Rhode Island

Rhode Island Republicans
by Michelle Prasad

           Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States of America. Rhode Island only agreed to accept statehood after the remaining twelve of the original thirteen states agreed to join the Union. Rhode Island is about 1,545 in area square miles. Providence is the largest city on the state, which is also the state capital. In 1996, the estimated population for Rhode Island was 990,225. Over 917,375 of the population are Whites, 38,861 are Blacks and the remaining of the total population are classified as Others. Rhode Island major form of employment comes from the service industry, unlike in the past, when it was the textile industry that was the dominant way of earning a living.
           Rhode Island was founded in the 1600’s, at the time; Samuel Slater established the first textile mill, which became the main source of earning an income for the community. Since it was founded, Rhode Island has been a state of controversy. In 1787, the state refused to send a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. It also refused to acknowledge its share of the cost of the Revolutionary War budget.
           Currently the highest elected official of the state is Governor Lincoln Almond, who is a Republican. Governor Almond was born on June 16th, 1936 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1959, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and later earned a law degree from Boston University. Before becoming Governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Almond served as U.S Attorney for over twenty years.
           In 1999, when Governor Almond delivered his State of State address he expressed some of his concerns facing the state. He stressed the urgency to take action now in order to achieve the goals of the future. He spoke of the drastic reduction in unemployment rate for the past nine years. The Governor believes that the creation of new and well paying jobs will contribute to the state booming economy. Governor Almond has also expressed his vision for the new millennium as having Rhode Islanders working at better jobs, increase tourism, and improving the state railways. He believes in creating access to higher education and expanding health care for children. In his efforts to stress the importance of time, Governor Almond advice all Rhode Islanders to “keep Rhode Island moving forward to even greater heights.”
           Governor Almond strongly feel that the children are the future of the state, therefore, parents and government should do all they can to give them a “good start” in life. One of his proposed idea is to eliminate the cause of lead poisoning. The way to achieve this goal, according to the Governor, is to double the funding for the Housing Resource Commission, which was previously receiving seven million dollars. Governor Almond marvels at the fact that Rhode Island is the first state to receive federal funding to create better homes for children and prevention grants for lead poisoning.
           In 1998, the Governor established a Starting Right Program. One of the benefits of this program is to create affordable child care. The program also require the government to ensure that the children in child care are receiving a proper education. The care takers of the children have to be qualify in order to obtain a job as a child care specialist. Another point of the Starting Right Program is to increase the availability of extra circular activities to young teenagers. In order to carry out his reforms, Governor Almond propose an additional funding of twenty one million dollars a year.
           After explaining his plans for better health care, the Governor spoke of his standpoint on how to increase the economic well being of the state. One way in which Governor Almond wants to increase the economic nature of the state is to use Quonset. Quonset was land that was reserved for the federal government to use for military purposes only. Recently Rhode Island has regained control of the land, which the Governor plans to use as a new industrial site. Governor Almond hopes that this will create a larger business atmosphere for Rhode Island, which will bring economic prosperity.