We have been following the Central Falls School crisis with great interest.
On Saturday February 27 Superintendent Frances Gallo of the Central Falls School Department was a late addition to the Annual Winter Meeting of the Rhode Island State Coalition (RISC) held in Newport, RI. After weeks of controversy, Superintendent Gallo was given the opportunity to give her side of the story leading up to the firing of the whole teacher staff at Central Falls.
I came away from the meeting extremely impressed and moved by this very professional and articulate woman and the courage she is demonstrating to take on the Teachers' union and to call their bluff. I want to share that moment with you. Thanks to RISC the following two segment of their video record (posted on You Tube) of the Winter meeting captures the moment.
Yesterday, March 1st, her actions drew comments from President Obama supporting the need for radical change in those schools which are failing to educate their students. Here, in her own words, is her side of the story.
RISC Winter Meeting: Central Falls Superintendent Frances Gallo (part 1)
RISC Winter Meeting: Central Falls Superintendent Frances Gallo (part 2) [NOTE: If the video does not launch automatically, DOUBLE-CLICK ON IT, it should take you directly to YOU TUBE]
I think she has said it all. The issues are not local, they are national and impact the future of this nation.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Providence Journal discovers a story - The Amazon Law
For the past 9 months, I have been following the implications on small business as the states attempt to use their constitutional right to nexus provision to extend their taxing power to the Internet. Today the Providence Journal, the premier daily newspaper for the informed Rhode Islander, finally discovered and carried a story about the "Amazon tax" and its impact on a small business here in Rhode Island. Under the headline Small businessman says R.I. ‘Amazon law’ hurts him
If you have been following this blog, you will have read about my problem with the "Amazon Law" It put my own e-business plans on hold.
The Projo could have been more helpful and informative to the public, if it had picked up on and reported the story earlier. It also could have done a better job informing its readers if it put the story in its broader national context.
The "Amazon law" is a national problem, not just a Rhode Island problem. It is the law requiring out of state internet vendor's to collect sale taxes on goods and services sold to resident in the taxing state.
This is a common requirement for firms doing business in multiple states. For example, if you purchase a big ticket item from a company in Massachusetts that also does business in Rhode Island and the item is to be delivered and used in Rhode Island, you will pay the Rhode Island sales tax on the item. Why do you think the clerk asks for your zip code?
The problem comes when a vendor does not have a physical or business presence in the state. Under the nexus principle, that vendor would not be required to collect the sales tax for the taxing state. Amazon does not consider its affilates as employee or agents. Therefore Amazon and similar out of state vendors do not feel that they have representatives in the state, specifically in this case Rhode Island and are under no obligation to act as Rhode Isalnd's tax collector.
The Rhode Island legislature decided that any RI website which carries ads for Amazon or other e-commerce companies is an employee or agent for the companies whose ads they carry. This is sufficient grounds to require the parent firm to collect sales for the state on Rhode Island on all goods sold to Rhode Island residents.
In my case, I wanted to rent space to Amazon on my website to advertise their products. I felt that I was supplying a billboard as a way to help pay for the operating costs of the site. Amazon decided this imposed a potential tax and administrative burden on them. To avoid the issue, they and others have chosen to eliminate that risk by severing their ties to their affiliates. As a result, Amazon will continue to sell to Rhode Islanders and Rhode Islanders will continue to buy from Amazon.
However, Rhode Island businesses that depend upon the rental revenue they earned by allowing Amazon and others to advertise on the their site no longer have that revenue source. As the Projo story documents, they make less income and pay lower taxes. Meanwhile, because these sales outlets no longer sell for Amazon, B&H and other e-commerce firms, Rhode Island collects no new sales tax revenue.
Reading the comments to the Projo story shows how poorly the readers understand the issue and how poorly the Projo explained the issues. It is no wonder that more and more of us seek our news from more aggressive and informed sources.
If you have been following this blog, you will have read about my problem with the "Amazon Law" It put my own e-business plans on hold.
The Projo could have been more helpful and informative to the public, if it had picked up on and reported the story earlier. It also could have done a better job informing its readers if it put the story in its broader national context.
The "Amazon law" is a national problem, not just a Rhode Island problem. It is the law requiring out of state internet vendor's to collect sale taxes on goods and services sold to resident in the taxing state.
This is a common requirement for firms doing business in multiple states. For example, if you purchase a big ticket item from a company in Massachusetts that also does business in Rhode Island and the item is to be delivered and used in Rhode Island, you will pay the Rhode Island sales tax on the item. Why do you think the clerk asks for your zip code?
The problem comes when a vendor does not have a physical or business presence in the state. Under the nexus principle, that vendor would not be required to collect the sales tax for the taxing state. Amazon does not consider its affilates as employee or agents. Therefore Amazon and similar out of state vendors do not feel that they have representatives in the state, specifically in this case Rhode Island and are under no obligation to act as Rhode Isalnd's tax collector.
The Rhode Island legislature decided that any RI website which carries ads for Amazon or other e-commerce companies is an employee or agent for the companies whose ads they carry. This is sufficient grounds to require the parent firm to collect sales for the state on Rhode Island on all goods sold to Rhode Island residents.
In my case, I wanted to rent space to Amazon on my website to advertise their products. I felt that I was supplying a billboard as a way to help pay for the operating costs of the site. Amazon decided this imposed a potential tax and administrative burden on them. To avoid the issue, they and others have chosen to eliminate that risk by severing their ties to their affiliates. As a result, Amazon will continue to sell to Rhode Islanders and Rhode Islanders will continue to buy from Amazon.
However, Rhode Island businesses that depend upon the rental revenue they earned by allowing Amazon and others to advertise on the their site no longer have that revenue source. As the Projo story documents, they make less income and pay lower taxes. Meanwhile, because these sales outlets no longer sell for Amazon, B&H and other e-commerce firms, Rhode Island collects no new sales tax revenue.
Reading the comments to the Projo story shows how poorly the readers understand the issue and how poorly the Projo explained the issues. It is no wonder that more and more of us seek our news from more aggressive and informed sources.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
RI Wind Power vs China Wind Power
As Rhode Island plans to develop its off shore wind resource, there is hopeful speculation about the industrial and manufacturing jobs that will be required to build and support the off shore wind farms. But before we get too excited about it, let's look at our competition. Not Massachusetts, but China. What lessons can we learn from the Chinese and where are the opportunities we can exploit give this knowledge. The article quoted below is a place to start.
Hopefully, those planning for the development of a wind power industry in Rhode Island will learn from China's problems and develop clear and focused marketing plans taking into account the real needs of their target markets.
Challenges with China's Wind Energy
Robert Hsu, February 23, 2010
China has been trying very hard to step up and take action to not only clean up its air and water pollution but also to prevent further pollution in the country. And as the Chinese government focuses on more of these green technology initiatives, many Chinese companies stand to benefit directly.
One industry, in particular, that is already reaping the rewards of a government focus on clean tech energy is wind power. In fact, China has become a powerhouse in wind power.
When China first started making wind turbine blades, the demand was low and the blade length was set at 37.5 meters. Two years later, the industry boomed and the once-popular 37.5-meter blades were no longer desired. Since so many companies hurried into the industry, there was a lack of research and planning; the main thing affected -- quality. The blades that were initially created were not long enough to generate anticipated electricity levels.
So producers scrambled and started manufacturing a 40.3-meter blade. With that, production rates increased, and the number of wind turbine makers grew from six to more than 70 in the country. As a result, China quickly became the third-largest wind power market in the world last year increasing the installed wind power capacity from 760 megawatts (MW) in 2004, to more than 20,000 MW in 2009.
However, 70% of the blades currently being used are still the shorter length, meaning they are not helping the environment, as they should. This poses a huge problem because there is now a surplus of products that don't fit the market. And prices have decreased even though there is an increase in demand.
This recent development further reiterates my reason for largely avoided investing in this sector. Now, with that said, renewable energy continues to receive strong support from the Chinese government even as investments in the sector declined sharply with the rest of the world during the past two years, and given China's new focus on green technology, green investing is an important investment theme for investors.
Right now, most forms of renewable energy -- such as solar and wind power -- are not economically self sustainable and rely on government subsidy to survive. And most renewable energy companies are also losing money with excess capacity problems.
So there may be investments in the solar or wind industry down the road, but for now, I think our renewable energy investments are better served in another part of the green tech industry.
Hopefully, those planning for the development of a wind power industry in Rhode Island will learn from China's problems and develop clear and focused marketing plans taking into account the real needs of their target markets.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Central Falls :Education reform and labor relations in Rhode Island
Rhode Island's economic problems are related its education system and the type of investment decisions the state and communities are making in their schools. On January 7, 2010 the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) released its Strategic Plan The debate is heating up between the teachers unions and the educational administrators.
The key area of conflict is "What will be done with under performing schools." In January the RIDE published its Protocol for Intervention According to the Protocol
The first battle in implementing these plans is taking place in Central Falls, where the Superintendent of Schools has just issued pink slips to all faculty members of the high school. In a interview with both the Superintendent, Frances Gallo, and American Federation of Teachers union rep James Parisi, videoed Friday on CBS station WPRI's NewsMakers program scheduled for Sunday February 14th, it is obvious this will be a major watershed for the Rhode Island public education system. That episode of NewsMakers is presented below,
How do you feel about this? Your comments are welcomed.
The key area of conflict is "What will be done with under performing schools." In January the RIDE published its Protocol for Intervention According to the Protocol
Schools identified as persistently lowest-achieving require intervention by the responsible LEA [Local Educational Agency] beginning in the school year following identification by the state. There are four allowable school intervention models: turnaround model, restart model, school closure, or transformation model. If a school identified as a persistently lowest-achieving school has implemented, in whole or in part within the last two years, an intervention that meets the requirements of the turnaround, restart, or transformation models, the school may continue or complete the intervention being implemented.
The first battle in implementing these plans is taking place in Central Falls, where the Superintendent of Schools has just issued pink slips to all faculty members of the high school. In a interview with both the Superintendent, Frances Gallo, and American Federation of Teachers union rep James Parisi, videoed Friday on CBS station WPRI's NewsMakers program scheduled for Sunday February 14th, it is obvious this will be a major watershed for the Rhode Island public education system. That episode of NewsMakers is presented below,
How do you feel about this? Your comments are welcomed.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Are Rhode Island Students worth investing in?
In an article published on January 14th, 2010 Teachers, R.I. education chief still at loggerheads over reform, By Jennifer D. Jordan,(page 1 Section A,) some very serious issues were raised. These are and should be central to the 2010 General Assembly election.
This is a debate for the heart and mind and welfare of Rhode Island and its children that the tax payers, politicians and educational establishment can have. Either we can come to an agreement about which is really important, teacher's rights or student's best interests and their futures, or we can watch as Rhode Island becomes less and less competitive in today's world.
Let's ask some basic questions.
Why do we need students? And, Can the teachers' unions survive without them?
Why do we need teachers unions? And, Can students learn without them?
These are not chicken or egg questions.
Humanity has survived because of children, not because of teachers unions.
Society is better off because Professional Teachers are a real asset to the community. They can assist the children in learning the skills that will make them productive citizens.
But today’s Teacher unions present teachers to the community, not as professionals, but as a commodity. Teachers are treated and treat themselves, as laborers, hired to put in X number of hours at a price and required only "to work to rule." The Teacher's Union are organized on a big business vs big labor model that no longer is valid nor viable in the 21st century economic environment
Educating and training a child is NOT like cooking a BIG MAC. A manufacturing, labor/management business model is no longer appropriate for creating a 21st Century educational system or workforce.
Children do not benefit from a labor union organized to serve the interests of the membership.The unions are not a necessity for the child to learn. What children and society needs is a profession that establishes and enforces performance standards on it members for the benefit of their clients.
A 21st century educational system requires a professional teaching force with the skill and empathy to understand the individual needs of each child and how to address his or her unique needs and issues in an ever more complex world. It needs teachers who can work with parents in the interest of the child, not blackmail taxpaying parents into more benefits.
Granted, we cannot afford to do this on a one to one basis, but we can create environments where we maximize the skills that good teachers can bring to the student.
If the teachers’ unions were professional associations, such as the AMA, ABA, etc., they would be supporting and, in fact, be demanding that that their members meet high evaluation, and accountability standards. Quality performance would be their first goal, not seniority rights.
A revolutionary approach is called for to bring Rhode Island education into the 21st Century. Such an approach is being presented to us now by Education Commissioner Gist. It questions the basic assumptions of the system. But to succeed all parties must buy into the idea of finding solutions and NOT just fight rear guard actions to protect personal or special interest privileges.
The stalemate between the unions and administration over existing contracts, constructed in an age of plenty, don't do anything to prepare today's student nor address the system needs for the future. And they certainly don't help the parents or tax payer.
How long do Rhode Island children have to wait for the adults to grow up and solve the problem, not just fight over it?
Update: Providence and Foster teachers have, with reservation, joined the state in competing for the Race to the Top federal grant. NEA, and the other 36 unions including Central Falls, seem to have decided that their self interest is more important. Rhode Island students are just not worth it?
This is a debate for the heart and mind and welfare of Rhode Island and its children that the tax payers, politicians and educational establishment can have. Either we can come to an agreement about which is really important, teacher's rights or student's best interests and their futures, or we can watch as Rhode Island becomes less and less competitive in today's world.
Let's ask some basic questions.
Why do we need students? And, Can the teachers' unions survive without them?
Why do we need teachers unions? And, Can students learn without them?
These are not chicken or egg questions.
Humanity has survived because of children, not because of teachers unions.
Society is better off because Professional Teachers are a real asset to the community. They can assist the children in learning the skills that will make them productive citizens.
But today’s Teacher unions present teachers to the community, not as professionals, but as a commodity. Teachers are treated and treat themselves, as laborers, hired to put in X number of hours at a price and required only "to work to rule." The Teacher's Union are organized on a big business vs big labor model that no longer is valid nor viable in the 21st century economic environment
Educating and training a child is NOT like cooking a BIG MAC. A manufacturing, labor/management business model is no longer appropriate for creating a 21st Century educational system or workforce.
Children do not benefit from a labor union organized to serve the interests of the membership.The unions are not a necessity for the child to learn. What children and society needs is a profession that establishes and enforces performance standards on it members for the benefit of their clients.
A 21st century educational system requires a professional teaching force with the skill and empathy to understand the individual needs of each child and how to address his or her unique needs and issues in an ever more complex world. It needs teachers who can work with parents in the interest of the child, not blackmail taxpaying parents into more benefits.
Granted, we cannot afford to do this on a one to one basis, but we can create environments where we maximize the skills that good teachers can bring to the student.
If the teachers’ unions were professional associations, such as the AMA, ABA, etc., they would be supporting and, in fact, be demanding that that their members meet high evaluation, and accountability standards. Quality performance would be their first goal, not seniority rights.
A revolutionary approach is called for to bring Rhode Island education into the 21st Century. Such an approach is being presented to us now by Education Commissioner Gist. It questions the basic assumptions of the system. But to succeed all parties must buy into the idea of finding solutions and NOT just fight rear guard actions to protect personal or special interest privileges.
The stalemate between the unions and administration over existing contracts, constructed in an age of plenty, don't do anything to prepare today's student nor address the system needs for the future. And they certainly don't help the parents or tax payer.
How long do Rhode Island children have to wait for the adults to grow up and solve the problem, not just fight over it?
Update: Providence and Foster teachers have, with reservation, joined the state in competing for the Race to the Top federal grant. NEA, and the other 36 unions including Central Falls, seem to have decided that their self interest is more important. Rhode Island students are just not worth it?
A New American Revolution???
The American Revolution began on June 10th 1772 with the burning HMS Gaspee in Narragansett Bay in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
As reported in a London newspaper and reprinted in the Virginia Gazette (October 15, 1772 -- note they didn't have Twitter back then)
London, July 18
From Rhode Island we received advice that one of his Majesty's ships of war, interrupting the trade of some smugglers in that neighbourhood, the people rose up, and thinking it patriotism to resist the laws of this country, burnt the ship's boats, and carried their commerce in triumph to their own habitations.
The conduct of Rhode Islanders, on the foregoing occasion, it is thought, will be productive of much disturbance in America. If our government resents it with the spirit they ought we shall have fresh exclamations from the sons of liberty beyond the Atlantic; and if they do not, the colonies are immediately discharged from their dependence upon England. The Mother country and the colonies are now come to a kind of crisis, and one or the other must necessarily give way in the dispute. Should the former, however, relax from her just authority, she may as well resign all her dependent territories, and content herself with what is merely contained in her own island.
A year and a half later on December 16th, 1773...,
In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.
This morning I awoke to read and hear that The Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts had been captured by a Republican, Scott Brown, a relatively unknown.
Later I went to a breakfast meeting sponsored by the RISC (Rhode Island Statewide Coalition)for Small Business. The agenda was to unveil a strategy for the small business owners in Rhode Island to become a political force equal to their economic presents in the state. Small business represents 97% of the businesses in the state and employs 57% of the state's workers, according to RISC.
Underrepresented in the General Assembly, over-taxed and easily dismissed by the traditional powers that have ruled Rhode Island for close to a century, small business is stirring. RISC, founded in 2003, as a grassroots organization is inviting small business to flex its muscle.
This morning we witnessed a presentation of strategy and the tactical approach for small businesses to become politically active. The crowd of small business owners who attended the meeting are being asked to participate in a program designed to win back the General Assemble over the next 9 months. for the core of Rhode Island producers and employers. In turn, this will set the stage to bring about fundamental change in the state's economic policy. In turn it was suggested that this would set the state back on a course of positive economic growth and development.
Today we are seeing the true beginnings of a revolution in the New England political environment. What happened in Massachusetts will have national ramifications. But what happened this morning in Warwick, RI not far from Gaspee Point, will have immediate impact on the daily lives of Rhode Islanders.
In the coming days and weeks we will be following this revolution on this blog. Stay tuned.
As reported in a London newspaper and reprinted in the Virginia Gazette (October 15, 1772 -- note they didn't have Twitter back then)
London, July 18
From Rhode Island we received advice that one of his Majesty's ships of war, interrupting the trade of some smugglers in that neighbourhood, the people rose up, and thinking it patriotism to resist the laws of this country, burnt the ship's boats, and carried their commerce in triumph to their own habitations.
The conduct of Rhode Islanders, on the foregoing occasion, it is thought, will be productive of much disturbance in America. If our government resents it with the spirit they ought we shall have fresh exclamations from the sons of liberty beyond the Atlantic; and if they do not, the colonies are immediately discharged from their dependence upon England. The Mother country and the colonies are now come to a kind of crisis, and one or the other must necessarily give way in the dispute. Should the former, however, relax from her just authority, she may as well resign all her dependent territories, and content herself with what is merely contained in her own island.
A year and a half later on December 16th, 1773...,
In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.
This morning I awoke to read and hear that The Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts had been captured by a Republican, Scott Brown, a relatively unknown.
Later I went to a breakfast meeting sponsored by the RISC (Rhode Island Statewide Coalition)for Small Business. The agenda was to unveil a strategy for the small business owners in Rhode Island to become a political force equal to their economic presents in the state. Small business represents 97% of the businesses in the state and employs 57% of the state's workers, according to RISC.
Underrepresented in the General Assembly, over-taxed and easily dismissed by the traditional powers that have ruled Rhode Island for close to a century, small business is stirring. RISC, founded in 2003, as a grassroots organization is inviting small business to flex its muscle.
This morning we witnessed a presentation of strategy and the tactical approach for small businesses to become politically active. The crowd of small business owners who attended the meeting are being asked to participate in a program designed to win back the General Assemble over the next 9 months. for the core of Rhode Island producers and employers. In turn, this will set the stage to bring about fundamental change in the state's economic policy. In turn it was suggested that this would set the state back on a course of positive economic growth and development.
Today we are seeing the true beginnings of a revolution in the New England political environment. What happened in Massachusetts will have national ramifications. But what happened this morning in Warwick, RI not far from Gaspee Point, will have immediate impact on the daily lives of Rhode Islanders.
In the coming days and weeks we will be following this revolution on this blog. Stay tuned.
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