Suspend the Jones Act and Save Puerto Rico

          Please use the  headline link at the end of this post to read today's NY Times Op-Ed piece by Nelson A. Denis. All Americans need to learn about this little-known law dating from 1920 that is hampering the response to Puerto Rico's devastation and has exacerbated the debt crisis taking a humanitarian toll long before Hurricane Maria ever hit Puerto Rico. The Jones Act imposes strict limitations on shipping to and from the Island, raises the prices of food and fuel significantly, and has impaired the colony's economic development.  Although the FEMA chief interviewed today did not own up to it, the Jones Act is the legal reason that the response to the hurricane disaster has been so slow and that the full military search and rescue operation that's needed has not been mobilized.

           During an interview on the PBS News Hour tonight, New York Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez reported having told 45, "If you don't do something, this will be your Katrina!"  And no doubt the racism that led to the too-little too-late response to Katrina is operating in the present crisis as well. If the people of Puerto Rico had lighter skin and all spoke English, the aircraft carriers, medical aid ships, and helicopters that are desperately needed would have been delivering relief from offshore days ago.  And  of course an additional factor operating is our "president's" irrational hatred of even the most helpless and innocent Latino people, whom he regards without exception as violent criminals.

          So I ask everyone reading this to educate yourself by reading "The Law that is Strangling Puerto Rico", reachable by means of clicking on the headline link below. Then contact your MoCs urging them to support the Velazquez proposal to suspend this outdated and unjust law that is helping foment a vast humanitarian crisis.

                                  

                                                                                                 Rufino Tamayo

                       Sirenas amid the ocean waves sing a lament for the once-beautiful island                        

                    

                                      

                The Law Strangling Puerto Rico - The New York Times

SISMOS!

I simply don't know what to say about the earthquake in Mexico!  For me, Mexico City, especially the Centro Historico district,  is the very center of the world!   I heard that

Coyoacan, a very special place which was once home to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Dolores Olmeido, sustained some damage.  And Xochimilco--Dios mio!  I can only imagine the profound grief and terror that all of the Mexican people must be experiencing right now.  May their faith in God and the Virgin sustain them!

Wishing everybody a happy 

MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

on September 16th!

                                    Another Publication!

I'm pleased to announced that today my short story, "The Painted Box" has been published in the current online addition of the Adelaide Literary Magazine, an international journal based in New York and Lisbon, Portugal.

You can read it at the link
 http://adelaidemagazine.org/f_epmurphey.html 

                                 It's only about a page long, so give it a read if you can--thanks!

                                          Do We Dare to Dream and Hope?

The news from last night on Trump's apparent openness to supporting DACA Dreamers was quite a surprise, though I'm not ready to start mixing up the margaritas yet.  It may turn out be a ploy to impress us all with his power by later changing course and letting everybody down, or else a way of getting revenge on his own party in Congress by siding with the Democrats.  Still, if it results in reducing the current partisan division in any way, that at least will be a positive thing. All the same, I hope and imagine that Schumer and Pelosi are being extremely wary!  As we wait to see how things play out, let's not forget to send prayers and other forms of support to the people--especially those on the small islands in the Carribean--who have lost everything in Harvey and Irma!

Sacrifice Zones, Sacrificed People

Well, there's been a lot of water, err...over the levee since my last post--and a lot of it is pretty toxic!

I happened to come across a term originating in the environmental justice movement that's useful in understanding the full magnitude of the Hurricane Harvey disaster in Houston: "sacrifice zones."  This expression was first used in reference to the environmental aftermath of the use of the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.  It's also been applied during the post-War decades to other sites of extreme environmental degradation, such as those of the waters polluted by "mountaintop removal" in Appalachian coal country and various Superfund sites that have been identified but rarely cleaned up. Perhaps the most current example is the town of Crosby, TX near Houston that was evacuated and then left to suffer the explosion and burning of un-refrigerated toxic substances at a plant owned by the Arkema chemical company.

An element usually implied by the term "sacrifice zone" is that it is generally poor communities of color that are located in or near such hazardous areas. At the moment I don't have any information about the people who used to live in Crosby, but I am certain that they face a lengthy process of relocation and rehousing, and possibly long-term health consequences of the disaster as well.  Something tells me that the less compromised homes of Houston's oil-wealthy Anglo residents are going to experience a much easier recovery process.  Let's wait and see how things unfold!

And then of course, there is today's well-predicted news concerning DACA--I think we're about to experience a media frenzy related to that, so for now I'll hold my keyboard (if not my peace!)