Sheeler: A "Normal" Day in a RI US Senate Campaign

Yesterday morning I met with a man respected in his community. He wanted to form a committee to help me gain support. He is a tailor and his wife is a daycare provider. He used to work for the state, but suffered a work related injury. He has two wonderful sons with the youngest a creative artist and an aspiring karate master as well as a junior Marine.

I was informed in my next meeting I would not be on Howard Dean's host committee when he arrives to Rhode Island for a DNC fundraiser on the 27th of this month. I asked why. Some in the party leadership don't know “where I'm coming from”. This is a euphemism for what do you have on those you want supporting you or what do they have on you? Basically, what’s in it for you. Not surprising for a political outsider. For the record, I'm running as a middle class, family man who directly feels the impact of our government's failure to keep its promises. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the Iraq War; that money comes from cuts in education, home heating subsidies, Medicare and domestic security. Few politicians acknowledge we're in an economic tsunami with tens of thousands of us working more and earning less, thanks in part to our increased property taxes. Matt Brown's cute commercial even suggests some of these issues, but like most feel good ads, no proposed, muscular solutions.

Rhode Island as a small state of stagnant population and economic growth is vulnerable to under funded pension burdens and unfunded educational mandates. Many households have already accessed their home's equity to make ends meet and just seem to accept large companies’ tax credits and wealth tax cuts. Our leaders won’t acknowledge the scope of the problem or develop a three-year plan to fix it. Otherwise, our state is looking at having a junk/high-risk bond rating. This is why we don't have new businesses coming to the state and residents choosing to leave.

The rewarding thing last evening was being one of the hosts for LADO’s Latino Dollars for Scholars program, where we heard how education is the most important aspect of our future - our children. These are seriously bright and motivated kids. Ironically, on the rare occasion I agree with Bush, despite wanting him impeached, he's asking to invest millions of dollars into language training. Sadly, not to augment one of the fiscal drains on our tightened education budgets, but so Chinese, Russian and Arabic, all languages of countries who pose a potential threat to our security, are taught. Maybe he'll be told by the bipartisan meeting of former Secretaries of State that diplomacy and less rhetoric is a universal language even those of us without an ivy league education understand.