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Muslim families in Rhode Island sat down and had breakfast
together.
The children of same-sex couples went off to school.
Low-income
workers calculated how they’d get through another month of bills.
Victims of
sexual assault put on a strong face.
They did what they needed to do because
they didn’t have a choice.
As a state representative, I am in awe of my neighbors’ strength
and resilience, and inspired to follow their lead – because we don’t have a
choice.
The Rhode Island General Assembly, Governor, and administration
need to have clarity of purpose moving forward. Washington, D.C. is about to
fall under unified, far-right rule, with the most hardline conservative
Republican majorities ever in Congress and Donald Trump in the White House.
Because of this dominance, we know that many of our most
vulnerable communities in Rhode Island are going to face an unprecedented
assault in the near future.
Federal policy is coming that will attempt to strip families of
benefits and access to basic needs like food and healthcare, deny certain Rhode
Islanders their rights, make it hard or impossible for Rhode Island workers to
advocate for workplace protections, break up families, lay waste to the
environment, deny reproductive rights, and much more.
There will be pieces of this assault that we can do nothing to stop at the state level, and many of our neighbors will suffer for it.
But there will be a range of issues that we can act on. In any
and every instance that Rhode Island’s state government can throw up a shield
to protect our constituents from the oncoming storm, we must do so.
It is our moral and ethical and fundamental duty, and I pledge
to do everything remotely within my power to fulfill that responsibility.
Rhode Island was founded, by immigrants, on a vision of
equality, diversity, and justice. I am proud to be among the countless Rhode
Islanders who will stand up to resist any effort to wrest that vision from us.
Every inch counts, and we will fight for those inches with
literally everything we’ve got. Because we don’t have a choice.
Aaron Regunberg is a community organizer in Providence and a state
representative in House District 4.