I’ve arrived at a point in my life where I wonder what kind of country we have become.
Americans, in times of crisis, always united and pulled together.
In the midst of the Great Depression, we united behind President Roosevelt as he passed legislation establishing public works projects that put people back to work.
Sixteen years ago, in the days and months following the attack on September 11th, we united behind the leadership of President Bush and supported appropriations to rebuild lower Manhattan and provide compensation for the families of the victims and the rescue workers who developed illnesses from the clean-up.
Somewhere or sometime after that, we lost our concern for the health and well- being of one another.
When the “Great Recession” occurred in 2008, some advocated allowing the banks and the auto industry to fail.
They didn’t care that millions of people would be left destitute or that the jobs in one of our major industries would be wiped out.
Legislation entitled the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, it was initially voted down when it was introduced by President Bush’s Treasury Secretary in September, 2008.
Following that vote, the stock market dropped by over 700 points, the largest in its history.
Both houses of Congress passed it a short time later.
The following year, as the economy and job markets continued to struggle, President Obama proposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to save existing jobs and create new ones.
It was enacted with almost no Republican support.
This was a prelude to Mitch McConnell’s stated goal, which was to make president Obama a one-term president.
I won’t go into the passage of the Affordable care Act i.e. Obamacare.
Suffice it to say that there has been a seven year effort to gut health care for over twenty-million people without any viable plan to replace it.
What I have found truly amazing is the way that partisan indifference to human suffering has become so embroidered into our national fabric.
In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck twenty-four states on the eastern seaboard causing 71.4 billion dollars in damage, partisan and regional resistance to relief efforts abounded.
When President Obama traveled to the Jersey Shore and was praised by Republican Governor, Chris Christie, Christie was pilloried by others in the Republican Party.
The entire Texas Republican congressional delegation, with one exception, voted against federal aid to the areas damaged by Sandy.
Even earlier, in 2005, Pence proposed offsetting the cost of Hurricane Katrina relief against other programs, including highway projects and the new Medicare prescription drug program, opining “We simply can’t allow a catastrophe of nature to become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren.”
This past week, Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Texas and its surrounding area causing over 100 billion dollars in damage to flooded homes and businesses.
This year, perhaps because Hurricane Harvey fell on Trump’s watch, Pence unconditionally called upon Congress to appropriate disaster relief.
Even before the storm struck, Senators Cruz and Cornyn, both of whom opposed the Sandy relief, were calling on the federal government to supply disaster relief.
The phrase “what goes around, comes around,” sticks in my mind.
Fortunately, congressional representatives from New York, New Jersey and other areas damaged by Sandy aren’t going to punish the residents of Texas for the actions of Cruz, Cornyn and their other representatives.
New York Congressman, Peter King, has tweeted, “NY won’t abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesn’t deserve another” and “Above all true Americans must stand together.”
I wish the ability to put aside grievances and appreciate how much we need each other was more infectious.
In the week that Harvey ravaged Houston, the Muslim community opened their mosques and offered food and shelter to anyone who needed it for as long as they needed it.
Those who embrace a travel ban on Muslims might want to reconsider the justice and wisdom in that.
In the middle of that hurricane, thirty-one year old Alonso Guillen, was killed during a rescue effort for people trapped in an apartment complex in a Houston suburb.
He was a Mexican immigrant and a “Dreamer” under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
That is the program that Trump ended on September 5, one week after Guillen’s death.
We forget that both Muslims and “Dreamers” serve in our military and fight and die for our country.
In 1858, three years before the Civil War and two years before being elected President, Abraham Lincoln said “That a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
We are moving further and further apart from one another, demonizing each other based upon caricatures and prejudices while ignoring the good in each other.
We need to ponder Lincoln’s words if we are going to survive.