Opinion Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Casa Maria Soup Kitchen

MY DAUGHTER ALISSA’S NEW HERO

Casa Maria May 21, 2015

3 min read By Cesar Aguirre, A few months back I remember my daughter Alissa coming to me with much excitement to tell me about a remarkable woman they were studying in history. She was fascinated by the strong will of this female role model and all of the accomplishments achieved by her in spite of her disabilities. I too remember studying the life of Helen Keller when I was in school and was inspired to do some more research in order to have deeper conversations with my daughter on the subject. What I found was a great surprise. Like most history taught

TREO EXPLOITING WORKERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER?

Casa Maria May 20, 2015

3 min read By Brian Flagg, So, TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities) has now changed its name to Sun Corridor Inc.? (Page 1 Star May, 20, 2015). Seems to me like an admission that they are acknowledging that they are largely useless and mostly incompetent and making a change in their brand name is something that makes them a bit more relevant? I do admit that Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO is competent in pimping himself a salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars and getting a brand new office on East River Road. Joe and TREO insist that the name

ONE COUNCILMANS QUEST TO PUNISH TRANSIT AND ENRICH DOWNTOWN DEVELOPERS

Casa Maria May 18, 2015

3 min read By Jimmy Ojeda Shame on Councilman Kozachik for trying once again to balance the budget on the backs of the poor! According to him the City of Tucson should prioritize and move in the right direction, by increasing bus fares and cutting services. In his last newsletter dated May 11, 2015 he wrote: “We have to take a serious look and simply stop doing that which is beyond our core responsibility (but transit is one of his core responsibilities!) If we added a 10% fare increase to the base fare, we’d add another $730K in revenues that would go to

A LESS THAN COMFORTABLE JESUIT NOVICE COMES TO TUCSON!

Casa Maria May 14, 2015

4 min read By Jack McLinden – May 2015 I’m a Jesuit novice (aka Catholic priest-in-training), and I’m traveling on my “pilgrimage” right now, which has led me to Casa Maria! The Jesuits send us out one-by-one with $35 and a one-way bus ticket, and tell us to come back in a month. The pilgrimage is all about really developing our trust in God, and one of the greatest gifts for me has been the people I have met along the way. The people here at Casa Maria have welcomed me on my journey, and they have also really challenged me. My few

POPE FRANCIS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Casa Maria May 12, 2015

2 min read By Brian Flagg, We here at Casa Maria are eagerly anticipating the Holy Father’s upcoming encyclical on environmental issues such as climate change. Pope Francis said recently that it was practically finished but needed only to be translated into various languages before it could be published. Hopefully it will read something like this cartoon from the National Catholic Reporter (May 8, 2015). And I bet that if the Holy Father lived in Tucson he would greatly appreciate the Tony Davis articles in the Daily Star on Sunday, May 10th and Monday, May 11th. In these stories Tony demonstrates how huge moneyed

NOW THIS IS EVANGELISM!!!

Casa Maria May 11, 2015

2 min read By Brian Flagg, VIVA Raul! VIVA Fidel! VIVA CUBA! VIVA el PAPA FRANCISCO! In case you missed it, Cuban President Raul Castro visited Papa Francisco yesterday at the Vatican. They spoke in Spanish. He went to thank the Papa for helping to get the U.S. to lighten up on Cuba! Papa Francisco will visit Cuba in September en route to the United States. Raul said at a news conference, “I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church, and I’m

SPIRITUAL POWER

Casa Maria May 7, 2015

3 min read By Brian Flagg, The summer before last I went to the 8 day silent retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, CA and somewhat arrogantly proclaimed to my young Jesuit seminarian spiritual director that “I’m here to gather spiritual power to unleash on a corrupt political and economic system that persecutes my people, the poor and working people”. Something to that effect. After 2 eight day silent retreats there and especially after last summer’s 30 day silent retreat, I can still totally relate to that proclamation, but hopefully with a much more contrite and humble heart, one that

President maduro of venezuela is a cool guy

Casa Maria April 29, 2015

2 min read By: Jimmy Ojeda What’s the difference between President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and President Barack Obama? Can you imagine President Barack Obama driving a local bus? Maduro, a former bus driver, likes to be behind the wheel himself and is proud of his modest beginnings. What would happen if a poor person threw a mango at Obama? My guess is, that person would be arrested, probably beaten up, and be in serious trouble. While driving a bus, President Maduro got hit on the head with a mango thrown by a Venezuelan woman, Marleny Olivo. She had written her name and

The Pima County Bond Election – True Democracy in Action

Casa Maria April 20, 2015

2 min read Pima County Bond Committee at work By Brian Flagg, Join us Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 8:30 a.m. at the County Supervisor Meeting. The Supervisors will be voting on whether to put an $815 million bond package on the November ballot. We at Casa Maria feel that a YES vote by the Supervisors is important for two reasons. 1. – The world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, especially here in Arizona. Southern Arizona is under attack by the Governor and his rightwing legislature. Money from the State has been drastically cut in favor of tax breaks

MY BEEF WITH TESTING

Casa Maria April 11, 2015

6 min read by Cesar Aguirre Last night I was organizing things in my room when I ran across an article I was quoted in regarding standardized testing and parents’ right to opt-out http://tucson.com/news/local/education/more-parents-see-standardized-tests-as-harmful/article_489549a5-5dfa-5a7b-9324-1065d37866bc.html. The one thing I must say before I go on is that, despite what the title says, I am not against testing. I only have beef with standardized testing! Now, I can go on a rant and write a novel talking about all the reasons I am against standardized testing, but I’ll spare you the whole profit driven corporate machine using our kids as guinea pigs to “reform” our

NEED HELP PAYING YOUR RENT OR BILLS? CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES

CASA MARIA
SOUP KITCHEN

Voces de Casa Maria