Posted on November 19, 2021
STAMFORD, Conn. — State Representative Kimberly Fiorello (R-Greenwich and Stamford) this week joined Stamford Mayor David Martin, Town Clerk Lyda Ruijter and Turtle Clan Chief Vincent Mann of the Ramapough Lunaape Nation for the unveiling of Stamford’s 381 year-old original deed of gift at Old Town Hall on 175 Atlantic Street.
Originally known as ‘Rippowam’ to members of the indigenous Siwanoy tribe, the settlement was re-named to Stamford after its purchase by the New Haven Colony on July 1st,…
Posted on November 19, 2021
GREENWICH — State Representative Kimberly Fiorello recently hosted a lecturer from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution for a discussion of Fairfield County-native Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, first published 75 years ago.
David R. Henderson, a research fellow with the Hoover Institution and professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School, served as guest host for the discussion, which touched upon the unforeseen consequences of government…
Posted on November 16, 2021
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that two FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) opened today in Bridgeport and Greenwich to help Connecticut residents affected by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
Representatives from FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration are available at the center to explain disaster assistance programs, answer questions about FEMA letters and provide literature about repairs and rebuilding to make homes more disaster resistant.
The DRCs are located…
Posted on November 4, 2021
Economics In One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt
What: Virtual Book Lecture and Q&A via Zoom
Who: State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello and David R. Henderson, Hoover Institution
When: Monday, November 15th from 7 to 8 PM
“Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for. The world is full of so- called economists who in turn are full of schemes for getting something for nothing. They tell us that the government can spend and spend without taxing at all; that…
Posted on October 20, 2021
Sheila A. Weinberg is the Founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, an organization whose mission is to compel governments to produce financial reports for the public that are understandable, reliable, transparent and correct.
Our discussion touched on the nuances of government accounting, Weinberg’s findings in the Financial State of the States 2021 report and how Connecticut’s poor performance is reflected in your personal tax bill.
I hope you will find…
Posted on October 12, 2021
Connecticut ranks dead-last, 50 out of 50, in average tax burden per taxpayer, according to a recent report, titled “The Financial State of the States 2021”.
On October 19th I’ll sit down with Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of Truth In Accounting, a think tank dedicated to the truthful accounting of government finances and author of the document, to go over its findings and highlight the group’s other comprehensive analyses of government fiscal data.
Please join me for this eye-opening look into…
Posted on September 28, 2021
HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut House of Representatives approved an extension of Governor Ned Lamont’s COVID emergency powers yesterday until February 2022, marking nearly two years under dual emergency declarations granting the governor unprecedented authority to shape state policy.
State Representative Kimberly Fiorello (R-Greenwich and Stamford), who has opposed previous extensions to these declarations, voted ‘NO’ and offered the following comments for her 80 Democratic colleagues who have…
Posted on September 22, 2021
Erec Smith is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he has eclectic scholarly interests, Smith’s primary focuses on the rhetorics of anti-racist activism, theory, and pedagogy. He is a co-founder of Free Black Thought, a website dedicated to highlighting viewpoint diversity within…
Posted on September 17, 2021
Bio:
Essay:
The United States Constitution establishes the law of the land. While its authors could hardly foresee the changes that would redefine what America was to become, they were wise enough to add to the embryonic document the ability to amend it to suit the times.
It is taken for granted that Americans will follow the law of the land, but not without challenge. Via the democratic voting process, Americans can alter or remove the laws and rules that are not compatible with contemporary thinking and practices. Since its creation in September 17, 1787 then ultimate ratification in 1789, there have been 27 amendments.
But that’s moot. The meaning of and connotations of the document can be as diverse as the folks who comment. If I were to scan Webster’s dictionary for the term “freedom,” I imagine I would see a picture of the Constitution beside it because that is the essence of its existence as enumerated in the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights.
White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, for the most part, separated from Britain, the mother country and “tyrannical” King George the Third, to create a new government, a republic form of democracy in which freedom “would ring,” as coined in 1831 in the lyrics by Samuel Francis Smith: “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty.” Over the subsequent 240 years, the millions upon millions of aliens, immigrants, foreigners who immigrated to our shores had one goal in mind, freedom to be themselves in a land of freedom and opportunity. Emma Lazarus’s famous 1883 sonnet summed it up in her work created for the Statue of Liberty: “cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., made the following allusion to freedom in his “I have a dream” speech in August of 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation,” when he expounded with his emotional conclusion (which was borrowed from a Black spiritual): “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” Americans have fought in so many wars beginning with the American Revolution till the recent end of our presence in Afghanistan, all for the cause of democracy and the freedom from tyrannical government, freedom from despotic control, freedom from totalitarian, authoritarian rule, or any power which steals or stifles or squelches our yearning for freedom to do it, as Frank Sinatra so curtly put it, “my way.”
After the 9/11 attack on our sovereignty, the damage and destruction to the Pentagon and World Trade Center with the death of over 3,000 American citizens, we unified, as exemplified by Americans across the country, to impress the invaders that we would never surrender our freedom.
America’s Supreme Court is constantly debating how “living” the Constitution is as a means of establishing the rules of law and order. But for me, the document will forever epitomize freedom.
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Essay:
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Posted on September 9, 2021
Many of you have contacted my office regarding FEMA assistance to cover the damage caused by Tropical Storm Henri and Hurricane Ida.
Prior to making a formal request to FEMA for assistance, the state must identify the extent of the damages caused by hurricanes Henri and Ida. The Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) is currently assessing the extent of the damages to determine if FEMA thresholds are met and a disaster declaration is needed.
The deadline for municipalities…