Posted on 02/01/2006 5:48:44 AM PST by cll
sht or get off the pot.
i'm all in favor of statehood. I think that any place that want's to join, and can meet the criteria should petition for statehood.
Cut them loose, we don't need the additional handout seekers.
Puerto Rico ping.
Please FreepMail if you want on or off the list.
How exactly do you propose cutting loose four million Americans?
I agree. But it is up to Congress to give us that choice. Please contact your Congressman.
Including Mexico?
Ditto. Statehood if they want it. Independence if they want it. The current status shouldn't continue indefinitely.
1. Make English the official language of the U.S., via a constitutional amendment.
2. Allowing Puerto Rico statehood if they agree to the above, and prove that they can survive without extensive transfer payments.
You know where I stand. If I were an inhabitant of PR, I would vote to maintain Commonwealth status. Get the best of both worlds that way. Between independence or statehood,however, I would choose independence, whether as a Boricua or, as I am, a gringo from the mainland.
The PR independence movement is a significant political force in local politics. And after working in San Juan for a year I say we should give in to it. Let them go on their own.
They aren't Americans, they're Puerto Ricans, just ask them.
To answer your question however, by giving them their independance and letting them fend for themselves. Puerto Rico is a money pit and it's time to stop writing it blank checks.
It became worthless to us when they demanded we close the live fire training site for the Navy.
"they must agree to make English the official language of PR."
Language hasn't been a problem for the last 107 years. Heck, I'm in and from Puerto Rico and I am writing to you in English! In fact, English is ALREADY one of Puerto Rico's two official languages, the other being Spanish.
I would be interested in knowing which states have English as their official language. Official as in codified into law. I'll grant that English is one of the things that bond our nation together, but you just can't move the goal post just for us.
Less that 3% in the last general election is a "significant political force"?!
I think that the great people of Puerto Rico deserve to become the wealthiest and most prosperous Latin American nation. Becoming instead the poorest and most culturally isolated American state makes little sense.
Mexico is not a territory of the United States.
This is the essential difference.
Near as I can tell, no state has ever entered the Union without first being a territory of the United States.
Fellow Biker (I own a H-D Sporty 1200):
When you say "they" you are including me. My passport says I am an American. My retired military I.D. says I am an American. My dad buried at a National Cemetery says I am an American.
Another Freeper mentioned once in one of these PR threads that when Lee was talking about his "country" and his "countrymen" he was talking about Virginia and Virginians. Puerto Ricans follow the same traditions, where my country is the physical space where we live and our nation is the a federalist United States of America.
Please see my profile and read the preamble to the PR Constitution.
See you on the road,
cll
"It became worthless to us when they demanded we close the live fire training site for the Navy."
So, a tiny piece of land that was used as an impact area is worth more than over two hundred thousand veterans, dead and alive, for example?
PR has a legislature, doesn't it? Does it conduct business in English? What about the courts? Is English taught in the schools as the basic language or a second language?
I don't advocate treating PR any differently than other states, but what I don't want is another Quebec situation in our country.
Do most Puerto Ricans speak English. I must admit that all that I know speak English (most from the military).
Why don't PR people want statehood?
Nah, we're already here. That was decided 107 years ago. Now we just need to be put in equal footing with the rest of the states.
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