Posted on 04/13/2002 12:11:17 PM PDT by 4Freedom
The red carpet will be rolled out for Vieques Mayor Damaso Serrano in New York today when he appears before the New York City Council, meets with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is hosted at an evening reception by labor leader Dennis Rivera and State Assemblyman Jose Rivera.
Serrano will get a copy of City Council resolution calling on President Bush to order the Navy to leave Vieques and to halt violating the human rights of the small island's residents, according to the office of Assemblyman Rivera of the Bronx.
The resolution, co-authored by Council Speaker Gifford Miller and members Joel Rivera and Margarita Lopez, will be presented to Serrano at 11 a.m. in Miller's offices in City Hall. After that, the Vieques mayor will meet with his New York counterpart in City Hall's Red Room.
At 6 p.m., Serrano will appear at a reception by the National Vieques Summit For Peace With Justice at the headquarters building on West 43rd Street of Local 1199 of the Service Employees Industry Union, headed by Rivera.
The visit of Serrano, a strong opponent of Navy bombing and shelling on Vieques, comes as the Navy continues its latest round of exercises on the small offshore island.
The current maneuvers, begun April 1 after a six-month hiatus, prompted the four Puerto Rican members of the House to send a letter Wednesday to Bush again to ask him to stop the training immediately. Bush has said that he wants the Navy to leave the island by May 1, 2003.
The lawmakers said they and the people of Puerto Rico trust the President's word.
"Nevertheless", they wrote, "we must make sure that the people of Vieques are not subject to unnecessary harm.
"President Bush, we urge you to stop the unnecessary suffering of over 10,000 U.S. citizens that live in Vieques," said Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y. and Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and Resident Commissioner Anibal Acevedo Vila.
The Puerto Rican members of Congress told Bush, "it has become evident that the use of Vieques is not necessary for the preparedness of our troops and the current round of practices is causing unnecessary harm to the people of Vieques."
This Vieques Mayor, Damaso Serrano, was only, recently released, after a 4 month stay in the Federal Penitentiary, for trespassing on Federal property. He has yet to denounce the rock and Molotov Cocktail throwing, fire starting, flare firing terrorist tactics being used by the anti-Navy, Marxist protesters on Vieques.
He's a Viequensan version of Arafat.
Evident to WHOM?
When we're finished with Afghanistan, we should go clean out Puerto Rico.
Well, keep them off the bambing ranges, and they won't be harmed. Seems a fairly simple solution to a fairly simple problem to me.
You, Mr. mayor, should be leading and telling your people that they should be proud of the fact that the best bomber pilots in the world train on your island. Your contribution to the effectiveness of the United States Navy goes a long way towards keeping all of us free. Think about it!
Yes, the Sharks. Ours are the Jets.
All these ingrates see is 24,000 acres, 16 miles of prime beachfront and $3 billion dollars worth of infrastructure that's been bought and paid for with hard earned U.S. Taxpayer's dollars and the blood of the patriots that fought the Spanish for it and defended it against the Nazis.
They see it. They covet it. They think it's theirs for the taking, because they judge us all by our spineless, pandering politicians.
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