About 1,000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, in the Caribbean Sea, between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands, there is a part of America, a beautiful island, an island that more than three million Americans call home.
Every Memorial Day since 1978, a group of military gather at the Medal of Honor Grove in Valley Forge, Pa., to remember and pay homage to nine brave men native to that Island who are recipients of the United States’ highest award for military valor in action, the Medal of Honor.
The nine heroes are:
• Fernando Luis García
• Carlos James Lozada
• Eurípides Rubio
• Héctor Santiago-Colón
• Humbert Roque Versace
• Félix Conde Falcón
• Juan Negrón
• Demensio Rivera
• Miguel Vera
They all served in the Korean War or the Vietnam War.
They were all born on that island in the Caribbean or were descendants of those born on that island.
They all made the ultimate sacrifice and were awarded the nation’s highest military decoration posthumously.
That island that gave us these nine heroes is the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, home to more than 225,000 men and women who have served in the United States armed forces in every war and conflict since and including World War I.
Many more served alongside American troops before then — even before becoming U.S. citizens — during the Revolutionary War and in 1889 when Congress created a battalion of Puerto Rican volunteers, after the Spanish-American War.
More than 1,200 Puertorriqueños have died while serving their country. Their names are inscribed on El Monumento de la Recordación (the Monument of Remembrance) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Today, one week before the 2024 elections, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans continue to serve on active-duty and in the reserves in all the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Yet, at a Trump rally Sunday at Madison Square Gardens, a so-called standup comic – picked and vetted by the Republican Party – dared to call the home of these men and women, including nine Medal of Honor recipients, “a floating island of garbage.”
It was just one of many vulgar and racist insults made by speakers at Trump’s rally on Sunday — “a cornucopia of crudeness” — some of them too vile to quote.
Yet, given several opportunities to do so, the commander-in-chief-wannabe has not only refused to offer Puertorriqueños an apology, but he has chosen to ignore the comments claiming he was not aware of them. Heck, Trump doubled down, describing the hate and vulgarities-laced event a “lovefest,” adding that it was an “honor to be involved” in such an event.
But there is always hope. Whether he wins the elections or not, perhaps one day Mr. Trump will travel to that beautiful island in the Caribbean – not armed with rolls of paper towels this time – and visit El Monumento de la Recordación to pay his respect to a group of fallen American heroes.
