Puerto Rico Was Supposed to be Swapped?

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Welcome to my first action project for my Senior Humanities class, Journalism! In this unit of Journalism, we have been learning about what it looks like for journalists and the in-depth process/skills that are necessary for this profession. Throughout, this unit we also read the book called Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman. We received a better understanding of some do's and don'ts when interviewing while reading Our America. While collecting these strategies, we also had the privilege to attend some virtual Northwestern University panel. Within these panels, we identified what makes an effective journalist. For this action project we had two options, and I chose to choose a topic that I'm passionate about, and make a report on it. I decided to focus on Hurricane Maria, and how Trump considered selling the island, after the tragic natural disaster. Here is the report I made! 


President Donald Trump considered selling Puerto Rico in 2017; after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Maria. Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff who was freshly featured in a political advertisement from Republican Voters Against Trump, reported to MSNBC that Trump asked him and other officials whether the U.S. could swap Greenland for Puerto Rico because, in Trump's words, "Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor."
                                                                                           
The National Guard. Puerto Rico National Guard. October 2017

As many readers may know Puerto Rico, which is an island located in the Caribbean, was struck by a category five hurricane in 2017. Hurricane Maria, regarded as the worst natural disaster recorded history, affected the island of Puerto Rico by causing nearly 3,000 deaths, neither energy nor electricity, extreme debt, homelessness, flat in necessities, etc. It’s currently an ongoing disaster that is still a burden to Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico has been facing a large range of crises over the past few years, while still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria. Besides the deaths and widespread power outages, there has been a shift in agricultural manufacturing that has taken a turn for the worse. This issue wasn’t able to easily clear up after a few months. When visiting Puerto Rico there is still dead green life, destroyed remains of homes and buildings, and areas of the island that are still struggling with power outages. Overall, there are still some parts of Puerto Rico, where there is a lot of distress caused by the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

According to Mercy Corps, “the worst storm to strike the island in over 80 years — caused as much as $94.4 billion in damages. About 80 percent of the island’s crop value was wiped out by Maria, representing a $780 million loss in agricultural yields — a devastating blow to an island with high poverty and already-fragile food security. Around 130,000 Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, have left home between July 2017 and July 2018 — many as a direct result of Maria’s devastation. .”

After three years of the island recovery from Hurricane Maria, Trump stated, “I have to say, in a very nice way, very respectful way. I’m the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico.” After Trump said this, there was a lot of outrage within the Puerto Rican community.

“As a Puerto Rican that was born on the island that now lives in the states (Chicago), it was hard to see this for Puerto Rico. A lot of my family was affected by the hurricane, and it was hard to do anything to help. It was disturbing and infuriating to hear that this was the idea for Puerto Rico ” says Julio Román, from Lares, Puerto Rico. “To hear something like this, it’s honestly disgusting. There is no respect that is handed to Puerto Rico, and frankly, at this point, Puerto Rico should become its own country. We were stuck in this crisis, and this is the response we get just because we are Puerto Rican.” says Janet Neris, from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico.

The proposal of Trump swapping Puerto Rico surprised many. Not only was there this terrible natural disaster, but there was a lack of respect and support from the President. There was a loss of Puerto Rican citizens, a loss of parts of the island, and a loss of respect for the President.

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