Versión Español
EspañolDear Pueblo of Puerto Rico:
Have you taken a moment to look around? Have you noticed the roads, the water service, the electricity service, the traffic? Have you heard about the crime wave that may wax and wane, but never really stops? Have you heard about the corruption in government? Have you noticed that both major political parties make many of the same promises? Has it ever occurred to you that one party plans to sell the phone company while the other opposes it, but then once elected and nothing happens, the other party wants to sell it too? How about that gas pipeline? One party opposes it while out of power, then supports a “new version” once in office.
The story of Puerto Rico of the last 40 plus years has been one of power versus power at any cost. It has been one of gross mismanagement, political greed, dereliction of duty, and corruption. Whether you are a “Popular” (member of the Popular Democratic Party) or a “Penepe” (member of the New Progressive Party or PNP, by its Spanish acronym), you know what is wrong with Puerto Rico.
A family friend and member of a wealthy manufacturing family in Puerto Rico once opined to me, “mejor los pillos míos, que los pillos de ellos” (better my thieves, than theirs). He was referring to who was in power. He was a member of the “Populares” party and was lamenting that the other party was in power at that time.
His sarcastic remark sums up the problem. Everyone knows that the political system is corrupt, that the problem is the government and politics of Puerto Rico. This corrupt system feeds on itself and is destroying a once beautiful island and people. I ask you, why not a system without anyone’s thieves?
Today there are two cultures in Puerto Rico. One is about language, music, art, history and affection. The second is a culture of crime, corruption, deceit, and entitlement. One of those cultures must die, so that the other can live. Today that second culture is killing the first, and it is dying a slow, painful death.
In order to resurrect the good culture of Puerto Rico, a real and significant change must take place. As I have often said, if you want a change, you actually have to make a change. It means addressing the problems as they really are, finding their true causes and attacking them from a principled point of view; it means fighting back against political and union greed; it means resisting the oppression of central-planning socialism; it means resisting emotional arguments and misleading media coverage.
How many times have politicians promised a better life? How many times have they delivered? More government, more laws, more regulations, higher costs, and higher taxes have accomplished what? Puerto Rico is a society in collapse. It has been destroyed by the second culture. Unless real change is implemented, Puerto Rico will collapse into an even deeper abyss.
The worst part of all of this is that the United States of America faces a similar crisis. It is destroying itself via the same second culture. As the United States, like Puerto Rico, fails to address its debt crisis and continues to expand government in the name of protecting and helping people, it will drag Puerto Rico even further down.
There are solutions on the table to fix many if not all of Puerto Rico’s problems. There are solutions to crime, the economy, and government financing; there are multiple proposals to fix the whole of the island and fight corruption; there is even a proposal on how to break the status stalemate.
I admit that many of my proposals are indeed radical. However, when “normal” is for a US territory to have US$70 billion in debt and the nation to have $60 trillion in total debt, and when normal is an average of 1,000 murders per year and tens of thousands of reported violent crimes and crimes against property, isn’t it time for a few radical ideas?
We are building a coalition for an independent capitalist Republic of Puerto Rico. We are reaching out to those who have been left outside of the system, hurt by thousands of contradictory laws, but we are also looking for you: the producer, the business owner, the creators of society. We seek the true conservative and classical liberal. We are looking for those who obey the law and are tired of crime and corruption and are ready to do whatever it takes to put an end to it. We welcome US Americans and Puerto Ricans alike to join together for independence, the kind of independence that will actually work.
It is important to remember, every day we sit back and do nothing, we become more and more complicit in the crimes against our own people.
When you awaken one day in the not too distant future to find the US dollar has collapsed and the whole economy and society is in free fall, I urge you to remember this letter and these ideas. While it would be beneficial for us to work together now to begin the process of saving Puerto Rico, I also know that most will not act until action is the only option left.
On that day, remember that the political parties did not warn you and did not plan. All they did was blame the other party, or the banks, or the United States or the Navy. I challenge you to ask yourself, what have their solutions brought? Those politicians will attempt to sell you on tired and old solutions under new names and banners and use the crisis to destroy Puerto Rico even more.
On that day I urge you to turn away from them and join those of us who were already aware and already working on real solutions.
Until then,
Frank Worley-Lopez
