Whitcomb: Rewilding of the Suburbs; History on the Blackstone; Gambling for More State Revenue – GoLocalProv

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

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Robert Whitcomb, columnist

All summerlongwe loved him for the samePerennialinspirationof his lies;And when the russetwealthofautumncame,There flew but fairer visions to our eyes-Multiple, tropical, winged with a featheryflame,Like birds ofparadise.

From Uncle Ananias, by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

Incessant company is as bad as solitary confinement.

-- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), English novelist

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Growing populations of coyotes PHOTO: file

You might call coyotes invasive species in these parts, but then so are we, if you go back far enough. And maybe, like dogs, their canid cousins, they too will ultimately be domesticated. Maybe even raccoons, who have also become suburbanites and even urbanites, will be domesticated. Theyre quite intelligent creatures. (Even moose, who arent smart, are wandering into some New England cities, such as Worcester.)

But keep your house cats inside. Coyotes will kill and eat them. But then, cats kill many, many songbirds so.

Meanwhile, gird yourself for the colorful Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive species moving into southern New England, aided and abetted by global warming. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture reports:

The spotted lanternfly causes serious damage including oozing sap, wilting, leaf curling and dieback intrees, vines, crops and many other types of plants. In addition to plant damage, when spotted lanternflies feed, they excrete a sugary substance, called honeydew, that encourages the growth of black sooty mold. This mold is harmless to people; however, it causes damage to plants.

If you see any of these execute as many as you can. But happily, it will take a while for Burmese pythons to make their way up here from Florida.

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I love those quaint Rhode Island fire districts that act as private clubs and block access to beaches by the general public. And some dont even fight fires. When will the state seriously review their legal status?

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William Blackstone PHOTO: RI Heritage Society

The bookish William Blackstone (1595-1675) (also called Blaxton) was an Anglican minister who might have been the first permanent white resident of what is now Rhode Island, moving down from Boston and settling in todays Lonsdale section of Cumberland in 1635, the year before Roger Williams founded Providence. The Blackstone River and a bunch of other things around here are named for him.

In the future Cumberland, on the east bank of the river that would bear his name, the reclusive and apparently kindly and tolerant intellectual read, wrote, tended cattle, planted gardens, and cultivated an apple orchard; he came up with the first variety of American apples, the Yellow Sweeting. He called his home "Study Hill," and it was said to have the largest library in the English colonies at the time. Sadly, his library and house were burned down in 1675 duringKing Philip's War, the very bloody and destructive conflict between Native Americans and English colonists that lasted from 1675 to 1678 and changed the course of American history. Blackstone died in 1675, just before the outbreak of the conflict.

Consider that his friends included theNarragansett tribe chiefs MiantonomiandCanonchet and theWampanoagsMassasoitandMetacomet. Metacomet is also known as King Philip (to mark the friendly relations his father, Massasoit, had with the English), whose followers were the ones who destroyed Blackstones home.

But now some Narragansetts want a new stainless-steel sculpture of Blackstone at the corner of Roosevelt and Exchange streets in Pawtucket taken down. Theyre trying to make him into some sort of symbol of the brutal white takeover of their lands and the vast suffering and death of Native Americans that accompanied the English colonialization of what the English named New England. But Blackstone is a pretty inaccurate example of white aggression!

Its appropriate that his statue remain up, given his importance to the history of the region. Its not as if this is a statue of the likes of the cruel slaveowner, and traitor, Robert E. Lee. Such works are best kept in museums. (There are no statues of Hitler in outdoor parks in Germany, despite his historical importance.)

But why not see if a statue of a Native American chief from Blackstones time in Rhode Island could be commissioned to be put up near Blackstones? It would be culturally healthy if we had a wider range of historical figures represented by our public statues.

Heres a nice crisp biography from the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame:

More Bad Gaming Ideas

Another bad idea: for Massachusetts to allow table games at the commonwealths lone slots parlor, at Plainridge Park Casino, in Plainville, and to permit slot machines at certain veterans clubs both aimed, of course, at getting more state tax revenue. Plainridge, for its part, wants to be able to better compete with the casinos in nearby Rhode Island.

Thus would come a further expansion of a business that especially preys on poorer people, that can become addictive and that can lead to such crimes as embezzlement, fraud and robbery. Oh well, states are addicted to gambling revenue just as some gamblers are addicted to betting.

Racial Demographics and Politics

Backers of African-American candidates in Bostons depressingly low-turnout primary mayoral election on Sept. 14 were frustrated that the two finalists werent Black. Michelle Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, and Annissa Essaibi George, the daughter of Tunisian and Polish immigrants, will face off in the Nov. 2 election. A Black person has never been elected mayor of Boston, despite a large African-American community about 22 percent of the citys population, at least in the 2010 Census, with 17.5 percent Hispanic and 8.9 percent Asian. The populations of the last two groups have grown substantially since then.

If racial identity is to be many voters main criterion for supporting someone, then the prospect of a Black mayor in the future looks dim because of the growing percentage of Bostonians with Asian or Hispanic backgrounds.

Do we want in our multi-ethnic quasi-democracy for race/ethnicity to be the main determinant in choosing candidates, as opposed to policy positions, experience and character, at least in some elections?

Keep the Pandemic Cooking?

In the face of obvious scientific facts, why do so many members of the GOP/QAnon Party continue to undermine efforts to stop COVID by mass vaccination? One is just ignorance reflecting the failure of public schools to teach basic biology, especially in Red States, where schools tend to be underfunded. And then there are social media and right-wing radio and TV, which make their money promoting lie-based conspiracy theories.

But does it also reflect the wish of GOP leaders to hurt the economy by keeping the pandemic going and thus damaging the Democrats in 2022 and 2024? Anything for power? That in turn would help the cynical plutocrats who bankroll the Republicans and hope for even more goodies for themselves in return. The fossil-fuel sector, hedge funders, the Koch Brothers and real estate developers (like the Trump Organization) eagerly await new bonanzas.

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President George W. Bush

Pushing Back on Beijing, but.

The U.S., Britain, and Australia have formed a new defense pact to try to thwart further aggressive expansion by China, pushed by dictator-for-life Xi Jinping. Lets hope that more nations in the Asia-Pacific region join. As NATO has been crucial in defending large parts of Europe from Soviet/Russian aggression, so a NATO-like organization is needed to push back against Chinese aggression.

BUT, this deal was clumsily done in one very important way.

France had a 50 billion euro deal with Australia to supply its navy with diesel-powered submarines that it now has to scrap with this deal, which calls for Australia to build eight nuclear subs with U.S. and British technology. France, a crucial NATO ally, feel overlooked and bypassed by the Biden administration. Making matters worse is that France was blindsided kept out of the talks that produced this pact and not even warned about its announcement ahead of time.

How to lose an ally! How can we make amends?

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UConn Bassketball PHOTO: UConn

Thanks to the great columnist Chris Powell for this in a column about the University of Connecticut:

Having just been appointed president of Huxley College in the Marx Brothers' 1932 movie Horse Feathers, Groucho's Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff quickly diagnoses the institution's failure. This college is a failure. The trouble is, he tells the faculty, we're neglecting football for education."

Its nice to see big-time college sports and the cartel called the National Collegiate Athletic Association coming under increasing pressure to boost compensation for the student-athletes who bring in the big bucks. And now athletes at some schools can make money off commercial endorsements.

But how perverse that colleges sports programs have become far more about making money than about higher education. Thats why some head coaches in the biggest programs --- football and basketball make more than the presidents of their institutions.

Academic leaders in other Western countries express astonishment at such commercialization of colleges. So much for the life of the mind.

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We still dont really know why the FBI seems to have covered up the sex crimes of Larry Nassar, the former osteopathic physician who as the team doctor of theU.S. women's national gymnastics team molested many girls and young women.

Read more here:

Whitcomb: Rewilding of the Suburbs; History on the Blackstone; Gambling for More State Revenue - GoLocalProv