With all the recent attention on the question of political status of Puerto Rico, and the view of some that the matter is strictly in the hands of the United States, it might be well to ask who are these Americans in whose hands the future of the island and its inhabitants lies. In this way, might we be better able to probe the psyches of America’s leading statesmen: Trent Lott, Arlen Specter, James Inhofe, James Hansen, et al? To this end, let me direct your attention to the words of another of America’s great statesmen, Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, who in the year 1900 had this piece of wisdom for you:
“I do not like Puerto Ricans. They are not fighters as the Cubans. They remained subdued by Spanish tyranny for hundreds of years without showing themselves to be men in opposition. Such a race does not deserve citizenship.”
In view of the brilliance of that analysis, one can only wonder whether Senator Teller would have had a different opinion, had he known what he was talking about. For example, he certainly did not grasp that a large majority of the population of Puerto Rico (85 percent European, principally Spanish, and 15 percent African) were loyal to Spain and, therefore, had no desire whatsoever to wage war against the mother country. Neither does he seem to have been aware of his own nation’s history, in which a majority of the population of the original colonies in the year 1773 were loyal British subjects, who fled north into Canada by the thousands upon declaration of war against England. In fact, the parallel between the loyal inhabitants of Puerto Rico and the loyal British colonists is striking. Therefore, we can only suppose that the senator didn’t like Americans very much either, had his recollection of the facts been better.
As for the Cubans that Senator Teller so greatly admired (85 percent African, 15 percent European), it should have come as no surprise that Cubans, the majority of whom had been enslaved under Spanish authority, had no loyalty to Spain and were more than eager to be rid of their persecutors. Clearly, Puerto Ricans and Cubans were so vastly different in racial composition, political, social and cultural history, that one could hardly speak of them in the same breath.
EUREKA!! I’ve got it!! How about this definition? You show me an individual who can’t find his or her ass with BOTH HANDS, and I’ll show you an AMERICAN!!!
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. But, in this particular case, there aren’t many!
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5th September 2002, 16:23
Funny
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