My Love Letter to Little Rhody

Posted on | August 9, 2010 | 2 Comments

It’s the second Monday in August, so you know what that means…..Victory Day!!!

Say what?

While the rest of the country trudges off to work for yet another Monday, the good folks in my home state of Rhode Island have the day off in celebration of Victory Day, or as it was formerly known, Victory over Japan Day. Once upon a time, it was a nationally recognized holiday commemorating the end of WWII with the dropping of the bombs on Nagasaki. Today, though, little Rhode Island is the lone state left celebrating.

The “why” doesn’t matter as much (it’s because RI lost a disproportionately large number of sailors in the Pacific war, in case you really wanted to know) as the fact that Victory Day is just one more way Rhode Island manages to thumb its nose at the rest of the country and go its own way. Instead of following suit with the other 49 states, Rhode Island likes to march to the beat on its own drummer and do things its own way. It’s a quirk and it’s part of why I love my home state so much.

From the start, Rhode Island has been an independent force of nature, determined to find its own way instead of following the beaten path. When the folks in the Massachusetts Bay colony kicked Roger Williams out (for saying all sorts of incendiary stuff like people should have the freedom of religion and Native Americans should get equal treatment), he just made his way south and founded his own colony, on his own terms. Thus, Rhode Island was the first colony/state to include religious tolerance and the separation of church and state in its charter.

Even when it came time to band together with the other colonies against the English, Rhode Island still insisted on being just a little bit different. It was the first colony to declare independence from England, a full two months before the Declaration of Independence was signed (cause you know ain’t nobody gonna bring us down). And, if you choose the believe the musical and movie 1776, we sent a cranky, annoying drunkard named Stephen Hopkins to the Continental Congress – a man who often interrupted his peers and brow-beat other delegates into signing the Declaration. (We’re pretty proud of him.)

In spite of a “lead the way” attitude, Rhode Island still refused to play by the rules, waiting until the very last minute to ratify the U.S. constitution (and was therefore the last of the original 13 colonies to do so). Many years later, Rhode Island was also only one of two states to refuse to ratify the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) because, let’s face it, we enjoy the alcohol. As the history can show, Rhode Islanders insist on making things up as they go along, instead of following someone else’s lead. We’ve got our own name for drinking fountains (those are bubblers to you), slang (wicked is good, except when it’s not) and candy sprinkles (jimmies, if you please) and we’re quite proud to boast the country’s largest Big Blue Bug. And if you ever ask a Rhode Islander for directions, I sure hope you already know where you’re going (“if you get to where the Ann and Hope used to be, you’ve gone too far”).

Sure, we’ve got problems – with 39 cities and towns and no county governments, we’ve a little heavy-handed on the bureaucracy and no other state can claim a capital city mayor who has his own marinara sauce and a federal criminal record. Heck, even Newsweek voted RI one of the worst state governments.

Still, notoriety aside, there’s a spirit that infuses Rhode Island and to understand it, you only need to look up, at the statue atop the state capitol building. He’s called the Independent Man and he represents the independent spirit that has enveloped Rhode Island since Roger Williams decided to play the game by his own rules. I’m pretty independent myself, so I like to think it’s no coincidence that I grew up here. So it’s a badge of pride to call myself a Rhode Islander, being self-sufficient by taking care of myself and always believing that I can do anything I set my mind to – and not letting anyone tell me I can’t.

[Photo Credit: Google Image Search]

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