Replies

I was on #22 (the de Diego Expressway), #18 (the Las Americas Expressway), #26 (Baldorioty de Castro) and #52 everyday after 9/11 and I was appalled by the lack of American Flags in Puerto Rico.

You want to walk around the tourist areas of the Condado, Isla Verde and Old San Juan and imply that the American Flags in their windows, if any, are in some way indicative of what's going on in the rest of the island then you're only kidding yourself.

Try looking around Bayamon, Rio Piedras, Puerto Nuevo, Ponce, Yauco, Mayaguez, Lares, Guaynabo, etc.. You're not going to find any American Flags there, except on the Post Offices and other government buildings. And not all of them.

Carlos Pesquera was recently arrested for trying to put an American Flag back in a government building.

Even the recycled U.S. Taxpayer's dollars that Puerto Rico sent to New York after 9/11 were only for Puerto Rican victims.

You really intend to argue that we need another state that receives more in federal funds than it pays in taxes, because we already have 25? That's the crazy for someone to say even if they're in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico would pay no net income taxes.

They are almost all below the taxable threshold. Almost all Puerto Ricans would qualify for an 'Earned Income Tax Credit' check. Do you know what that is? It's more welfare, that's what.

Independence for Puerto Rico is much more beneficial to the U.S. Taxpayer than any other status for Puerto Rico.

We don't need a few thousand Puerto Rican mercenaries in our military that cost us $18 billion dollars plus each year.

4Freedom, I used to live in Bayamón, and now live in Guaynabo. There are dozens of homes in both my old neighborhood and my new neighborhood that fly American flags, although I freely admit that not as many as after September 11 (when over half the homes flew Old Glory). As I said before, I dare you to find suburban areas in the U.S. mainland with as many U.S. flags as you will find in the San Juan suburbs (my father recently went to a seminar in Nashville and was appalled by the dearth of flags on the streets and homes). And if you drive down the Las Americas Expressway today, you will find American flags on many lamp posts, put up by the not-so-silent majority that was fed up with the anti-Navy protests by local left-wingers and political opportunists from the mainland.

You are correct, of course, about Carlos Pesquera being arrested for putting a U.S. flag back in a government building. But that incident actually proves my point concerning the patriotism among a majority of Puerto Ricans on the island. Governor Calderon, who was aided in her come-from-behind victory by left-wingers, named Dolores Fernos, a well known Communist sympathizer, to head a new "Office of Women's Affairs." Fernos decided to show her clout by moving the U.S. flag from the lobby of the government office into the library, leaving the Puerto Rican flag by its lonesome in violation of Puerto Rico law (which, consistent with flag protocol, mandates that the Puerto Rican flag may never be higher than the U.S. flag, and must be to its right as one looks at it). When people became aware that Fernos had removed Old Glory, they began to complain by calling radio stations and writing to newspapers. Governor Calderon was afraid of a showdown with Fernos, who had been named to a 6-year term and thus could not be removed from office, so she stayed quiet on the matter. But a grassroots movement was quickly formed to put the U.S. flag back in its rightful place, and Carlos Pesquera, President of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, led (with flag in hand) a large group into the vicinity of Fernos's building. Fernos quickly ordered the doors to the lobby to be closed, leaving Pesquera and his followers out in the sun for several hours. Pesquera kept insisting that he had the right to enter and place the flag back in the lobby, but Fernos wouldn't let him in. After some pushing and shoving, Pesquera was able to open the doors, blew a kiss to his cheering supporters, and placed the American flag back in its place. Because some of the windows on the door were broken (most likely by TV cameras), and because Fernos's employees claimed to have been "trapped" in the building, left-wingers quickly denounced Pesquera as being guilty of causing a riot, and Governor Calderon found it politically useful to charge her probable 2004 opponent with a felony. The case has not been heard yet, although they already had to remove a judge who had expressed that she wanted to nail Pesquera for political reasons, and I am certain that Calderon's ham-handedness will come back to haunt her in November of 2004. That, 4Freedom, is the story of Carlos Pesquera and the flag. Saying that the people of Puerto Rico are anti-American because Pesquera got arrested is like saying that the people of Alabama are atheists because Justice Moore got in trouble for placing the 10 Commandments in his courtroom. And as in Alabama, the common-sense majority in Puerto Rico will eventually prevail.