Being a Rhode Islander, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him during temporary periods of joy. Followers of Irish poetry will recognize the reference to William Butler Yeats, who so famously wrote those words to describe his countrymen. In this winter of jobless discontent the daily drip of dour news in the Ocean State threatens to make us the biggest little state of depression.
It seems that not a day passes without another reference to Rhode Island having the worst, or nearly the worst, economy of any state. No business is safe. The pages of the Providence Journal, the largest newspaper, are filled with reports of layoffs. We even learned last week that the Journal itself is shedding 74 workers. State government is broke. We are a 'tax hell' state. Our public schools are broken. Our college graduates flee the day they get degrees.
The public employees who clean our streets, put out our fires, keep the peace and teach our children are targeted for cutbacks and layoffs. Rhode Islanders seem to take a perverse glee in aiming the finger of blame for all of our ills at each other.
Our political leaders are depicted as obtuse, or worse, corrupt. The chorus of "Only in Rhode Island" greets any new revelation of government stupidity or chicanery.
In the midst of all this demoralizing news, it may be time to take a longer view and try to remember that the state's motto is Hope, not Hopeless. Ours is a small sliver of a state, bereft of natural resources. It has always been a nice place to live and a tough place to make a living.
Since colonial times Rhode Island has had to reinvent itself every generation or so to deal with economic upheaval. We have evolved from farming and fishing, to the seafaring trade, to textile manufacturing, to heavy industry, to defense industries, to tourism and finance, and a service economy.
If you think things are bad now, remember that Rhode Island's economy was once anchored to slave-trading, and later, to a merciless system of child labor.
Rhode Islanders have endured wars, depressions, natural disasters, wrenching economic change, political uprisings, ethnic and racial tensions, a banking collapse and even the loss of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet from Newport in the 1970s.
We are a state of scenic beauty and a place that respects its past. We live in human scale neighborhoods. We have grand museums, storied colleges and universities, low crime rates, wonderful arts institutions and people who pretty much get along with each other.
Let us not sugar coat the state's plight or minimize the pain faced by those who have just lost a job or had a house foreclosed. You can’t eat the views of Narragansett Bay.
A recent Brown University public opinion survey showed the soaring state unemployment rate is percolating through the lives of ordinary Rhode Islanders. When asked if they personally knew a friend of family member who recently lost their job, a astounding 66 percent said they did.
Yet, as spring approaches, we can all enjoy the mirth of birdsong in the morning, the gathering evening light, the gentle roll of wave upon beach. Passover and Easter, the religious seasons of renewal, are fast upon us. Baseball starts soon at McCoy Stadium, where the old and young can catch a big time ball game for $4.
Let us try to keep our current travails in perspective. For sure, we are in a recession, as is much of the rest of the nation. Unlike the banking collapse of the 1990s, political corruption in Rhode Island had no discernable role in our current mess. We must sharpen out wits and try to reshape our economy. As Edmund Burke, the great British philosopher said, "A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation."
