PATRIOTISM???

[El_Jibaro]

Carlos Marrero:

You say: “More importantly, if all these "imperfect" societies all around the globe have a right to govern themselves, despite their imperfections, why would you deny that right to your own people.”

Let me tell you why Sovereignty is not my Passion: I do not want to see our People in Chaos, such as I see in Colombia. I do not want to see our People oppressed under a regime like that of Cuba. I do not want to see our Island with the endemic poverty I see in Venezuela. I do not want to see our People lose overnight all the achievements they have attained in Academia, Wealth, Housing, Arts, Media, Society, Democratic Political Development; all of which have been achieved under Two Flags.

Carlos, pursuing the dream of Utopias has brought the entire world two World Wars in the Twentieth Century (in which we still live until the year 2001 AD), 50 years of Cold War, and several armed conflicts throughout the world.

To dream Utopias is easy (people can do that while high on pot or any other hallucinogen). To work and live with the real world is the stuff of people of responsibility and diligence.

Look at the new republics in Africa (they are mostly less than 40 years old). Don’t be a racist in thinking that what is happening to those new independent nations will not occur to us, because we Puerto Ricans are somehow more culturally refined, or somehow better.

Maybe we can be as stable as Jamaica and the Bahamas are. I have not done any research on these neighboring countries. However, I have seen in the news how the government of Bahamas is under Colombian Cocaine Traffic influence. And there are plenty of Jamaicans fleeing for jobs here to the U.S., which tells me that there is not much opportunity there also.

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Manuel Alonso

[joseuno]

OUCHHHH!!! So there is no hope for us? And can anybody tell me whats going to happen when Cuba gets rid of Fidel. We wont even get one tourist in the Island! Are we ever going to get it together? I doubt it, maybe its millenial pesimism after seing the terrible show we gave to the rest of the world on PBS.

[Carlos_Marrero]

IdeJesus, thanks.

Jibaro

I like your passion, although I think you rely on popularizations of history more than you should. Beware of the press!!! These corporate jounalists we train in America are hardly informed about anything. They look polished in their suits and makeup, and their speech styles are often hypnotic, but the content and selection of story is way below what should be the standards of a democratic press. This is regretable.

When you refer to Africa, please consider that she is the birthplace of civilization everywhere. Her "recognized republics" may be young, but her cultures are ancient. The story of Africa's FUNDAMENTAL contributions to humanity is just beginning to be told, and so far, they dwarf the accomplishments of everyone else. She (not ancient Greece or imperial Rome) was the springboard for all of us, and we should refer to her with the reverence befitting motherhood. Yes, there is much chaos in that continent, but consider that much of it is the aftermath of violent European interventions. This is a topic for another time, though.

Regarding PRs readiness for sovereignty, I will only point out that this stage of advanced sociopolitical development has not yet arrived. I like to think of Puerto Ricans as living through a kind of collective "adolescence". They need guidance, but they are now possessed of the rudiments for total independence, in their latter stages of development. Not quite adults, they are nevertheless ready to undergo the necessary final phase of the training that will allow them to join the rest of the World. What awaits now is a long process of preparation, supported by the United States and other advanced nations. Once the people communicate their desire for sovereignty, the international community will set in place a process whereby state functions still in the hands of the federal US government pass gradually into the hands of the insular government. These include economic functions and military functions. This process will involve the creation of new political institutions. The international communtiy will then monitor, while the US plays a major role in the creation of these institutions. When the United States signed the Treaty of Paris in 1898, and adopted the island, it assumed the responsibility of facilitating the islands self determination, and of helping to prepare the island for sovereingty, either in the form of a US State within the federation (Union), or as a fully independent nation-state.

Consider, also, that self-determination is not a psychological, economic, or structural move. Self-determination is a moral move, and economic, structural, and psychological expressions of that moral move follow. Adolescents are not denied membership in adult society on the basis of their developmental needs. They are subjected to the final stages of their socialization, so that they can join adult culture. We don't say to them: "Because you cannot conduct yourself in an adult fasion, you will not be allowed to leave your family of origin, ever. You will remain here, forever, under paternal supervision, and we will find ways for you to participate in that family. But you will never leave home, or exercise self control." What we do DO is assess their developmental needs, and we set in place experiences that foster their development into adulthood. What we do say to them is something like: "You cannot remain a child forever, and you must move out of this family and form your own. You have a moral obligation to acquire those competencies that will allow you to assume your place in adult society, fully and without restriant."

Puerto Rico must come to the realization that a mature nation (which they now are on the basis of 500 years of growth) must not remain forever under the protection of more developed states. This permanent stay in "adolescence" is unnatural and counterproductive. They must say to the World that they are prepared to assume their place in the community of soverein nations. They must acknoledge their instutional and psychological shortcomings, and seek assistance and guidance from more developed nation-states, like the US, Mexico, Spain, and so on. The international community, in turn, must not frustrate the will of history which has evidently sought to produce a distinct National entity in Puerto Rico. It must recognize the Nationhood of Puerto Ricans, and it must set upon a course of support and guidance that will allow the Puerto Rican nation to express its unicity as all other unique and distinct nations do, in the formation of a sovereign nation-state.

I do think, however, that membership in the Union of states is a form of legitimate sovereignty. However, I do not think this form of sovereignty is appropriate in the Puerto Rican nation. They are far to developed in their national consciousness to find a home in America. They do not feel "american"; they feel that they are different from all other nations. They have a sense of self that should not be attrophied through incorporation into another nation. Study their development in history and you'll see that contact with the US has only intensified their sense of difference and self pride.