Term paper on Puerto Rico State Or Not

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Quebec Nationalism
It is sometimes hard for English Canadians to grasp how deeply many French Canadians feel the loss of control over their identity. A generation ago, it was summed up in a book by FLQ philosopher Pierre Vallieres, who compared the plight of Quebecers to the oppression of blacks in the United States

R. V. Keegstra
Mr. Keegstra was a high school teacher in the small Alberta town of Eckville, where he also acted as mayor for a short duration. Mr. Keegstra had toiled in obscurity as a social studies teacher until is dismissal in 1982 after allegations that his teachings were highly anti-semetic, referring to J

Careful analysis, serious discussion, and maybe even a national consensus should precede a decision as momentous as the admission of a new state into the Union. Although Puerto Rico has been a commonwealth of the United States since the Spanish -American War, they only recently became United States citizens after a law passed in 1917. They will soon have the opportunity to vote on whether or not they will become the fifty-first state of the Union. There is currently a bill (H.R. 859), passed to the Senate that calls for a true referendum which for the first time in history, would allow Puerto Ricans to choose their own destiny.

Puerto Rico is a small island 90 miles long and 30 miles wide. It is located approximately 1000 miles southeast of Miami between the U.S. Virgin Islands and Hispaniola. Its capital city of San Juan, and the surrounding urban area is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

In the past 33 years there have been three votes to determine the status of Puerto Rico. In 1967, 1981, and 1993 the citizens of the island voted whether Puerto Rico should remain a commonwealth, become a state, or become an independent country. None of these votes were binding but were used for opinion purposes only. All three times, Puerto Ricans voted to remain, as they

are, a commonwealth of the United States.

Why then is the Congress of the United States pursuing a new bill to change Puerto Rico's status from a commonwealth to a state?

Glynn Cudrow, co-author of Proposition 209 and Professor of Anthropology at CalState Hayward writes that "there is a mistaken belief that support for Puerto Rican statehood will translate into mainland Latino support for Republicans".

Many Senators and Representatives in Congress are jumping too quickly into a situation that they are not well enough informed about. There are many negatives of Puerto Rico becoming a state of the Union.

According the Louisiana Republican Robert Livingston, 60% of the population of Puerto Rico is on welfare. This means that Puerto Rican statehood would require the transfer of welfare money, from states with their own economic problems, to the new state of Puerto Rico. It is estimated that welfare checks would increase by a minimum of $4 Billion a year.

In The House of Representatives, Puerto Rico would gain six congressional seats. These seats would be reassigned from Mississippi, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In fiscal terms, Puerto Rico would rank last in contributions to the Federal Reserve, but on the contrary, they would rank first on the list of beneficiaries for that money. This is a serious mismatch that would require the careful consideration of...