Almost exactly one month ago, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, knocking out nearly all of their power and putting the country in jeopardy from the natural disaster. Only a few weeks before, Houston had been flooded by the rains of Hurricane Harvey, and volunteers had flocked to the city to help the people who were struggling. After Hurricane Maria, President Trump sent the barest minimum of help to the country of Puerto Rico, giving them enough help to get 20% of the island safe water to drink. Then he stopped. In an interview with the president of Puerto Rico, he was asked what rating he would give the work that the White House had done, rated on a scale of one to ten. Trump said that he would give the efforts of the White House a ten, since the storm was so much worse than some of the earlier ones. According to this article from "Thinkprogress", President Trump asked whether they had done a good job of providing relief. The president of Puerto Rico responded with a slightly passive aggressive way that yes, indeed, they had come immediately to the country. Some of the biggest names in the government are now putting on airs and tweeting or putting messages on social media about how the American people are not helping the Puerto Ricans, and how we are still complaining about football players. I feel like there's not much more that I can add to this, because President Rossello summed it up so well. I am aware of the fact that I wrote on the "Take a Knee" for the last assignment, but I also think that it is important to keep things in perspective. If this were Houston that were out of water and power, would we be sitting here? If it were Florida, do you think that there would still be people complaining about how terrible the question of abortion is? Unfortunately, the answer would still be yes, but that's a different topic. We need to learn to deal with the urgent problem, instead of trying to solve problems from yesterday, tomorrow, and three years from now. Although it is still important to consider the question of the "Take a Knee", I think that it is more important to take care of people who need it, and I think that this is what is tearing the country apart.
Recently, quite a number of famous sports players have decided to "Take a Knee" towards the flag, instead of standing to salute it. The idea of taking a knee as a sign of respect was originally used when football players were injured during the game. In order to ensure fair play, as well as to show respect for their injured teammate or opponent, all the players would get on one knee until play was resumed. Recently, a foot ball player named Colin Kaepernick began to "Take A Knee" as a protest agianst racism and social inequality, and now many famous people have taken it up. This has not met with unanimous support from all quarters, including President Trump. Although this is a truly peaceful protest in accordance with the Bill of Rights, the article " The Choice Between Kneeling and Winning " from the New York Times says that this is not the best way to protest. I would recommend that everyone reading this take a moment to read the article. Having done tha...
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