Spillane takes on Sue Carcieri

By John McDaid | Thursday, 31 January 2008

There is an absolutely wonderful post by Eileen Spillane from RITwelfth today about Governor Carcieri's wife, Sue's recent interview in the Providence Journal. You should go read it.

I get the distinct impression that Sue (who doesn't get older, just blonder), along with her progeny, have never actually conversed with a "poor" person, much less developed any kind of relationship with anyone outside of her comfort zone.

... I do relate to having children, because we raise children. You cannot always say, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes.’ I mean there are those curfews and there are those restrictions on the allowance. Or, ‘You don’t get a new car because…’ ”She said someone tough-minded must be in charge.
“We have a lot of soft hearts but not people with tough minds.”

Cars? Allowances? I think that she has a soft head. She hasn't met the people that I have that live in our own district. Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels not only for nourishment 5 times/week, but for outside contact. Seniors and those who have chronic illness who have to decide between eating, paying rent & bills, and meds.

I've met working families who worry constantly about illness as they have no health insurance for their families. Parents who now have their meager paychecks garnished as they've had to be hospitalized or have expensive testing done for sick kids or themselves. Bankruptcy is a constant spectre. Families who ran out of money by Christmas (end of the month) and had no food, let alone presents. Not because of poor budgeting, but because they had so little to being with. Car repairs soaked up what little reserves they had and they found themselves relying "on the kindness of strangers."

— Via RITwelfth

Tags: 
Localblogging, 02871

Comments

chopmist22

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 9:41am

Sue Carcieri, along with the rest of the family, spent a couple of years in Jamaica where Donald headed the Catholic Relief Service's West Indies operation. They were embedded in a poor community in one of the poorest countries in the world. While there Sue taught in one of the local schools. I doubt Eileen has seen and dealt with the severe poverty that Sue has first hand.

I am not the biggest fans of Sue, but Eileen's statement is coming from ignorance.

John McDaid

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 10:09am

Hi, chopmist....
Point taken. But here's what Sue Carcieri said about the Governor's proposed cuts to ProJo's Charlie Bakst. I leave it to your judgement whether this sounds like someone who really understands poverty.

In denouncing a proposal the governor made recently to drop 2,000 children of illegal immigrants from RIte Care, I said the the kids would now swamp emergency rooms or just go to school sick and pose a health hazard to other kids, including citizens. Among the words I used to describe the proposal was “cruel.”

The first lady seized on this, called it “hate speech,” and said it didn’t “reflect the truth.”

She said her husband was faced with tough decisions, and she suggested that I, as a parent (actually now also a grandparent), should understand. “You have children. Do you just give them everything whenever they say, ‘Daddy, I want this’? You just say, ‘Sure’? You don’t do any tough love stuff?”

A moment later, I said the children of illegal immigrants are young kids. “They didn’t do anything wrong.”

She said, “No, they didn’t do anything wrong, but they have parents who ought to be taking care of them…. The parents are responsible for them.”

I said, “Not all parents are capable of doing that, or they need help.”

She said, “You really have the bigotry of low expectations.”

— Via ProJo

Kind Regards.
-j

eileen

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 12:58pm

Facts are always useful, although never necessary.
The Carcieri's lived in a comfortable neighborhood for less than 2 yrs. in Jamaica where he headed Catholic Relief Services twenty years ago (paid position). He got out of Old Stone Bank before it went belly-up. She taught in a private, neighborhood Catholic school part-time.
"Although they had a comfortable home in an nice neighborhood, Carcieri’s children felt cut off socially. Security was always an issue."
Let's see, "cut off socially." What could that mean (codeword)? They also had to lock their doors. Aint' life tough. He then went on to become CEO at Cookson.
I still have friends who recall the yr. or two he taught school in Newport. His wife encouraged him to quit as he was earning zip. And Newport teachers were faring better than most in the State at that time.
Deny health care to a kid because their parents weren't born in the right place? That ain't me, babe.
Who is ignorant?

islander

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 1:34pm

I was a peace corps volunteer in Jamaica a couple years after the Carcieri's left and i think there are a couple potential misconceptions in assuming that just because they lived there that Sue Carcieri "dealt with severe poverty", any more than I did. I lived in Kingston for part of my service also and I have seen alot of poverty but did very little to change that other than occasionally giving in to a constant barrage of beggars or buying peanut cakes from desperate looking small children. Anyone who has lived in the third world knows what I mean. And every PC volunteer will tell you they took home more than they left behind. After all, the peace corps has been busy "working itself out of a job" around the world for over 40 years now and in case you haven't noticed, the countries they serve in are still desperately poor for the most part. So I don't think we can say that Mrs. C "dealt" with it either. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love and support the PC but it is sadly underfunded and underappreciated but still the best thing we have in terms of ambassadors of good will. Everyone should join at some point in their lives. Just a little public service announcement there, now back to the main event...

Sue taught in a private school so while it was "local" I doubt that she was dealing with much in the way of poverty every day in that school. If she had taught in Riverton City or Trenchtown that would be a totally different story, but the truth is it was dangerous for a white person to even think about stepping foot in those neighborhoods and I am sure she did not. Any more than you would wander around Harlem or S Central LA in the wee hours of the morning.

I also doubt very seriously that they were "embedded" in a poor community. It just isn't safe or realistic. They probably lived in a nice neighborhood with bars on all their windows and doors and a "helper" or two to cook and clean and garden for them, as is the norm for that echelon of society. I am sure they associated with and moved in the upper class society of ex-pats attending very nice embassy parties and sailing at the yacht club on weekends. Even as a lowly PC volunteer this was the norm for folks in Kingston. And it is no different for the so-called missionaries or business people who live there either. I had a higher standard of living as a PC volunteer than i do in my own country.

But here is the truth. Our country is rapidly becoming the same as third world countries in terms of stratification. And that appears to be lost on the likes of Mrs. Carcieri, maybe because she is in the group of folks who take care of each other and thus are insulated from the effects of our going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket economy. Are any of their children being told no?? Can they afford to get sick?? The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is shrinking. Jamaica had 12 wealthy families in the 80's who effectively ran the country, a teeny tiny middle class, and the vast majority were desperately poor. Just like the rest of the so-called "third" world. The signs of this show up first in the poor folks but do not kid yourselves, the middle class is next. Health care is ridiculously expensive. My family pays over $18 K a year. Who can afford this? Not us for much longer. And that is just one aspect of the gradual unravelling of our nation.

The Carcieri's left Jamaica because a friend of theirs was murdered and they felt it was too dangerous for their children. It is nice that they had that option. Their children have survived. They left behind a lot of other children who probably did not. We are a nation of haves and have nots and we are all trying to fool ourselves into thinking we are haves. There are alot of folks suffering and hopefully we will all figure out how to really "deal" with that. In Jamaica they'd be burning tires in the streets. Here we tend to change the channel.

Islander

eileen

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 4:40pm

Thanks for your insight. It was a thoughtful comment & I enjoyed reading it.
I pay not only for my family's health insurance but for my eldest son (an individual policy costing more & providing far less). Ouch! I count myself downright lucky that we can afford it.
While Pres. Johnson was unsucessful in his "War on Poverty," at least he tried. Now we just tell them to work harder or leave, while blaming poverty on their own ineptitude.