ONE of the many reasons I LOVE Rhode Island

Iconoclastic, anti-religion-dominated, Rhode Island, always has perplexed historians. It was the first colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and the last to ratify it. The Dorr Revoltin 1841 threatened the very entity of the American government by its fight against non-entitlement of voting rites to certain citizens not owning property. It embraced the first Jewish emigrants with the glorious Newport synagogue, while welcoming supposed "heretics" from Massachusetts. It seems, if you were "out of the loop", you were welcomed; if you were not accepted, you were. The great mayor of Providence, Mayor Buddy Cianci (the last mayor I met), was the first to host to walk the Gay Pride parade through Bristol, acknowledging the prominent power that group was playing; he was, and is, a class/political act. Rhode Island is a gem that I always say has "been passed by time".