‘My fellow Americans…’ Se fuerte!

Bill Knight column for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, Oct. 2, 3 or 4

Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 was the first U.S. President to use the phrase “my fellow Americans”in an Inauguration speech, according to historian Andrew Bergen, but over the years the catch phrase suggesting all of us being together, like a family, became so common that it lost its impact, if not meaning.

Today, it seems as if some fellow Americans are considered lesser citizens than others, if the Trump administration’s tardy response to the catastrophe in Puerto Rico is an indication. Delays or even neglect after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the U.S. territory has been mostly talk and too little action, even though its residents are U.S. citizens.

Talk is cheap, it’s remembered from the Bible’s Book of James. He wrote, “What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? Faith without deeds is dead.”

The death toll may “only” be 16 Americans at this point, according to the Associated Press, but the Category-4 hurricane left Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million people without electricity, water, fuel and medicine, many in remote areas so isolated the situation is unknown.

President Trump last week said he’d been praised by Gov. Ricardo Rossello and would visit there Tuesday. The former claim is an exaggeration; the latter: So?

True, on Thursday, Trump reversed his Sept. 26 decision and relaxed restrictions on other nations shipping supplies there, letting aid arrive from anywhere. That’s a positive, if coming later than the apparent response to victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, in Texas and Florida, and slower than Presidents Bush and Obama reacted after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. A negative could be that the administration seems to hope that other countries will help where federal resources haven’t.

Rossello reportedly “begged” for more help from Trump, and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CBS News that it’s a “humanitarian crisis.

“Help needs to get in people’s hands now. Not tomorrow. Not later. Now,” she said. “If you don’t do [something], hundreds of lives will be lost.”

Also true, something is being done, but the mere presence of people from Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Housing and Human Services, non-governmental groups, and the military (including 23 members of National Guard units based in Peoria) hasn’t made much of a difference to Americans recovering from destructive, 155-mph winds, reeling from the loss of $780 million in lost crops, and anticipating life in temporary shelters waiting months before power can be restored.

Also outrageous was Trump’s attempt to link the devastation with the territory’s $72 billion debt and aging infrastructure, possibly foreshadowing an attempt to exploit the crisis to privatize the publicly owned power company or engage in other economic shenanigans.

“Now is the time for action,” Mayor Cruz said. “Let’s not talk about the debt – the freaking debt! Let’s talk about the deaths.”

Besides residents of Puerto Rico, native Puerto Ricans make up at least 1 percent of more than 60 Congressional Districts. Can Capitol Hill respond? New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera in an appeal for Congressional intervention asked, “Imagine if after a devastating natural disaster Illinois was forgotten by the federal government and had to wait more than one week for real emergency relief. Wouldn't you be outraged?”

Will everyday Americans pitch in where the Trump administration hasn’t?

Here are some of the charities that have launched campaigns to receive cash donations to send assistance to Puerto Rico: All Hands Volunteers, American Red Cross, Americares, Catholic Relief Services, Center for Popular Democracy, Direct Relief, Global Giving, Hispanic Federation, One America Appeal, Puerto Rican Agenda (Chicago), Save the Children, UNICEF and United for Puerto Rico.

These people are victims. They’re family. And they need fellow Americans’ help and a message of solidarity: “Se fuerte!”

Be strong.