TRUMP PRAISES HIMSELF ABOUT PUERTO RICO RESPONSE, PUERTO RICANS DISAGREE

…This is what we need for the current president

Puerto Ricans do agree: Trump’s response to Maria was a failure.

Ms. Lynn R. Goldman is the Dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.

It was just last December, a week before the holiday school break, that Ms. Goldman received a call from the government of Puerto Rico asking to meet and discuss a possible study of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.  While riding in a taxi on the way to meet with the Puerto Rican Governor, Ricardo Rosselló, she had already realized that the number of Puerto Rican lives lost would be much higher than the previous official number of 64 hurricane deaths.  She did not however, expect that after the release of their detailed, independent study of the effects of Hurricane Maria, that the study would be the subject of several presidential tweets declaring the study a fraud.

Trump’s tweets had suggested that the study’s finding of 2,975 deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was a number made up by the Democrats to make the president look bad.

The school’s Dean declared that there was no involvement of anyone but those within the Milken Institute, and the idea that there was any kind of political motive involved with the study was ridiculous.

In other words, it was just another lie from our president because he is never responsible for anything that ever goes wrong, and he will never admit to taking any responsibility.  Period!

But, as an example of statements from some Puerto Rican residents, in the town of Yabucoa, their residents say their government let them down and their struggle still continues one year later. 

The most troubling of the many untruths offered up by President Trump is his repeated statements that the federal government did a “tremendous” job responding to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. That study,  nearly a year later, admitted that the residents were still struggling to cope with many disruptions that affect nearly every facet of their life.

But the fact that the president defines the government's response as a success is obscene at best.  This should concern anyone who takes seriously the government’s responsibility to help people affected by a natural disaster.

During an Oval Office briefing on preparations for dealing with Hurricane Florence in the Carolina’s, Mr. Trump brushed aside questions about any lessons learned from the panned government response to Maria.  It was “an incredible, unsung success,” he said, and he followed that up with a tweet about the “unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico.”  What?

He did get one thing right, about the job FEMA did, not being appreciated.  In a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation Poll released after Mr. Trump’s false tweet statement, it showed Puerto Ricans are widely dissatisfied with local and federal government for their utter failure to respond to their needs. The most intense negative attitude was aimed directly at Trump: “Eight of 10 residents gave him negative reviews, including roughly half who gave him the lowest grade of poor.”

The survey was the first to document the responses of residents who lived on the island when Maria hit last September, and it offered new evidence of the storm’s devastation and continually lingering effects. It was reported that 83% had reported major damage to their homes; loss of power for more than three months; employment setbacks and worsening health problems. To this day, complaints continue regarding unreliable power, damaged roads and suspected water contamination. “We’re living day by day, and we’re living with hope that things might get better, but they have not,” said one resident of Bayamón.  This is the new “normal” all over Puerto Rico.

There is no question that Puerto Rico, with its island location, major credit problems and poor  infrastructure, presented logistical challenges for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  But none of that should give the administration a pass.  A FEMA report showed the agency greatly underestimated how much food and water would be needed, and that it had thousands fewer workers than were needed, with many that were there, were not qualified.  An investigation by Politico showed a marked difference in the administration’s handling of relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey versus Hurricane Maria, with a far more aggressive approach taken to help victims in Texas of Harvey.

It has become very clear that the president doesn’t consider the Puerto Ricans as “real American citizens” when comparing them to those in Texas and Florida.  Perhaps Trump doesn’t treat Puerto Ricans as US citizens, because as a US “territory”, they are not able to vote for the US president.  Only the Electoral College elects the US president.  Only US “states” have the representatives for the Electoral College.  So, if you were born in a US territory, and you live in a US “state” such as Oregon or California, you could register and vote for president.  But not if you live in a US territory.

Mr. Trump’s comments about Puerto Rico and his false statements when the Puerto Rican government raised its official death toll from 64 to 2,975, they showed a clear double standard that is not lost on most Puerto Ricans.  They told the Washington Post-Kaiser researchers that rebuilding the island is obviously not a federal priority. “The president of the United States has to remember that we’re Puerto Ricans; if you like it or not, we’re part of the United States, too,” said a resident of Ponce, a village on the island’s southern coast. “You see the response they got in Miami and New Orleans; they respond right away. Over here, it ain’t working that way. ”

But president Trump will continue to blame the Democrats and make Puerto Rico a political issue while more people on the island continue to suffer.  This is just because the president  does not considered Puerto Rico a major priority as are those citizens on the US mainland.

Let’s see how the priorities are established for those being ravaged by Hurricane Florence in the weeks and months to come.

Hopefully it won’t be another Puerto Rico.

Copyright G.Ater  2018