SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY AND Rhode Island

On December 14, 11 days before Christmas in the year 2012 one of the most hateful and viscous partisan political years in my personal memory, 

“Adam Lanza, age 20, fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members and wounded two at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the village of Sandy Hook in the town of Newtown, Connecticut. Before driving to the school, Lanza had shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their Newtown home. After killing students and staff members, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head as first responders arrived.” From Wikipedia 

Since that date a tremendous amount of public outrage has been vented against guns, gun ownership, gun laws, gun rights from both the general public and the radical extremist on both ends of the political spectrum.  

That we should see such an outpouring of concern and emotion is good and healthy, especially after such a painful confrontation with our own failings as a human beings and as a society. It is venting the sick and misguided venom of a partisanship that is blinding us to the common interest we share for the safety of one another and our future, our children. 

Here in Rhode Island there has been concern for our neighbors to the west and reflections that there but for an act of God that could be us. Over the past week (since January 1.) there have appeared Op-Ed pieces in the Providence Journal from the Jewish and Catholic community, a personal observation by Congressman Langivan (a survivor of a gun accident), and today by Allen Hassenfeld  focusing on priorities. Letters and comments also appear in the local letter to the editor and the web-based versions. Many good points are being made, many simplistic solutions proposed, and many self serving offers or promotions served up. All of this, points to complexity of our motives and feelings toward the GUN as physical objects and their use generates.

The central issue, I feel, is how does a civilized society based on the principle of individuality, freedom of choice and self expression survive when the power of life and death is granted to every citizen without any control or constraint from the community in which the individual lives? What happens when the social controls we, as citizens, agree to live under through our system of laws and collective decision making are surrendered to super-rich plutocrats with private armies and the mentally deranged psycho- and sociopathic, isolated, and alienated individual with an assault rifle? What is the proper role of government and the citizenry?

Roger Williams founded Rhode Island based on the principle that the answer to question the rights of diversity and the majority was not civil war of the majority against the minority. The answer he proposed is a civil debate based on the “tolerance” of the other’s views and interests.

Over the years I have heard many complaints about the word “tolerance.” It is too weak, too insincere, too “liberal,” too “conservative.” What I believe I am hearing when people reject or question the word, is a demand for ideological purity of principle, rather than a pragmatic acceptance that there will always be different points of view. Each of these has legitimate perspectives and claims. These are claims that arise as much from experience and they do from any “purity” the adherent might claim. 

Tolerance is a term used in physics and engineering to describe just how much room there is between the ideal stress that can be applied to a material and the amount of actual stress that can be applied to the material before it fails.

Rhode Island’s lively experiment, envisioned by Roger Williams, has been and is a social experiment in the tolerance of something called civil society. Since civil society is made up of imperfect material, humans and their self interests, the question is when it comes to the GUN, what are we willing to tolerate? Sandy Hook is a test of our resolve. 

Can we tolerate the murder of 22 children as price we are willing to pay for the right of some people to own a GUN with minimum supervision and regulation by the community into which they bring their GUN? Or do we insist that to own a GUN, because of its power to kill and maim, carries with it a higher standard responsibility and a lower tolerance than applies to other objects in our society. What is our tolerance for GUN ownership and GUN rights?

Here in Rhode Island we are beginning the debate. Here in Rhode Island we must exercise our rights under the 1st Amendment to determine our own course within the very broad and vague provisions of the 2^nd Amendment.

There are consequences for every action. There will be consequences from whatever we decide. Let us take seriously the potential costs of unintended consequence. Let us learn from Sandy Hook and tighten up our legal standards to the right GUN ownership and lower our personal tolerance for personal misuse of GUNS here in Rhode Island.

Also check out:  Americans for Responsible Solutions  Gabby Gifford initiative

The Rhode Island 2011 Budget: WHAT WOULD YOU CUT, HOW AND WHY?

Rhode Islanders, like everyone, are complaining about their taxes, federal, state and local. But how many of them know what they are talking about? How many know how much of a free ride they are getting from others? How much others are getting a free ride off of them?

Do you know what the budget for running the state of RI is?
Have you ever thought of looking at it, analyzing what is there?
Do you know who is paying for what?
Or, Are you relying on the special interests to explain to you why they should get more and pay less?
Have you ever cornered your representative or senator and demanded to know what and why he or she is voting for a certain expenditure or tax?

Citizenship requires constant vigilance. If you are just complaining and whining but not taking any action to correct the problem, then the problem is you and not the government's.

The role of government is to respond to the needs and desires of its citizens. In a democracy that means responding to those who are exercising their first amendment right to the petition the government to help them with their grievances.

Reading the Providence Journal, and the comments often made to stories appearing there, I am amazed at the stupidity and lack of civility that many "thoughtful" citizens express. They rejoice in their 1st amendment right of free speech and the opportunity use a free press to spill their vial prejudices and ignorant opinions. But how many are following through with their responsibilities?

Are they using their right of free assembly to get together with others air their common concern to work out realistic solutions for the problems they see?

How many take the time and the effort to put those realistic solutions down on paper and bring them to their representation?

How many petition their representative for a hearing? And then, how many actually back their proposal and to push for their adoption.

I don't always agree with the Governor or the legislature. But I do understand the situation they find themselves in as public servants. If everyone hates you, then what is to be gained from trying help those who hate you, especially when your friends will happily reward you for your favors by reelecting you?

Sometimes weakness is strength. President Obama has been hamstrung by the Democratic majority in Congress. So has the Republican minority. With the election in Massachusetts of Senator Brown, Obama and liberal Republicans are freer to move to the center. Neither is totally accountable to their party any longer, their vote is no longer the determining factor to achieve party tactical advantage.

Each republican is now accountable to the voters in their state. And the President is now accountable to the American voters, all of those who help put him in office.

The real power in this country is among the independent, non- affiliated voters, a group of ranging from the politically alienated to the political centrists. It is here where the horse trading should take place, not with their radical cores of ideological party hacks.

Don't let these hacks and their media blowhards pigeonhole you into their simplistic categories of liberal or conservative.

The former don't know when to stop run and the latter doesn't know when to get off first base. If you are like me you want to get around the bases and score and not get thrown out or left on base.

But unless these independents stop whining, start rallying around their issues, and take responsibility for proposing realistic, actionable solutions to those issues, their voices will not be heard.

Right now we are seeing the birth of movement -- the Tea Party movement. Conservatives are trying to capture the energy they see there for their own agenda. Liberals are frightened by it. And entrepreneurial husksters, such as Sarah Palin and Steve Laffee, are making small fortunes exploiting them. Hopefully, as the dust settles, the emotional high runs its course and the opportunists go on to other victims, some real thought and leadership will emerge from the Tea party movement. Leadership and thought which will foster innovation designed to address real problems rather than current sloganeering. We will see!

In Rhode Island, we have a General Assembly bought and paid for by the donors to the Democrat party and a Republican party on oxygen. This is just the type of situation where a third party effort is needed at the grassroots. The only way to break the party stranglehold on individual legislators is to create an opportunity for local representatives and senators to vote their conscience. To do this means to free them from the monopoly power of party bosses. Here again the independents, united on the basis of their local concerns and interests, actively exercising their 1st amendment rights to the fullest, can provide the political cover these local representatives need.

If you think that public debt is too high, fine. How would you change it and where would you change it and have you really tested whether your solution can work?

The fiscal problems we face as a nation and as a state are too big and too important for you to sit in the stands. It is time to get off the bench and get out there and help solve the problems. It is time to put up or shut up. If you chose to shut up, just remember then that you are the problem. And, I know you won’t like the solution.

So here is the 2011 Rhode Island state budget proposal. Read it in detail. What don't you want in it, what do you want in it? How are you going to pay for it? And remember, the whole thing has to balance.

For more information about the Rhode Island budget for 2011 click here.