Trump administration's sluggish response intensified suffering and sense of 2nd-class citizenship: Our view
More than a week after Hurricane Maria blasted through Puerto Rico,*the misery factor is broad*and deepening.
The death toll has been reported at 16, but the true number is, for now,*unknowable.*Power and communication remain*down across most of the island, and that's in sweltering tropical heat. More than a million*people are without drinking water. Many villages and towns remain inaccessible.*
Twenty-five hospitals aren't fully operational.*People wait hours for groceries, gas and cash. Thousands of shipping containers are stacking up at the San Juan port. Shortages of truck drivers, fuel or communication are delaying deliveries*of medical supplies, food and construction materials.
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The*first weekend after Maria struck, President Trump said almost nothing about the island's carnage and instead ignited a culture war over NFL protests. When he finally tweeted about Puerto Rico, he included irrelevant*asides about the island's history of government debt. And, citing opposition from shipping interests,*he hesitated in suspending an archaic law that prevents foreign-flagged vessels from delivering supplies to U.S. ports.*
The sluggish response fed into wrong-headed assumptions about Puerto Rico and intensified the islanders'*bitter sense of marginalization. Surveys show the less than half*of Americans fully understand that the island is part of the USA, and that its 3.4 million*residents are U.S. citizens by birth.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...f-lacks-urgency-editorials-debates/711583001/