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The Island of Garbage

Picture from www.theenvironmentalblog.org

Is Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage? No.


Simple enough, right? The island is not floating, the island is not literally garbage and the people are not garbage either. Agreed.


But is that the issue we have at our hands? Did Tony Hinchcliffe call Puerto Ricans “garbage?” No.


Simple enough right? Tony Hinchcliffe did not make “remarks”[i] at a Trump Rally, he did a comedy routine, Tony did not call Puerto Ricans (the people themselves) garbage, he made a joke about the island. Agreed. Maybe you don’t.


Picture from abc7news.com

Jokes are meant to be funny. But in order for an audience to laugh, the audience has to know what you are talking about. This is the case because in every good joke lies a truth, even if it’s only a partial truth.


But comedy is not for everyone. Some people get offended by jokes. They should not go to comedy clubs. The Trump rally was meant, at least in part, to galvanize the Trump base and to make a closing arguments of sorts to the American people of why they should vote for Trump. And these political rallies, often depend on big names to attract people from different communities and walks of life. Fair enough. Trump has Dana White and Hulk Hogan; Kamala Harris has Beyonce and Eminem.


Some of these relationships are close and others not so much, there is a political purpose for each guest that speaks at a rally, or at least I would imagine so. When Tony Hinchcliffe was selected by the Trump campaign to do a comedy routine at the rally, they had a purpose in mind, though I admit I do not know what it was. We can Monday morning quarterback the decision of bringing an insult comedian to a political rally, but that is what happened. The consequence? A bad joke.


Now, the joke was bad, in my opinion, for several reasons. First, I did not get the reference. Now, to be fair, that does not make the joke bad. It just went over my head. I could not connect a truth to it, so when I heard the joke for the first time, it simply was not funny. The joke was also bad because it did not fit the moment. Comedy in political rallies, should probably be more like the Alfred E. Smith memorial foundation dinners, where candidates and parties are made fun of, mostly, and less like a stand-up routine at a comedy club.


Why? Because your audiences are different. Politics are divisive. And today more than ever, politicians like to see in groups. The black vote, the Latino vote, the white suburban mom vote, the working-class vote, you get the idea.


The point is, the joke for at least those reasons, I think was bad. But for me it ends there. I was not offended by the joke. And I am an American whose father was born on the island of Puerto Rico. I am Puerto Rican as much as I am American. But I was not offended. I was, if anything, at a lost for what Tony Hinchcliffe meant.


You see, I do not follow much of the news in Puerto Rico. I know little of the politics there and have never visited the island, except for about four hours when a cruise I was ported their one night. From what I remember the island was stunning.


But I am from Chicago, and had the joke been about Chicago’s gun problem, I probably would have given a “hey, don’t talk about my hometown like that!” Followed more than likely by an admittance like, “but you are kind of right.” My sense is that Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke would, had I been more aware of the situation in Puerto Rico, have struck me in a similar manner.


I take what comedians say, especially when they are on stage, as a joke. I laugh if I find it funny, and if it’s not, I stop listening. But I don’t get offended. Even when on the rare occasion, I watch an SNL skit that is clearly biased, and makes conservatives look like idiots, and progressives as holding some kind of higher moral ground, I don’t get offended. I do get annoyed at the lack of creativity I know many of these comedians possess and would probably employ if their careers would not be under the constant threat of extinction if they made fun of everyone equally. In that sense, we are deprived much of good comedy, and I think it has made people more sensitive to certain kinds of jokes.


I made a point on a social media post, that so many Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Ricans are enraged by the Hinchcliffe joke of insinuating that Puerto Ricans are garbage, but those same people hardly flinch at the millions of aborted babies that have literally been disposed as trash.[ii]



You might say I am comparing apples and oranges, that racism is a different subject and issue all-together differently, yet if I had to rank moral issues, I would say murder is worse than partiality, which is the Biblical idea of anything along the lines of racism.

Not long after the Hinchcliffe joke, Biden said the only garbage he saw was Trump supporters.[iii]


Picture from www.foxnews.com

As a man who has voted for Trump twice, I find that comment mildly offensive. I am not a Trump supporter in the sense that I campaign for him or tell others how they must vote for him. I have voted for Trump because he is on the right side of issues that matter to me. Abortion, the second amendment and free speech. After voting twice for Obama, I simply have come to distrust the democratic party platform and the media companies that shamelessly work around the clock for them.


But there are real Trump supporters, who give their time, energy and money to the campaign. Who attend the rallies and believe in Trump. And they are in the millions. And they are American citizens, and Biden has just called them garbage. That is a real president, saying actual words, about real American citizens, and yet, no outrage from the same people that for days now have been railing against the Trump campaign for such racist comments, albeit, the “comment” was literally the content of a joke.


And so while I was not offended by the Puerto Rico, floating island joke, and only mildly so, by the Biden comment, (though I find I am annoyed and maybe even upset at how callous Biden is to condemn a joke while making a serious comment of the same kind of his own, and there is a difference) I am most annoyed by the overall response from Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Ricans that have blown a joke so out of proportion that at this point it is almost laughable, almost.


So, when I woke up today, I decided to research why Hinchcliffe even made his joke. What prompted him? Now while I have no access to Hinchcliffe himself to ask him, I did find lots of information that if read by a comedian, could plausibly lead him or her to make a garbage island joke about Puerto Rico.


But interestingly enough, I have not seen any outrage about some of the things that have been said about Puerto Rico’s apparently real garbage problem.


One writer said, “Puerto Rico’s beaches are full of trash due to many reasons: not enough trash cans and/or recycling bins…” But that is not the worse of it, look what the writer says of Puerto Ricans themselves, “as well as people’s selfishness, carelessness, and ignorance.”[iv] Is this writer saying that Puerto Ricans are selfish, careless and ignorant people? Yes. But only in regards to the obvious trash problem. Why is this writer not lambasted by the left and the Puerto Rican celebrities who I am sure beach fronts properties are not allowed to be “full of trash.?”


The problem is simple. Political people want to use whatever they can to smear their opponents. Both sides of the aisle are guilty of this, but why are the people, the ones that I see on social media, enraged? They have access to the same internet I have, to find the same information I can. To understand better what is happening before overreacting in the way those that pull political strings want you to react?


Another person wrote, “One of the most apparent problems I have noticed in Puerto Rico over the last five days has been the extensive litter.” On their visit to the island they noted that as they drove “across the country and walked along the beaches, the amount of litter was very eye opening.”[v]


The subtitle of another article read “ignorant Puerto Ricans are the cause for Puerto Rico’s trash pollution.”[vi] Again, the context is about the apparent trash problem in Puerto Rico, should we take this out of context and politically persecute this writer? No.

Puerto also has a landfill problem, “According to a study commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Puerto Rico could run out of landfill space in 2-4 years.”[vii]


This same article says that the capacity issue Puerto Rico has with garbage (landfills specifically) has been “exacerbated by tons of debris left behind by two back-to-back hurricanes that devastated the region in 2017.” But “at least two big Puerto Rican waste companies believe that insufficient capacity is not the underlying issue.” And that the “problems are primarily related to compliance and poor management.”


Picture from www.theenvironmentalblog.org

Another article titled, “Puerto Rico Trash Problem: Understanding the Crisis and Working Toward Solutions”[viii] says that “Puerto Rico is grappling with a pressing trash problem that’s not just a visual blight, but a serious threat to its stunning landscapes, marine life, and the environment.” This article was posted/written on October 30, 2024. Efforts are underway to clean up the ongoing trash problem on the island. For example, “in 2023 over 5,000 volunteers removed approximately 45,000 pounds of trash from beaches, parks and rivers.”


In many ways, it is obvious that the garbage problem in Puerto Rico is no joke. Efforts are being undertaken to fix the problem, and the locals there need to do better, for their own well being and the well being of the environment. But understanding all of this, helps me get Hinchcliffe’s joke. And in that context, it is not a bad joke, even if it’s not funny, it says something true.


Listening back to the reaction of the audience when Hinchcliffe said his joke, I heard more groans than laughter. Was this a sign of offense or the sound we humans make that can best be interpreted by the words “Did he just go there?” I don’t know for sure. But if we just think a little more, if we try and understand why people say what they say, yes even comedians, we probably won’t be so angry with each other.


There is a lot at stake in this election. Our constitution is under attack by many who seem to have forgotten the meaning of American. This latest debacle has highlighted I think the infatuation the left has with regulating free speech, if not undermining it completely.


Picture from www.nytimes.com

To Puerto Ricans that are angry, my questions to you are, why are you angry? Why are you offended? If you don’t like Trump, state your reasons why, and better yet, give your real reason why you support Kamala Harris. Don’t just make weak claims that the other side is racist or that “my people” are oppressed. The whole victimhood mindset is nauseating to me.


The choices in the election are simple. Harris represents values that cannot be upheld by a society and at the same time help that society flourish. From abortion to open-borders to the legalization of immoral behavior, Kamala Harris in many ways represents what is wrong morally with this country, and has made it her brand and has tried to sell it to the American people as good. But it’s rotten.


Trump represents a counter-balance to the left. He is not someone to morally emulate, except in his resilience to constant attack (think assassination attempt here and the barrage of legal political persecution). I don’t align with Trump’s every idea or political stance, but, since he stands against the mostly immoral position of the left, I find that I will vote for him again. That is not a joke.




[iii] President Joe Biden calls Trump supporters’ garbage: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6363951609112

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