At 9pm on Thursday evening, May 16th, the second episode of Constitution USA with Peter Sagal will premiere on channel 36, Rhode Island's PBS affiliate. This episode prominently features the Cranston West Prayer Banner case and interviews both Jessica Ahlquist, the high school student who successfully had the banner removed, and David Bradley, the man who was the student in 1963 who wrote the prayer. The piece features footage shot by yours truly.

Here's a shot with my screen credit:

And, if you don't want to wait or you're reading this too late, you can watch the episode online here.

Watch It's a Free Country on PBS. See more from Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

PayDay Loans: My Testimony before the House Finance Committee

"You will pay me- forever."

My testimony in support of House Bill 5019, that "would repeal the provisions of the general laws allowing deferred deposit providers, also known as 'payday lenders.'" I will be presenting the testimony to the Rhode island House Finance Committee this evening.

Good evening Representatives, my name is Steve Ahlquist. I am the president of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a non-profit group with about 300 members dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism and action. I am here to support House Bill 5019 that seeks to put an end to the terrible injustice that is PayDay Loans.

I read a letter in theProvidence Journal from an employee of a PayDay Loan company in Pawtucket who told the story of a woman who desperately needed $200 to fix her son's car and help him keep his job. The writer stated that the woman was desperate, and had no recourse other than to utilize his company's services. The writer saw this as a vindication for the service his company provided, but I see it as exactly the opposite, because,

The woman in question had no choice.

The woman in the story had to either sign a contract and promise to pay the frankly usurious rates of interest the PayDay Loan company charged or face the potentially terminal economic consequences of her son losing his job. Given certain economic ruin or punishing interest rates of over 200%, the woman made the only choice she could. The question becomes: Would the woman have hesitated to sign the contract if the interest rates were set at 400%? 500%? More? How was she to avoid it?

The woman in question had no choice.

When people are faced with not feeding their children, accessing vital health care, paying the rent or fixing an automobile that's essential to getting or keeping a job, they will become desperate.

This desperation is like the smell of blood to PayDay Loan companies because PayDay Loan companies are vampires targeting the most vulnerable among us, sucking millions of needed dollars out of our poorest neighborhoods. When legislation looms that might threaten the company's ability to score obscene profits PayDay Loan Companies manage to invest $100,000 in a lobbyist, or, to keep with the vampire metaphor, a ghoul.

Certainly we can do better than this. Must we leave our most vulnerable as prey to the heartless, inhuman machinations of profit hungry monsters? Is their no other way to provide needed loan services to our poorest and most desperate fellow citizens? Are we so bereft of ideas or so blinded by ideological certainties as to cast our fate with monsters?

It is time for the General Assembly to drive a stake into the heart of the vampire that is devouring our communities by passing House Bill 5019.

Thank you.

John DePetro's anti-Catholic hate for undocumented workers

This piece ran on RI Future.info yesterday:

When six-year old Derrick Johnson was struck and killed by a pickup truck driven by Andres Morales, the community mourned a tragic death. There is no question that the terrible event was an accident, Morales had no intention or wish to harm the boy. Perhaps the accident was preventable, perhaps not, but the case has taken on a special significance in the minds of some because the driver of the pick-up was an undocumented worker who apparently had no license.

John DePetro, the noisome talk radio show host, made a big deal back in November over Governor Chafee's idea of giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses. A bill to allow this is slowly making its way through the General Assembly. Somehow, in a gigantic leap of illogic, DePetro has decided that Chafee bears some responsibility for the boy's death. On his blog, DePetro writes, above a photo of the deceased boy:

Governor Gump needs to hold off on giving illegals drivers licenses. A young American life is taken by an invader. John DePetro has protested Governor Chafee for cutting a deal to get votes in exchange for giving an illegal a drivers license . The illegals threaten they will not vote for Chafee unless they are given a Rhode Island drivers license.

DePetro's hatred for undocumented workers is palpable and grotesque and DePetro's revolting invective encourages his callers to respond with even greater levels of stomach-churning bile. Those who maintain a different view from DePetro are of course lambasted. Back in November DePetro allowed a caller named Raymond through and what followed was a litany of racist abuse, which DePetro yelled out as the man tried to express his opinions in heavily accented English. DePetro said:

"We have turkey on Thanksgiving, not stuffed pigeons, the illegals Thanksgiving."

"You are going to learn our customs!"

"This is our land. No el drive-o on our road-o."

Talking about a rally at the State House, DePetro said that undocumented workers "should have been there to clean the State House and that's it."

"I have a problem with you people on the road. No more loose donkeys on Broad St."

DePetro's hate has unhinged him. Diving, or rather belly-flopping into the Boston Bombing story and the local connection to Tamerlain Tsarnaev's wife, Katherine Russell, DePetro has made a spurious and unfounded connection between "illegals" and terrorists, scrawling on his blog, "Governor Chafee wanted to roll out the red carpet to everyone and it looks like it is working. Terrorist (sic) and illegals are flocking to Rhode Island."

That DePetro's radio show is a cesspool of hate is not a source of shame but a point of pride for the man. His website is full of pictures that attempt to depict undocumented workers as scary non-white "others" in order to appeal to the basest prejudices of his listeners, and smear Governor Chafee: 

 

 

 

And yet, DePetro still maintains, despite his hate for and vilification of undocumented workers, that he is a Catholic. Saccharine piety drips from DePetro's tongue with same same thickness and intensity as the hateful bile he spews against those who are not like him, and the Catholic Church not only says nothing, they actively support him. Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese is a not infrequent guest. Father Bernard Healey, the Providence Diocese's chief lobbyist to the General Assembly, appeared at DePetro's Odeum event in East Greenwich.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity" have written the official Catholic teaching on immigration.

We recognize that nations have the right to control their borders. We also recognize and strongly assert that all human persons, created as they are in the image of God, possess a fundamental dignity that gives rise to a more compelling claim to the conditions worthy of human life. Accordingly, the Church also advocates legalization opportunities for the maximum number of undocumented persons, particularly those who have built equities and otherwise contributed to their communities.

The Maryland Catholic Conference has boiled the church's teaching to seven basic precepts.

All people have a right to have their basic human needs met in their homelands.

If their basic needs cannot be met in their homelands, persons have the right to seek them abroad.

The right to migrate is not absolute and can be mitigated in favor of the common good.

Nations may regulate borders to provide for national security, tranquility and prosperity.

The right to regulate borders is not absolute and regulations must promote the common good.

Nations with the ability to accommodate migrants should respond with generosity.

Families have the right to remain united.

Nowhere in these statements is there hate. Nowhere in these statements are immigrants unfairly associated with terrorism, or are those who seek to help undocumented workers implicated in vehicular homicide. Instead, there are calls for generosity and an appeal to the common good.

John DePetro is a terrible person, and a terrible Christian. Mouthing platitudes does not make someone a decent human being. Showing compassion and understanding, actions apparently outside DePetro's skill set, does. And once again the Providence Diocese, under the direction of Bishop Thomas Tobin, has failed to be any kind of a moral leader. In supporting DePetro the diocese has once more abandoned its commitment to protect those in need.

Ending Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech in Rhode Island

House Bill 6051 was introduced by Representative Art Handy.

Rhode Island is the first state to introduce any kind of legislation to counter the ridiculous Supreme Court decision commonly known as Citizens United. Here is the full video of those who spoke out both for and against the bill at a public hearing held on May 9, 2013. I was unfortunately unable to attend, but some of the testimony is fascinating.

Video: Testifying for Reproductive Rights and Freedom

My testimony at the Rhode Island State House before the House Judiciary Committee on May 8, 2013. Under consideration were five bills, H5566, H5435, H5104, H5334 and H5488 that seek to limit a woman's access to quality reproductive health care, especially abortion. My written testimony can be read here. 

 

License plate legislation aids anti-choice efforts

Is Rhode Island the Louisiana of New England?

Here's the piece that originally ran on RI Future.info on May 10th, 2013: 

In the battle over marriage equality in Rhode Island, one of the most vocal groups in opposition to full civil rights for the LGBTQ community was the Knights of Columbus (KoC), a Roman “Catholic fraternal service organization.”

The KoC is one of the major, if not the major contributor to the National Organization for Marriage and a founding member of the anti-marriage equality coalition the Faith Alliance.

In the end, though the KoC could not prevent marriage equality, they did lobby for and receive a special religious exceptions for their organization. In essence, based on First Amendment arguments regarding freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and separation of church and state, the Knights of Columbus have preserved their right to discriminate against LGBTQ citizens, just like churches and clergy.

In January, Representatives Corvese, Edwards, Fellela, Azzinaro and Malik introduced legislation that “would authorize the division of motor vehicles to issue special license plates in recognition of ‘Choose Life.’”

House Bill 5053, allows the KoC to design new license plates in conjunction with the division of motor vehicles, and further will allow the KoC to split the $40 fee with the state, generating a minimum of $18,000 for the organization. This money “shall be distributed annually to the Knights of Columbus Choose Life account in furtherance of one of their missions of assisting pregnant women and their unborn and newborn infants via non-government funded programs that provide free services that promote and support the alternative choices of infant adoption and Rhode Island’s Safe Haven.”

Just to be clear on what this means, the government will be assisting the KoC in its fundraising efforts that seek to prevent women from accessing safe and legal abortions, which the KoC does on purely religious grounds. At the point this bill becomes a reality, the “non-government funded programs” run by the KoC will in truth be at least partially government funded, a clear violation of the separation of church and state.

The KoC lobbied hard to have their facilities protected from the odious burden of hosting same-sex weddings, citing religious exceptionalism. There is no arguing with their status as a religious organization when they are seeking the right to discriminate against certain citizens.

The separation of church and state, however, cuts both ways. Allowing a religious group to advertise their religious views on our license plates, as a means of generating funds is an abandonment of the principles this country was founded upon. I’m sure the KoC can come up with better fundraising ideas that don’t require them to entwine their religion with our freedoms.

I would suggest selling bumper stickers.

Why some blog comments die in utero

As a rule I am happy to receive comments on anything I write for any of the blogs I write for. But I do draw the line at comments that are insulting or that contribute nothing to the subject at hand. In response to the piece I wrote for RIFuture defending my niece, Jessica Ahlquist, from yet another round of insults and abuse, I received a comment that was nothing but insults and abuse. 

I did not approve the comment, obviously. Instead I sent the following email to the commenter.

I'm writing to let you know why I have not approved your comment on the Jessica Ahlquist piece I wrote for RI Future. I wrote the piece to defend her from the ugly abuse she has suffered from the media and from the insufferable and obnoxious Internet trolls who hide their real identities behind self-aggrandizing and sophomoric pseudonyms. I did not write it with the intention of letting small minded and judgmental bullies use it as an excuse to begin a new round of insults.

I wrote the piece because I know my niece and I know why she did what she did. It was out of a sincere belief, not to get attention or make money. Many people, who suffer from ignorance and narcissism think they know the real story. When possible, I try to spare theses people the embarrassment of making fools of themselves in public.

I wrote the piece because some have an identity so small and of so little value that they can only make their lives feel meaningful by attacking a young woman in an anonymous Internet comment. These people usually think that they are more intelligent than they are, are insufferable assholes, and seek only to bring other people misery.

Now if those same people could couch their arguments in sentences that didn't attack the character of my niece but the substance of the issue, I would have no problem approving their comments. This would require that the person making the comment to possess intelligence, decency, compassion, reasoning skills and a point that made sense. Such a person would understand that ad hominem insults, straw man arguments and arguments from ignorance betray the vapidity of their views.

Thank you for writing,

Steve Ahlquist