By Matt Allen, WPRO
Wednesday afternoon, the ridiculous insult being lobbed at the people of RI by Rep. Joseph McNamara (D-Warwick, Cranston) will culminate in a cooking demonstration in front of the House Committee on Health Education and Welfare.
This is the famous “Calamari Bill” where Rep. McNamara decided that it would be an economic boon to the state to make the fried squid dish the official appetizer of the state of RI. He says this is an attempt to focus on our positive attributes and make RI some sort of tourist destination. In reality, it’s an insult to all the people of this state begging for some real economic movement so they can actually make it here.
As the state continues to languish at the bottom in terms of unemployment, and many other measures of productivity, we spend legislative energy on the gay marriage issue and what the official state appetizer should be. Focusing on the positives of the state is code for ignoring the glaring problems that impact the real quality of life issues that impact all of us every single day.
We have member after member of the General Assembly trying to make themselves seem relevant in the eyes of the public without actually having to take a stand on anything of substance. If they do take a stand on anything of substance, they run the risk of aggravating the leadership and becoming irrelevant. So as an elected Representative or Senator your job becomes an effort to be as irrelevantly relevant as you can be. Camouflaging silly maneuvers like this calamari bill as something that’s effective or needed is just an insult.
So tomorrow afternoon we’ll sit and watch this little dog and pony show and several people will treat this bill like it’s legit. They’ll all smile and make some jokes and vote it through and have their calamari and the rest of us will continue to fish for jobs and leg up.
In case anyone at the state house is reading this, just know that your insults aren’t so clever that they can’t been seen by those who are paying attention. Maybe someday the people of this state will stand up and demand more. Until then we’ll just have to accept that fried squid is the best we got.
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Matt Allen
