The Washington Post
Editorial
Puerto Rico's Moment
(07/18/98 Copyright © 1998, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved)
THIS IS A key moment for Congress to bear down on the Puerto
Rico question, which has troubled Americans through the full 100 years
since the United States seized the island from Spain. The now nearly 4
million residents are American citizens but are denied the full
political rights of citizens in the 50 states. They sacrifice for the
nation in war but have no vote in the government that makes their
national laws. Gentle as the denial of rights may now seem, it is
still fairly described as colonialism. Speaker Newt Gingrich was on
the mark when he said earlier this year of Puerto Rico, "I just think
personally that to keep a colony is a very dangerous idea in the 21st
century."
The solution to the rankling way in which Puerto Ricans are
treated has long been evident but only now is being seriously pursued.
The first requirement is to afford islanders a full range of
democratic choices of political status: either (1) continuing and
enhancing the current commonwealth or (2) moving to statehood or (3)
to national sovereignty, the latter either by independence or in
association with the United States. The second requirement is to
ensure that the executive and legislative branches in Washington
define precisely the terms of each choice they offer Puerto Rico and
commit themselves to carrying the choice out.
President Clinton has committed himself to self-determination
legislation this year. The House passed a bill in March, and the
Senate has been working on a measure that is similar but not as
extensive. Keeping up the legislative pace is what the Puerto Rican
issue is now about.
In the past, mainland Americans were not prepared to bestow
equal rights on an island of a different cultural, social and economic
composition. But changes in immigration patterns and social attitudes
have produced and sanctioned a broader ethnic diversity in the
American population, and have at least lowered barriers to Puerto
Ricans. Earlier, the easy assumption was made that Puerto Ricans would
vote Democratic. Tellingly, the Senate advisory committee on Hispanic
issues, chaired by Sen. Orrin Hatch, noted just last month that Alaska
had been expected to send Democrats to Congress and Hawaii
Republicans, and both predictions proved wrong. His committee noted
that a recent poll indicated "strong support in Puerto Rico for
conservative principles (e.g. 82 percent oppose abortion and 91
percent favor school prayer)."
The bills cooking on the Hill would not bestow a particular
status but would simply set up a process for Washington to define
Puerto Rico's choices and for Puerto Ricans to choose by plebiscite.
The process would require of Congress two more bills and of Puerto
Ricans three separate votes; a phase-in period, should independence or
statehood be selected, would run to 2010. This is a sensible procedure
that would end the unfairness and embarrassment of denying one
innocent and deserving group of American citizens their essential
rights.
