Bid to name R.I. bridge for woman hits a bump

AP ^ | May 27, 2007 | Ray Henry

[ConservativeStatement]

PROVIDENCE -- A female lawmaker in Rhode Island is demanding her colleagues name a bridge for an outspoken woman who helped found the state, a gesture resisted in a House chamber so dominated by men it lacked a women's bathroom until last month.

Lawmakers here routinely crank out honorifics with little fanfare, let alone debate. Not this time.

Critics of Representative Amy Rice have rewritten her bill and attempted to scuttle it over a plan to name a new bridge spanning the Sakonnet River for Anne Hutchinson, a religious dissident who led hundreds of followers to Rhode Island in 1638 after Puritan zealots banished her from Boston.

"This bill would have passed if it weren't for gender politics," fumes Rice, one of 15 women in the House of Representatives. "For women, we've come a long way . . . but apparently not far enough."

[ConservativeStatement]

The author's bias oozes through this article. Of course, he fails to mention the breakdown of R and D in the House.

[goodnesswins]

I believe ONLY those who have given their lives in the name of FREEDOM or protecting OTHERS deserve to have assets or geographic items named after them.....i.e. soldiers, police.....NOT POLITICIANS or activists!

[rlmorel]

"...The author's bias oozes through this article..."

Sheesh. Well, I guess! This is "journalism" nowdays????

[JillValentine]

So where did the women go to the bathroom? Did they use the men’s room, or did they use the one in the Senate?

I work in a male-dominated field and I’ve never had trouble finding a bathroom.

[therut]

Women like this are a disgrace. Please to not give me or anyone else accolades because we are women. Makes me SICK.

[ConservativeStatement]

I’m not sure. I imagine arrangements were made long ago; however, the article is written horribly. His choice phrase of “of course” in the second to last paragraph speaks volumes. That term would be appropriate for an opinion piece which this is not. The reference to the bathroom is hardly worthy of first paragraph material unless there was ample evidence that the name is being rejected specifically based on gender.

[PAR35]

he fails to mention the breakdown of R and D in the House.

It doesn't matter. Most of them would be liberal with either designation. It's fun to watch liberals fight.

[holyscroller]

I live in a state (Washington) plagued by dozens of roads, bridges, buildings, etc., named after worthless Liberal politicians. I think it should be against the law to name anything paid for with public money with the name of a political hack. Unless the politician paid for the thing with his own personal money, it should honor the public, not the politicians.

[Tall_Texan]

You would expect such sexism and Neandrathal tactics from those hillbilly rednecks... Oh, wait! These are those refined, tolerant Yankees acting this way! My bad. Doesn’t fit the media template.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Anne Hutchinson was hardly a politician, political hack, or “activist” in the modern sense. She is one of the most important figures in the religious history of America.

[quantim]

demanding her colleagues name a bridge

As pathetic as my state can be, it could be worse living in Byrd-Land.  What a proud people they must be naming everything down to a snail after a worthless senator.

[I still care]

That’s true. But she does have lots of other stuff named after her, like the Hutchinson River Parkway.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

Hmmm, so Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Washington, among other places, should be renamed? There’ve been plenty of folk who’ve helped shape this nation who didn’t fall in battle (or as a copper).

I don’t believe in the woman’s gender-politics hoohaw rhetoric, but Anne Hutchinson is a person of sufficient historical stature to warrant a bridge IMHO, especially in Rhode Island.

[LibFreeOrDie]

That’s in NY. Hutchinson helped found Rhode Island. Then after her husband died, she moved to NY (Long Island).

[brookwood]

Anne Hutchinson and her children were murdered by the Siwanoy Indians in 1643.
A tribute to the memory of Anne Hutchinson should be vigorously supported by those who believe that the treatment of native Americans by British colonists was justified given the relative sophistication and cultural advancement (e.g. written language, legal system, productive capacity) of the colonists in comparison to the indigenous population. Anne Hutchinson and her children were murdered, obviously without provocation, by the Siwanoy Indians. Unlike the battle of Wounded Knee, no sympathetic movies starring Susan Sarandon will be made about this; Alec Baldwin will not commemorate her; but conservatives certainly should. The idea that a bridge should be named for her may be a response to relentless pressure from descendants of native Americans for more land for casinos and other developments which have made them billionaires.
From Wikipedia -
In front of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts, a statue stands of Anne Hutchinson with her daughter Susannah, sole survivor of the attack by Siwanoy Native Americans who killed her mother and siblings in 1643. Susannah Hutchinson was spared because of her red hair, which the Siwanoy had never seen; she was taken hostage, named “Autumn Leaf” and raised among them until ransomed back years later. (Se; e: William Dunlea, Anne Hutchinson and the Puritans: An Early American Tragedy, Dorrance, 1993; Evan T. Pritchard, Native New Yorkers, Council Oak, 2002.)

Anne Hutchinson Memorial at Massachusetts State HouseThe statue was erected in 1922. The inscription on the marble pediment of the statue reads:

IN MEMORY OF
ANNE MARBURY HUTCHINSON
BAPTIZED AT ALFORD
LINCOLNSHIRE ENGLAND
20 - JULY 1595 (sic)
KILLED BY THE INDIANS
AT EAST CHESTER NEW YORK 1643
COURAGEOUS EXPONENT
OF CIVIL LIBERTY
AND RELIGIOUS TOLERATION [1][3]

[brookwood]

Anne Hutchinson gave her life in the name of Freedom. See my earlier post; she was an advocate of religious toleration who was murdered by Siwanoy Indians in 1643.

[Verginius Rufus]

Anne Hutchinson was the great-great-grandmother of Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts 1771-1774, a significant figure in the events leading to the American Revolution (he finally left the colony and died in England). At the time of the Stamp Act crisis in 1765, he was already Lieutenant Governor, and his house was destroyed by a mob. His handling of the tea tax issue in late 1773 led to the Boston Tea Party.

[goodnesswins]

Okay! Items named in honor of someone who gave their life for freedom counts!!!