Voces de Casa Maria

The families that Casa Maria serves can’t afford a private Catholic education!

< 1 min readby Jimmy Ojeda, At Casa Maria we have been working with parents, teachers, students and community members in support of a quality education for all our children. We have played a significant role in keeping the schools in our barrio open. There is nothing more important than quality public education in regards to liberation of barrio families mired in poverty. Dr. Andrea Romero, Ph.D., Associate Professor Academic Program of Family Studies and Human Development Mexican American Studies & Research Center has worked extensively in our barrio in recent years. She has played an integral role in the struggle for quality

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A letter to the Mayor

3 min readby Suzanne Shafer This is an excerpt from a letter sent last week by Suzanne Shafer form the Bus Riders Union to Mayor Rothschild regarding this lame concept the bureaucrats refer to as “elasticity.” From letter to Jonathan Rothschild 02-18-2014, . . . how is the projected increase in revenue from fare increases being calculated? How much of this “hole” is it expected to fill? . . . When I asked for the origin of the elasticity model used to estimate the effects of fare changes, Sun Tran staff didn’t know the answer. But several weeks later I got the

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The Tucson community is HOT For Transit Justice!

3 min readby Brian Flagg, You don’t believe me? You should have been at last night’s (Wed. 2/19) City Council Meeting! More than 200 people showed up to say to the Council: DON’T RAISE BUS FARES – DON’T BALANCE YOUR BUDGET ON THE BACKS OF TUCSON BUSRIDERS LIVING IN POVERTY! This event was sponsored by the Tucson Bus Riders Union and a good time was had by all. One hundred more bus riders signed up for the Union. They received an official laminated TBRU membership card with their pictures in addition to bright yellow TBRU t-shirts (thanks to Dwight Metzger and The

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FAMILY, FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF CASA MARIA AND THE TUCSON BUS RIDERS UNION PLEASE JOIN US ON WED. FEB. 19TH AT 4PM AT CITY HALL TO SAY NO TO FARE INCREASES!

< 1 min readCome to city council to say NO TO FARE INCREASES! The city should not balance the city’s budget on the backs of the Bus Riders in this, the 6th poorest city in the United States. Come Join the Tucson Bus Riders Union on Feb. 19th and get your official membership card and a Tucson Bus Riders Union T-shirt. There will be mouth-watering food and raffles for free monthly bus passes. Also, please check out Brian’s Op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star on the subject to be better informed (http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/brian-flagg-tucson-has-a-moral-imperative-not-to-raise/article_821ed785-8e70-5a71-8fe8-d484f718a827.html).

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Raising Bus Fares is a Moral Issue

5 min readby Brian Flagg, On Wednesday, February 19, the Tucson Mayor and Council will decide whether to raise bus fares. The fare would go from $1.50 to1.7 5 and the low income fare from .50 to .65. A monthly pass would go from $26 to $43. They will also decide whether to cut routes. This might not seem like much to some people, but for families mired in poverty who come to places such as Casa Maria and the Food Bank to beg for food to feed their kids, it’s a big deal. People simply cannot afford it. In a recent

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BEING ON TV WAS FUN, NOW LETS GET REAL ABOUT PUBLIC EDUCATION

2 min readby Cesar Aguirre Yesterday I was on AZ Illustrated talking about poverty. This is a very deep issue to discuss in an eleven minute interview. We weren’t even able to scratch the surface. The bus riders’ issues are very important to me and I was able to talk a little about how fare increases would afflict those who depend on Sun Tran for their daily transportation needs, many of whom live in poverty, but what I am really passionate about is public education. After a Bus Riders Union meeting last night I grabbed the paper and found a very interesting

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CESAR AGUIRRE ON TV

4 min readWatch conscious rap artist Cesar Aguirre, single father of two and the pride of Casa Maria, on AZ Illustrated on channel 6 Wednesday night, February 5th at 6:30. He’s going to talk about poverty along with former mayor Tom Volgy. This is his story. by Cesar Aguirre As a child growing up on Tucson’s south side I never realized how poverty would affect my future and life as an adult. I was very lucky to live in a two parent household. Many of the kids in my neighborhood were being raised by single parents or grandparents. I can remember overhearing

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Pope Francisco on “creating little monsters…”

3 min readby Brian Flagg, It’s almost as if Pope Francis knows the same young priests that I know, that I’ve had to endure! Thanks be to God for his insistence on all of us changing and raising our consciousness – for true systematic change in our Church. This is part of what he told a meeting of superiors general of religious orders in November, (from the National Catholic Reporter, January 17-30, 2014). “Formation directors should guard against priests who will become “little monsters”: “Inculturation today calls for a different attitude,” he stated. “For example: Problems are not solved simply by forbidding

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UPDATE!

2 min read         The City’s WAR on Bus Riders and the Bus Riders Union’s Campaign for Transit Justice! We signed up 150 new members for the Tucson Bus Riders Union at a Membership Campaign Kickoff party outside of City Hall on January 22. Our goal is to sign up ONE THOUSAND new bus riding members and their supporters by the time the City budget is finalized in April or May. The Mayor (who doesn’t seem to like us?) pulled the fare increase off their January 22 agenda. It will be heard on either February 4th or February 18th. We will

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Fighting for Justice, Liberty, & Peace in Barrio Libre