Free Dialogue

A place to share different perspectives and ideas and to contribute to the information about
current events in Puerto Rico on the Internet.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Enough!

En español

The images and news coming from Río Piedras have left me with an unpleasant mix of feelings.
The sadness, the anger, but above all, the overwhelming feeling of impotence are very strong.
The temptation is to try some sort of distraction, like changing the channel, navigating away
from the websites I'm viewing, or going to sleep; anything to keep me from facing the feeling of
not being able to do something so that the violence stops and that the repressive forces that have
taken over the University of Puerto Rico leave it alone. But I also feel that to try to ignore what
is going on in Río Piedras and Hato Rey would be a gross act of indifference that would rob me
of my humanity, that would take me one step closer to becoming a monstrous being incapable of
feeling other Puerto Ricans' pain. I don't mean other people's pain in general. I mean other Puerto
Ricans'. I would feel like I would be fulfilling the stereotype of the apathetic Puerto Rican,
indifferent to what goes on around him, only looking out for his own needs and interests,
unwilling to take action and say "Enough is enough!"

I refuse to fit into this stereotype. I refuse to become a monstrous being incapable of empathizing
with other Puerto Ricans, the way that the Island's leaders have done, such as Governor Luis
Fortuño, with his deplorable speech the other day. Or his Chief of Staff, Marcos Rodríguez-Ema,
with his violent outbursts towards those who think differently from him. Or the President of the
University, José Ramón De la Torre, the President of the Board of Trustees, Ygrí Rivera, and the
Provost of Río Piedras, Ana Guadalupe, who, in their monumental incompetence and their
obviously uncaring attitude towards the University, allow the use of brute force by the
government to supposedly maintain order and security in the University's campuses. Or Puerto
Rico's Supreme Court, that had the impudence to say that the University is a semi-public space
and, therefore, subject to its administrators whims on how public expression is allowed to
manifest itself. I refuse to shut my eyes before these things.

Make no mistake, what has been seen today is an act of government repression designed to
silence dissidence, an indispensable ingredient in order for democracy to exist. These acts of
barbarism cannot be tolerated in Puerto Rico. Those who have allowed and supported the
suspension of civil rights and the essentially cowardly violence towards students –students who
were unarmed, without bodily protection, and in number far less than the government's agents
dispatched in the University's campuses– do not deserve to be held in the high esteem they
continue to enjoy. They have failed in the worse possible way those who they swore to defend,
betraying them without a second thought. You, dear reader, and me.

This is why as long as this disastrous administration lasts, I will continue to denounce what must
be denounced and will do all that is within my power to let the world know that in Puerto Rico,
right now, there exists a neo-fascist, authoritarian, and despotic government. If you also believe
that this government has exceeded its reach, I invite you to do the same. Share news stories,
videos, and this and other blogs to spread the word about the outrages being seen daily in Puerto
Rico. I firmly believe that we can all be agents of change from a nonviolent, yet indomitable and
irreproachable position.

Long live the students! We are the best thing that this country has left right now.

Posted by Ángel Carrión at 3:26 PM

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Labels: Ana Guadalupe, Board of Trustees, education, Fortuño, government, José Ramón De la
Torre, Puerto Rico, riot, Río Piedras, student protests, Supreme Court, UPR, Ygrí Rivera