The cleanup in Ft. Myers is a horrendous undertaking. Just the trees, limbs and branches create high piles of debris that will take months to get rid of it all. I have never seen destruction of this scale in my lifetime. Almost everywhere I look I see building after building of blue tarped roofs. Every roof in our complex of 100 units has roof damaged and we are better off than most. I at least had a home to come back too. Many don’t. We opened our home to friends from Sanibel that may have lost everything. Our next door neighbor has opened their home to people from Sanibel that may have lost everything as well. You see stories on the news of good people helping others which is great to see but it also saddens me because the need is so great. I have gone through my closet looking for clothing that I can donate. I can tell you that sometimes I am fighting back tears when I see all the destruction and I have only seen a fraction of it. Southwest Florida around by Ft. Myers is changed forever. A month ago I took a boat ride up to Bert’s in Matlacha and now Bert’s is gone. My favorite place to go at Ft. Myers Beach was Bonita’s Bills. Well that is gone too. So much of what made this area as great as what it is gone. It looks like our Republican representation in Congress is not really interested in our recover. Matt Gaetz I read said “no” to FEMA funds. I have read that Rubio didn’t even show up to vote. You can see the political nature of everything at the expense of people suffering and it is the poor people suffering the most. I can’t help but think that DeSantis is trying to stifle FEMA in an effort to make the Biden administration look bad which will only makes people suffer more.

The work that needs to be done is going to take us years. It took 5 years to reopen South Seas Resort after Charlie and there will be cases here that may take that long if not longer. Many businesses we just may never see again. One big question is going to be is, who will be doing the work? It won’t be that elderly MAGA supporter. You can bet your ass that it won’t be Rubio, Gaetz, or Trump leading the way. Let’s face it, the people that we will be very dependent on is those immigrants that our Governor has demonized. Maybe he should send that plane back to Martha’s Vineyard to get those asylum seekers back here because they came here to work. All you people in the Midwest just come to Florida and look for yourself. Look to see the people that will be there to help Florida rebuild. The people that came here for a better life are in many cases going to be the people that help Florida recover. These are the people that all those Republicans want deported. These are the people that get yelled at daily to go back to where they came from. Sadly, these people that will help Florida Recover and when it is over will be demonized again by the very people that they helped.

To me the debate should be over about how we need immigrants and we should start real dialog on how to remedy the situation to help these people as they have helped us. Forgiveness, path to citizenship and many other solutions need to be explored. This country needs workers and these people want to work just like other immigrants have over the last couple of centuries. As I watch what is around me I see the postings by Republicans saying that how all these drugs are pouring over our border are because of illegal immigrants. If you actually did some research you would find out that it is not some asylum seekers bringing the drugs are but they are being shipped in by trucks and ships through legal ports of entry disguised as other things or by hidden compartments in trucks delivering produce. Building a wall does not stop the drugs from coming in. In fact, building a wall doesn’t do anything but spend our money. Stopping asylum seekers does not stop drugs from coming into the country. These are just excuses for racism and bigotry, racism and bigotry that would hinder our recovery here in Florida.

We need real solutions to real problems, not racism and bigotry. We need to be thankful for the people that want to embrace this country and help work to build a better America no matter what color they are.