Early in the semester during a community college public speaking class can be an anxiety-filled time for most of the students I’ve seen over my decades of teaching.
But Allie seemed especially distracted recently as she discussed her upcoming speech — something about a wedding and complicated travel plans. Then Allie’s cell phone rang. She gasped, excused herself, and rushed from the room, phone cradled to her heart.
She soon returned, looking stunned. She collapsed into her seat and revealed that the caller was her mother in Puerto Rico. Allie hadn’t heard from her since Hurricane Maria hit the island the previous week and didn’t even know if she was alive until that moment.
The wedding Allie had mentioned was her own, scheduled for the following week, and the travel difficulties involved her mother’s attendance. The hurricane had disrupted carefully crafted plans and left her family frantic.
As Allie told us that her mother was about to board a flight and would be at the wedding, she broke into relieved sobs. Her classmates comforted her with hugs and kind words. For a moment, we forgot about the upcoming speeches and our superficial differences. No one was divided by race, ethnicity, gender, age, beliefs or orientation. Our empathy for Allie’s barely averted family tragedy and her upcoming wedding connected us through our common humanity.
Driving home that night with Allie’s story still fresh in my mind, I listened to two audiobooks. One was “Devil’s Bargain,” Joshua Green’s account of two mean-spirited con artists (Steve Bannon and Donald Trump) who stoked fear and anger just enough to make Trump our terrible president.
That terrible president has botched the response to Hurricane Maria. Republicans and hurricanes generally don’t mix. Remember George W. Bush and Katrina? Republicans think government is incompetent, so poor disaster response isn’t a bug in the Republican operating system. It’s a feature.
Trump couples general Republican incompetence with inhumanity. While Puerto Rico suffered, he attacked football players exercising their constitutional right to protest against violence. His venomous comments were harsher than any he’s ever directed toward white supremacists or murderous dictators.
The second audiobook was Hillary Clinton’s election memoir, “What Happened.” Clinton’s book is a healing balm for the injuries of Trump’s presidency. She recalls the election with justified anger and frustration, but she ultimately returns to her campaign motto, “Stronger Together,” as a way to resist Trump’s agenda.
Clinton, unlike Trump, views government as “we the people,” a nation united by common bonds, not divided by fear of diversity.
How would Clinton handle Hurricane Maria? Much like President Obama handled Hurricane Sandy in 2012, with competence and empathy. Democrats believe government serves the people, especially our most vulnerable citizens in times of need. Democrats in Congress don’t vote against disaster funding outside their home states and then beg for similar relief when their constituents get hit. Republicans do so routinely.
Clinton recommended sending the Navy hospital ship Comfort to Puerto Rico immediately after the hurricane. Her call to action led to more than a quarter million signatures of support at Change.org. The Trump administration delayed but eventually did approve plans to send the Comfort.
Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly embarrassed himself. He childishly claimed that helping Puerto Rico was hard because it’s “in the middle of an ocean … a big ocean.” He criticized Puerto Rico’s “massive debt” and “broken infrastructure,” referred to San Juan’s mayor as “nasty” (his favorite insult for women who stand up to his bullying), and tweeted that Puerto Ricans are “ingrates” who “want everything to be done for them.”
Then, typically, Trump retreated to one of his golf clubs. With astonishing tone deafness, he dedicated a meaningless golf trophy to the hurricane victims. Unlike Texas and Florida, which got tepidly better responses to recent hurricanes, Puerto Rico has no electoral votes for president, so Trump sees nothing to gain from actually helping the citizens there.
Things got even worse when Trump’s traveling circus visited Puerto Rico. He claimed that the disaster was “throwing our budget out of whack” and downplayed the death toll. Then (not kidding) he tossed (for real) rolls of paper towels (Google it if you don’t believe me) to a group of hurricane survivors (like a rotund emperor tossing scraps to hungry peasants).
If Clinton (or any Democrat) were president, she wouldn’t insult American citizens as they struggled. Nor would she scapegoat professional athletes protesting to make our nation safer.
Clinton’s motto, “Stronger Together,” is also a good description of my classes. Just as Clinton appealed to the intelligence and aspirations of voters, I set high academic standards, and Allie and her classmates know that they can all work together to realize their potential. Creating a learning community nurtures growth, so everyone does better.
How would Trump teach a diverse community college class? He’d pit students against each other while his underlings did the real work. By semester’s end, he’d insult, degrade and expel everyone except his anointed favorite. Learning, growth and community wouldn’t stand a chance. Sadly, his presidency hasn’t been much different.
The United States deserves better. Allie and her classmates and her mother deserve better. Even the voters Trump hoodwinked deserve better. We all do. We’ve had better presidents in recent years.
The 2016 popular vote indicates that we want a better president, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have a better president again soon.
John Sheirer is an author and teacher who lives in Florence. His most recent book is “Donald Trump’s Top Secret Concession Speech.” Find him at JohnSheirer.com.