RIPTA Rider Reader 6/11/25
A weekly column you can read on the bus — or anywhere in the world.
A couple of recent articles I wrote for Newport This Week:
Middletown Coastal Access Alliance to Partner with CRMC (June 5)
Fishermen and surfers should keep an eye on the MCAA — as they continue to fill the void left by the dissolution of Clean Ocean Access when it comes to monitoring public access right-of-ways, they are going to have a lot of power when it comes to negotiating parking policies at popular fishing and surfing spots. Some of those spots happen to be in very wealthy neighborhoods full of people who hate that the unwashed massed are allowed to park on their streets and use a coastline they wish was fully privatized.
Thompson Teacher Launching Free Skateboard Initiative (April 17)
Wheels Up! Youth Skate Program Receives $25,000 Donation (June 5)
I am really proud to say that the recent $25,000 donation for youth skateboarding programs in Newport came about because the donor happened read my first article about the Thompson teacher. Word on the street is it also resulted in an additional big donation to the Friends of Newport Skatepark. That’s called impact.
If you would like to support my work but aren’t ready to become a monthly subscriber, consider buying me a cup of coffee on Ko-Fi. (Basically a voluntary $5 one-time donation to support my work.)
The weather has been iffy so far for the start of the summer ultimate frisbee season, but none of our games have been postponed or canceled. My RIPUL team is 0-4 after two weeks of play, and unfortunately I don’t think we can blame the climate conditions.
At least my teammates are all nice, fun people, and the weather today is perfect for ultimate frisbee. May today be the day Team Yellow gets its first big win, or at least cuts down on our league-worst point differential.
I’ve actually finished in last place at ultimate tournaments with two different teams on two different continents this year, so I am hoping we can string together a few wins and climb out of my summer league’s basement by the time the RIPUL tournament rolls around in August.
Nobody cares about the NBA Finals — despite an absolutely electric game ending with yet another Tyrese Haliburton buzzer beater, the first game of the finals averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.91 million viewers on ABC. Outside of the Covid pandemic years, it was the lowest-rated and least-watched NBA Finals opener since Nielsen tracking began in 1988.
It might just be because the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers are both small-market teams, even though OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was unanimously voted league MVP and Indiana’s star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is on an all-time clutch playoff run. The series is tied 1-1, game three is tonight in Indianapolis, and I think the Pacers are a really fun team to watch. Tip-off at 8:30.
Nobody cares about the Nobel Peace Prize either, which seemed like a big deal when I was a kid but has come to resemble a hollow political nothing throughout my adult years. Without using Google, does anybody remember who won it last year?
Hint: they were featured in one of my earliest Substack posts. I actually thought it was a great choice at a time of heightened international hostility and capitalized militarism.
They gave MLK the Peace Prize in 1964, and he got assassinated in 1968. Though his story has been sanitized over the passage of time and repurposed to suit the modern liberal myth that the United States is a post-racial society, Doctor King felt the struggle for equality was far from over at the time of his death, and there are still huge and obvious racist inequalities, in the United States to this day.
Arafat, Peres, and Rabin won it jointly in 1994 in the wake of the Oslo Accords. Peres lived to the ripe old age of 93, but Rabin was assassinated by Israeli extremists in 1995, and Arafat died under mysterious circumstances in 2004 — some claim he was poisoned with polonium. Today, of course, the peace they supposedly won the prize for is nowhere to be found, and Palestinians are battling for survival against the brutal, genocidal madness of the colonial ethnostate that is Israel.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom announced yesterday in a joint statement that they would formally sanction Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich for “incitement of violence” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
On a not-totally-unrelated note, I was surprised to learn recently that Providence City Councilman John Goncalves is married to Maria Friedman, the executive director of a fringe organization called the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel (RICI).
I think Goncalves’ personal ties to an organization which openly admires the Israeli military — several of the board members have extremely personal ties to the IDF — explain a lot about his consistent inability to conceive of Palestinians as human beings with their own thoughts, dreams, emotions, and aspirations.
It’s amazing to me that a schoolteacher can be so publicly silent about the slaughter of thousands of children, and even openly oppositional to the resolutions of city council colleagues who are more in touch with a basic sense of empathy, but I’m no political insider so maybe I just don’t get why a principled stance on human rights for all must necessarily be antisemitic when it is applied as an ethical standard to the state of Israel.
I used to receive the RICI email newsletter when I was the editor-in-chief of Options Magazine. I’m not sure what it is like now, but under Friedman’s immediate predecessor, former executive director and founder Howard Brown, it was a stream of unhinged propaganda.
Here is RICI’s mission in their own words — it is displayed on their website alongside a verse from the book of Genesis (12:3 for the unfortunately curious)and a quote by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a historically hardcore Zionist leader who was inspired by Mussolini to launch his own fascist paramilitary organization called Irgun:
The mission of the RI Coalition for Israel (RICI) shall be to promote Western, Judeo-Christian values in America and America's alliance with Israel through a working grassroots partnership of Christians and Jews.
The organization will serve as an advocate for Israel through educational activities within the Greater RI area.
RICI will stand up against anti-Semitism and the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement through educational activities, public statements, peaceful demonstrations, handouts, films, lectures, and other means of communication.A 2020 report by US-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud reminded readers that prior to Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany, Mussolini had expressly spoken in support of Zionism, and of Jabotinsky in particular:
“For Zionism to succeed, you need to have a Jewish State with a Jewish flag, and Jewish language. The person who understands that is your fascist, Jabotinsky,” Mussolini said during a private conversation with Nahum Goldman, founder of the World Jewish Congress, in November 1934, as reported by Lenni Brenner in his volume ‘Zionism in the Age of Dictators’.
Two of the most infamous operations for which Irgun, Jabotinsky’s Zionist paramilitary, are known for this day are the King David hotel bombing which targeted the British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946, and the Deir Yassin massacre on 9 April 1948.
The hotel bombing killed 91 people, including Jews, and the Deir Yassin Massacre killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children.
Jabotinsky has more streets and parks in Israel named after him than any other historical figure in Israel, so RICI’s enthusiastic Zionism and support for the Israeli government as it openly attempts to eradicate the Palestinians of Gaza is actually a pretty good analogue for understanding how far right-wing the Israeli mainstream really is:
Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds (Middle East Eye — May 24, 2025)
There are plenty of more fair-minded and more dynamic Jewish organizations here in the United States and specifically in Rhode Island, most of which do not explicitly admire the fascist politics of Jabotinsky and do not intrinsically tie support for the state of Israel into the core of their Jewish identity in the hyper-nationalist way RICI does.
(Although some do, and are just quieter about it.)
Jewish Voice For Peace RI, for instance, recently held a 24-hour fast in solidarity with the people of Gaza, and with the help of many members of the local community in and around Providence they raised thousands of dollars for a charity called the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
A global group of women who play and coach ultimate frisbee have started a GoFundMe campaign for Enas Saada, a dedicated sports coach from Gaza. I greatly admire Enas and all of her peers around the world who have remained principled and steadfast in their active support and solidarity for their Palestinian sisters.
Enas was introduced to Ultimate Frisbee at an Ultimate Palestine coaching clinic in Gaza, and went on to run ultimate practices and games for the youth in her community, including children with disabilities.
Since being displaced by the ongoing crisis, Enas has continued her commitment to her community. She now provides urgent support for families and children through food relief and educational camps.
Enas’s fellow women in ultimate are working to raise $5,000 to help her distribute perishable food items to displaced families in need and organize educational and recreational camps for children affected by the conflict.
It costs approximately $50 USD to feed a family of four for a week in Gaza. Enas’ initiatives will reach 30+ children and dozens of families. Your donation can make a direct and meaningful impact.
So far, grassroots donors have raised $1,932 of the $5,000 goal for Enas. Every contribution, no matter the size, helps Enas rebuild hope through food, sport, and community connection. Thank you for standing with her.
Support Enas Saada – Sports Coach and Community Leader (GoFundMe)
Free Palestine.