Should the name of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations be changed to State of Rhode Island?
Background here, Is Rhode Island’s Name Racist?
AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE
(CHANGING THE OFFICIAL NAME OF THE STATE)
(Section 1 of Article XIV of the Constitution)
Approval of the amendment to the Title, Preamble and Section 3 of Article III of the Rhode Island Constitution set forth below will have the effect of changing the official name of the State from “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” to “State of Rhode Island”:
Full text of amendment for Question 1
The Title of the Constitution shall be amended to read as follows:
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
The Preamble of the Constitution shall be amended to read as follows:
We, the people of this State which state shall henceforth be known as the state of Rhode Island, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same, unimpaired, to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution of government.
Section 3 of Article III of the Constitution shall be amended to read as follows:
Section 3. Oath of general officers.
– – All general officers shall take the following engagement before they act in their respective offices, to wit: You being by the free vote of the electors of this state of Rhode Island, elected unto the place of do solemnly swear (or, affirm) to be true and faithful unto this state, and to support the Constitution of this state and of the United States; that you will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties of your aforesaid office to the best of your abilities, according to law: So help you God. [Or: This affirmation you make and give upon the peril of the penalty of perjury.]
Bonus question: How long before an amendment is proposed to remove the words “grateful to Almighty God”?
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Comments
GAWD.
It's like the crybabies here in NH who keep trying to change our state motto because "Live free or die" is too "confrontational."
*headdesk*
hard to believe they are wasting state money on this.
i mean its just because the word plantation makes people THINK of slavery. not because the referenced plantation held slaves.
That being said, i can't get too worked up about changing the name of the state to what pretty much everyone calls it anyway. i mean, until you started posting on this, i didn't even know that there was a longer name for "Rhode Island."
Just as a point of trivia, the great-great-great grandfather of the founder of your employer had one of the plantations now at issue. He moved there to join Anne Hutchinson in Portsmouth and farmed it with his family. No slaves.
When I read the amendment I was surprised "Almighty God" was still in there seeing as those words are probably even more racist than "plantation" since the God their referring to it obviously white. I guess they didn't want to add to the controversy and take it one phrase, of a historical document practically no one is aware, at a time.
I grew up in a town called White Settlement. A few years ago the mayor tried to change the name to West Settlement, not because there had ever been any problem enticing businesses because of the name, but because "there might be in the future." I think two people voted in favor of the name change.
btw, here is the other creepy thing about this. They are literally deleting their old constitution like it never existed.
it has a sort of animal farm feeling to it, like when the animals looked at their rules and suddenly it said, "no animal shall kill another animal WITHOUT REASON." or something like that.
i have alot less problem with an amendment that instead said, from here on, the state shall be officially known as Rhode Island–without deleting anything else.
Even if it is ugly, even if it was tied to racism, it should be preserved and remembered. we didn't delete the 3/5 clause of the U.S. constitution. Nor did we delete the 18th amendment. instead we repealed in one case, and rendered moot in another. But we didn't try to pretend it didn't happen.
While they are at it, they should simplify the spelling to "Road Island". This would also create jobs throughout the USA, including new road signs and maps. More work for everyone. (smile)
And, when will there be an outcry for Louisiana to change from "parish" to "county" because of potential religious overtones?
1. Per your previous post, I hope that common-sense tradition prevails over political correctness and the referendum fails.
2. But I can only shake my head (or shudder) at the distorted intellects and consciences that proposed the referendum, especially during the current crisis.
3. How long before an amendment is proposed to remove the words "grateful to Almighty God"?
Maybe the words will be removed judicially, perhaps by a liberal federal court whose ruling a liberal state atty general will decline to appeal. Maybe the RI Supremes, much more intelligent than previous generations of jurists[1], will discover a contradiction among the penumbras and ululations of the state constitution, and mandate removal of the g-word in order to resolve the contradiction.
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[1] In neighboring MA, the Supreme intellects discovered that the state constitution legalizes gay marriage–a point that had eluded their less gifted predecessors for centuries.
Down with political correctness. I loved the old name. It is like calling Virginia a Commonwealth. Come on, people. I agree with AW this is not a valuable exercise in time or energy.
Will it save space on legal documents – no doubt. Will Rhode Islanders be losing a part of their history and a link with their past – absolutely. Long live Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations and woe to those ignoramuses who proffer these resolutions and spend their lives crossing "Ts'" and dotting "is" to the point they qualify for clinical diagnosis.
Are the folks in Rhode Island no fun any longer?
That is one of the great trivia questions of all time . . . "Which state has the longest official name?" . . . and most of those who do not know the answer immediately begin thinking of the four "Commonwealth" names. You can actually see them counting the number of letters in "Pennsylvania" and "Massachusetts" on their fingers! And when each (of the ones who can actually count) triumphantly announces, the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts," you can then say, "Nope, but it borders on the Bay State!" leading them to begin thinking there must be some trick with the official name of "Connecticut."
What fun! Silly, to be sure — but fun.
And now these bland idiots want to sink further into obscurity? Even if they switched the name to the Commonwealth of Rhode Island, they would still lose one of the charming distinctions they have always held.
This is a very disturbing trend, this business of erasing one's heritage for the sake of some imagined PC nonsense. It has something to do with the left's obsession and insistence on the belief that history is to be seen as a straight line progression, one that will culminate in achieving the socialist utopian ideal.
Next I suppose they'll start renaming some of the shore communities having American Indian names — like Weekapaug or Misquamicut — based on some bogus claim that these are now somehow insulting and degrading.
Ex Phile, I remember the whole debate about White Settlement. I didn't know a single idiot who approved of it. I mean…really? Why? Stupidest thing ever. So glad it failed.