WE MUST CONDEMN DEDICATING OUR PARADE TO OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA

The Puerto Rican Day Parade has gone from the hands of the amoral opportunist to a group of radical fanatics who are trying to hijack the parade and divert it from being a fun day of pride and unity to a divisive expression of socialist anti-American sentiments.

Inexplicably, the leaders of this movement draw their salaries from the government and have sworn loyalty to uphold the constitution of the United States and their home states. In Puerto Rico we say “O nos peinamos o nos hacemos rolos” Which sort of means you can’t be with God AND the devil.

I must confess that as a young man I believed all was fair in love and war. I felt the acts committed by “Puerto Rican patriots” were justified and necessary.

However, witnessing the carnage of the last 20 years and the wisdom that being on this Earth for almost seven decades bestows on any beating heart; I am compelled to denounce terrorism in any form for any reason.

9/11, Charlie Hebdo, Fort Lauderdale, Oklahoma, Nice, Boston and so many more too numerous to list, have taught me an irrefutable lesson. Terrorism is insane, senseless, and cruel and is usually committed by ignorant people.

By ignorant I don’t only mean uneducated, I am referring to people that have been worked into a state of mind where they fail to realize that


1.) No living person today black, white, green, yellow or red, is responsible for acts committed by others generations ago. Punishing people for what their government did in the decades past or who their grandparents were is not justice.

2.) Waging war on innocent civilians is a Crime against Humanity.

3.) Police are not soldiers.

4.) Killing is immoral and exponentially more so en masse.

López Rivera joined the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a Marxist-Leninist organization which in the 1970s fought to make Puerto Rico an independent communist nation. The FALN was involved in more than 100 bombings in New York, Chicago and other cities, including the 1975 bombing at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan that killed four innocent people.

Lopez Rivera stated, “By international law, a colonized people has (sic) the right to fight against colonialism by any means necessary, including the use of force."

I believe most Puerto Ricans after living through the atrocities committed here in the USA and around the world would not agree with that manifesto.

Rivera was released from federal custody on May 17, 2017 after spending 35 years in prison. Let him go live his remaining days in peace. Don’t try to foist him upon all Puerto Ricans and the world as a hero. 

In my opinion, he actually committed a terrible mistake and an injustice in the name of Puerto Rico.

Independence is not the first choice of the people of Puerto Rico that live on the Island. It is the arrogant misguided crusade of stateside “intellectuals” who choose to live in the bowels of the Yankee Imperialist beast and fight for the “Freedom” of their insular brethren because they know what’s best for them.

In the 2012 status referendum, voters 54.00% of voters voted "No" on maintaining the current political status, and 46.00% voted "Yes", to maintain the current political status. 61.11% chose statehood, 33.34% chose free association, and only 5.55% chose independence.

It is evident that Puerto Ricans on the Island do not want independence, as the politicians and the parade Committee have led you to believe. It’s a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

Over 60 percent of Puerto Ricans, over 5 million of the 8.5 million on the planet have chosen not to wait and now enjoy equality on the US mainland.

The remaining 3.7 million (four years ago) perhaps 3.4 million today — are still waiting for equality, but over 100,000 every year, give up and vote with their feet by coming to the mainland.

I support those groups and sponsors who have the courage to state that they are boycotting the Parade this year.

Puerto Ricans who do not believe in terrorism should not attend the Parade this year. We must again vote with our feet.

The world is watching, in an era of extreme financial difficulties for Puerto Rico. Branding the island as pro-terrorist, anti American will not engender empathy for Puerto Rico’s plight.

However, the most glaring offense to Puerto Ricans by this group of naive opportunists is that it is not the truth. It is a dishonest representation of the will of the Puerto Rican people and the Diaspora.

In 2017, Puerto Ricans must not endorse or condone terrorism.


William Anthony Colón Román aka Willie Colón