Rhode Island is still reeling from the unbelievable disaster last week.
97 people died. 97 people. There were no sprinklers in that club. There were locked doors. The unlocked doors opened inward. Nobody could get out. The entire thing is wrenching. A prayer vigil last week turned into a Wellstone-esque political rally which enraged the mourners present, many of whom got up and stormed out. People are devastated.
My heart is so with all of them right now. My state. My home. Rhode Island, the smallest state with the longest name … “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”. Here are some more facts about Rhode Island. To all my Rhode Island readers: it is mortifying that the “world’s largest bug” makes it to the fact list! You all will know what that refers to!
And facts 21 through 23 are things I am particularly proud of.
I read a quote in one of the articles about the mourners, one of them said, “You hear about that whole six degrees of separation thing? Well, it’s usually only about one degree in Rhode Island.”
That is one of Rhode Island’s strengths, one of the beautiful things about the state (and it also can be the main reason why people are like: Get me the hell out of here!)
The following article in the New York Times “gets” us perfectly, gets exactly what Rhode Island is about. It made me cry. The one anecdote which seems to capture the smallness and intimacy of Rhode Island perfectly is a description of the governor’s press conference:
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri fielded the questions fired at him one after another — How many dead now? Isn’t someone accountable? — with the patience of a father being tested. “I’m not saying that, Sean,” he said at one point.
Rhode Island is described as a place where “everything is local”.
Rhode Island is the kind of state where you ask for directions, and this is what someone will tell you: “Okay, so you go down this street and you take a right where the A&P used to be … then you stay on that road, and when you come to the end of it, take a left where the Bess Eaton used to be … and what you’re looking for is on Rt.138 where that Tae Kwan Do studio used to be.”
Local Rhode Islanders like myself will nod knowingly at these directions suffused with the past, and newcomers will be completely lost. “Tell me what is there NOW, please.” And when the direction-givers say stuff like “where the A&P used to be”, sometimes they are talking about what hasn’t been there for 30 years!
And my sister Jean pointed out, that all directions given in Rhode Island usually contain the words “Dunkin Donuts”. The moment she pointed it out to me, I started hearing it all over the place. “Take a left at the Dunkin Donuts…” “And then you pass the Dunkin Donuts…” “There’s a stoplight, and a Dunkin Donuts on your right…”
Or sometimes the two particularities of Rhode Island directions will happen in the same sentence: “Take a right where the Dunkin Donuts used to be…”
My thoughts and love are in Rhode Island right now.
