If at first you don’t secede
You will be tried, tried agin
Taking atoll
Largely unheard
Feigning liberties
In centuries owed looming freedom
Weave earned our lessen
From the British umpire
Never let US leave North America
[Except for certain exceptionalisms proving the rule]
The land of the free
For giving debts
In rolling that island pair o’ dice
Assure abet
Capital flushed down that Saint John
Welcome to the state hood!
That mourning after
A fifth of July
Only too have
Their suffrage denied
Nothing that can’t be fixed
Buy a little colony PR
In dependence daze for all
Let freedom wring
This is the America I no
Enough to make a native restless
On this Independence Day weekend, I dedicate this poem to the people of Puerto Rico, who are nominally American citizens but do not enjoy either statehood or independence. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress may put Puerto Rico solidly back into colony status with a seven-person outside controlling board taking over whatever governance Puerto Rico now has. This has triggered reconsideration of the status of Puerto Rico by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization. The re-colonization of Puerto Rico as reported by Democracy Now :
The U.S. Senate has passed the so-called PROMESA bill, which will establish a federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico’s economy. While the bill’s supporters say the bill will help the island cope with its crippling debt crisis, it has also been widely criticized as a means of removing democratic control from the citizens of Puerto Rico. The Senate’s 68-30 vote comes two days before Puerto Rico is expected to default on a more than $2 billion debt payment. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez led the opposition to the bill.
Sen. Bob Menendez: “It is a vote to authorize an unelected, unchecked and all-powerful control board to determine Puerto Rico’s destiny for a generation or more. It is a bill to force Puerto Rico, without their say, to go $370 million further in debt to pay for this omnipotent control board, which they don’t even want. It is a vote to cut the minimum wage down to $4.25 per hour for young workers in Puerto Rico. It’s a vote to make Puerto Ricans work long overtime hours without fair compensation. It’s a vote to jeopardize collective bargaining agreements. It’s a vote to cut worker benefits and privatize inherently government functions. It’s a vote to close schools and shutter hospitals and cut senior citizens’ pensions to the bone. It’s a vote to put hedge funds ahead of the people. And it’s a vote to sell off and commercialize natural treasures that belong to the people of Puerto Rico.”
May the United States and all of its citizens free themselves from colonial and imperial rule.
