The state of Hawaii

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Most Puerto Ricans look at Hawaii and say, " This is the model that Puerto Rico ought to follow as the 51 state! However.............

June 20, 2009
NY Times, Editorial Notebook
Hawaii Blues
By LAWRENCE DOWNES

The state of Hawaii turns 50 this year (it joined the union on Aug. 21, 1959). People there should be happy. But it’s hard.

The economy is really bad. The housing market and construction industry are in deep slumps. Tourism has been hammered by the recession and swine flu. Unemployment is double what it was a year ago. To close a $688 million budget gap, the governor announced the most drastic furlough program in the country. She’s closing state offices three days a month, for two years. Aloha Friday, where people go to work in aloha shirts and muumuus, is going to be Furlough Friday, where they stay home in pajamas and look for jobs on the Internet.

And now, to top everything off, a communist dictator supposedly wants to blow up Hawaii. A Japanese newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, reported this week that North Korea planned to launch a ballistic missile in Hawaii’s direction around the Fourth of July.

You can take the threat for what it’s worth. Hawaii isn’t panicking. But then, while no one wants to think of extinction, the word is far less of an abstraction in Hawaii than in other places. The islands have seen the disappearance of the Hawaiian kingdom, the decimation of its people and language. Today, Hawaii is the world’s hottest hot spot for threatened and endangered species. As the only island state, it’s the only one that faces an existential threat from global warming and rising oceans.

For years, financially squeezed Hawaii residents have been leaving in droves, setting up colonies in places they can afford, like the moonscapes of the Las Vegas suburbs. They’re exiles from paradise. Many people assume Hawaiian music is sweet and happy. Actually, much of it is solemn and melancholy. To hear Bla Pahinui sing his version of “Waimanalo Blues” — “the beaches they sell, to build their hotels,” is to glimpse the depths of the Hawaiian sense of loss.

Visitors go to Hawaii to get happy and tan, and they carry home with them vast measures of good will, serenity and memories of joy and peace. Maybe it’s time to give some of that back to the suffering 50th state. How? Maybe by telling your representatives in Congress to support the Akaka bill, to give Native Hawaiians a measure of lost sovereignty, and right some old injustices.

There’s a great July Fourth parade in Kailua, on Oahu’s windward side. It’s normally followed by fireworks, but they were canceled this year: too expensive. Some residents are trying to raise money to keep the tradition alive. Since 1948, people have sat on the warm sands of Kailua Beach, oohing and aahing as fireworks burst over black water. Now they can’t, in their state’s golden anniversary year. Could anything be sadder than that?

[Ache]

Big deal!! Hawaii is not the only place on the world that is going through tough times. So what? What is the big deal? So it is a state of the U.S. and having a hard time, so what? California, Nevada, Washington....etc, etc! Boohoo they got the blues so does the rest of the world! Oh, wait...Obama is from "Hawaii" maybe he can help them by giving them the opportunity to declare its independence! It has nothing to do with Puerto Rico..it is not a state and esta chavao!!!

[Suki]

Hmm, why is it that when I read Ache I think I know who is writing?

[PunkMaister]

Originally Posted by Ache

Big deal!! Hawaii is not the only place on the world that is going through tough times. So what? What is the big deal? So it is a state of the U.S. and having a hard time, so what? California, Nevada, Washington....etc, etc! Boohoo they got the blues so does the rest of the world! Oh, wait...Obama is from "Hawaii" maybe he can help them by giving them the opportunity to declare its independence! It has nothing to do with Puerto Rico..it is not a state and esta chavao!!!

Exactly bro! Is just more liberal propaganda BS!

Originally Posted by Suki

Hmm, why is it that when I read Ache I think I know who is writing?

Proabably because you know deep in your heart that we conservatives are right no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise!

[Ache]

Originally Posted by Suki

Hmm, why is it that when I read Ache I think I know who is writing?

No, I am no one you know! I want Puerto Rico to be independent because they won't allow us to be a State. I don't care too much for any mainland politics since they don't care for Puerto Rico. I am not one or the other for politics, just a realist! I don't care for the bull some try to post here to compare PR to their situation so don't think I am anyone that you know here.

[PunkMaister]

Ache, I think they will allow us to become a State and in fact polls show that if we choose Statehood we would be more than welcome to it.

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Originally Posted by PunkMaister

Ache, I think they will allow us to become a State and in fact polls show that if we choose Statehood we would be more than welcome to it.

What folks in Puerto Rico and the US quite don't understand is that voting for statehood is not like picking a Miss Universe contestant.

It's not whether the majority picks this or that status choice, its whether it works within the best interests of the United States, and also it has to fit into its conception of REAL POLITIKS.

Best interests? , REAL POLITIKS?

Hawaii was declared an " Incorporated Territory", territories in line for future statehood, in 1895. On the other hand Puerto Rico was never INCORPORATED, thus creating a BIG PROBLEM. In fact Supreme Court cases ( the insular cases) have declared over and over again that the American citizenship of Puerto Rico was never intended for statehood, see Balzac Vs. Puerto Rico, 1923. As they put it, Puerto Rico belongs to the U.S. but we are not a part of the U.S. Go figure. Yes this can change, however there are more things that make Americans fear us more as a state than letting us go.

What most Puerto Ricans, on the island and in the U.S. refuse to acknowledge is that the statehood movement on the island has grown by leaps and bounds, not because Puerto Ricans want to become americans, but because they, the poor which is the majority, have been promised to be taken care of for all eternity by handouts, welfare, disability payments etc. etc. They have been thought to fear independence and will fight tooth and nail against it.

Why?

Roughly, give or take, up or down, 65% of the island depends on welfare and most of these voters are 500% pro-statehood. Another large group depends on SSI disability payments, or have lucrative pensions from the armed forces. Most of the political big wigs owe their jobs to administering the colony. They are corrupt and live very well, so why go against the tide? The Obama free medi-care will also swell pro-statehood numbers more, maybe to 95% of the population. Imagine, even the Puerto Rico medical assocation is 100% for the Obama care package. In contrast their colegues in the United States don't want it. MMMMMMM is it our welfare mentality?

Think, who in their right mind on this island is willing to cut off the goose that lays the golden eggs? Certainly not the majority of Puerto Ricans.

On the other hand this growing demand by welfare recipents will eventually cause a problem in Congress. In fact Congress has never been on record saying that statehood is an option. We only IMAGINE THAT IT IS!

Why is statehood a problem for Congress?

Because as a state Puerto Rico, different from Hawaii and Alaska, is overpopulated with folks, who in the majority can't speak English, or don't care a hoot to speak it.

Then why are they statehooders?

The statehood movement has PROMISED them that Puerto Rico can be a "Spanish State", and on top of that recieve "PARITY" with the other states, meaning that welfare payments will increase ten fold. That is called "LOS BENEFICIOS DE LA ESTADIDAD! "

What about paying U.S taxes? DUHHHHHHHHH What's that?

Because Puerto Rico will be the poorest state in the union "all taxes paid to Uncle Sam on April 15 will be RETURNED FULLY via INCOME TAX CREDITS. In other words, statehood is a lotto dream come true for Puerto Ricans and a rip off for hard working americans who have to pay taxes even though they 're unemployed.

¿Y a quien le amarga un dulce? translation, "who thinks a candy is bitter?

WAIT, It just gets better.

Because of population, Puerto Rico will have an congressional delegation LARGER THAN 27 English speaking states, some of which have been in the union since 1776!

Republicans in congress already fear that most Puerto Ricans will be Democrats, after all its the party that distributes welfare. On top of that Republicans, and many others fear that a huge Hispanic delegation will begin fighting to make the U.S a bilingual nation. That they will form coalitions with other Hispanics, Mexicans, Dominicans etc. and eventually bring in the Blacks, thus creating a huge congressional block of poverty and angry folks demanding more welfare and affirmative action.

I could almost see Sarah Palin's face and hear the FOX news crowd when they become aware of this. LOL

BOTTOM LINE, Puerto Rico has not become a state simply because its not in the BEST INTERESTS of the United States. Congress will only face our status problem when ever Puerto Ricans put their "COJONES" in their place and corner Congress to take a stand and spell out the CONDITIONS they are willing to grant. Until then its a useless merry go round of "Dime y Diretes" , tit for tats, among ourselves.

However we must also take into account that a dwindling white population, who percieves itself cornered, fears that a Puerto Rican state will be the begining of transforming the nation into a Puerto Rican day parade 24/7. LOL

I know these are harsh words and they are also a very cruel reality.

I welcome a Statehood petition NOW to get this over with as soon as posible.

And I bet you folks here, it will not be statehood, even though the majority in Puerto Rico want it.

There will be NEGOTIATIONS. Why? Americans are practical and aren't fools.