ENGLISH FIRST WILL NEGATIVELY SCORE THE BURTON/YOUNG AMENDMENT ALLOWING BILINGUALISM.
The Burton/Don Young destructive amendment is meant to give cover to bilingualism. Congressman Burton is reprising his role as spoiler on the English issue, which he played in March of 1998 when he gutted a good English amendment.
ENGLISH FIRST WILL NEGATIVELY SCORE A VOTE FOR THE PUERTO RICO STATEHOOD BILL SINCE THE RULES COMMITTEE PROHIBITED ALL OF THE GOOD ENGLISH AMENDMENTS THAT WERE PROPOSED.
English as America’s official language is one of America’s consistently highest polling issues, bringing moderates and liberals and conservatives together.
Remember our American heritage, such as when, to become a state, French-speaking Louisiana accepted English as its constitutional language of government and the courts.
Respect the concept of assimilation into American culture which the Burton/Young amendment and this bill would destroy.
Wake up about the fiscal burden this Puerto Rican statehood vote would put on all of our current states’ citizens. Take the time to assess the real cost of Puerto Rico statehood. Your constituents will want this answer from you and will ask repeatedly.
Support the Second Amendment—another powerful issue with immense support—where Puerto Rico is lacking.
Do not ignore the history of the “Tennessee Plan”—the aggressive procedural tactic to elect federal Senators and Representatives, send them to Washington and demand that they be seated before even be admitted as a state, which tactic has been used by 7 states (Tennessee, Michigan, Iowa, California, Oregon, Kansas and Alaska)—and the official adoption of the “Tennessee Plan” by the Puerto Rican statehood party (the New Progressive Party).
Do not be lulled by use of the term “plebiscite” and its association to “plebe” (trainee) to diffuse the harsh reality that today’s vote is the actual one that counts. It’s game-time, not scrimmage-time.
Do not suspend consistency and logic in pushing for constant votes for one territory’s status yet not for America’s others.
Territorial status is supported by the Puerto Ricans now as it was in votes in 1952, 1967, 1993, and 1998. Do not allow a rigged process to delude people into thinking that even one legitimate pollster or statistician would condone the divide-and-conquer survey methodology to defeat commonwealth status via aggregating all other options with statehood in the 1st vote and finishing off those others in a 2nd vote. That kind of crooked questioning wouldn’t even cut it in a push poll. It’s just not a clean, simple, straightforward way to ask what people want.
Do not endorse a “railroading of a self-determination process,” as says Jose A. Hernandez-Mayoral who has served as Secretary of Federal and International Affairs for the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, for something as honorable as American statehood.
Do not mistakenly try to “strategerize” a Presidential general-election victory map by inserting the green voting card of assent, thereby angling for Puerto Rico’s electoral votes which would greater than or equal to most of the current states.
Rest assured, any who succumb to such foolish temptation will be dinged by pro-America raters across the board, including English First. Any who so succumb will be lambasted in debates regarding trades of principles for politics and will struggle in a Presidential primary.
