Puerto Rico

The talk in class last Thursday was pretty interesting. Puerto Rico seems like it's in a bit of a weird situation as territory of the United States... especially when looking at the situation through the eyes of someone who grew up in the United States and heard since he was a kid how important it is for a group of people to be represented fairly in government and how independence is such an important attribute to have or obtain. It seems like there are several ways that the U.S. tries to make the situation fit within the values they allege to espouse. The fact that Puerto Rico doesn't pay taxes except those that are used by the Puerto Rican government seems like it could be almost a direct reaction to someone asking "but what about cries of 'no taxation without representation!' that were so important in the American Revolution?" Ok, so they aren't represented the same way... so we'll make sure not to tax them that way. There seems to be a strange paradox with regard to how much power or self governing ability that Puerto Ricans are granted. IT sounded like the situation was basically that they made their own decisions... unless the U.S. decided that something was important enough for them to step in? The split along whether or not Puerto Ricans want to gain statehood adds an interesting dimension to it all, and it is further complicated by the issue of language (see, it all ties back to the class nicely, right?). If more than half the people don't speak any English, that seems to impede progress towards statehood, especially in times when parts of the U.S. are actually arguing over whether or not English needs to be the official language of the country (or at least parts of it). To me it underlines the importance of learning more than one language. While it is certainly not something that has proven easy for me (as my grades will attest to), I certainly see it as something important and responsible.