Everybody wants to come up to the State House to scream, says Rep. Gordon Fox. They want to scream about what they don’t want and what they do want.

So when a group shows up to say “we don’t mind if you raise our taxes,” chances are very good they will get Fox’s attention.

“It took me aback,” says the House majority leader.

Twenty-one people came to see him on Monday. Most were from his East Side Providence district, and they share the fear that the state’s budget cutting is extremely shortsighted and will do deep and lasting damage. Some of them are already seeing the human toll. The process is hitting the most vulnerable in ways that will keep them the most vulnerable.

David Savitzky, a child psychiatrist, talks of the kids “with one foot in school and one foot on a banana peel.”

“There are programs that do good work, that keep kids out of the Training School,” says Zavitsky. “And they are being cut by 50 percent.”

So he joined those who went to see Fox and talk of how a very hard, cold season can be made a little warmer.

Deborah Siegel put it together. She actually lives just over the line in Pawtucket, but she put out the call through her temple, Temple Emanu-el, in Providence.

“The cuts violate our values,” says Siegel.

And the cuts spread all over the place. That was a big part of what the constituents had to say to the representative. A cut here means an opportunity lost there. Daycare allows a parent to get a job. Take away the daycare and take away the job. Or maybe take the oldest kid in the family out of school to watch the younger kids.

“You see children taking care of younger siblings,” says Deborah Meisel, an independent social worker who used to be head of social services at St. Joseph Hospital. “The kids are being pulled out of school.”

And there is the huge hit on health care. Take away coverage and fill up the emergency rooms. Or expect some people to not see a doctor.

It is a well informed, well educated group that went to see Fox. And they are serious about paying more taxes if those additional taxes would help the neediest people in the state. There is probably no way to make sure of that. Money has a way of getting diverted in the budget process.

But 21 people showed up to express their concerns in a way that one of them described as in the spirit of the old town meeting. Another said it was taking democracy into their own hands. And they plan to show up again.

“We wanted to get out the message — don’t balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable citizens,” says David Berman, who is retired. “It’s so shortsighted.”

They want to see more imagination and less knee-jerk reaction, more thoughtful discussion and less political expediency. They are not used to going to the State House. They feel perfectly at ease talking about deep down beliefs.

“There could be a movement starting around this,” says Fox. “The question is how to reach out to other reps.”

It is an awful year. Hard cuts have to be made. But so far, the pain has not been evenly spread. There were people in Fox’s office who have actually looked into the face of those who have been helped up, then shoved back down.

There’s a “communal outrage,” says Joanna Brown, a family physician. “It’s almost like a horror at what’s happening in the state.”

They feel good about their trip to the State House. They were impressed with Gordon Fox.

They will wait to see if it made any difference.

bkerr@projo.com