When will this grieving end. Based upon the difficult conversations I’ve had with family and friends here on the island over the past two days, the heartbreak and devastation that Maria brought to our lives will not be healed anytime soon.
Most of us living in the midst of this disaster know the horrifying, understated truth of the recently released Harvard Study in The New England Journal of Medicine. This is not a surprise.
“Our estimate of 4645 excess deaths from September 20 through December 31, 2017, is likely to be conservative since subsequent adjustments for survivor bias and household-size distributions increase this estimate to more than 5000.”
Adding to the grief, our hearts will always have to bear the profound shame that it has been our own current administration’s officials, Puerto Ricans all, who have denied the dignity and honor deserved to all those who tragically died as a result of Hurricane Maria. I don’t know how we’ll ever begin to make sense of this.
From the very beginning, our governor and his cabinet minimized Maria’s destruction by supporting, praising and propagating the alt-reality narrative of the White House — this was not his Katrina, this was not a “real catastrophe”, the response was “A-plus”, “amazing”, “brilliant”, “10-out-of-10”. I can only conclude that in their vain hope of currying the favor of a tyrant, our submissive elected leaders have forever betrayed the people of Puerto Rico, living and dead.
October 3, 2017
PRESIDENT: Your governor has been -- who I didn’t know; I heard very good things about him. He’s not even from my party, and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we did. And he was tremendously supportive, and he knew the level of problem that you had at the beginning, before, and the level -- what happened with respect to the tremendous storms that hit your beautiful island.
And, Governor, I just want to tell you that, right from the beginning, this governor did not play politics. He didn’t play it at all. He was saying it like it was, and he was giving us the highest grades. And I want to -- on behalf of our country, I want to thank you. (Applause.)
Just to be perfectly clear, the only person “saying it like it was” , was San Juan's Mayor Carmen Yulín, who through tears was begging for a desperately needed response from our federal government.
“I am begging anyone that can hear me to save us from dying.”
Please watch, and remember.
She paid a very steep price for her brave honesty — she was vilified, ridiculed and then ignored by the U.S. administration, FEMA’s deplorable Brock Long stating:
October 8, 2017
"we filtered out the mayor a long time ago. We don't have time for the political noise."
As unbelievable, as unfathomable as it seems, the mayor’s desperate pleas were officially considered “political noise”. Less than 3 weeks after Maria razed the island it was already apparent that our lives didn’t mater, the destruction of our island didn’t matter, and the only effective action taken by the U.S. administration consisted of attacking the messenger in their attempts to save face.
The mayor hasn’t received any better treatment or support from her political opponents here on the island. For those still living under the illusion that we are an island of Democrats, please wake up. She’s been brutally attacked by the governor, his PNP officials and their fanatical surrogates, as recently as yesterday, as “a cynic”, “a sadist”, “an opportunist” and “not a Christian” — all because she dares to speak out and not fall in line behind the deadly false narrative created by the White House. We’re living in an upside-down world.
As we now approach the 9-month memorial of Maria, history has proven beyond any doubt that Mayor Carmen Yulín spoke unvarnished truth to power — and everything conjured by the White House and our governor’s mansion has been exposed to the world as incompetence, indifference and self-aggrandizing lies. Blatant, unapologetic, calculated propaganda being disseminated while our fellow citizens were dying from the lack of urgently needed care. There will be no forgiveness. Ever.
October 3, 2017
...
THE PRESIDENT: And Mick Mulvaney is here -- right there -- and Mick is in charge of a thing called “budget.” Now, I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico, and that’s fine. We’ve saved a lot of lives.
If you look at the -- every death is a horror. But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering -- nobody has ever seen anything like this. What is your death count, as of this moment -- 17?
PARTICIPANT: Sixteen certified.
THE PRESIDENT: Sixteen people certified. Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud. Everybody around this table and everybody watching can really be very proud of what’s taken place in Puerto Rico.
...
Pride is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind. Disgust comes close, but, even disgust isn’t quite right. Rereading the entire transcript of his prepared remarks upon arriving in Puerto Rico... only 13 days after Maria hit... I still can’t get beyond my absolute revulsion and shock at how easily this man lies and creates an alternate reality, benefiting and ultimately praising only himself.
He was right about one thing, though — this wasn’t his Katrina.
The heartbreaking reality is our death toll has more than doubled that of Katrina (1,833), surpassing the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (3,000+), and we are now second in deaths from a natural disaster behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (between 6,000 and 12,000 lives lost).
4,645 dead, and we’ve yet to reach the end of this catastrophe. Today begins another hurricane season, tens of thousands remain without power for almost 9 months, and I’m numb at the thought that our power company has been lying, too. Mayors across the island have been speaking up and fighting back against the official statistics, demanding that the power company’s chief executive visit their towns to witness for himself the communities still suffering without electricity. They’re still waiting for that visit, and they’re still in the dark...
I’m furious, we all are, but, the still open wounds of this disaster do not leave room for much beyond trying to survive and heal. Bear with us, please. Soon grieving will turn into resolve, and resolve will transform into action. For now, this is all too overwhelming, it’s an almost crippling sadness that has been engraved in all our lives.
Before I go, I want to offer my deepest thanks to Denise Oliver Vélez, my dear friend and tireless champion of my fellow citizens here in Puerto Rico. She has written, educated, ranted and raged about our plight more than anyone in the MSM, bar none. The spotlight she’s kept on Puerto Rico, week after week, should make everyone here proud. I know I’m proud of her and forever grateful. Pa’lante hermana.
Even though this crushing news is no longer trending, no longer appearing on the evening broadcasts, I hope we can all take a moment to honor the dead in Puerto Rico and hold them close to our hearts.
In closing, may all the victims of Maria be resting in peace, and along with all those who continue to suffer and needlessly die in this ongoing disaster, may they never be forgotten.