Author: Various
Readers of P.R. newspapers which include information printed in English have longed for a way to expand their ability to engage in intellectual discourse beyond that range of thought that can be contained in a 300 word maximum letter to the editor approach. This chapter will grow to include your ideas and communications.
The first offer to be inclusive is found in the opening copy of a letter to Mr. Robert Becker, Managing Editor of the San Juan Star.
Dear Mr. Becker,
How nice to see your name on the masthead with a new title! I have returned from my annual sabbatical to the North woods of Michigan to the tropical paradise of P.R.! I see so many changes that I can not comment about all of them or even do justice to one in a 300 word letter to Viewpoint.
However, my
I hope you will run just a short letter as follows, so that readers can expand upon the base of knowledge and ideas triggered by what you do publish. Here is the letter:
Dear San Juan Star Readers:
The aftermath of the national and P.R. elections reporting in the Star generates far more need for comment and intellectual discourse than Viewpoint space permits. The stories today, Dec. 14 regarding the nature of President Elect George W. Bush efforts to recruit talent for his administration from such ideological bastions as the so-called Washington based ‘think-tanks’, and use of such labeled minority conservative leaders as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, requires a story titled “Compassionate Conservative Leaders for the Bush Administration”.
The news reports about Sila Calderón and the looming confrontation with the U.S. Navy, and the impact upon the relationship between P.R. and the U.S. Congress, goes far beyond the simple notion of reporting excitement about a potential news bonanza- a battle between a modern day ‘Joan of Arc’ and the monster of the deep- the U.S. Navy.
If you want to read and think beyond the superficial level, and enter your own commentary for publishing on a web site that has space to accept your words, then check out
The first issue for P.R. and the U.S. today is Vieques.What does it mean when Governor-elect Sila Caulderón returns from her holiday and indicates that she will not support the U.S. Navy agreement as sanctioned by Gov. Rosselló and President Clinton?
One thing is clear. Gov. elect Caulderón is smart, savy, hard working, and determined. She is out to build the way to create a permanent status-quo for Puerto Rico without the U.S. Navy. She essentially wants an independent island.
The first issue for P.R. and the U.S. today is Vieques.What does it mean when Governor-elect Sila Caulderón returns from her holiday and indicates that she will not support the U.S. Navy agreement as sanctioned by Gov. Rosselló and President Clinton?
One thing is clear. Gov. elect Caulderón is smart, savy, hard working, and determined. She is out to build the way to create a permanent status-quo for Puerto Rico without the U.S. Navy. She essentially wants an independent island.
Well not ‘independent’ the way most people use the word. What she wants is essentially what former Governor Colón wanted- “enhanced Commonwealth”. A status option where the island government accepts fiscal support, as close to full statehood parity, in terms of benefits from the Federal government as can be permanently negotiated; the right to reject Federal laws that conflict with those of P.R.; and a permanent condition of dual citizenship without taxation on income except for social security and medicare. Of course, she wants the US Navy to leave Vieques and if that means leaving Ceiba, that will have to come later. She does not ask the people of Ceiba, Fajardo or environs to assume that getting the Navy out of Vieques has any linkage to the main part of the Navy base; or for that matter any other U.S. military installation on the island. She has little knowledge of the interconnections of all U.S. military installations.
Obviously these highly desirable conditions, if accepted by the U.S. Congress, would be challenged by every state of the Union! The ideas are so absurd that any mainland American knows that they are not at all possible. To the new governor, that is unimportant. What counts is that she convinced enough voters to elect her because emmotionally they think that she could move the Navy out. She expects to start the process to negotiate the above contract as an equal to the U.S. President- the Governor of the sovereign “Free Associated State of Puerto Rico”, a nation already guaranteed its special kind of independence- not the kind sought by Ruben Berriós! She would like to have the right to negotiate trade treaties and allow foreign shipping to bring goods from the mainland, but such details will fall into place later.
What the Governor elect is failing to see or understand is that the Clinton administration and the liberal Democrats of the past, who wanted to assuage their guilt feelings over poor little P.R. are not now in control. Further, while Republicans can and will be compassionate, they will not want to say ‘yes’ to the program desired as above described. In fact, it is unfortunate for Caulderón that the issue of Vieques, which may have been pretty key to her election, is the worst place to begin her administrative struggle aimed at gained ‘enhanced Commonwealth’.
Why? Because there are few things that have always brought mainland Americans together faster than support of the military. That may be hard for Caulderón to understand. She has never fought for freedom in a shooting war. She has no heritage of fighting for freedom via the American revolution. Her freedom, her liberty, her citizenship and protection of the U.S. government were all given or imposed on her. She can feel angry about having a preference for the latter interpretation, but she is not out to declare P.R. independent! Heavens NO! She wants the dependency to be perpetual, but she wants the same rights, freedoms, and powers of those in the fifty states and more than those who pay taxes and support the military to protect us.
Moving to openly confront the Navy after Jan 2 is not a useful option. It will back-fire and cause an American mainlander reaction that will simply announce that the failure of Caulderón to abide by the Clinton executive order makes it null and void! True, she will be correct in noting that the Secty of the Navy will be a different person than the incumbent, but so too will be the president!
Look for a Bush administration to face the question simply and calmly. It will become clear that it is time to allow that cutting expenses to support P.R. is at hand. It is time to stop asking P.R. to invent referendums on status that allow ‘none of the above’; and simply call a federal referendum that will be run by the federal government. It will ask all those in P.R. who care to vote to decide- should the U.S. cut P.R. free and make it independent? Or will the will of the people show a preference for a defined opportunity for statehood?
It will not be for the people of P.R. to decide if this state will enjoy some special status perks like its own Olympic teams. It will be allowed, as all states of the union are now, to choose to teach its students in any language it wants, but if it is to get federal funds for education, it will abide by the same rules on language as all other states; and it will certainly have to deal with the federal government in its language; and with whatever language it chooses for dealing with the world’s business. It happens to speak English.
All of this leaves the impression that Gov. Sila Caulderón may do more to promote the end of the status debate in eight months than Gov. Rosselló did in eight years!
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