I really wish I wasn’t starting off with Puerto Rico this week. Not that it’s possible for an island that took such an awful blow to be back to normal, or even back to reasonable, after only ten days. But it should be possible for a nation with the vaunted resources and capabilities of the United States to at least relieve people struggling to survive. It should be possible for the storm to be the catastrophe, not the response.
It’s easy to imagine a different kind of response. One that—several days in advance of Hurricane Maria’s arrival, when the forecasts made it clear that Puerto Rico would take a direct hit from a dreadful storm—launched FEMA and the military into high gear. A response where the hospital ship Comfort was loaded up and prepared to go before the storm finished its trek across the island. A response that saw caches of food, fuel, and water distributed across Puerto Rico in anticipation of failing bridges and washed out roads. One that raised the Jones Act in advance of the storm, in order to maximize the arrival of last minute supplies. One that understood generators and satellite phones would be needed to ensure communication. One that searched out the bottlenecks in delivering supplies to the more remote areas and was ready to address that need with men and machines the moment the winds had passed.
A response that was about preparation and action, rather than delay and confusion. A response that valued the lives of Americans, over the bragging of Donald Trump. A response like … an American response.
On June 24, 1948, the armed forces of the Soviet Union blockaded the city of Berlin, where almost two and a half million people lived in areas dependent on the western allies. With an army of over a million and a half men in place, facing off against fewer than one hundred thousand Americans, the Soviets blocked the roads, the railways, and even barge traffic along the rivers. They did so in full confidence that the allies would surrender the city to them.
Two days later, planes began to arrive. Those planes delivered not just food, but gasoline and even coal for heating. They supplied the city’s needs through more 200,000 flights that continued, every day, day and night, until the Soviets finally relented in September of 1949. They were able to do this because the government agreed to do whatever it took to support the city, no matter what the cost or how high the effort — and because they had planned for the possibility in advance.
There are three and a half million Americas right now depending on the help of the federal government, and no reason they shouldn’t expect an effort every bit as impressive as the one extended to Berlin in 1948. Except … that’s not what they’re getting. They’re getting this …
“Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
This message was delivered to Americans without food, clean water, or electricity from a man at a golf course. Oh, and 10,000 federal workers is almost one-third the number who were on hand in Houston within four days of Hurricane Harvey. How dare the Americans on Puerto Rico expect to be treated like Americans.
Come on, let’s read pundits.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2yhJ3e0
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