Amid the comments and emails expressing certainty about Rhode Island’s demise and the urgency of escaping as soon as possible, a friend asked me directly why, when I recently moved, I bought another house, here.  The easier path would likely be to leave, and leave Rhode Island to its fate.

My answer was, basically, because this is happening in Iraq:

For Zummar and Sinjar: they are under Da’esh control, thousands of Yazidis died in the last two days, they are facing a real genocide. Till yesterday (45) children died of thirst. Some families throw their children from the top of Sinjar mountain in order not to see them die from hunger or thirst, or not to be taken by the terrorists. (1500) men were killed in front of their wives and families, (50) old men died also from thirst and illness. More than (70) girl and women (including Christians) were taken, raped and being captured and sold. More than (100) families are captured in Tel afar airport.

The mind immediately seeks the shelter of the fact that this is a single report through an unverified channel, but it’s enough to know that it’s at least plausible that there are parents who have reason at this time in history to feel that a quick plummet to death is the easier path for their children.  How many steps, I wonder, are there between uprooting your family because the people in control have layered on too many taxes and regulations and have made life more difficult than it ought to be and killing your children to spare them the horror of slavery, torture, and genocide?

Don’t disbelieve that there is a direct line.  How much would these parents rather be in Negev, Israel, where children are merely forced to endure an indoor recreation center because it’s easier to reach a bomb shelter than it would be outside?  How much better might it be in Central America than caught between the terrorists of Hamas and the Israelis’ self defense?   Mightn’t Detroit be the easier choice if the alternative were Honduras?  All things considered, wouldn’t it be preferable to flee the slums of Detroit for a taste of the Ocean State?

Or revolve the thought experiment a little.  If you had reason to believe — maybe not for you, but for your grandchildren or great grandchildren — that South Carolina was fated to become Rhode Island to become Detroit to become Honduras to become the Middle East to become some mountain in Northern Iraq just high enough to ensure your child’s merciful death, would you trade a lower tax rate for that horrible, soul-crushing decision?

I exaggerate, of course, but only about the certainty.  Elsewhere on the Internet, today, Elizabeth Scalia writes:

Sometimes I feel like the world is rewinding like those old reel-to-reel tapes; that it seems like we are moving forward, but it is only an illusion; that in reality we are being pulled endlessly backward, to the crucifixion, and now to the Nativity, and next to the flood, and ultimately to Eden, the place of First Error.

For what it is worth, this is one of the few things I know: it only seems like Evil will win. It won’t, but while the eternal battle between dark and light rages around us (and within us), and it breaks through the veil and becomes more visible each day. This will convince some that there is no hope, and no use believing that what is right and holy will triumph. But it will.

Maybe the pendulum swings back toward grace at the extremity of Rhode Island or of Detroit, or maybe it keeps going all the way to the new caliphate.  We can’t know.  We can be certain, though, that the negative outcome is made more likely if we start abandoning the territory previously claimed by hope, rather than stand where the ground is loose, but still firm, and the suffering amounts to constrained comfort, not starvation and death.

When it comes down to it, that’s why I bought a house in Rhode Island when I had the chance to move.