Opinion
Editorial pieces from contributors and staff
Oped: Honor Mamas with Change, not Chocolate
"I am so sick of the endless pontificating about protecting women when too many times we ignore what mothers really need to take care of themselves and our families," writes Jocelyn Foye of The Womxn Project. "I am devastated when I hear lawmakers deny racism exists while Black mothers are crying over children lost to state violence and families are mourning loved ones lost to pregnancy complications and a medical system that does not hear their voices or see their needs. I am furious that the same people who talk about loving babies do nothing to address how many children don’t have enough to eat or that their families don’t have clean drinking water."
Oped: The Weight We Bear
"We cannot continue to allow State leadership to use us to prop themselves up or further their own personal agendas, especially during times of crises. We must challenge the status quo, question their decisions, and hold them accountable..."
Oped: Rhode Island’s police act no better than those that killed George Floyd
For Rhode Island’s police, violence is their answer. We must continue to struggle against the policing that invades and occupies our communities. Each new budget cycle, this same institution demands ever more resources from the communities it brutalizes. It is time to stop trying to reform, it is time to defund the police and reinvest in Providence.
Dr Anita Kestin: Why the “Public Option” Cannot Work (and Single Payer Can)
Single payer gets rid of expensive middlemen/health insurance companies but leaves our current healthcare providers in place – however, with more freedom to deliver care.
Oped: What Warwick’s ‘Back the Blue’ rally on May Day actually means
"Warwick’s Back the Blue event is a middle finger to organized labor, belying the rhetoric of politicians like Patricia Morgan who claim to speak for the supposed “little guy.” The real little guy is labor, the working class, which has been asking police to step down and let them win concessions that they themselves won over a hundred years ago."
Andy Boardman: Here’s how a Rhode Island “employment bonus” proposal would work - and how it can be improved
"By allowing workers to keep claiming benefits while they earn, partial unemployment insurance can act as an encouragement to re-enter the workforce," writes Andy Boardman. "H6249 adjusts and expands Rhode Island’s partial unemployment system to do two things: Make work pay more and permit a greater number of workers to use the program."
Jackie Goldman: The General Assembly needs more democracy
"Rhode Islanders are increasingly aware and outraged that our political system is broken. We will continue to unearth and highlight the barriers to democracy created by the so-called “democratic” establishment. We will continue to show up to hearings, we will continue to call on our legislators to fix the system, and we will continue to run anti-establishment candidates to take back power for the people."
We must defeat Governor McKee's Medicaid cuts
One of the most important progressive wins of last year's budget fight was defeating former Governor Gina Raimondo's proposal for $58.7 million of brutal Medicaid cuts. It wasn't any easy fight, but we won. And it's a fight we have to wi...
Arrested for bearing speech, arms, or both?
"When they ganged up on me it was like they wanted to punish me for trying to speak up. Like revenge for people calling out police brutality. Like anything would have been pretext to nab me. Someone saying they saw something on me was all they needed. My sister told me later that they told her I had previous gun convictions - but that’s not true. They made up stories to fit what they wanted to happen. It’s sad - I could have ended up dead. Over rumors!"
End Cash Bail in Rhode Island
"I couldn’t believe it the next morning when I showed up to wait for him at court and the clerk informed me that he would need $1000 dollars in cash or he wouldn’t be able to leave that day. Dennis doesn’t have any prior convictions. He is a loving, caring family man. What’s more, since he hurt his back a couple years ago, he has been unable to work. I am the only one earning a paycheck and I only recently started my new job. I thought I was going to have to sell that engagement ring. I thought I was going to have to sell the car. I was scared, and all over something that someone said they saw. All over the words written on his sign while he was leaving an event calling out the police and the state for trying to hide crimes."