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Social Justice for Puerto Rico Disaster Response Is Needed

This is an excellent example for how the term "social justice" should be applied.

One of the "newer" terms creeping into our emergency management lexicon is "social justice."

How that is defined in disaster response is still being worked out, but when I read this story, Seven weeks after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans still can’t access programs that fed millions in Texas and Florida, it was the first thing I thought about, even though they don't call it out in the article specifically. 

The issue in this case is not the administration of the programs that are meant to feed people, but the legislative mandates that have made Puerto Rico citizens, to be second-class citizens in our nation. 

With no direct representation in Congress, it will require other legislators with a heart to try to rectify this injustice.

Claire Rubin shared the link to the story above. 

 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.