Was community spirit in evidence in Pinellas County after Hurricane Milton blew through the Tampa area last Wednesday wreaking havoc with wind gusts in the mid-80s and heavy rain that flooded streets, streams and beaches? I can’t speak for the entire county, of course, but I can share a rather telling experience about my neighborhood. By the way, I almost wandered out of the house in a rain suit and galoshes to get up close and personal with a hurricane, then thought better of it.

Walking out after things had calmed down Thursday morning, the powerful winds had denuded the dozen or so oak trees lining our street, leaving branches big and small everywhere as well as enough twigs and leaves to fill a dumpster. The flotsam was so extensive that the sidewalk around the corner from my house, some 30 yards long, was impassable. The street was equally cluttered. There was barely enough room for one car to get through.

I decided then there to move quickly and take care of business before traffic showed up. I grabbed a heavy-duty rake and pushed branches off the sidewalk and onto the grass strip, to be picked up later by county trash collection, presumably. It took me much longer to clear a 30-yard length of road and then use a battery-operated blower to sweep leaves and twigs. I repeated the process in front of my house. I did all this before cleaning up the junk in my own backyard from my neighbor’s oak tree. Mission accomplished, I went in to have breakfast. Did I mention that I turned 75 last August?

In case you’re wondering if any of my neighbors joined me to clear the clutter up and down the same street I did, no such luck. It was still there a day later, mashed down a bit by traffic. Judging by the many Teslas in my area, the (government-subsidized) solar panels on roofs, and the Biden-Harris signs on their lawns in 2020, it would be a sound inference that my neighbors are Democrats by and large.

In short, Democrats talk oh so sanctimoniously about the good of the community this or that but when it comes to taking action for the good of the community and not just their own interests, it is up to Republicans to step up and get the job done. The Trump campaign might want to use Democrat egomania as a theme and remind Americans that Kamala Harris has never done an honest day’s work in her life and is only good for word-salad platitudes and the like.

To conclude:

• I posted links to Ventusky.com on Nextdoor so area residents could track Milton before, during and after. Nobody else did that.
• I’ve seen reporting on Nextdoor that people in our area were stealing neighbors’ sandbags. Frankly, I can’t imagine a Republican doing that.
• Milton prevented fuel trucks from getting through for several days, causing shortages. This didn’t stop Democrats from blaming the long lines at gas stations on Governor Ron DeSantis.
• Meanwhile, Kamala Harris was busy explaining the Substitution Theorem (see my book) in a way even those brain-dead harridans on The View could understand. She plagiarized the explanation from Joe, who got it from Dr. Jill. 
• As for federal Milton relief, so far it’s the same as for Helene: “Let them eat cake,” only soggier and the wind blew away the icing. We should all remember that in November.

A frequent contributor to American Thinker, Arnold Cusmariu is the author of Logic for Kids. His next book is titled Escaping Plato’s Cave and will collect articles at the intersection of culture, art and philosophy he published during the last 15 years. On the sculpture front, Arnold redefined Surrealism recently and will illustrate the results in the book, hoping the Dali Museum in downtown St. Petersburg will show interest.

Image: PCHS-NJROTC