A Sustainable Future Can Only Be Built on a Base of Compassion
A couple of days ago, I quoted someone who took umbrage at the Trump administration’s disdain for Puerto Rico and the appalling lack of compassion it showed for the 3000 people who died as a result of the fifteenth-rate response to the hurricanes that struck the island in 2017. He wrote:
They died, gasping for hours near the end, when the oxygen tank they needed to breathe gave out.
They died in the dark and the heat of unsanitary ICU units, of burns or gunshot wounds received before the hurricane that they almost certainly would have survived otherwise.
They died, burning up with fever, of leptospirosis from being in touch with flood waters during the effort to save their neighbors.
They died in fear and confusion after being forced to go off their regular medication.
They died of heat stroke.
They died of diseases of antiquity, in a crisis of neglect unworthy the greatest, wealthiest and most powerful nation in human history.
Craig: Robert, with each passing day I become more amazed at the capacity of some people to think and act so heartlessly. Here we’re talking about 3000 human beings–not cockroaches–3000 American citizens to be precise, who died in agony because our government couldn’t have cared less about them. Making matters worse is the reason why we turned our back on them: the local government on Puerto Rico had the gall to complain about the horrific level of help they were receiving. Trump took this, as usual, as a personal slight, and retaliated by sending 3000 of our innocent citizens to terrible deaths. Fortunately, the vast majority of people on this planet still harbor some level of decency. You may want to consider becoming one of them.
Who are all these people, totally devoid of compassion? Where did they come from? How did they get this way? Did they flunk Sunday School?
If the future of the human race is complete indifference to the suffering of others, we have no future at all.
Craig,
You ask a valid question, who are these people ?
They’re hard working taxpayers who witness corruption, gang violence, cronyism, despoilage and waste of resources caused by hand-wringing ineffective policies.
They don’t lack “compassion”, they didn’t “fail at Sunday School”, “they” just don’t agree with your failed solutions and inaccurate claims.
That doesn’t make them heartless monsters “lacking in decency” !
What “they” are, is your fellow citizens! It’s their taxes you are so eager to give to gangsters, corrupt officials and those who want the US government to finance incompetence and public dishonesty.
Exactly where do you get off upbraiding these people? If you’re so keen to help the poor of Puerto Rico, why not start your own charity and move to the Island as a care worker ?
Where do you get your dishonest, but oft repeated, figure of 3000 deaths?
That figure is a liberal media fantasy, based on a weird and completely flawed, long discredited Harvard student survey, .
Either prove the accuracy, or stop quoting nonsense !
Puerto Rican economic problems existed before the Hurricane.
The Puerto Rican government was in default on more than $110 billion of debt.
The Obama government failed to address this outrageous level of public debt for an island of only a little over 3 million people.
With a 45% poverty rate and 17.4% unemployment (and rising)the Puerto Rican government (especially the socialist Major of San Juan) can’t explain where all the money went.
US taxpayer subsidies already account for more than 40% of Puerto Rico’s budget.
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan where almost two thirds of the nation live, complains bitterly that The President and US hasn’t done enough to help San Juan.
Mayor Cruz refuses to explain her massive wastage of funds or donations to Democrat funding, in particular Bernie Saunders.
A large part of Puerto Rico’s problems are caused by an over investment in government owned business enterprises designed to create employment for cronies, not real goods and services.
The US has so far spent more than $12 billion on aid for Hurricane relief, $4 billion in debt relief, and hundreds of millions in private charity donations.
Mayor Cruz claims the US “owes” Puerto Rico more than $300 billion! This is her estimate of what it will cost to rebuild Puerto Rico.(That’s $100,000 for every man woman and child on the island)
An exceedingly generous US has already allocated $91 billion over the next decade, and has already picked up some of the tab on Puerto Rico’s massive debt.
Craig, I hate to be such a harsh critic and I’ve no wish to sound offensive, but you really should do a little more research before writing such biased and inaccurate propaganda.
Don’t you understand the harm your counter-productive hand wringing bleating creates? The US taxpayer is amazingly generous, but wants to see practical benefits and efficient deployment for what is, after all, borrowed money, contributing to the US national debt.
By knowing inflating the death toll to attract sympathy while damning the US President, you do the victims of Puerto Rico a great disservice.
When your oft repeated death toll figure are seen to be knowingly fraudulent, the ordinary US taxpayer feels deceived. Unfortunately, to resentment becomes directed toward the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. This is unfair, since they’re only pawns in a political game played by the media and political activists like yourself.
By turning the Puerto Rican disaster into a political campaign against President Trump, Carmen Cruz and the Democrats have harmed the Puerto Rican people and undermined reconstruction.
Perhaps you should re-examine the effect of your own actions before offending your fellow citizens with hypocritical moral sermons ?
(Oh, and before you get outraged, and start name calling, perhaps you could do yourself a favour and either prove your 3000 figure, or acknowledge your error Ah, facebook, buzzfeed,or an “unnamed Source are not credible sources! BYW, even Carmen Cruz only puts the toll at 1400).