Daily Haiku / Senryu : Believe

Homes lay in ruin as seen from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations, Black Hawk during a flyover of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria September 23, 2017. U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Kris Grogan

Trump tweets excuses
he twiddles his thumbs blaming
believe his fake news?

unions fly to help
folk donate money, supplies
tech and food also

       senryu by M. Nakazato LaFreniere

(Note: found this after I published: Volunteers Tucson nurse Klara Lynn Dannar and Eureka nurse Randee Litten post daily on Facebook their experiences in Puerto Rico. Litten has even setup a fundraiser for money to buy food, water, medicine and supplies needed that they spend there to help the community residents in Puerto Rico. I wrote up a bit about it today on RestructuringLife.net)

While Trump whines it is everybody else’s fault, not his own, people are acting to help however they can.  A San Francisco man packs his bags full of food and supplies and boards a plane to Puerto Rico.  Unions all over banded together to send people, money and supplies to help.  Teamsters chartered a plane to fly in 200 volunteers.

Arriving there, the volunteers find it’s much worse than it looks in the news but they roll up their sleeves and do what they can. Nurses, carpenters, truck drives, doctors, engineers have gone to clear roads, deliver supplies, give medical care and do whatever they can wherever they can. United’s Boeing carried in 300 volunteers from more than 20 unions and more than 35,000 pounds of supplies and carried out evacuees at no charge. Several airline carriers have been flying in supplies everyday since the airport reopened.

Vanu Inc sent dozens of small solar-powered cellular base stations. Volunteer crews set them up along with GATR’s inflatable satellite antennas. As soon as the teams got things connected, they could see people in the plaza pulling out their phones as the text messages rolled in.

While Trump and others tweeted lies and excuses blaming Puerto Ricans for a devastating natural disaster, many more people have acted to help reaching into their pockets, boarding planes, rolling up their sleeves and doing what they can. This is the America I believe in.

References:

US Unions Shame Trump’s Efforts with Aid for Puerto Rico by Telesur, October 8, 2017

Bay Area nurses deploy to Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria relief work by Karl Mondon, The Mercury News, October 3, 2017

Teamsters head to Puerto Rico to transport supplies by Kasey Cunningham, Wave 3 NBC News, October 5, 2017.

Teamsters Hit The Ground Running To Assist With Disaster Relief In Puerto Rico, prnewswire, October 5, 2017

Filling Gaps Left By Trump, Nurses and Labor Unions Join Puerto Rico Relief Efforts by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, October 8, 2017

New York unions send workers, thousands in donations to aid hurricane victims in Puerto Rico by Ginger Adams Otis, New York Daily News, September 29, 2017

Big Tech has big plans to help reconnect Puerto Rico by Matt O’Brien, Associated Press, LA Times, October 9, 2017

Gallery: 10 ways technology is changing disaster response: 10. Reestablishing contact by Brandon Vigliarolo, TechRepublic, October 3, 2017

United Airlines and Unions Fly Through Sham Attacks On Labor To Help Out In Puerto Rico by Ted Reed, Forbes, October 8, 2017

Charlotte nurses on wreckage in Puerto Rico: ‘You wouldn’t recognize it’ by Cassie Cope, Charlotte Observer, October 2, 2017

Believe
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