My friend Gloria, a Puerto Rican artist/scholar, was doing research in P.R. when Hurricane Maria cut all power to the island in September. She was able to return to mainland U.S. safely after a number of very challenging weeks.
Puerto Rico is on a long road to recovery after being hit by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Please consider donating or volunteering to help Puerto Rico. Volunteer lawyers, tech experts and medical staff are needed.
Despite numerous stories of people inside Puerto Rico selflessly helping their neighbors, some people have put out a false narrative that Puerto Ricans are not doing anything to help themselves and are only sitting around waiting for the U.S. government to help them. (We've probably heard the same false narrative applied to other groups of people, but that's a topic for another time.)
If compassion cannot move us to extend a hand to Puerto Rico, perhaps self-interest can motivate us. Puerto Rico is one of the world's biggest centers for pharmaceutical manufacturing. It supplies the rest of the U.S. with medicines. Now the medicine supply in the U.S. may be impacted by the disasters that struck Puerto Rico..
Btw, do check out Gloria's artwork on Etsy. There are some fun holiday cards that you can color. And other cool stuff too.
