I think I started this Blog off on the wrong foot.
RI Legacy started with the idea of presenting an objective praise and critique of my home state. Native Rhode Islanders have a tendency to put down their own state. Unless they leave for several years and then return with a new set of eyes, many natives lose sight of the beauty and uniqueness of their home. Especially, in times such as this at the end of 2008, we can lose sight of the past accomplishments of and tend to dwell on the present negatives.
This is the direction I started to take here.
But as I have thought about it, there are plenty of websites that fill in the details of the good and bad elements of Rhode Island’s legacy. Rather than repeat facts and stories, rather than telling you about the Legacy, I have decided to take another approach and show you.
I was born and raised in Rhode Island before I left at the age of 22.
I spent the next quarter century living elsewhere.
When I returned, I had my new eyes. My praise was to be a salute to contributions Rhode Island has made to the evolution of religious, political and economic development of the United States over the nearly 375 years since its settlement. These are just a few of the positives in the legacy Rhode Islanders have inherited -
* Roger Williams and Religious freedom through separation of church and state, 1636
* Leadership in establishing political independence from Great Britain prior to any of the other colonies in 1776
* General Nathanial Green led George Washington’s southern army, in the freeing of the southern colonies during the revolutionary war.
* Samuel Slater introduced the Industrial revolution to North America by building the first cotton mill in Pawtucket in 1793.
* Commodore Matthew Perry, the U.S. Navy Commander of the “Black Fleet,” compelled the Japanese to opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
* Openness to immigrants from southern Europe, northern and Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th century and from South and Central America, Southeast Asia in the late 20th century fueled a diverse and rich cultural life.
As small as it is, Rhode Island, its institutions and citizens have made, and continue to make significant contributions to nation and the world.
But Rhode Island is no paradise. The beauty of Narragansett Bay and the Beaches in South County, the quaint New England villages of Wickford and Scituate, the glamour of Newport and its Mansions, the history of Providence and the Blackstone Valley, are not enough to offset a number of negatives that also are part of the Rhode Legacy.
* A strong legislature with weak Executive and Judicial branches of government has from the beginning created a local political climate ripe for corruption and insider dealing.
* A fragmented system of local government created to meet the needs of 19th century mill owners continues to plague the state of 1,000,000 inhabitants with 39 independent cities and towns each with its own local government and expenses.
* A strong set of public employee labor unions that along with the remnants of unions left over from the manufacturing hay days of the mid-20th century, dominate the legislative to promote labor interests over those of the public and business in a 21st century world.
* Provincialism, on the level of the Balkan, among the natives who have near really left the state and where a person will sell their house to be 5 minutes closer to their work, fosters a sense of inferiority and irrational sensitivity to criticism.
These are just some of the negatives that part of the RI Legacy.
These are negatives that must be addressed if Rhode Island is to compete in the 21st century. They must be addressed if those of us who have growing up here, left and returned, and if those who come here from elsewhere and seen and felt the potentials, are to stay and contribute in a meaningful way to “the lively experiment” that is Rhode Island.
So, as I see it, there is the context and the problem. The point of this blog from now on will be to explore my feelings and reactions to this legacy. As an heir to the “lively experiment”, what have I done to promote the good and to change the bad in this legacy?
Stay tuned.
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