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Did YOU know that... |
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The 4 million US citizens who reside in Puerto Rico lack equal rights?
Are you aware that…
• Puerto Rico’s per capita contribution to our Armed Forces is one of the highest, if not the highest in the Nation. Well over 200,000 Puerto Ricans have served as combatants… over 6,300 have been wounded… and more than 1,250 have given their lives in defense of our Nation. Nonetheless, as US citizens they are deprived of the right to vote for their Commander-in-Chief… or for members of Congress who have the constitutional prerogative to declare war.
• Even though the US citizens who reside in Puerto Rico do not have the right to vote for members of Congress, all federal laws apply in Puerto Rico on an equal basis, except where a disparate and/or discriminatory treatment is expressly provided. Moreover, since they pay a wide array of federal taxes, the revolutionary cry of “no taxation without representation” also applies.
• The US Supreme Court has validated the power of Congress to, either deny, or provide for a different discriminatory treatment with regards to the US citizens who reside in Puerto Rico, as per the authority granted by the United States Constitution under the Territorial Clause[1]. To that effect, the nefarious doctrine of “separate but equal” that allowed for the discriminatory treatment of African-Americans for many decades, was adjusted in an even more repulsive manner that is best described as “separate and unequal”.
• A resident of any of the 50 states may lose various rights and privileges upon moving to Puerto Rico. For example, he or she would completely lose the right to an absentee vote that could even be exercised if that person was temporarily in Havana, Cuba, Tehran, Iran or Pyongiang, North Korea.
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As you might see in these few examples, even though we may have been blessed with many of the benefits of our citizenship… America cannot tolerate… and our flag --defended by the blood of so many of our people-- cannot be put to shame by any possible legitimization of the misguided policy of separate and unequal and the continued denial of a legitimate process of self determination that would provide the US citizens who reside in Puerto Rico with the much earned quest for full self-government.
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Still… some people might try to confuse you by arguing that since your fellow citizens from Puerto Rico do not seem to get their act together…
Why should YOU care?
• It is un-American to tolerate a consistent discriminatory treatment to a specific group of US citizens.
• Moreover, are you willing to continue providing over $22 billion per year to support our current Commonwealth territorial arrangement that none[2] of the ideological groups in Puerto Rico continue to support? Why should every working middle and upper class American contribute an average of $400 annually to the upkeep of Puerto Rico?[3]
sign our petition
This site has been designed to provide you with relevant information supporting Puerto Rico’s self determination among fully democratic, non-colonial and non-territorial options. The sections in this site provide a brief history of the Puerto Rico – USA 100 year old relationship, How the US citizens that live in Puerto Rico loose full rights of citizenship, and the economic effect of supporting Puerto Rico on the middle class tax payer.
Our hope is that these arguments will compel you to sign our petition, which will be delivered to the President of the United States and to Congress.
[1] Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America is formally known as the Territorial Clause.
[2] Ever since the advent of the Constitution in 1952, the three ideological groups that exist in Puerto Rico, have aspired, either for the outright elimination of our current Commonwealth territorial arrangement, as is the case with those who favor statehood and independence, or a possible culmination and/or enhancement of Commonwealth, as those who favor “Commonwealth” claim necessary and possible. Nonetheless, that reality was never crystallized as clearly as a few months ago. On March 31, 2005 the Senate of Puerto Rico unanimously approved the Substitute for House Bills 1014, 1054 and 1058. The following day, April 1, 2005, the House of Representatives followed suit, voting unanimously in support of the aforementioned measure. This bill authorized “the holding of a referendum in which the People of Puerto Rico may express themselves to demand from the President and the Congress of the United States of America, before December 31, 2006, an expression of their commitment to respond to the claim of the People of Puerto Rico to solve their political status from among fully democratic options of a non-colonial, non-territorial nature; to create a Committee to Petition, appropriate funds, and for other purposes.” Such an action by members of the three parties representing the three possible status options, belie any claim as to any possible support for the maintenance of the status quo.
[3] This numerical data was taken from the book titled Pay to the Order of Puerto Rico: The Cost of Dependence to the American Taxpayer, by Alexander Odishelidze and Arthur Laffer, Allegiance Press (2004).