We see this suggestion sometimes: “Don’t ask for statehood for Puerto Rico. If you’re Puerto Rican, you can get statehood by getting on a plane and moving to a state.”
That’s true. Far more people of Puerto Rican heritage now live in states than in Puerto Rico. They have voted for statehood with their feet.
Is this actually a solution for the problems Puerto Rico faces? Ask yourself these questions before you decide.
Does this solve the human rights issues?
Those who can move to a state will gain equal rights of U.S. citizenship. They will be able to vote for their president and file for the Earned Income Tax Credit and ask their senators to support their wishes in Congress.
Does that solve the problem for the residents of Puerto Rico? They face greater poverty, fewer job opportunities, less of a voice in political discourse, and more problems in their infrastructure than people living in any state. Is that acceptable?
Marie Antoinette, when she heard that the peasants of her country had no bread to eat, said, “Then, let them eat cake!” Those who are happy to leave Puerto Rico in dire straits are doing the same.
Should residents of Puerto Rico suffer for you?
Often this idea that people from Puerto Rico should move to a state if they want statehood comes along with a romantic idea about Puerto Rican culture. People living in states want Puerto Rico to remain quaint and uncomfortable. Like Marie Antoinette and her little farm where she could pretend to be a shepherdess, they seem to want Puerto Rico to do without stable electricity and safe drinking water.
Sometimes they support independence for Puerto Rico. They don’t plan to go through the discomfort and deprivation that would involve, and they are not concerned that the voters of Puerto Rico always vote against independence.
They like the idea of living comfortably in a state and leaving someone “back home” to represent the culture.
We don’t want a solution for one person. We want a solution for Puerto Rico. We want equality for Puerto Rico. We want statehood for Puerto Rico.
3 Responses
The question MUST BE…¿Why should you move IN YOUR OWN country to have equality with other citizens?
Within your OWN COUNTRY, EVERY CITIZEN MUST HAVE the same RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITY.
Only those in Puerto Rico that continue to wrongly PRETEND that our island is a “COUNTY”, are the ones to IGNORANTLY tell us to move to the MAINLAND in order to have equality. Our DISCRIMINATION, IS A “GEOGRAPHICAL DISCRIMINATION” due primarily by the incompetence from the POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS (PPD & PNP) to fight for our equality preferring to stay as a COLONY for their OWN FINANCIAL GAINS.
I want STATEHOOD 51 for Puerto Rico, but, after living in Hawaii for almost a yea, I am very concerned that Puerto Rico becomed so expensive and such a difficult inflated Paradise state to live in such as Hawaii has become. I travel by bus and I see the older and young locals going from one job to the next falling asleep on their seats. They tell me how they don’t enjoy their Paradise State due to the fact that they work sunrise to sunset to barely make end needs. Also, they are overly protective of their jobs for the locals, which sounds good, but it’s not racially ethical and basically racist and against FEDERAL LAW. I find myself discriminated here to he Hawaii School Board won’t even accept my Master’s degree in education from Puerto Rico, two principals have said that was the reason “being from Puerto Rico” and the board won’t accept any of my prior experience nor credentials. Hawaiian people are beautiful but also biased. I hope we don’t become like this to save the few jobs in Puerto Rico for our own. Another teacher asked me if I was an American citizen… Hawaii forgot it’s History as the last or 50th State to be annexed or accepted into our great USA.
I want STATEHOOD 51 for Puerto Rico, but, after living in Hawaii for almost a yea, I am very concerned that Puerto Rico becomed so expensive and such a difficult inflated Paradise state to live in such as Hawaii has become. I travel by bus and I see the older and young locals going from one job to the next falling asleep on their seats. They tell me how they don’t enjoy their Paradise State due to the fact that they work sunrise to sunset to barely make end needs. Also, they are overly protective of their jobs for the locals, which sounds good, but it’s not racially ethical and basically racist and against FEDERAL LAW. I find myself discriminated here to he Hawaii School Board won’t even accept my Master’s degree in education from Puerto Rico, two principals have said that was the reason “being from Puerto Rico” and the board won’t accept any of my prior experience nor credentials. Hawaiian people are beautiful but also biased. I hope we don’t become like this to save the few jobs in Puerto Rico for our own. Another teacher asked me if I was an American citizen… Hawaii forgot it’s History as the last or 50th State to be annexed or accepted into our great USA.