People in Providence 01.15

State House Visitors

Left:  Betty Lang

The Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence brought me here today.  I think banning assault weapons the #1 priority for the whole nation, so anything I can do to help in that small way.  Basically I’m not that happy with the current person that’s been elected as the President of the United States; as they say, get involved locally, so that’s through my friend Jessie.  She’s introducing me to everyone here at the StateHouse and she’s very involved, so that’s one of the reasons I’m here: to learn more so that I can do more.

Now I’m retired.  Formerly, my husband and I were publishers of the Block Island Times. Now I love being in Providence, my grandchildren are here and it’s just a wonderful city.  Two of my grandchildren are here and two in Mass.

 

Right:  Jessie Kingston

Betty does a lot of child care, she’s not doing herself justice; she does a lot!  As for me, I’ve been coming her every year since we moved here 11 years ago because we’re retired.  I was amazed that you could actually come in and talk to your legislators.  I’ve lived in 7 or 8 different states and I never even set foot in the statehouse, I was not very politically active but, no time like the present.  The first issue that brought me down here was actually medical aid and dying.  Someone was mentioning it and I’m not getting any younger; I’m very much in favor of it having volunteered in Hospice in Ct. before we moved here.  So that was the first thing, now I’m all over the place just doing what I can and enjoying supporting our favorite legislators.

I also recently attended a rally in support of wind turbines in Newport because we believe in the efficacy of that kind of green energy, so climate stuff is near and dear to my heart, too, – so many things!  I can’t remember them all.  I’m kind of all over the place; I don’t like to specialize but I have enjoyed getting to know the legislators; I’ll attend hearings and try to get up my nerve to testify every once in a while if I think I have something to say that hasn’t yet been said a million times before.