Meet Bob! The Father On A Mission to Save Women’s Sports!
/in Featured, News Splash, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomPRESS RELEASE: Center Sponsors Online Forum on Hamas’ Oct 7th Sexual Violence
/in Blog, Featured, News, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomApril 7 Forum to Expose Truth of October 7 Sexual Violence
Public Invited to Register for Online Event this Sunday
Cranston, RI – The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity announced today that it has partnered with the RI Coalition for Israel (RICI) to encourage members of the public to register for a compelling online event this coming Sunday.
Entitled “The Reality of Sexual Violence in War”, the April 7, 2:00 PM EST Zoom-based event will feature as keynote speakers two internationally prominent Jewish women – Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Susan Seely – who will discuss and display images of some of the carnage and aftermath of the brutal attacks by Hamas on the people of Israel last October 7. Local organizations that work with women will also present during the 90-minute forum.
According to RICI, there is a public need to raise awareness about Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, in direct violation of the international rules of war. This 6-month remembrance event, presented by RICI and the RI Chapter of Hadassah, is designed to erase doubts that Hamas utilized sexual and gender-base violence as a weapon of war and intimidation … a documented fact that has often been dismissed as Israeli propaganda by enemies of Israel.
As the event’s promotional co-sponsor, the Center conducted an in-depth interview with two leaders of RICI on its popular podcast, In The Dugout with Mike Stenhouse, and is raising awareness via its media, email, and social media apparatus.
“Given the many anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian protests across the country and here in Rhode Island, it is important that the public understand the abject brutality that occurred on October 7,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “Hopefully, such knowledge will bring more balance to the debate about Israel’s need to eliminate Hamas in Gaza vs. calls for a cease-fire.”
Sunday’s web-based event is open to and free for all to attend, with registration options below:
Visit TinyURL.com/NeverSilenced6
Visit RICI’s Facebook page and follow the links
Court-ordered March 15 Public Forum May Expose Pseudo-Science of RIDOH’s School Mask Mandate Blunder
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by Mike StenhouseRich Southwell, lead plaintiff, along with his over three-dozen co-plaintiffs in the school mask mandate lawsuit against Governor McKee and the RI Department of Health, are calling for the support of parents and concerned citizens at a court-ordered public hearing to be conducted by RIDOH on Friday morning, March 15.
Southwell is looking to fill the room, many of whom he hopes will testify, and to have others submit testimony via email, calling on the public do its part in fighting off future frivolous school mask mandates.
As part of the settlement agreement reached between the plaintiffs and the State of RI, RIDOH must hold an open forum, where testimony about the efficacy of community masking can be presented on the record … a required act of transparency that was ignored during the pandemic when McKee and the DOH first imposed the state’s school mask mandates.
As part of their negotiated victory in the case, Southwell and all plaintiffs, led by attorney Gregory Piccirilli, won a major concession from RIDOH … that the pros and cons of school mask mandates would finally be debated in a public forum.
In what may be the only instance in the nation where a state department of health has been forced to consider a specific masking regulation and forced to conduct a public hearing, Rhode Islanders and citizens across America should take heart that a significant victory has been achieved against the authoritarian mismanagement and scientific negligence by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Dr. Andrew Bostom, the plaintiff’s top medical and data research advisor throughout the entire legal process, the upcoming public forum will expose the pseudo-science conducted by RI Department of Health.
The official issue to be addressed at the 9:00 AM hearing, is whether a proposed new school masking regulation should be permanently adopted, which would govern RIDOH procedures when it comes to potential future airborne pandemics.
However, the actual issue that will be the focus of the hearing is whether the efficacy of school masking mandates have any scientific or data-driven basis … and whether such polices might cause real harm to children and staff who are forced to breathe unclean air for long periods of time, from under their masks. In fact, the Superior Court judge ruled previously in the case that children indeed suffered “irreparable harm” from the DOH’s mask mandates.
“Based on what we now know, we never want to see any child harmed again by such cavalier and callous actions by our own department of health,” said Southwell. “If there is to be a school masking regulation, it must ensure that any future consideration of school mask mandates will be required to be based upon the actual science and the findings of gold-star random control studies. This regulation provides no such assurance.”
To date, 78 such relevant studies, summarized by the prestigious Cochrane report, “did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks.”[i]
The language of the proposed regulation was agreed upon as part of the lawsuit settlement, however the plaintiffs could not move the DOH far enough … and are therefore encouraging the public to testify – in person or via email – against adoption of the regulation.
Per attorney Piccirilli, he and the plaintiffs attempted to negotiate language that set a much higher scientific standard, however the State wanted as much arbitrary wiggle-room as possible by demanding vague language that would allow the DOH to balance scientific evidence with “the exercise of judgment” by DOH officials. [ii] The language that was agreed upon was the best the plaintiffs could negotiate with RIDOH, which clearly is seeking to maintain the regulatory authority to impose future mandates, if its staff so desires, regardless of the science.
While there is no existing specific school masking regulation, Southwell and Piccirilli believe that the proposed language will not provide adequate protections for the safety of children and will infringe upon parental rights. In fact, they believe adoption of this regulation would give RIDOH the power to capriciously impose mask mandates upon children for any infectious disease, such as RSV, the flu, or chicken pox.
Southwell believes that a large response by the public, combined with the scientific evidence to be presented by local and national experts against school mask mandates, may be sufficient to dissuade RIDOH from adopting the rule. Alternatively, they will likely seek to greatly strengthen the proposed language through recommended amendments or edits to it.
“There should be no regulation requiring masking in schools for the alleged prevention of respiratory viral infections until evidence of BOTH their effectiveness, and lack of harm, has been demonstrated convincingly by multiple, rigorous, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in school age children published in peer reviewed journals,” advised Andrew Bostom.
Southwell calls upon parents, family, friends, and neighbors to participate and flood the RIDOH with compelling testimony. In February of 2022 over four-hundred Rhode Islanders testified against mandates and he feels this same level of support is once again needed.
Piccirilli further maintains that creating a public “record” of what he expects to be overwhelming evidence against child masking will be a critical legal deterrent against the DOH considering such a mandate again, even if the regulation is adopted largely as proposed.
According to a flyer put forth by Southwell to the plaintiff families, there are many ways to help stop this mask mandate regulation:
- Citizens interested in attending the hearing, even if they do not plan to testify can RSVP here.
- Written testimony opposing the regulation can be emailed to: zachary.garceau@health.ri.gov with a CC to consent4RI@hotmail.com
Citations:
[i] Do physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses? | Cochrane
[ii] Masking in School – Rhode Island Department of State (ri.gov)
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Center Backs Call for Resignation of RI Education Commissioner
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomPetition to Save our Kids from RIDE
Calls for Infante-Green’s resignation and for repeal of 2019 law that empowered the corrupt agency
Cranston, Rhode Island – The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity today publicly backed previous calls for the resignation of Angelica Infante-Green, the RI Department of Education’s failed commissioner, by promoting an online petition that all Ocean Staters are encouraged to sign.
The petition, which allows concerned parents and citizens to also log their own comments, and which automatically sends an email to multiple lawmakers and state education officials, can be accessed at RIFreedom.org/resign .
Without any prior publicity the e-petition has already garnered over 70 signatures, many of which include highly damning statements about RIDE’s many failures by members of the public.
The initial public call for Infante-Green’s removal was made last October by former state Senate candidate, Niyoka Powell, during her special election campaign. Given the ongoing failures of RIDE as well as recently exposed stories about a major public corruption scandal and its promotion of a media literacy scam that seeks to censor conservative views in K-12 schools, the Center is now openly publicizing its e-petition.
“The ongoing assault on families by Infante-Green’s RIDE, by indoctrinating students into a radical-left ideology, must be brought to an end,” said Mike Stenhouse, the Center’s CEO. “It’s time to save our kids from RIDE by seeking a new commissioner and to defrock RIDE of its curricula mandate authority.”
The online petition, entitled “Save Our Kids From RIDE,” also calls for repeal of the 2019 law that empowered RIDE to mandate curricula guidelines to all public school districts … and, therefore, to all elementary and secondary school students in government-run schools.
The petition web-page lists a number of indictments and links to support these two calls-to-action. The Center has reported extensively on RIDE’s radical agenda and its lack of success in improving student achievement.
“RIDE and Infante-Green have proven to be wholly ineffective, irresponsible, and unworthy of the powers granted to it the General Assembly,” concluded Stenhouse.
PRESS RELEASE: Center & State Rep. Newberry Urge Government Agencies to Cancel Affiliation with URI’s Media Literacy Scam
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomURI’s Media Literacy Scam Raising Alarms in RI and DC
Potential First Amendment Violations by Government Agencies?
Cranston, RI– The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity and a high-ranking member of the Rhode Island General Assembly call upon US and State Government agencies to cancel their affiliation with “Courageous RI.”
In a recent series of alarming reports, the nationally renowned Media Research Center (MRC) exposed how multiple state agencies have colluded with the University of Rhode Island and the federal Department of Homeland Security to indoctrinate students in a media literacy scam that includes censorship of conservative media and Christian values.
“It is likely a 1st Amendment violation for any American governmental entity to support activities that limit or suppress free speech,” said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “This sinister Biden administration initiative actually trains K-12 teachers to utilize censorship tools that discourage students from viewing content that the leaders of Courageous RI disagree with.”
State Representative Brian C. Newberry, former House Minority Leader and attorney said, “I participated in the launch event one year ago upon being asked because I think the issue of media literacy and educating our children how to sift fact from fiction is important. But I issued several warnings about how this program, while appealing in concept, could go off the rails if not managed properly. Unfortunately, and to my disappointment, though not surprise … the partisanship, censorship, and bias that has been infused by the Courageous RI leadership proves that this program is not worthy of, nor legally defensible for, any government entity to support in any way.”
This national scheme, implemented in states and contrived by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, currently the subject of Congressional impeachment proceedings, is also raising alarm bells at the US Capitol.
“Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced legislation to cut the federal funding of the Department of Homeland Security’s dystopian censorship activities following the bombshell exposés by our organization,” said Tim Kilcullen, attorney for MRC and author of the reports. “Similarly, the House Homeland Security Committee has already passed legislation to do the same.” Kilcullen was special guest on a recent episode, Uncovering the Indoctrination Agenda, on the popular video podcast, In The Dugout with Mike Stenhouse, which can be viewed here.
“URI is ground-zero for this national scheme. What DHS is doing with Courageous RI in Ocean State schools is exactly why the US Congress is looking to defund this un-American effort and ensure that the money is used for its original intent to prevent actual violence and terrorism,” added Kilcullen.
The DHS-URI-Courageous RI collusion was first reported in the Ocean State by Parents United RI, a parental-rights advocacy group, led by its founder, Laurie Gaddis Barrett. The group continues to investigate other aspects of this national censorship scandal.
Among the government and related agencies that are listed as Courageous RI partners, and who should immediately renounce their affiliations, are:
- RI Secretary of State
- US Attorney’s Office
- RI Department of Education
- RI School Superintendents Association
- RI Department of Public Health
- RI State Police
- RI National Guard
Private entities that are also known as partners or supporters, include:
- Former Congressman David Cicilline
- The RI Foundation
- RI Public Broadcasting
The full list of partners and team members can be viewed at About Us | Courageous RI (courageousri.com/about).
Kilcullen’s and Newberry’s full statements can be viewed here.
PRESS RELEASE: Center Petitions Governor McKee to Issue to Ronald Reagan Day Proclamation
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by LarryRI Should Recognize February 6 as “Ronald Reagan Day”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 4, 2024
Cranston, Rhode Island – The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity today officially petitioned Governor McKee to issue a proclamation declaring February 6th as “Ronald Reagan Day”.
As state sponsor for the The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse, said “In recent years, 36 Governors, in red and blues states alike, have proclaimed Ronald Reagan Day in their state; unfortunately Governors McKee and Raimondo have not joined with the rest of America in honoring the 20th century’s greatest President.”
The last Ocean State governor to issue such a proclamation, was Lincoln Chafee (I) in 2011. That same year, the RI Senate passed a related resolution, which in part read:
“WHEREAS, During Mr. Reagan’s presidency, he worked in a bipartisan manner to enact his bold agenda of restoring accountability and common sense to government, which led to an unprecedented economic expansion and opportunity for millions of Americans.”
Included in its Contact the Governor online submission, the Center wrote:
“The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project is committed to preserving the legacy of one of America’s greatest presidents throughout the nation and abroad. One of the ways we work to further the legacy of Reagan is by asking the governor of every state in the nation to make a proclamation declaring February 6th, “Ronald Reagan Day.” An average of 30 governors a year over the last few years have made such a proclamation, choosing to honor character over partisanship.”
“A proclamation in our state can help thousands learn the legacy of our nation’s 40th president and ensure his impact – including America’s victory over communism in the Cold War – is not forgotten,” concluded Stenhouse.
A special initiative of Americans for Tax Reform, the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project sends requests to governors from all 50 states to issue a proclamation declaring February 6 “Ronald Reagan Day,” This year, the proclamations would help celebrate Reagan’s 113th birthday.
As of the time of this media release, the Center has not received a response from the Governor’s office.
WHY MAJOR CHANGES ARE NEEDED AT THE RI DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomTop-10 Failures of Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green & RIDE
Under the deficient leadership of its commissioner, Angelica Infante-Green, the Rhode Island Department of Education deserves an “F” for failing to implement successful educational reforms while student achievement continues to plummet across the state as evidenced by the October release of RI’s dismal RICAS scores. Infante-Green’s tenure, which began in 2019, coincides with passage and enactment of a controversial bill (S0863) that took away local school district control and granted RIDE with the authority to develop and mandate curricula standards and guidelines in critical core subjects for all school districts in the Ocean State.
Infante-Green and RIDE are wholly ineffective, irresponsible, and unworthy of this unabridged power to influence the education of our state’s children. As a result, student achievement and public confidence in our state’s educational system have further deteriorated. Rhode Island’s education system has been systematically designed to confuse and demoralize students about their country, God, their core values, their fellow students, themselves, and their families. As a result, mental health problems are on the rise.
New leadership, with repealed curricula authority, is clearly required at RIDE.
Center Announces Middendorf Honorees for 2023 Freedom Banquet
/in Featured, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomCenter Announces 2023 Middendorf “Pillar of Freedom” Honorees for its Nov. 3 Fundraising Luncheon
Frank & Liz Mauran are Living Models of Liberty
Cranston, RI – The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity today announced that Frank & Liz Mauran of Providence will be honored at its November 3 Freedom Banquet which resumes after a three-year hiatus.
“Perhaps no other husband and wife duo in the Ocean State can present more notable family and civic ties to the very founding of Rhode Island – and of America – while their ongoing philanthropy and business ventures continue to benefit our state and the nation,” said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “The Mauran family ancestry reads like a history book.”
The J. William Middendorf Pillar of Freedom Award, to be presented by the Center’s Chairman, Dr. Stephen Skoly, is named in honor of Ambassador J. William Middendorf, Little Compton resident, former Secretary of the Navy, and current Heritage Foundation board member. He is, perhaps, Rhode Island’s greatest living defender of freedom.
The 2023 Daniel S Harrop Freedom Banquet, presented by Americans For Prosperity (AFP), is a fundraising luncheon that will be held on Friday November 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. The event is named after the Center’s founding chairman, Dr. Daniel Harrop, who unexpectedly passed away last fall.
The keynote speaker for the event, Guy Benson, is Political Editor of Townhall.com, a Fox News Contributor, and host of the nationally syndicated “Guy Benson Show” on Fox News Radio.
Tickets are still available. Tables of eight can be sponsored with a tax-deductible donation of $1200, while individual seats can be reserved with a $175 gift. More information and registration can be accessed at RIFreedom.org/Banquet.
Information on past Middendorf Award honorees can be viewed by clicking here. A link to the Mauran’s full award biography will be posted here after the banquet.
New Report Blasts Social Studies Standards Proposed by RI Department of Education
/in Blog, Featured, Recent Posts/by RI Center for FreedomHow Rhode Island’s Social Studies Standards Teach Radical Activism Instead of America’s Birthright of Liberty
Providence, RI – The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, in partnership with the Civics Alliance, today released a report entitled, “Taken For a RIDE”, which presents a detailed critique of Rhode Island’s Social Studies Standards (Standards) as proposed this past December by the RI Department of Education (RIDE).
The 54-page report, subtitled, “How Rhode Island’s Social Studies Standards Shortchange Students,” documents in detail how Rhode Island’s educational establishment plans to systematically “teach students to hate their country, its history, and its ideals, and to know only distorted tatters of the history of the world,” while also making an argument for substantially modifying or entirely replacing the Standards with a more historically accurate and widely acceptable set of standards.
“The Standards is neither by the people of Rhode Island, nor of the people of Rhode Island—but it nevertheless will be imposed on the people of Rhode Island.”
Released just one day after the Center exposed how RIDE is also pushing an age-inappropriate and over-sexualized K-12 student health curricula, “these incompetent and misguided social studies standards are further evidence that RIDE has proven itself wholly irresponsible and unworthy of the authority granted to it by the General Assembly in 2019,” said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “Lawmakers must repeal that statute, which has been grossly exploited by commissioner Angelica Infante-Greene and her staff.”
The well-documented report, which can be viewed at RIFreedom.org/RIDE, includes dozens of source footnotes, appendices, and links to source documents.
Taken For a RIDE contends that the Standards being proposed to establish Social Studies curriculum for all K-12 public schools in RI improperly de-emphasize historical truths about the founding and development of our country and emphasize instead radical, negative aspects of our history, which could result in students having an incomplete and distorted perception of the United States.
“In the long run, of course, Rhode Island will suffer most because its children will have been educated to hate their country. But the Standards will be quite effective in the short run in degrading every aspect of Rhode Island’s K-12 social studies instruction.”
The report is critical of the content, methodology, and process used by RIDE to create the proposed curriculum guidelines, stating “they have produced a document that is bloated, vague, riddled with errors, distortions, and absences” without the legally required public comment or legislative review.
“Rhode Island’s citizens deserve excellent social studies standards,” said David Randall, report author and Executive Director of the Civics Alliance. “Rhode Island citizens and policymakers should work at once to make all the statutory and administrative changes necessary to make sure that RIDE crafts proper social studies standards for their children – standards that educate Rhode Island’s children to know and to love their American birthright of liberty.”
Alternately, Randall and the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity advise that an already established set of curriculum guidelines created and vetted by the Civics Alliance and the National Association of Scholars – American Birthright – should be used as the basis for Social Studies curricula in Rhode Island.
Stenhouse calls upon state legislators to repeal the 2019 law; upon school districts to reject the Standards; and for Rhode Island citizens to insist that RIDE overhaul the guidelines in compliance with the legislation that mandates how the process must be done, including a proper period for public review and comment, before it’s too late.
“Rhode Island parents are encouraged to pressure their local school districts to find a legal way to reject RIDE’s bogus social studies standards and, instead, adopt the well-balanced and historically accurate American Birthright standards, which will appeal to a broad majority of parents and Americans,” concluded Stenhouse.
Joint Publication: The Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity and the Civics Alliance have issued this report jointly. The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, which is a member of the American Birthright coalition, works to forward the best public policy within the state of Rhode Island. The Civics Alliance works to improve K-12 social studies education nationwide, especially along the model of American Birthright: The Civics’ Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards. The two organizations have joined together to produce this report, both to improve social studies standards in Rhode Island and as part of a larger campaign to improve American K-12 social studies education.
Author Biography: David Randall is Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars and Executive Director of the Civics Alliance. He served as Publication Coordinator for American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards (2022). His academic publications include The Concept of Conversation: From Cicero’s Sermo to the Grand Siècle’s Conversation (2018) and The Conversational Enlightenment: The Reconception of Rhetoric in Eighteenth-Century Thought (2019).