Letter to the Boston Herald Re: Puerto Rico’s choice, 11/26/12
November 26, 2012
Letters to the Editor
Boston Herald
I write to congratulate the Boston Herald for its prescient and
principled Nov. 25, 2012 editorial on Puerto Rican Statehood. Indeed,
following Puerto Rico’s historic Nov. 6, 2012 plebiscite, the end of
the island’s 114 year-old territorial status and its path towards
admission as the 51st state of the Union is finally on the horizon.
Puerto Rico’s vote for statehood is not only a vote of confidence in
the future of the island, but in the future of the United States of America
as a whole.
It is a ratification of the principle that for a state-sized territory
of American citizens, there can be no more natural political goal –
nor a more promising future – than the one that can only be obtained
by achieving rightful equality with our fellow citizens on the
mainland.
The time has come for Congress and the President to respond to the
will of the people, and establish a reasonable framework through which
the island can at long last achieve this worthy goal. Puerto Rican
statehood is now no longer a matter of if, but when.
Hernán Padilla, M.D.
Former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico