Tapped Out . . .

You could see it in his eyes.   He was in Sarasota, Florida visiting an  elementary school.  While  sitting in a classroom reading a book with a bunch of kids a secret service man whispered the news in his ear. A massive terrorist attack had just occurred on American soil. Airplanes hijacked and crashed into buildings. He froze. Thinking.  

I wasn't a fan of his, but in that moment you had to feel for the guy. The Yale Skull and Bones frat boy had it easy until then. From what I’ve heard he wasn't even his own father's first choice for president. But there he was when the spot lights came on and the planes came down and the eyes of the world were on him.  The weight of the office came down on him that day too and even his staunchest adversaries rallied for him because he was still our president.

Then came Katrina. Nearly two thousand dead and it was obvious that it wasn't just New Orleans that was underwater. He was in over his head again.  The frat boy with the awkward smile was beginning to lose his swagger.  What's that line from Game of Thrones? “You're in the big game now, and the big game is terrifying.”  

He wasn't a bad man.  He just seemed to prove time after time that he wasn't up to the task he been chosen to do. He didn't have the shoulders to carry that weight or the lung power to stay afloat and like everyone else who’d held the office before, it aged him.  It would age anyone.  

I read somewhere that for centuries in remote parts of Africa people have used a special technique  for crossing swift moving rivers. Two people grab a heavy stone on the riverbank and, walking carefully together they carry it to the other side.  The extra weight, along with a little teamwork keeps them from being swept away by the current.  Sometimes the weight can help.

Within the first year of his term our current president faced three natural disasters.  Based on preliminary reporting the administration responded effectively to the first two.  Hurricane Harvey dumped record amounts of rainfall on Houston, our nation’s third largest city.  With millions of Americans in its path that storm had the ingredients for a world class tragedy.  While the city was devastated the loss of life wasn't as great as might have been expected given the severity of the storm.  I wouldn't want to suggest to  Houstonians, who will be rebuilding their city for years, that it could have been so much worse, but . . .

The president gave the press plenty of ammunition in the wake of Houston’s hurricane. Like when he praised the Coast Guard:  “If you talk about branding . . . No brand has improved more than the United States Coast Guard.”  Or  when the First Lady stepped off Air Force One in a designer Flotus hat and high heels.  Who wears high heels to a disaster? A runway model, that's who.  Despite what his detractors predicted his response team in Houston did a decent job.

When the next hurricane hit Florida he and his team managed to surprise everyone again with its emergency response and relief efforts. Other than the administration's  ongoing battle with the  scientific community over global warming and its denial that climate change is contributing to the frequency and severity of the storms they did all they could be expected to do to avoid following up a natural disaster with a man made one.  

The third hurricane, Maria, may not have a happy ending. Puerto Rico was already in trouble after having been sideswiped by Category 5 Hurricane Irma earlier.  Then came Maria.  Maria didn’t sideswipe the island.  The Category 4 storm ran right down the middle.  A near perfect strike.   

In the aftermath of the catastrophic hurricanes in Texas and Florida the nation’s relief efforts had already been stretched.  But even taking that into account the U.S. response to Puerto Rico’s crisis paled in comparison to the aid those two states received.  Perhaps the president  got winded taking his victory lap.

When the Mayor of San Juan appeared on the news begging for help the president took her suffering as a personal insult.  You could see the resentment on his face.  Hadn’t he already done enough?  When asked about the feud between the president and the mayor General Honore, the two star  general credited with turning around the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina summed up the situation beautifully,  "The mayor's living on a cot, and I hope the president has a good day at golf."

In the nineteenth century it was called the white man’s burden - colonialism wasn’t about exploition.  If anything the real burden was on the more civilized societies.  It seems that’s how the president still sees Puerto Rico.  The problem with that thinking is that the island is an American territory and they, the 3.4 million people living there, they’re Americans.   But to see the president’s response to the devastation you’d never know that.  Perhaps even he didn’t know it.  The weight of responsibility is a lot like the weight of guilt: it’s only heavy if you carry it;  if it weighs on your conscience; if you care enough to dwell on it.  By the time he arrived in Puerto Rico he just didn’t care anymore.  You could see it in his eyes.