webmaster posted on May 26, 2010 18:05
Dear American Baptists:
While the ongoing student strike at the University of Puerto Rico has largely escaped the attention of the US mainland, it has become a major focus for residents of the island including the Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, one of the constituent regions of the American Baptist Churches USA with over 122 churches and 14,000 members.
In a letter addressed to me as General Secretary, Rev. Roberto Dieppa, executive minister for Puerto Rico has written, “We would appreciate your communicating [this] news to our brothers and sisters in the USA and ask for their prayers on behalf of this issue, which is a matter of justice.”
Since April 11, a student strike over proposed cuts in financial aid to low-income students has shut down Puerto Rico’s public university which serves more than 62,000 students. Hundreds of these students are members of our Baptist churches and many of them find their financial ability to attend college threatened by the proposed cuts.
According to a report in the Miami Herald, “The strike has so many factors converging that reflect the social crisis Puerto Rico is living at this time: a financial crisis that is very deep, an unemployment rate that is very high, and add to that the proposed changes that would affect the scholarships of athletes, artists, chorus and high honor students.” As the strike continues fears of violence mount. Last Thursday a student protest ended with injuries and arrests, and over the weekend the police prevented food and water from being delivered to the protestors. The Los Angeles Times noted that “in one widely reported incident, police beat and arrested a man who was attempting to deliver food to his son, a striking student.”
Dieppa continues, “Our Baptist pastors and churches have been accompanying the students and celebrating worship services Sunday evenings right on the gates across the UPR main campus in Rio Piedras.” The critical moral concern raised by the churches, many of whom are in poverty-stricken areas, is whether the costs of the economic recession are to be borne disproportionately by the poor, a question posed not by Puerto Rico alone.
We join our prayers with theirs for 1) the reopening of dialogue and negotiations, 2) a peaceful resolution to the issue, 3) that necessary cuts not be borne disproportionately by the poorest students.
Yours in Christ,
A. Roy Medley
General Secretary
American Baptist Churches