Gene Collier: Pirates organization a magnet for diversity

It has now been more than 60 years since Roberto Clemente debuted with the Pirates, an organization that has helped break down plenty of cultural barriers since then.Partly from the raw impact of its eloquence in the face of tragedy, and partly from the roiling momentum of subsequent events, I can’t stop thinking about the op-ed piece with which Richard “Pete” Peterson graced these pages two weeks ago.

If you didn’t see it and you are still confounded over recent developments in South Carolina, over how a modern Western culture can still be figuring out what to do with flying symbols of black repression 150 years after the Civil War, then it will help you see in Peterson’s column the…