THE COALITION
  • Home
  • Past Shows
    • LIVE Broadcast
    • Gina Raimondo Political Hall O' Shame Inductee William Murray Cumberland Mayor 6/9/17
    • Alicia Ann Kelley - Environmental Activist
    • Rob Cote - Activist Extraordinaire
    • Bobby "The Rep" Nardolillo Candidate-US Senate
    • Arvin Vohra LP National Vice Chair 05/19/17
    • Emerge America Political Director A'shanti Gholar
    • Shannah Kurland \\ PrYSM: Community Safety Act
    • The Debate! Jared Moffat Regulate RI vs. MIchael Cerullo RI Center For Freedom & Prosperity
    • FIT: Meg Kerr\\RIPTA Riders-Pawtucket Soup Kitchen
    • Frank Carini -EcoRI.org
    • Attny's McElroy & Elmer: Invenergy!
    • Lynnette Labinger - ACLU / Donna Personeus Thayer St!
    • Jared Moffat Regulate RI
    • Jon Keith - Rhode Island Senate District 27
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Committee September 17, 2016
    • Republicans For Johnson\\\\Weld August 28, 2016
    • Rep Sherry Roberts: Quiet Strength\\Monique Chartier-Freedom & Prosperity\\Daryl Gould LP Candidate GA @ The Superman
    • Analee Berretto: Libertarian Candidate General Assembly Bristol / Portsmouth
    • Charles Wilson - National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers
    • Linda Lotridge Levin- Rhode Island Press Association
    • Pride Week! Thom Simmons LP Candidate US Congress / Mike Shipley Outright Libertarians
    • New England Livery: Uber & The Sharing Economy / Del BigTree Vaxxed The Movie
    • Alex Merced Libertarian For US Senate New York-Joanne Leppanen RIPAC Cannabis Tax Crisis
    • Steve Kerbel / Gary Johnson Libertarian Candidate
    • Phil West\\Bill Felkner CLEANRI.org The Ethics Bill 5/14/16
    • Darryl Perry: Libertarian Candidate for the Presidency of the United States
    • CoHost Blake Filippi \\Gary Sasse Represents John Kasich \\Joe Trillo Represents Donald Trump
    • John McAfee: Libertarian Warrior / Candidate for The Presidency of the United States
    • Austin Petersen: Libertarian Candidate for POTUS \\\\ Jame Kennedy TransportPVD
    • Prof Steven Forleo Rocks Corporate Academia
    • Blake Filippi Libertarian Lion
    • CLEAN RI Bill Felkner
    • Moira Walsh Candidate District 3/RIPTA Riders/Fung Fiasco!
    • State of Homelessness-Rhode Island
    • Emergency Medical Cannabis Summit!
    • Bob Lafleur: Rhode Island Independent Contractors
    • Bella Robinson-Coyote / Norma Jean Almodovar Sex Worker Rights Activist
    • StopTollsRI.com / Rep Pat Morgan
    • Michael G Riley Explains It All To You-Pension Crisis Redux
    • J. Kennedy/J. Harris The 6/10 Connector: Boulevard of Dreams?
    • Bella Robinson\\Maxine Doogan Decriminalize!
    • Dr. Beshara Doumani - Syria! 12/5/15
    • The Curious Case O' The Dancing Cop Moore v. Stewart: Presiding Judge Ford
    • RIPTA Riders Alliance/James Kennedy
    • Joan Chabot Candidate Senate District 11/Hillary Davis: RI ACLU
    • Jim Vickers-Manchester 65\\ Greenwich Cove Meadery October 24, 2015
    • Jim Vincent Providence NAACP October 10, 2015
    • Providence Apartment Association\\\\Monique Chartier December 3, 2015
    • John Miner Russ Moore Alex Merced August 26, 2015
    • Shannah Kurland September 19, 2015
    • Kate Nagle Michael Riley September 12, 2015
    • Providence Bankruptcy! 9/21/14 Riley/Harrop/Flanders The Experts Weigh In!
    • Bob Healey: The Cool Moose 10/12/14
    • The Coalition Episode 5
    • Podcast
    • The Coalition Condensed
  • Advertise
  • Civil Liberty News!
    • PO Taxpayer
    • Tony Jones
    • David Fisher
    • The Goldwater Institute
  • Fight the Stadium
  • YOU! Need To Join The ACLU
  • About Us
    • Hosts
    • In The News
    • Contact Us
    • Media Partners
    • Sponsors
  • LIVE Broadcast
  • Our Next Show
  • Coalition YouTube Page
  • The Coalition Podcast!

In Context: Chickens and Thugs

1/15/2015

Comments

 
For the thousands of you that follow me on the blog here at The Coalition, you might have noticed that my writing is taking a somewhat satirical bent. It has occurred to me over the last few years that if anyplace in the world deserves a bit of skewering, it is Rhode Island, and in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the need for pointed political satire seemed even more prescient. I have published satirical pieces on this page before (See: Here, here, and here), and even set up a test website for said pieces. (See: Here)

Yesterday, I posted a piece about a luxury chicken coop available in Woonsocket. The story was meant to be a good-natured jab at the bureaucracy in Woonsocket, and the fact that the city has adopted the strictest, most expensive backyard chicken ordinance in the U.S. When I posted the story link on facebook, I referred to the Woonsocket Zoning Board of Review as "thugs."

The reason, I went with that particular word choice is because it is accurate. 

Here's some background. Roughly two years ago, a family in Woonsocket was cited for having chickens in their backyard. Under then existing city statutes "no farm animal" of any kind was permissible with the city limits. The family raised the chickens for eggs for their daughter who has gastro-intestinal issues. Store bought eggs made her sick. Their son then took it upon himself to start a city wide petition to allow backyard chickens within the city, and after collecting several hundred signatures, brought his plea to the City Council. Initially, the council gave him a flat-out, "no," using what seemed like an endless stream of faulty logic, opinion disguised as fact, and willful ignorance, which all boiled down to the following argument:

"We can't allow this in the city because some people may not follow the rules."

By that token, we'd have to ban guns, cars, chemicals, medicine, investment banking, board games, pub trivia nights, dry clean only shirts, etc.

As a chef and foodie, one of the more disturbing aspects of the City Council battle was the seeming inability for some members to understand that some people would prefer to not buy eggs from abused chickens. In most factory farms, chickens have their beaks, claws, and wings clipped, are pumped full of antibiotics, and live out a short, miserable life in a cage that is so small that they can't even turn around or spread their wings. If you treated a dog or cat the way most egg-laying chickens are raised in this country, you'd be brought up on animal cruelty charges.

After the initial response, the young man was not daunted, and set about actually crafting a city ordinance that would allow anyone with a single family home and $374 to spare can have the privilege of owning up to four hens within the city. And of course there is the red tape of setback and coop construction and maintenance standards. This ordinance all-but literally restricts access to a food source from the very people who would stand to benefit most from low-cost eggs: the poor.

Now the law is in effect, and the family is applying for their - I can't believe I'm writing this - chicken keeping permit. At their first hearing before the Zoning Board, again the inane questioning continued, and the permit was tabled until the next meeting. I was not at the meeting, but I was told that the board was dismissive  and rude to the young man and his family.

I guess I really shouldn't expect much from a body where one member openly posts things on facebook like this:
Picture
This "Great Lesson" in irony, which is neither a great lesson, nor ironic, and equates a third of Woonsocket's population to wild animals: 
Picture
And in a post that even I found too offensive to repint on this blog, Mr. Fagnant suggests that he would "... slap the crooked pig teeth out of (the) mouth" of anyone that didn't agree with him. This all reads as pretty "thuggish" to me, unless "slap(ping) the crooked pig teeth out of my mouth" is the new "fist bump."
Comments

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Dave Fisher

    I am the burr under your saddle. I am the rock in your shoe. I am the limb that appears out of nowhere while you're walking in the woods that you almost walk into and take your eye out. I will afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted, and offend those I find offensive. Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

      Email me!

    Submit
    Tweets about "@DAFisherRI"

    Archives

    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    1st Amendment
    Baldelli-Hunt
    Bernie Sanders
    #blacklivesmatter
    Black Lives Matter
    Blight
    Bureaucracy
    Buying Votes
    Campaign Finance
    Casey
    Chickens
    Chippendale
    Civil Liberties
    C. Montgomery Burns
    Constitution
    Corruption
    Costa
    Crony Capitalism
    Crony Corporatism
    CVS
    DINO
    Electioneering
    Election Fraud
    Ethics
    Fascism
    Felony
    Flexibility
    Funny
    Gina Raimondo
    GoLocalProv
    Graffiti
    Green Party
    Greens
    Hate Speech
    Highway Blocking
    I-195 Land
    I-195 Redevelopment Commission
    Income Inequality
    Islamic
    #Jill2016
    Jill Stein
    #JobsBudget
    Kettle
    Larry Lucchino
    Legislative Grants
    Mattiello
    Maximum Wage
    McCoy
    Minimum Wage
    Morin
    Muslim
    Nazi
    Newberry
    #NoPVDStadium
    Party
    Pawtucket Red Sox
    Phillips
    Progressive
    Protest
    Raptakis
    Religious Right
    Renamed
    Representative Raymond Hull
    Republican Party
    Rhode ISland
    RIFUTURE
    Route 99
    Satire
    School
    Senator Lou Raptakis
    Skeffington
    Skeffo-nomics
    Stadium
    Steve Ahlquist
    Subsidies
    Taxes
    Tea Party
    Thugs
    Transparency
    Trillo
    Vandalism
    Voter Fraud
    Wealth Inequality
    West Warwick
    Woonsocket
    Zoning

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture