Puerto Rico: John Hancock, Phone Home

In 1776, 2.5 million people lived in the 13 colonies of what is now the eastern United States.  On 4 July, the colonies “in Congress assembled,” told King George III that they were “dissolving the political bands” which bound them to Great Britain.  

The declaration cited grounds for abuse and neglect by Great Britain.  The Americans had enough with being treated like a child in an adult conversation.

Great Britain resisted.  Americans were then and are now convinced that Great Britain was wrong, arrogant and selfish.

Puerto Rico has long had a separatist movement.  When we bother to think of Puerto Rico, Americans are convinced that they are wrong, arrogant and selfish.  Otherwise, we ignore separatists as extremist nuts.

But I wonder - Could we blame a Puerto Rican Congress from declaring their own independence?  

Puerto Ricans are American citizens - sort of.  They can get American passports.  There are no immigration regulations from them traveling to and living in the continental U.S.  They can participate in the Social Security system.

On the other hand, they cannot vote for president and have no congressional representation.  Certain other federal benefits (e.g., Supplemental Security Income from the Social Security Administration) are not available to Puerto Ricans.

Under current conditions, statehood for Puerto Rico is unlikely.  A majority of both houses of Congress would have to pass a joint resolution, and the President would have to sign it.  Were this to occur, Puerto Rico would send two senators and about five representatives to Congress.  The odds are that all would be either Democrats or aligned with the Puerto Rican Progressive Party and vote in the Democratic caucus.  Puerto Rico hasn’t seen statehood when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency, and so they are unlikely to get statehood now.  Fair?  Unfair?  Beats me.  But it's reality.

If PR were granted statehood, it would rank around 30th in population.  So it’s not as if we’re talking admitting Guam or American Samoa.

Lots of Puerto Rico citizens probably curse the rest of us, the 50-state Americans, because of how the country has handled the Hurricanes of 2017.

First, Hurricane Irma hit.  About 12 people were killed and a quarter of the population had a moderately long-term loss of electricity.  (The death toll isn’t very much - but tell that to the families of the people killed.)

Then, Hurricane Maria plastered the island.  The “official” death toll is 51, but the island found 900 bodies to cremate.   

Puerto Rico is an island.  Therefore, it doesn’t have access to the mainland electrical grid, rickety though it is.  All electric used on the island has to be made on the island and transmitted through wires on the island.  The square pasting dealt by Hurricane Maria dealt minimal damage to power generation stations, but wiped out the island’s transmission grid.  The hurricane also wiped out a lot of those businesses which would have been able to fix the grid.

It’s now four weeks after Maria.  3+ million people are still without power.  This affects not just electronic toys, but the water supply, the food supply and health care.  In short, Maria transformed Puerto Rico temporarily back a hundred years.  

Puerto Rico has roughly the same population as Chicago, Iowa, Utah, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kansas.  

Please don't tell me that they need to suck it up and wait.  If Chicago were without power, Raum Emanuel would be going crazy and we’d be listening to him.  If the Heartland of America - Iowa or Kansas - were turned off, do you really think we’d leave them mostly alone?  Very few of us are prepared to endure four weeks without power.

In a time of increased hyphenated-Americans, I still believe in this one-nation-indivisible thing.  Were Kansas turned off, were they drinking dirty water, had sewage problems, had food shortages or had limited access to healthcare, what would we be doing?  Pigs would fly before we’d screw Kansas.  

When is the last time you thought about Puerto Rico?  

Folks around here are used to the idea of secession.  Barbour County was split evenly between Union support and Confederate support, so there was ample underpining for both seceding from the U.S. and then from seceding back from Virginia.  All it took was a good reason.

If I were a Puerto Rican today, I’d be thinking about this whole American thing.  

If we’re going to kiss them off, at least let’s be honest about it.

Mizpah!