Amid demands for independence by bomb-wielding militants, and charges

Stateside that Puerto Ricans just wanted to get on the welfare gravy train, public

discussion of Puerto Rican statehood had gone into abeyance. It had been revived by Gerald Ford in one of his last statements as President. Governor Romero rebuts the charges and defends statehood on theoretical grounds: WFB: "You don't think it is possible to improvise on the Commonwealth, so as, for instance, to give you a negative veto on federal legislation as it applies to Puerto Rico ... ?" CRB: "Bill, if you don't understand really what it means to be a U.S. citizen ... then you might be happy with that. But once understanding what it means to be a citizen in a democracy, you want to have political participation to the same extent with the same rights and the same privileges and obligations as everyone else. You cannot accept something that is different."