Chafee’s Inaugural: The Time Has Come to Watch Your Tone

Chafee’s Inaugural: The Time Has Come to Watch Your Tone

Tone and time played heavily in Lincoln Chafee’s Inaugural remarks as he became Rhode Island’s 58th Governor Tuesday. He wants us all to change our tone with each other. He implied then we will all have a better time.

But some of us wonder if adjusting our tone will really help when the fact is we are running out of time? If we could just start being nicer to each other, he seemed to be saying, then our not so nice problems can be solved.

Chafee quoted F. Scott Fitzgerald (“there are no second acts in American life”) and lightly noted that observation did not apply to his own political second act. But he mostly centered his speech on Rhode Island founder Roger Williams and his vision of the creation of a civil state, in an Inaugural Address that seemed to imply that a change of tone coming out of the Statehouse and among competing interests in the state is the solution we’ve needed. Speaking from the grand platform of the Statehouse steps, with the iconic statue figures of Roger Williams and the Independent Man shadowing over the proceedings, the speech was heavy on historical references to the founders’ embrace of diversity and inclusion. But it was light on any substantive mention of our very real present day problems and did not venture into how most Rhode Islanders—whether legal or illegal—will fare going forward if current trends are not reversed.

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An Inaugural address is not meant to be a heavily detailed budget blueprint naturally, so Chafee was not expected to delve into some of the more complex problems we face. However, an Inaugural speech does present an incoming leader the chance to maximize a unique moment of wide public attention. It is the ultimate bully pulpit moment, when vision and leadership qualities can shine brightest. So though it’s understandable that it was not a day to talk about pension debts or a new tax, the fact that Chafee portrayed his immediate rescinding of the E-Verify Executive Order and passing a gay marriage bill as the key components for turning around our economic development woes, signals a curious economic agenda I’m afraid.

The speech’s emphasis on improving the tone implies Rhode Islanders are hurting each other somehow in their disagreements over illegal immigrants, labor contracts and other policy items. Well our new Governor is right about that. Rhode Islanders are hurting. But it’s not their feelings that are getting hurt. It’s their wallets Governor Chafee! It’s their vanishing savings accounts which hurts them. It’s their local community’s dwindling revenues all tied up in pension obligations they can’t meet that’s hurting. It’s their depleted school budgets, resulting in dismantled sports, languages and music programs for middle class kids being educated in aging school buildings in communities like Providence, Cranston, East Providence, and Chafee’s hometown of Warwick. Yes Governor, it’s hurtful to see your local town deteriorate into avenues strewn with shuttered businesses and broken down roadways. That’s what’s hurting them.

In conclusion, taking my cue from our new Governor, pardon me if this sounds disrespectful, but what may I ask is the plan for addressing the looming deficit?

Sorry to be so terribly impolite.

Donna Perry is a Communications Consultant to RISC, the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition www.statewidecoalition.com