On November 3rd Puerto Rico will have another statehood question on the ballot. Here is why it is time for the mainland to act.
Once upon a time there were thirteen British colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America. For over 150 years all went well, and then something happened. A few folks in Boston and a few folks in Virginia began to wonder, "Hey! If we're British subjects why aren't we treated like British subjects?"
We all know how that story turned out. And as Puertoricans once again debate why their citizenship is somehow different than their cousin's citizenship in Orlando (or New York, or Chicago, or Texas), it is time to seriously consider answering that question for once and for all.
Much of this perennial debate rests on things that really don't matter in a federal republic. Can Puerto Rico keep its language and culture? How are we going to make Puerto Rico have a standard of living more comparable to other states? What about the Olympic teams and other sports? The minutia goes on ad infinitum.
The flaw with this reasoning is not Puerto Rico, its the existing mainland states. When those thirteen colonies first formed a military alliance (and then a country} there was no concept of any of this homogeneity. Dutch was the preferred language in New York, German in Pennsylvania, French among the aristocrats in South Carolina, and any number of other languages and dialects everywhere else. Money wasn't a factor either. Boston, Philadelphia and New York were well-off, as were the rural areas surrounding them; and Virginia was super rich. But New Hampshire? Delaware? North Carolina? Not so much.
The solution was federalism. The states kept their sovereignty and left the big picture things like currency, war, and diplomacy to the Feds. The result was a system whereby big or small, rich or poor, the states could keep their identities and still be part of the bigger "unum" that derived from their "pluribus." Thomas Jefferson went even further. He envisioned the whole western hemisphere entering into the union as a free association of states, so obviously language, culture and money were not big factors in the initial debate.
Unfortunately over the past 80 years, the federal government has somehow forgotten this overriding condition of state's rights. Puerto Rico entering the union, head held high and maintaining her uniqueness and character, might just be the nudge needed to jostle the memories of her 50 co-patriots, that diversity and autonomy of the states is what the United States is all about.
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