I sincerely appreciated J.D. Aragon’s, letter in Voices, when he “hope-fully” “one day,” states that Puerto Rico will be a U.S. state.

The entire nation, with it’s now majority (minority population of Latinos) deserve to have a minimum of seven or eight Congressional representatives and two Senator’s; who will be able to represent the “best and vital interest” of all Latinos living on the “mainland,” as well as Puerto Rico.

The U.S. is by far the greatest experiment in “democracy” the world has ever known, and Puerto Ricans have shed their “Blood & Tears” toward that end, as loyal, dyed-in-the-wool, American citizens.

The “White Paper” delivered to the Bush/Cheney administration in the last year of its administration called for a plebicite after 12 years of deliberations by that Commission, appointed by the Clinton/Gore administration.

I suggest that the Obama/Biden administration implement that “White Paper” proposal and do it during his administration and perhaps one day, soon in the near future, we will enjoy having a Latino as president of the United States Of America … preferably a U.S. Veteran/American born citizen from “La isla del encanto,” or Puerto Rico: 51st state of the USA.

Mr. J.D. Aragon, you are on the right course, keep up the good work, both in the news print media, as well as the ever expanding and improving world of electronic communications of Twitter, Face Book, etc. 

Sincerely,

Fortuño and Pierluisi hope that a House victory will provide momentum for them to start lobbying the Senate to support the Puerto Rico Democracy Act on political status. Pierluisi aims to find ten veteran senators — six Democrats and four Republicans, particularly those with large Puerto Rican constituencies — to co-sponsor the bill.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, both said they were familiar with Republican Fortuño from his four years in the House of Representatives. But even though the two senators have been actively involved in GOP outreach to Hispanics, they stopped short of saying where they would come down on the Puerto Rico Democracy Act and were even unsure about how to talk about it.

I hope the “Party of No” will not also play its political games even with the urgent need for Puerto Rico to have self-determination about it political status. Don’t these elephants have any shame?

I had a dream the other night that Republican Luis Fortuño resigned from the Republican Party and became a proud “Yes” Democrat. He went to Washington and gave both the Republicans and the Democrat Blue Dog Coalition hell -- in Harry S Truman style -- for how they mistreated Puerto Rico.

Immediately, the White House and the United States Congress listened to Fortuño and included Puerto Rico fully in the national Health Care Reform program. Washington political leaders started immediately treating all Puerto Ricans residing on the Enchanted Island as first class citizens. Washington decided to put Puerto Rico on a fast track for self determination. Immediately, off-shore companies found reasons to feel safe in investing long term in Puerto Rico. Secretary of State McClintock had to increase his staff to assist the flood of investors on the island. The Secretary of State was delighted and kept calling the Governor Fortuño to let him know that another blue-chip company is investing in Puerto Rico.

As Democrats, Pedro Pierluisi, Luis Fortuño and Kenneth McClintock sang in harmony as a trio FDR’s “Happy Day Are Here Again.” 

Then I woke up to Puerto Rico’s current nightmare of being “second class citizens and a colony” with a rapidly declining economy and being sold off as privatized chunks of government to foreign power brokers.

It was the 26th of December and I’d gotten through a beach afternoon at an old waterhole in Piñones. The chow at one of the trademark friquitines. I went by bus because my car was stolen in November. The B45. The driver, a she, assured me there’d be a bus back, that the last one left the Loíza terminal at 9:00 sharp. No sweat.

Thus I was at the bus stop with my stuff at 7:00. Next to me, on the sidewalkless road, a fellow flipped steaks and burgers on a charcoal grill.

“I’m here very night. And all week I’ve not seen a single bus after sunset. It’s the holidays. The drivers party and get drunk and they’ve got a mean union and the Public Service Commission is just painted on the wall. That’s the way everything is here, all the politicians do is politick and we’re such [expletive deleted] that we vote for them again and again. You’ll have to phone for a taxi. If you’ve got a cell, no public phones around here.”

At 8:30, my toes sore from standing there, I did just that. Twenty minutes later the cabbie informed me my fare to Guaynabo would be $35. That it was Christmas and during Christmas things had to cost more, that if I didn’t like that, I should stay home and watch the religious channels, what his wife does.

Meanwhile a skinny smiley fellow in his forties in an 80s Toyota straight out of a junkyard was high-fiving my friend at the grill.

“Can you give the man here a ride?” my friend put forth my predicament. “I can get you to Río Piedras, where you can catch the train,” he voiced. “But I’d be runnning some errands, I hope you don’t mind. You pay me whatever you want and if you’re broke, that’s fine too.”

The guy was a talker, I was grateful nevertheless. We started needling through Carolina urbanizations and we approached a man wearing a raincoat who reminded me of Michael Corleone in front of the hospital in Godfather I. Both men glanced around cautiously, a roll of $20s was stealthily exchanged for a tiny but packed manila envelope. Yikes! We were doing drug drops!

Three of them, as it turned out. I acted nonchalant, I’m good at that. What would happen if I just got off then and there? Getting home would be rough, that’s for sure. If it happened we got busted, no way the cops would believe me. With the eye of my mind I saw my friend from the grill telling my story to a jury. Or he’d say he’d never seen me in his life. How much would a lawyer cost? I can’t afford one and I’m not indigent to qualify for Legal Aid and all they do in any case is plead you out.

So you can fathom my relief when, true to his word, my driver dropped me off at the UPR train station. I tendered him $8 and he laughed like a bad boy would and didn’t take them.

Next morning I took the bus again to Union Church in Punta Las Marías. A lady with a modest suitcase at a bus stop tried to get on, but the driver told her the Public Service Commission didn’t allow luggage on the bus, that she couldn’t take business away from the taxis.

All the time folks write newspapers detailing never-ending schemes whereby Fortaleza/Capitolio might deal better with current difficulties. Everything from garbage disposal to Haiti.

First, public policy is set with assessment from top managers, engineers, lawyers, physicians, whatever brainpower is needed. The reason decisions often appear dumb is government here is not meant to serve the public. Bureaucrats take orders from the politicians, who pander to the corporate and banking Daddy Warbuckses, who do the real governing of Puerto Rico. And what’s good for them is seldom good for We the People. Exploitation and privilege is the name of the game.

Second, nobody outside governance can really determine what best to do. A lot we simply don’t — and can’t — know. And what we get off the media is in large measure wrong. You find this out the day you get caught up in a newsstory yourself. The press seek headlines, an appealing yarn, as much as a novelist does. Though they don’t want to get sued nor fines slapped on by the FCC, who are hypervigilant for anything prurient, but couldn’t care less about inaccuracy.

The Constitution of Puerto Rico grants anyone fresh out of jail the right to a rehabilitation. How does the Commonwealth Government comply with said right? It sets up a registry that issues good conduct certificates that employers — even the Commonwealth Government itself — and private universities require. Meaning, once a felon, never, ever again a law-abiding citizen, you’ll never land an honest job with a record. Granted, you reading this now, aren’t a felon, so you couldn’t care less. But what do you think this does to the crime rate? How can a government who encourages criminality, forces it to happen actually, claim it’s fighting it somehow?

And why hasn’t some idealistic lawyer challenged the consitutionality of this travesty in court? Aren’t there any this side of Raising the Bar? 

The Constitution of Puerto Rico grants children the right to a free education ...

Stop badmouthing the cops. That they’re bullies and inept and ignorant and contemptuous of anything approaching constitutional rights is simply because that’s the way our leaders want it. Yes, it’s the politicians running the show. And you went right ahead and voted them back into office.

Some time ago I saw a policeman arresting a lady for obstruction of justice. Because she wouldn’t answer his harassing questions. “You have the right to remain silent,” he read to her from a rumpled pink card. With a straight face as he roughly handcuffed her and shoved her into a patrol car.