One commentator recently noted of Carcieri's social policies, especially those on immigration, that they are "...scary and it’s dangerous … Any of us who are different should be afraid.”
Charlie Bakst, with his usual frank and good insights, gives note of the mean-spiritedness that seems to be spreading throughout the state of Rhode Island when it comes to immigrants.
I should also give kudos to Bishop Tobin and the other church leaders who are standing up for immigrants in our midst and the traditional American values expressed by Emma Lazarus and cut into the base of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island:
“Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./ Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/ I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
There is a good article on the debate in RI Catholic, the diocese's newspaper.
