Sorry, kiddies, but if you had been paying attention for the last 60-odd years, you would know the poor people of Puerto Rico have had way too much government. And yes, it is mostly our fault.
Be a real mensch. Don't eat out for a week and send the money to help the people of the Carribbean:
Give to Hurricane Relief | Catholic Relief Services
Or Here:
To make a donation to help families in Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, please give to our sister agency Catholic Charities USA.
From Pittsburgh's other newspaper:
The Pirates will deliver 460,000 pounds of hurricane-relief supplies to Puerto Rico ...
Before a game in late September, Joey Cora heard the Pirates owner wanted to see him. The third-base coach met with Bob Nutting the day Hurricane Maria slammed into Cora’s native Puerto Rico.
“What can we do to help?” Nutting asked.
Those conversations had already started. In the dugout during a game, Francisco Cervelli talked to interpreter Mike Gonzalez, another Puerto Rican, and Sean Rodriguez. “Originally it was between us, something small, something simple, just get it to one of the smaller cities that needs the most help,” Rodriguez said.
“I said, ‘Mike, why don’t we do something bigger?’ ” Cervelli said. “‘Why don’t we find a private jet and send some stuff there?’ ”
The thought processes collided when Cora spoke with Cervelli. He returned to Nutting with his answer: “Get a plane. We’ll fill it up. We’ll make it work.”
Now they need two planes.
Mr. Nutting is a horrible team owner and the Bucs will never really contend until well after he sells them...but this is a real nice thing he did.
“There’s no why,” Cora said Wednesday morning at the PNC Park loading dock, standing in front of a U-shaped wall of materials that extended down the hallway as far as the Pirates’ clubhouse on the other side of the stadium. “You don’t need a why to do anything. All you have to do is do the right thing. It’s that simple.”
Nutting, Cora, Gonzalez, Cervelli, team president Frank Coonelly and Rodriguez will all travel to the territory. They will deliver supplies to Caguas, Cora’s hometown, and Cayey, where Gonzalez is from, during the next three days.
“In each city, each mayor in that city is going to meet us with a team of, their team of people, that is going to receive us, help us unload,” Gonzalez said. “If not enough people come — because of gas, it’s hard to drive over there — then we’ll take it from house to house, as much as we can.”
The Pirates sent a news release at 10:02 a.m. Sunday announcing the collection of goods Monday and Tuesday. Four days later they have nearly half a million pounds of water, generators, food, childcare items and pet food, including 395,0000 pounds from Pittsburgh-area residents who clogged North Shore traffic with goods in everything from U-Hauls to wagons.
“As we all try to comprehend what has gone on in Las Vegas over the last day, it shakes your faith in your fellow human beings,” Coonelly said in reference to Sunday’s mass shooting at a country music festival that killed 59 people. “What we saw here … reinforces, for me, that there is so much more goodness in this world than there is evil.”
Coonelly needed a caravan of trucks on both ends and an aircraft to make this happen. He called Patrick Fitzgerald, the senior vice president of integrated marketing and communications at FedEx, and Fitzgerald gave him the biggest plane available.
“FedEx Ground is proud to call Pittsburgh home, and this is why we are so proud,” Fitzgerald said.
What a way to start a Wednesday! Working with the @Pirates to collect 150K+ lbs of relief for those in need in #PuertoRico #FedExCares 📦 ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/DVcGdFthfc— FedEx (@FedEx) October 4, 2017
For the trucks in Pittsburgh, Coonelly called Pitt Ohio Express president Chuck Hammel. “I’ve got your back, whatever you need,” Hammel told him. The Puerto Rican transportation stretched beyond Coonelly’s network, but Cora had a guy: Raul Rodriguez, the president of Los Criollos de Caguas of the Puerto Rican winter league, who also has a trucking distribution company.
“He’s the one that is getting all the trucks, all the warehouses, getting everything straightened up so we can deliver,” Cora said.
They have a lot to deliver, thanks to those who donated. Rodriguez, Cervelli, Gonzalez and Pirates employees staffed the Mazeroski Way cul-de-sac Monday and Tuesday. General manager Neal Huntington helped, roll of packing tape in hand. At one point Pirates employees turned around to find Andrew McCutchen lugging dog food out of the back of a van. When it was time to celebrate, Cervelli cooked pizza in a portable oven.
And now we celebrate, @fran_cervelli style! pic.twitter.com/y7JmUEzh0w— Pirates (@Pirates) October 3, 2017
“This year we played terrible, and people came just to see us, to donate something, to give us a hug,” Cervelli said. “This is the best city in the world, I’m telling you. In one day we called everyone and they showed up.”
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
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