< 1 min read By Brian Flagg, Contrary to the op-ed in today’s Star, this is not how you honor Cesar Chavez. He was a great labor ORGANIZER. His work was rooted in the experience of oppressed Brown workers, specifically farm workers. His life was about analyzing the power structure that oppressed his people and ORGANIZING to force politicians and rich people to do some justice. Way too often charity and volunteerism are offered up to the rank and file of society as solutions to the scourge of poverty, racism and income inequality in the U.S.A. Too often charity and volunteerism lead people to

< 1 min read By Brian Flagg, Contrary to what the media promotes, the issue ain’t John McLane. Yes, he was stupid and he got busted for pot. And he has some big skeletons in his closet. The real issue is that all those dream pods in the downtown streets have raised the issue of the sin of massive poverty, homelessness and human suffering to the front burner of people’s consciousness. It has forced our Bishop to try to deal with it. It has forced Peggy Hutchison, Director of Primavera Foundation to come to a meeting and inform the community that in spite of

2 min read By Brian Flagg, I/we don’t have a Catholic Worker job description that details how we go about a practice of faithful discipleship, one that moves in the direction of the spiritual and material liberation of those whom we serve every day. So we have to be creative. And we have to be inspired. One day a couple of years ago I had a flash of enlightenment. I realized that what I really wanted was not Pima County Interfaith Council organizers, but serious, dedicated revolutionaries. The organizers here, Jimmy Ojeda, Cesar Aguirre and now Gilberto Contreras have generally agreed with this

2 min read By Brian Flagg, It really pissed me off, for weeks leading up to the day. I successfully avoided celebrations and instead went by myself to camp and read and walk into Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains east of Benson. It was the most perfect and most sacred place I could go to. I spent time reading about and reflecting with Cochise, Fr. Jon Sobrino and Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria, Hugo Chavez and Simon Bolivar, St. Ignatius and of course mi novia, Jesus! The first reading from the mass on my birthday was from Genesis 4, the story of Cain and