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U.S. is neglecting Puerto Rico

In the wake of the category four hurricane that devastated the American territory of Puerto Rico, the mainland aid and relief response has been not only delayed, but also disastrous in tone. While the island struggles to barely get by every day with serious water, food, gas and supply shortages and with electricity predicted to be fully restored only within six months from now, the apathy with which the American government has treated this humanitarian crisis is reason for extreme shame.

It took over a week for the White House to announce, via a tweet from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that they would waive the 1920-era Jones Act, an almost century old protectionist trade measure that allows only American built and operated ships to transport goods between American ports. The delay in the face of an urgent situation of complete devastation shows that the government’s concerns and priorities are placed elsewhere — definitely not in the island that is home to over 3.4 million Americans, with a population bigger than 21 states, and whose citizens have been treated as second-class. The Department of Homeland Security initially reported that wavering the Jones Act would not help Puerto Rico, despite readily doing so after hurricanes Irma and Harvey.

Not only that, but their acting secretary Elaine Duke said in a press conference on Sept. 28 that the government’s response to the tragedy in Puerto Rico was a “good news story,” a senseless and disgraceful statement that cannot be contextualized or excused. “Well, maybe from where she’s standing, it’s a good-news story. When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a good-news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good-news story,” San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said live on CNN after hearing Duke’s clip. “Damn it, this is not a good news story. This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death story. This is a ‘there’s-a-truck-load-of-stuff-that-cannot-be-taken-to-people’ story.”

In fact, Donald Trump and his immediate surroundings have demonstrated to be so out of touch with the dimension of this tragedy and have such absence of empathy that it is hard to believe he was the candidate who ran on the slogan of patriotism and “America first” – unless you understand he was referring to only a specific kind of American. His golf trips and the dedication of an irrelevant golf trophy to the people of Puerto Rico while they starve and dehydrate, as well as his Sept. 30 Tweet warning people on the island not to believe the “fake news” while only 7 percent of the island even has electricity, are beyond insensitive.

They reflect the absolute neglect towards an American territory that has been shown not to deserve nearly the same attention and response when in need, and whose citizens’ lives seem to matter less than those in the mainland who have full citizenship status and therefore can vote. Based on Trump’s apparent priorities, a devastating hurricane is not enough to incite immediate empathy and appropriate reaction for Puerto Rico, but perhaps getting a NFL football player to fly there and kneel during the national anthem might speed up the response.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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