Poor Puerto Rico can't catch a break — or get quick help from the U.S. government
It's not like Tuesday's predawn 6.4 magnitude earthquake wasn't a disaster foretold. It was the second earthquake in two days.
The intense seismic activity toppled homes, killed at least one person, destroyed a colonial-era church and left much of the island in the dark.
A 5.8 magnitude quake on Monday, preceded by almost a week of temblors, collapsed the beloved Punta Ventana on the southern coast, a stone arch shaped by natural forces into a window-like figure, and also did serious damage to homes.
But once again, as it was during Hurricane Maria, the
La isla olvidada, some call
The forgotten island, where 2,975 people died during Hurricane Maria and in the aftermath, one of the largest disasters in
But I think the neglect runs deeper and is more sinister than forgetfulness.
The disrespected island, I say.
There was not a word uttered by President
They offered prayers.
They said they were reaching out to Puerto Rican leaders,
Scott, accused by
Scott tweeted that he had talked to Trump and
No talk of money, though.
Rubio's tweet was more lame and uncommitted than Scott's.
He "will get in touch," he wrote, with local and federal authorities. "to help facilitate any federal resources that may be needed." The senator has been very busy defending Trump's unilateral strike on
"
Their tweets aren't going to turn the lights back on.
Their slow-motion moves as the crisis escalates bring to mind the pleas of Puerto Rican leaders after Maria, when Trump said silly things such as how difficult it was to send help there because the island is surrounded by water.
"I am begging, begging... if anyone out there is listening to us, we are dying," San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said then, in a heart-breaking appeal for help.
But all Trump and his choir had to say was that Cruz is a leftist and the proof was that she had visited
Cruz wasn't exaggerating. Thousands died as a result of not doing enough for the island's 3.2 million
And now, there's a new chapter to write.
As of this writing, all of those tweets had generated a letter to Trump urging him to do the obvious: send emergency disaster aid to
To which I'd like to add, and don't take a year to end the blackout.
We can't stop hurricanes and earthquakes from occurring, but there's plenty of force in that Puerto Rican vote in
One of
But the window of a 2020 election looms on the horizon.
May politics, if not human decency, be the key to getting Puerto Ricans the help these American citizens deserve to rebuild -- and quickly.
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