From: eleusyan@speedchoice.com
Date: Mon Apr 05 1999 - 05:53:45 MDT
On Sun, 4 Apr 1999 12:57:59 EDT, you wrote:
[snip]
>I don't see the advantage of keeping PR then....why not let em sail off into
>the sunset....
They might crash into Hispaniola.
Seriously, we've been trying to let them sail off. But that's one
deeply dug-in anchor they've got on US citizenship and the more
popular ideas on freedom.
Were Puerto Rico unilaterally released from Congressional and White
House bonds, we might see the same exodus reaction experienced by Hong
Kong when it was repatriated to China. Although I don't think the vast
majority of Puerto Ricans would become independentists overnight
simply because they were granted independence, the generalized
nightmare is that, somehow, the small group of independentists and
their socialist ideals would take over the government.
Above all, there's the dread of losing the general liberties enjoyed
by Americans stateside. After all, these are American citizens we're
talking about: they know and appreciate the liberty-oriented ideals
permeating our society. And they fear swift erosion of those liberties
under any form of outright socialism.
So, short of a Congressional decree, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
will be around for a long while.
A. Eleusyan
P.S. The metaphor of letting them "sail off into the sunset" was a
bona fide pun, considering the subject of the original thread.
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