn’t think 12 Years a Slave was Academy Award worthy and that the only reason it was in the running was because it had the word “slave” in the title. A quick look at a list of Academy Award winning pictures show that 12 Years a Slave is the only film with that word in the title to have been nominated for best picture, so make of that what you will.)
The strategy DePetro uses is to phrase every bit of racism and race baiting that dribbles from his mouth as a question. Are old racist people really racists, DePetro asks, inviting his listeners to call in and make excuses for the people in their lives who behave similarly to Sterling. Depetro’s callers respond by excusing Sterling’s racism, picking up on DePetro’s cues that the man was old, tired, possibly drunk, speaking with the expectation of privacy, recorded without his knowledge or the victims of a Machiavellian plot engineered by Magic Johnson. His callers buy into Depetro’s narrative, never once thinking that they are being cruelly manipulated as DePetro consumes the resulting bigotry like a psychic vampire.
Perhaps DePetro’s most interesting critique was his claim that the Democratic Party and local unions were the most racist institutions in Rhode Island. DePetro listed off a series of white male union heads and politicians as proof of his contention. Are minorities under represented in positions of authority throughout Rhode Island? Absolutely. Is John DePetro bringing up this issue out of a deep concern for minority rights and representation? Please.
Following DePetro’s lead, I made my own list of white males:
Gene Valicanti, John DePetro, Dan Yorke, Buddy Cianci and Matt Allen.
Obviously, following DePetro’s logic, WPRO is the most racist radio station in New England. Looking at WPRO’s “Shows and Staff” page, I don’t see a single person of color listed.
DePetro carefully engineers his show to bring out the very worst in his listeners. He has built a show in which anger, confusion, bigotry, intolerance, hatred, racism and misogyny can thrive because, apparently, this is the kind of thing the Associated Press looks for when they give out the award for Best Talk Show.
For Our Daughters, the campaign to have DePetro fired in the wake of his misogynist comments about women union workers, should expand the scope of their campaign to include everyone offended by DePetro’s ugly race-baiting. The show is a blight on the soul of Rhode Island. Removing Depetro from the air would not just be good for our daughters, it would be good for our very humanity.
Lest you think I’m taking DePetro out of context, listen to his full comments on the subject here:
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At right is a tweet sent out from a MSNBC staffer poking the “rightwing” over a Cheerios ad because the last time Cheerios ran such an ad the company’s YouTube channel was swamped by disgusting racist comments. According the Huffington Post, “Commenters on the cereal’s Facebook page… said they found the commercial ‘disgusting’ and that it made them ‘want to vomit.’”
For Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the above tweet was the last straw. He wrote a letter to Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC saying,
Sadly, such petty and demeaning attacks have become a pattern at your network. With increasing frequency many of your hosts have personally denigrated and demeaned Americans- especially conservative and Republican Americans- without even attempting to further meaningful dialogue.
After declaring that MSNBC is “poisoned because of this pattern of behavior” Priebus declared, “Until you personally and publicly apologize for this behavior, I have banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.”
Obviously Priebus has not been tuned into the way Rhode Island conservatives and Republicans feel about the boycotting of news stations. Justin Katz weighed in recently on a similar boycott against radio station WPRO because of outrageous and demeaning comments made by John DePetro in which he called women union workers “hags,” “cockroaches” and “whores.” Arguing that elected officials are not acting in their private capacities when appearing on news shows, Katz said:
This is public officials abusing their privilege and responsibility to keep the public informed in an attempt to starve a private business of the content that constitutes its product. They have a right to interpret their responsibilities so as to allow that. But it isn’t right, and Rhode Islanders should consider it evidence that they aren’t fit for public office.
Katz went on:
It sends a signal down the line to talk show hosts — or me or you — that if you are thinking of saying anything close to the nebulous line of what’s not sayable, you might be better off softening your criticism or even going with a different topic altogether.
Peggy Price, the woman who started a petition in defense of DePetro, must be outraged at the RNC’s new policy. Writing about attempts to silence unpopular speech through boycotts by political leaders, Price wrote:
Do not allow politicians… to suppress free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment!
Should Americans consider this RNC boycott of MSNBC as evidence that RNC candidates “aren’t fit for public office”? Is Reince Priebus attempting to “suppress free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment!”? These are serious charges, and in the interest of consistency Katz and Price will either have to apply their critiques to the RNC, admit they were wrong about the DePetro boycott, or attempt to lawyer their way out of the contradiction.
MSNBC has deleted the tweet and fired the staffer responsible. That wasn’t enough for Priebus until Phil Griffin personally apologized, which he did. Priebus vows to “aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes.”
Here in Rhode Island Republican gubernatorial candidates Alan Fung and Ken Block have already gone back on their promise not to appear on WPRO or DePetro since the radio jock returned to the airwaves in January. Fung provided no explanation for his turnaround and Block delivered an word salad that explained nothing.
Meanwhile, John DePetro is still on the air.
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Initially the campaign targeting shock jock John DePetro focused on one advertiser. But now the group has organized at least 14 high-level politicians who say they won’t spend their campaign dollars on WPRO until DePetro is off the air.
“We’ve appealed to WPRO and Cumulus Media’s sense of decency in requesting that they sever their relationship with a man who degrades women by calling them whores, but it appears the only way to achieve a permanent solution is to further demonstrate just how bad this individual is for business,” said labor leader Maureen Martin, who has been the public face of For Our Daughters, the group that is trying to get DePetro off the air. “We expect others candidates and businesses will join them as our campaign grows in strength and numbers every day.”
In September, DePetro called two female labor activists whores on his WPRO morning radio show. Additionally, he’s made untrue and unfair accusations about many Democrats and left-leaning community and political groups. He was fired from a radio station in Boston for calling a gubernatorial candidate a “fat lesbian.” He and WPRO are bieng sued by a WPRO employee for sexual harassment. His wife took blame for a ratings scandal in which someone from his home address faked industry reporting forms.
Even before this campaign DePetro was widely disliked, untrusted and often even ostracized among the political class in Rhode Island, as well among almost all of his coworkers at WPRO, but station management maintains that he still draws listeners.
Here’s the list of candidates (and one PAC) who said they will not advertise with WPRO:
- US Senator Jack Reed
- US Rep. Jim Langevin
- US Rep. David Cicilline
- Providence Mayor and Gubernatorial Candidate Angel Taveras
- Gubernatorial Candidate Clay Pell
- Secretary of State and Lt. Governor Candidate Ralph Mollis
- Secretary of State Candidate Guillaume de Ramel
- Secretary of State Candidate Nellie Gorbea
- General Treasurer Candidate Seth Magaziner
- General Treasurer Candidate Frank Caprio
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Brett Smiley
- Providence City Council President and Mayoral Candidate Michael Solomon
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Jorge Elorza
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Lorne Adrain
- American LeadHerShip PAC Chair Kate Coyne-McCoy
Monday Jan 13, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
It’s Monday, January 13 … and while last week we wondered if Rhode Island was the only state in the nation to have a governor who surfs, this week we’ll be wondering if we’re the only state to have a gubernatorial hopeful responsible for a traffic fatality.
The Providence Journal reports this morning that in 1989, a 19-year-old Allan Fung, now mayor of Cranston who is running for governor, was arrested for the death of a man after a car accident he caused on Interstate 95. The charges were later dropped. Fung was coming home from college for the weekend and he allegedly lost consciousness, or maybe he fell asleep at the wheel, crossed three lanes of traffic and hit and killed a man who was changing a tire in the breakdown lane.
Wow … what a life-changing event for Mayor Fung. A lot of folks wouldn’t have the courage to enter public service after such an experience. I applaud him for telling this story, and more so for being able to move on from it.
That said, Sam Howard penned an important piece about both Republican candidates for governor late last week … both Fung and Barrington millionaire Ken Block agreed to boycott John DePetro and/or WPRO, but quickly abandoned their commitment as soon as the hateful shock jock’s month in exile was over.
On NBC 10 News Conference this weekend, we debated the merits of legalizing marijuana. Justin Katz, the ostensibly small government libertarian-leaning conservative, said he’s afraid it will lead to a government monopoly over drugs and prostitution. Ironically enough his opposition to marijuana smacks of paranoia.
I can’t believe I actually have opportunity to say this, but the ProJo editorial page has a more nuanced and reasonable reason for opposing legalization this morning. They write the legalization could increase use among kids. Experts don’t necessarily agree.
In December, East Greenwich school drug counselor Bob Houghtaling joined Jared Moffat and Rebecca McGoldrick of Regulate RI here in the RI Future newsroom to talk about just this topic. Houghtaling thinks it will be easier to teach kids how to make healthy choices about pot if we take a less punative approach.
In other news about potentially progressive legislation this year from the State House … Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said last week that her chamber will focus on addressing poverty this session as a means to fixing Rhode Island’s ailing economy.
And in New Hampshire this week, the talk is about campaign finance reform. Harvard professor and Rootstriker Lawrence Lessig organized, with Demand Progress and Rhode Island’s own David Segal, a two week march through the Granite State to get residents to demand presidential candidates take a stand against money dominating politics.
Friend of RI Future Mike McCarthy is there for the entire two weeks and we hope he’ll be checking in with us on occassion. In the meantime, here’s my interview with McCarthy from Friday … he stopped by the Hideaway to borrow my sleeping bag for his trip. Listen to our conversation about his adventure here.
]]>In what can only be called a grossly insensitive appropriation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, John DePetro has included a picture of and a quote from the great civil rights leader on his blog, implying that King would be appalled by the injustice DePetro is suffering. This is an act of incalculable hubris on DePetro’s part, and surely an insult almost on par with his misogynist comments about the protesting union women.
Wednesday Dec 18, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
It’s Wednesday, December 18 … there are less than two weeks left in 2013 and the Capital City is making a late run to beat its 103 shootings last year. Yesterday, it recorded numbers 99 and 100 yesterday when a man and a woman were found with bullet injuries after crashing their car while driving themselves to Rhode Island Hospital. According to the ProJo, the man was shot on the same Elmwood Ave corner last year. Do me a favor and read the Providence Journal story by Greg Smith, and then ask yourself again if taxes are the biggest issue facing the Ocean State.
Rhode Island Catholics are calling on Bishop Tobin to apologize for slamming Nelson Mandela on abortion while the rest of the world was mourning his death. The group plans a news conference today when it will deliver a petition signed by 19,000 people to the dioceses today.
And speaking of influential conservatives who say stupid and hurtful things …. let’s be clear about something else, too: John DePetro indeed does have a First Amendment right to call women whores. And so does WPRO, for that matter … see George Carlin’s famous seven dirty words routine for a list of the words they don’t have a 1st Amendment right to use….
But if you want to make this a First Amendment issue, you better be ready to defend the rights of those who want tell as many people as they can NOT to support businesses that calls women whores. The more relevant question is whose rights will Alex and Ani decide are more important to their bottom line.
…And still on the topic of saying hurtful things, Justin Katz pens a post in which he gives the Humanists of Rhode Island a some nice props. But Katz’s post centers on the Freedom from Religion’s State House decoration which says, “Religion is but a myth & superstition that hardens hearts & enslaves minds.”
In differentiating that banner from the Humanists’, Katz writes, “That message is different in kind, not just content. It’s an overt (indeed, hard-hearted) attack on what others believe and a short-circuit of a sense of community and spirit of public discourse.” And then he has this asterisk: “Note that venue is important; seasonal decorations merit a different standard than policy debates.”
Right, the venue in question – the State House – is for policy debates. That’s the point. This is a policy debate and sometimes people say hard-hearted things in policy debates. In fact, I dare say no one else in Rhode Island politics takes as hard-hearted a view on policy debates as you … no fair going soft on us when it comes to church and state matters…
So here’s a pretty cool look into how Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is working across party lines to make the world safer and Rhode Island’s economy stronger, all in one tiny piece of what could otherwise be called pork. In the Defense Authorization bill, Sehldon worked with Republican Rob Portman to include a rider for what’s called “asset tracking provisions.” In other words, the bill would require fancy bar codes on military guns and ammo. Well it just so happens that there’s a Rhode Island company that makes these fancy bar codes: A2B Tracking is located in Portsmouth and employs about 50 people there. Coincidentally or not, A2B’s website says they are hiring!!
Ronnie Biggs died yesterday … he was the world’s last great train robber. In 1963, he and 14 other guys stole $7 million in bank notes from a train in England. Biggs turned himself in in 2001.
December 18th is a giant day in American history … in 1620, the Mayflower made landing in what would later be named Plymouth Harbor. And on this day in 1865, America would abolish slavery.
In less world-changing historical events, on this day in 1966 Tara Browne, friend of Mick Jagger, was killed in a car wreck … you know her because her accident is the one John Lennon sung about in “A Day in the Life”
…I bet you can guess what our song of the day is!
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Monday Dec 16, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
It’s Monday, December 16 and Rhode Islanders have officially survived more than half of the holiday season without having to hear from John DePetro, though GoLocal reports (mindsets?) the notoriously nasty morning shock jock will be back on WPRO tomorrow morning … that’s got to be a dicey proposition for Alex and Ani, which could become the focus on storefront protests if labor decides to take its anti-DePetro protest to the next level…
Twin River is in the news today … the state-sanctioned gambling parlor in Lincoln is . And as news breaks that Twin River is hoping to expand into the Monte Carlo of the Deep South, several state lawmakers are catching flack for playing charity blackjack at Twin River … the big winners included Reps Scott Slater and Lisa Tomaso and Senator Mike McCaffrey.
In any case, I’m really glad Reps Scott Slater and Lisa Tomaso were able to redistribute a couple bucks from Twin River to local food pantries.
If it’s true that the Exeter recall campaign reflected the strong opposition to changing gun laws in Rhode Island, as Rhode Island Public Radio reported the day before the vote, then those who’d like to see stronger gun laws in Rhode Island should have nothing to fear from the NRA. 63 percent of this pretty rural and relatively gun-loving community voted against a recall that was, ostensibly, about the right to bear arms … or at least the right to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun from the local town clerk instead of law enforcement, as the rest of Rhode Island requires…
And kudos to Progressive Charlestown for beating the rest of the state on the Exeter recall story, by the way. This left-leaning blog that covers South County actually consistently has some of the best stuff in the state … for another example read Will Collete’s coverage of the COPAR quarry disaster wreaking havok with area drinnking water. The city of Westerly says COPAR is illegally mining a granite quarry for gravel, and while the issues is stuck in court, COPAR is allowed to go right on mining gravel.
Watch this weekend’s Newsmakers for a great debate on whether Edward Snowden was a hero or a criminal … my thought: the two aren’t mutually exclusive. For example, Nelson Mandela was both a criminal and a hero. So was Robin Hood, for that matter. And for a famous right-wing example of hero/criminal … a bunch of pretty well to-do Boston merchants decided to launch about a million bucks worth of tea into Boston Harbor.
MIT, Harvard and Brown have a new study that shows there’s little to no correlation between high stakes test scores and “the ability to analyze abstract problems and think logically.”
Is economic inequality the “defining issue of our time,” as President Obama said recently? Paul Krugman of the New York Times say so and Ezra Klein of the Washington Post has a more nuanced answer.
The key to this debate isn’t whether it’s fair or not that some of us get to be rich and others have to be poor … it’s the lack of social mobility. Put in Rhode Island terms, if you grew up in Barrington, chances are you are going to make a decent living as an adult. And if you grow up in Central Falls, chances are you’ll struggle financially.
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