Letter from a nurse "We know we have put ourselves at risk....to serve our patients:

Echo opinion letter published in Newsday a New York newspaper:

I have been a registered nurse for eight years — and a nurse’s aide for eight years before that — and this COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the country is unlike anything I have ever seen, especially on Long Island and in New York City.

It is scary, even for nurses like me and other health care workers on the front lines battling this fast-moving, highly contagious plague where people can go from relatively good health to critical illness or even death in a matter of minutes.

We know we have to put ourselves at risk sometimes to serve our patients, but what is happening at my Long Island hospital and at others was unimaginable just a few short weeks ago. It often brings me to tears.

There are tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases in the metropolitan area and more than 2,000 deaths. As of Thursday, there were more than 9,500 COVID-19 cases in Nassau County, and more than 7,600 in Suffolk.

We need much more personal protective equipment (PPE) like N95 masks, gowns, gloves, respirators and ventilators to protect ourselves and our patients and to save lives — and not just nurses, but also aides, technicians and housekeeping staff, just to mention a few.

The federal government was extremely slow to act and we are dangerously behind where we should be. Our union, 1199SEIU, is fighting the federal government to step up and protect us and our patients by producing enough PPE.

Shortages of PPE put everyone at risk. My hospital is stretched dangerously thin on protective equipment — and at least two of my co-workers have tested positive for the virus and are in quarantine. We are limited to one N95 mask per week, when normally you would throw it away after a single use. That mask can save lives and slow the spread of this evil disease.

We are so low on plastic gowns that many of us are forced to use paper gowns or makeshift protection like kitchen aprons — and we have all seen the shocking pictures of health care workers resorting to wearing plastic garbage bags to protect themselves and their patients.  Most of us are working 12-hour shifts, which takes a toll on us and our patients.

This disease moves so rapidly it is frightening to watch.

We had one patient who literally deteriorated right before my eyes within an hour. She seemed fine but suddenly went into a downward spiral. Her oxygen levels were low and she had trouble breathing. She got worse, and we sent her to a sister hospital better equipped to deal with the most critically ill patients. I don’t know what happened to that patient, but I fear the worst. She was someone’s loved one. She was someone’s mother, or grandmother.

I cried after working to help her, and I cry every time I leave the hospital and go home to my two daughters and my two grandchildren for fear of giving them the virus, even though I do not have it.

My youngest grandson was born nearly three months premature in June; his respiratory issues were so bad he had to stay in the hospital until December. He is home now, but I am terrified that I could bring this disease home to him.

We health care workers pull together to help each other, and the other nurses on my floor always make sure I have a plastic gown to protect myself and my grandson, even if it means one of them has to use a paper gown.

But we are hamstrung by the lack of equipment and the feeling that the government is slow and keeps changing the rules. We all need to get on the same page to win this war against an invisible enemy.

Kenya Clinton-Coles is a registered nurse at a Long Island hospital.

Donald Trump failed tank day #tanksbutnotanks a weird display

Echo critique published in the New York newspaper Newsday by Virginia Heffernan*

Tanks might strike you as fierce and cool, or as nothing more than fetish objects for right-wing tweens and goggle-eyed “Armored Warfare” addicts. 

Either way, all Americans should agree: Tanks are singularly weird machinery for a Fourth of July pageant.

Muskets, gazebos, little Shriner cars, sure. But when it comes to Yankee Doodling around, brute machines of war are a downer — long considered too ugly, utilitarian, authoritarian and lethal for even our most jingoistic national holidays.

Well, not anymore. President Donald Trump, ever the psycho, rolled tanks into Washington on Independence Day, surely the first head of state to occupy his own capital to demonstrate its independence.

The parade and the run-up to Trump’s late-afternoon speech were ominous. Along Constitution Avenue, people wore Trump-cult garb and slagged-off private citizen Hillary Clinton, who is not running for office. Elsewhere, vocal devotees of the QAnon nonsense were expecting no less than the resurrection of John F. Kennedy Jr. At least one wore a T-shirt picturing that particular dead Kennedy in an ugly MAGA hat (euphemism for a KKK hood!).

You read that right. Hear that rumbling? It’s all 400,000 people interred at Arlington Cemetery rolling over in their graves.

As the public park close to the Lincoln Memorial filled with a vetted audience divided into castes by fences, the atmosphere recalled Trump’s sinister inauguration in 2017. Was menacing Stephen Miller “carnage” rhetoric on deck?

Or maybe Trump’s sniffing would start and, hoo boy, his geezer impairments would flare up again. Maybe we’d get a rollicking military history of the Bowling Green massacres (with a nod to Kellyanne Conway) or the Battle of Covfefe Creek.

Not this time. In the end, Trump gave one of his stilted norm core speeches, filled with plodding doggerel of American self-congratulation that sounded like Newt Gingrich blather — or maybe like an outtake from History Channel Kids. The speech managed to prove that, yes, Trump can read most words. It also suggested that the weak praise he routinely gets — “at least he’s not boring” — is unwarranted.

Most TV channels refused to carry Trump Tank Day (#tanksbutnotanks), wary of giving airtime to what many feared would be a campaign infomercial. But the speech was all bore, no bile. There also seemed to be a tight quota for red-hats (Khmer Rouge style) inside the fences. The whole affair was curiously muffled. The effect was heightened because the president spoke to the people from behind foggy rain-streaked bulletproof glass.

More armor, then. Only one hulking Bradley fighting vehicle, an eyesore in camo colors, could easily be seen during the televised speech, awkwardly grrr-ing in front of the stage. Reports had it that another Bradley and two olive-drab Abrams tanks had also been laboriously dragged in, but stealthy crustaceans that they are, they were either too low or too evasive for TV cameras to pick up. (Lesson: Tanks are bad in shows because … they don’t show.)

Trump was on defense. He was in hiding — behind the gates, chain-link, vast security detail, bulletproof glass and tanks. If you want to preen, you get soldiers in elegant formation or a corny military band. If you want to hide, you get tanks. The show of force seemed more like protection for the president than pageantry for the republic.

Even Trump’s encomiums to the regular-people heroes shipped in for the occasion were sterile. But when did Trump ever seek to inspire when he could strike an Il Duce pose or two, surround himself with sycophants, and hide his cowardice behind a cartoon display of flag-molesting and bellicosity?

This surreal Independence Day brought to mind the confession of Trump’s butler, Anthony Senecal, who said he once was required to hire a bugler to goose the then-not-president’s ego by playing “Hail to the Chief” when the boss came home in a sulk.

This time, it’s likely our taxes will pay the ego-goosing that came largely from GOP courtiers handpicked by the Republican National Committee to applaud Emperor Trump’s new clothes from first-class seats near the podium. The American Way, evidently. The crowd looked wet and listless a good deal of the time. Almost no one appeared to know the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Having for weeks called for Trump’s impeachment, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash dominated the morning political media by declaring independence from Trump’s party. (Out West, an earthquake stole the day’s thunder.) You’d think Trump on his big day would bask in the hokum and let Amash go without a word. But, naturally, he tweeted snippily: “Total loser.”

It was seemingly one of the president’s stock why-I-oughta efforts to warn others in his circle against betraying him. But it’s all tired now: Trump came off as petrified. He was, as usual, firing blindly, cornered, a little hysterical and surrounded by tanks, as if he were America’s enemy instead of its president.

*Virginia Heffernan wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

P.S. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reported on the Russian news media analysis about the Sherman tanks in the #tanksbutnotanks exhibit. 

A Russian state TV news program laughed at Donald Trump’s Fourth of July parade this week. According to the Washington Post, the hosts of Rossiya 1’s 60 Minutes program ridiculed everything about Trump’s “A Salute to America” military extravaganza.

One of the hosts, Yevgeny Popov, chided the president, saying sarcastically, “The greatest parade of all time is going to be held today in Washington, that is what our Donald Trump has said.”

Popov roasted Trump, saying, “The American president announced he would show us the newest tanks.” But, “these are Abrams and Sherman tanks, used during World War II and withdrawn from service in 1957.”

William Barr and his fake Senate Judiciary testimony - an echo opinion

Maine Writer question - "When will real justice prevail in American again?" Our US Attorney General is a sick joke.

Barr violated his oath of office to protect Donald Trump. 

Reported in Newsday, an echo opinion published in the Tucson Daily Star, at Tucson.com - Arizona

America needs to hear straight from Robert Mueller

After more than four hours of opaque (aka lies) testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, (Fake) Attorney General William Barr made one thing quite clear.

Fake AG gave bogus testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee

Only special counsel Robert Mueller can give the nation the honest answers it needs to determine whether President Trump’s actions during the Russia investigation were consistent with his constitutional oath to uphold the law. Barr will not.

Mueller, the former head of the FBI, is the only one who can provide a straightforward assessment of his investigation, its conclusions and its aftermath that would have a chance of convincing the American people that the truth is being told. 

Mueller needs to detail why there was no finding of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Moreover, Mueller is the only one who can explain why he did not make a recommendation to prosecute Trump after citing multiple instances of conduct that would support an obstruction charge. Was it because of a Department of Justice policy not to indict a sitting president or because of a lack of evidence?

Barr's hearing provided more facade than facts, more charade than candor. Instead of true oversight, ugly partisan routines got ginned up again. Democrats pressed Barr hamfistedly on his interpretation of the 448-page Mueller report, while Republicans went back to their (stupid!) song-and-dance routine over Hillary Clinton’s emails.

But Barr’s (fake) performance was even more problematic than the Senate’s. After misleading the public with his initial four-page summary of the Mueller report, and then misleading the public again with his remarks before the report’s release, Barr went three-for-three Wednesday as he attempted to explain his infamous letter, his remarks since, and his decisions. But with each vague, evasive response, Barr showed just how little we should rely on, believe, or have confidence in the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Sen. Kamala Harris asked him, “Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?”

Barr responded, “Could you repeat the question?” Then he fumbled  (and mumbled) to an answer: “I’m trying to grapple with the word ‘suggest.’” He finally allowed that he had no direct requests from a president who in public has often called for investigations of his political enemies.

So to Barr, his four-page summary wasn’t a summary. In his eyes, Trump wanting to get rid of Mueller wasn’t illegal. But then why did those around Trump, like former White House counsel Don McGahn, refuse to act on Trump’s requests?

After Barr’s dishonest presentation to the Senate, it’s not surprising that he refused to testify Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee. And honestly, there is nothing more he can tell us about Mueller.

Not only do we need the special counsel to provide forthright, complex answers, in proper context, about his investigation of Trump, we also need to know whether, in Mueller’s view, Barr violated his oath as attorney general in service of Trump.

America's deficit has increased by 33 percent over 11 months

Echo: A Newsday Editorial (Long Island, New York) republished in the Wisconsin Kenosha News. 

The economy of the United States might be (temporarily) booming (workforce shortages notwithstanding), but the finances are going bust. In the first 11 months of fiscal 2017, the nation’s budget deficit was $674 billion. For the first 11 months of fiscal 2018, it was $898 billion, an increase of 33 percent. President Donald Trump’s administration now says the annual shortfall will exceed $1 trillion in 2019 and remain above that level for at least three years.

The deficit has exceeded $1 trillion in only four years, from 2009 through 2012, when unemployment of 8 percent to 10 percent depressed income tax receipts, low corporate profits reduced tax revenue and federal spending spiked to provide for struggling Americans, stimulate the economy and help fund state and local governments.

Such colossal deficits now lack any such excuses. Unemployment is around 4 percent, a historic low (driving workforce shortages), and corporate profits are at all-time highs. Happy days should be here again when it comes to fiscal sanity, but corporate tax receipts have dropped 20 percent since Donald Trump’s tax cuts took effect in early 2018. Income tax payments are up just 1 percent. And government spending under Trump has skyrocketed.

The answer, Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the Economic Club of New York, is being “tougher on spending” when it comes to the “larger entitlements.” (HELLO? Beneficiaries pay for our entitlements!)

The growth in spending on social programs is a real problem. Social Security outlays are up 8 percent this year, reflecting an increase in recipients, and Medicare spending is up 9 percent. But interest on the national debt has increased 13 percent this year. And military spending is up almost 10 percent, to $700 billion.

The average monthly Social Security check is $1,404. Cutting such benefits or making people work much past the current full retirement age of 67 before they can claim that benefit would not be humane, sensible or popular. Neither would cutting the Medicare benefits that provide health care to seniors or the Medicaid benefits that pay the costs of 62 percent of nursing home residents and the health care costs of 30 million children.

Trump is trying to nickel-and-dime the people who least deserve such treatment. He recently canceled next year’s scheduled 2.1 percent pay increase for federal employees, writing that he can do so because of “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare” of the United States. 

And he is fighting for a farm bill that would take food stamps from several million recipients. (This is wrong minded and cruel farm policy.  It makes no economic sense whatsoever. Eventually, this Donald Trump policy will drive up the cost of food for everybody by causing farmers to plant less crops.)

Trump and his advisers are crowing about a booming economy and crying poverty when it comes to caring for the nation. They have cut taxes, benefiting mostly the very wealthy, at a cost of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and now say they must cut the social safety net, which mostly benefits the nation’s children and elderly, to pay for it.

Republicans may not implement their plans to slash social programs, but the increasing costs of those programs are real, as are the spiraling deficits generated by Trump’s tax cuts and huge hikes in military spending. If denying Americans needed benefits (to beneficiaries who earned their entitlements) is the GOP plan to restore fiscal sanity, that’s disturbing. And if that awful scheme isn’t the GOP’s way to restore fiscal sanity, then it has no plan at all.

Fear ~ more than a book title describes Donald Trump

Two echo opinion letters published in the New York (Long Island) newspaper Newsday.

Bob Woodward's investigation into the Donald Trump administration is rightly titled Fear.  These two letters echo the book's central theme - being, Donald Trump believes creating fear will build his credibility. OMG!

Letter #1: From Robert Mays, Freeport New York

Donald Trump characterized Bob Woodward’s new book, the latest in a series of documented critical writings about Trump’s administration, as a joke [“Trump: New book a ‘Joke’,” News, Sept. 11].

Unlike Trump, Woodward has a sterling reputation for honesty and for meticulous detail in his writing and reporting. He has a history of criticizing both Republican and Democratic administrations when deserved and has won prestigious awards for doing so. Trump and his administration are different from past administrations, and not in a good way. Recent polls indicate that more and more American voters are paying attention to Trump’s unique dysfunction.

If those polls are accurate and special counsel Robert Mueller completes his work, the joke will be on Trump, and the country can be a leader in the world once again.

Letter #2 Edward B. (Woody) Ryder IV, Greenlawn, New York

White House staff do the nation a disservice by enabling the man in the Trumpian bubble. 

Instead, they should help Donald Trump by orchestrating an intervention and invoking the 25th Amendment as they apparently discussed shortly after Jan. 20, 2017, according to Bob Woodward’s new book.

If news reports are accurate that the only people Trump trusts are his children, it is up to those who feed off the paternal entrails to orchestrate this intervention.

The New York Times op-ed about Trump’s White House that claimed there is a “resistance” within the Trump administration was written anonymously, for good reason. Anonymity was required for the writer for the same reason, albeit with a substantially much less violent proposed end result, that neither Claus von Stauffenberg nor his Valkyrie allies revealed their identities in their ultimately futile attempt to remove from office the lunatic (Hitler) of their era.

Roman Catholic clergy abuse is despicable and continues to reveal a culture of "cover ups"

Roman Catholic clergy abuse is revealed as being more damaging than the Church ever wanted to admit to; but, even in the midst of criminal activity, the hierarchy, Bishops and other leaders, did very little to exorcise the problem. Victims of the abuse continue to reveal startlingly horrible experiences.

Opinion by L. Gregory Jones, Dean of Duke Divinity School

A candid echo opinion published in the New York newspaper "Newsday". calls for collaboration from all religions to end abuse and stop the cover up of criminal behaviors by clergies.

Maine Writer ~ It's beyond tragic for the victims of abuse and for the Roman Catholic Church to be in this despicable (and frankly, a preventable) criminal situation.  While the pervasive incidents of abuses were covered up, the Church was actually working on progress with social justice issues like advocating for the poor and immigrants. Moreover, the schism caused by the Protestant Reformation was in the process of being somewhat repaired.

Rebuilding trust in the (Roman Catholic) clergy

Sex-abuse report demands that all Christians begin needed repair work.

A Pennsylvania grand jury’s report last week about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is devastating and heartbreaking. The stories are despicable; even more troubling is the church’s refusal to address problems immediately, its systemic cover-up and its inability to take corrective action to minimize the risk of future abuse.

We struggle any time we discover the horrific and abusive ways in which humans can treat other humans. But it is something else when the source of the mistreatment comes from people, and organizations, in whom there is a higher — indeed a sacred — trust. Many of the episodes happened because people thought they could trust priests and the church. After all, they had been told that priests are representatives of Christ, and the church a sign of God’s Reign.

I wrote an Op-Ed in 2002 titled “Tough love for sexual abusers” when the Catholic sexual-abuse crisis was first coming to public awareness. I emphasized the importance of dealing with the issues systemically, the significance of focusing on care and justice for victims, and the theological significance of avoiding “cheap grace” and trivializing forgiveness.

In retrospect, my piece was naive. I assumed that leaders in the church would move quickly, theologically and administratively to address the problems. They did in some ways, but nowhere near enough. The breadth and details of systemic issues contained in the grand jury report demands a reckoning — now.

I am not Roman Catholic, but I am a Christian. 

I am also a United Methodist pastor and dean of Duke Divinity School. The grand jury report not only raises important questions for ordained ministry and the church across the traditions, but also damages the credibility and trust of the church and of churches, precisely when people yearn for places and people and institutions worthy of trust.

And it is not as if Protestants are only indirectly culpable. Recent stories about sexual misconduct at Willow Creek Church, and among high-profile leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention, are reminders that betrayals of trust and abuses of power are not the exclusive problems of one sector or tradition.

We Christians have serious repair work to do. We need, first, to hold ourselves to higher levels of accountability than that required by the law. We certainly need to work with legal authorities who are more competent and independent to investigate allegations.

Second, we must corporately and personally embody repentance, humility and prayerful commitment to victims as we come to terms with the damage done by the church. This especially includes our leaders; we must reckon more clearly with the dangerous abuses of power, and articulate more clearly wise uses of power.

Third, we must begin to rebuild trust. This will take time, as one of the great tragedies of any betrayal is how much longer it takes to rebuild trust, than to destroy it. This will require courage, truthfulness and willingness to change.

Fourth, those of us entrusted with educating and forming clergy need to change. We need to pay greater attention to issues of sexual abuse and institutional accountability in our coursework and scholarship; focus more on the character expected of those entrusted with clergy leadership; and identify how to minimize the risks of damage by complex organizations, their leaders and power.

I hope this is a wake-up call for all people of faith, and especially divinity schools and seminaries, to begin the needed repair work. 

I hope we will prepare women and men to practice humility and embody trust, to nurture organizations capable of preventing abuse whenever possible and immediately addressing it if it does, and to cultivate more faithful witness in all we are and do. The challenges are daunting; the urgency of addressing them is clear. 

May we rise to the challenges.

L. Gregory Jones is the dean of Duke University’s Divinity School.

Professor Jones is dean of Duke Divinity School and a theologian whose work centers on the nature of forgiveness, the significance of Christian ministry and pastoral leadership, and social innovation and entrepreneurship. He has served as Duke’s chief international strategist to advance and coordinate the university’s global engagement. Between 1997 and 2010, Dr. Jones served as the eleventh dean of the Divinity School.

Deja vu "all over again" ~ Watergate echo

Richard Nixon tried to fire Watergate investigators ~ failed!

Donald Trump should learn from Watergate and Richard Nixon ~ echo Editorial Board opinion published in Newsday.

Trump’s threats risk undermining our democratic institutions by discrediting them in a cynical appeal to his base.

Donald Trump is again attacking the Justice Department for resisting efforts to politicize special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Trump is again threatening to follow the destructive path of Richard Nixon as he struggles with the reality that he has two awful options on the table: 

• Either answer Mueller’s questions or 
• Assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

To Trump, it seems so much easier to fire the prosecutor.

Trump’s repeated threats risk undermining our democratic institutions by discrediting them in a cynical appeal to his base. This approach is also against his self-interest because when he boasts or tweets negatively about the investigation, he appears to put himself in more legal jeopardy.

Trump must let the process unfold and answer the prosecutor’s questions. Instead, Trump is using his storm troopers in Congress to taint the probe. On Monday, the Justice Department notified House Republicans Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan that it will not turn over a memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that set the parameters of the special counsel probe. Justice officials said it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

On Tuesday, Meadows let it be known that he might try to impeach Rosenstein, a prime Trump target. By the end of the day, Rosenstein fought back, a signal of how seriously he takes the threats. “And I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.” Think about it, the No. 2 person at the Justice Department claims he is being extorted by members of Congress and the president.

Here’s why. A week ago, Trump said he was “very disappointed in my Justice Department” in a “Fox and Friends” interview, calling the probe “an absolute disgrace.” 

Moreover, Trump continued trying to set up Rosenstein for a fall, concluding a tweet: “At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved.” By the afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders adopted Trump’s strategy, calling the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”

Well, Congress can’t get just any access it wants to documents in an ongoing investigation. That is not how its oversight powers work. And Trump might oversee the Justice Department, but our nation’s rule of law does not bend to the president’s whims. The judicial system will determine whether the Mueller investigation overstepped its authority. Learn from history: President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday night massacre” didn’t work out so well, and the Supreme Court later required him to turn over Oval Office recordings to a federal court.

Mueller wants to interview Trump. In fact, Trump's (crisis managers!) lawyers are threatening a showdown with the special counsel if he issues a subpoena to the president. Such a dispute would likely go to the Supreme Court. Trump is pursuing a political strategy: Discredit the investigation and fire those who are doing it.

It’s wrong, and it won’t work. “You’d have to fire the entire FBI and the entire Justice Department” is how fired FBI Director James Comey described the consequences if Trump follows up on his threats.

Those firings would leave Trump’s presidency and his party in ashes.

Donald Trump - a bully in the White House: Letter to the editor

Echo - published in Newsday~ Long Island, New York

Andrew McCabe, formerly deputy director with the FBI, was an unlikely lightening rod for Donald Trump bullying

Dear Editor, 

As a parent, grandparent and educator, I’m extremely concerned about the rhetoric coming out of the White House, especially from the president.

We work hard, on all grade levels, to eradicate bullying, cyber-bullying and lying.

President Donald Trump recently called FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s wife a loser [“FBI Deputy Director McCabe retiring,” News, Jan. 30].

Report: Trump called Andrew McCabe’s wife a “loser” in a bizarre call  The deputy FBI director is stepping down*.

If the president can get away with it, why can’t the teen next door? If the president can bully people via Twitter, why can’t the high school student down the block do the same? Media throughout the nation have reported the various lies uttered by the president and his staff.

It used to be that the president of the United States was a unifier and an example of appropriate decorum.

I fear the change in our children if the president continues to act counter to the what we are trying to teach.

David J. Sills, Oceanside, NY

*Vox.com reported: "Trump demanded to know why James Comey was allowed to fly on an FBI plane after he had been fired, these people said. McCabe told the president he hadn’t been asked to authorize Comey’s flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have approved it, three people familiar with the call recounted to NBC News". ~ John Kirby

Puerto Rico - still suffering: echo opinion from New York

New York newspaper Newsday - a sad but badly needed opinion about Puerto Rican dispair.

Puerto Rico
 Recovery after Hurricane Maria September 20, 2017

Four months after Hurricane Maria, still desperate in Puerto Rico
The island's people need more help, and billions of dollars more from Washington.

By The Newsday Editorial Board: February 3, 2018

Here is what is happening in Puerto Rico more than four months after Hurricane Maria slammed through the island: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still providing food and water, after mistakenly prompting fears it would stop. 

Tarps cover roofs across the island. Approximately a third of the population is still without power.

No power usually means no hot meals and no refrigeration. 

No power means no air conditioning in tropical heat that is already breaching the 80s.

And that’s all far better than it was in recent weeks.

The island’s disaster was more far-reaching than some of the worst ever seen on the mainland. More than three times as many generators were provided by FEMA to Puerto Rico after Maria as compared with Hurricane Katrina. For the 3.4 million people who call Puerto Rico home, it has been an unconscionably slow recovery. The federal government must extend the true helping hand our fellow Americans desperately need.

The odds were stacked against the island long before hurricane winds swirled. A decadelong recession has prompted a stream of migration away from the island. With the economy faltering after a repeal of a federal corporate tax break, successive governments borrowed excessively and the island is now tens of billions of dollars in debt — which has led to a federal control board demanding austerity.

Mismanagement caused deep cracks in infrastructure. There were bad local decisions after the storm. The Puerto Rico Electric Power (PREPA) Authority chose not to immediately call in hordes of power workers via mutual aid agreements with mainland utilities. 

Instead, PREPA at first relied on Whitefish Energy Holdings, a Montana company, due to logistical difficulties and cost concerns, but this only delayed energy restoration. The mountainous terrain posed its own challenges.

Meantime, the federal response has been scandalously inadequate. It started with early logistical stumbles like delayed opening of ports, slowing the delivery of supplies. President Donald Trump obscenely overstated the island’s recovery when he visited in October and squabbled with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz as she and others asked for more aid.

The inadequate response continues today with an omnibus $81 billion supplemental disaster-relief package that is stalled in the Senate. It’s hardly enough for Puerto Rico, but miserly when split with other disaster-struck areas such as Texas and Florida.

And the future looks dire: The Republican tax bill disadvantages Puerto Rico businesses compared with mainland ones, making it even more difficult for Puerto Ricans to get back on their feet.

New York has done more, in many ways, because of its bond with Puerto Rico. The Empire State has long been the heart of the Puerto Rican diaspora, particularly since hundreds of thousands migrated to the mainland in the 1950s. 

As an American territory, Puerto Rico has only a nonvoting member of Congress and does not vote for president, making New York politicians de facto surrogates.

New York’s efforts to get the power back on have been particularly helpful. New York power workers were on the ground within days of Hurricane Maria to analyze damage, and more than 450 New York State utility workers have helped restore power to more than 90 percent of San Juan area customers.

But the devastation requires a wider response. Today in Puerto Rico, you will find fallen trees aside major highways and still-broken bridges. Many storefronts are shuttered and traffic lights are dead, symbols of the scale of the storm and the slow return to normalcy. The disaster aid package should be approved immediately — including, at the very least, funding for the island’s Medicaid crisis, caused in part by the federal government contributing much less than it does for states.

Also needed: a waiver for the portion of disaster response for which Puerto Rico would be responsible after the first 180 days post-storm. That local cost-share was waived for Louisiana after Katrina. The legislation also must reform Stafford Act requirements, which stipulate that federal dollars be used largely on simple reconstruction. The federal government should build to a higher standard, trying to prevent this level of destruction from happening again. Puerto Rico in turn must marshal political will to modernize its electrical grid.

Beyond the bills, Puerto Rico’s economy needs help. The commonwealth needs some leniency as it seeks to restructure its debts. Why sow salt in fields that one day must be fertile?

There is hope for Puerto Rico.

Many Puerto Ricans see the disaster as an opportunity to rebuild smartly. Better bridges can span rivers, roads will be cleared and improved, and tourism will again flourish with New Yorkers and others hopping on cruise ships and flights, sustaining the economy as Puerto Rico rises.

But to do so, the island needs more help, and more recognition by Washington, with respect for the Puerto Ricans, that these are fellow citizens, too.