< 1 min read by Cesar Aguirre Across the country gentrification has been affecting inner-city communities. From Brooklyn to San Francisco inner-city communities have been taken over by moneyed interests. Some claim that it is development and improvement of poor, blighted communities with high crime rates and homelessness. But for those of us who live here it pushes us out further on the fringes of society, while erasing the culture and history of our community and the people that have lived here for generations. And now it’s happening in South Tucson. As an artist and rapper I feel that art, music and culture is

< 1 min read If you live in the City of Tucson you have until May 10th to drop your ballot in the mail. Check out Brian’s op-ed in the Daily Star (click here)

3 min read by Brian Flagg Today, May 1, the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker and International Workers Day, is the 84 year anniversary of the start of the Catholic Worker movement! On this day in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin and others went to the May Day celebration at Union Square in New York City, to hand out the first edition of the Catholic Worker newspaper. The rest is history! And I consider myself blessed to have been a Catholic Worker for the majority of my adult life, the first 2 years in

5 min read by Brian Flagg In recent months I have tried to make a deal with God that goes something like this: “If I clean up my act and be less egotistic and more holy, gimme spiritual power to wage major warfare against local oppressors and moneyed interests.” This past Holy Week I have come to see that this is mostly egotistical and is more about my will and my wants and desires at the expense of my relationship with Jesus. I did a liquids fast from Monday through Saturday. After the first day, it was way easier than I thought it

4 min read by Brian Flagg As a white guy who grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles I always figured I had no real culture, I never even hung out at the mall or none of that stuff. But I did grow up surfing San Onofre with my dad and all my little surf-rat friends. And just last week I surfed both San O and the Huntington Beach Cliffs (5 minutes from my mom’s house!) and the waves were hot! And I actually got a few pretty good rides! No, really! Corky Carroll, a So Cal surf idol from my youth

3 min read by Cesar Aguirre State lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that makes all of Arizona’s 1.1 million students eligible for vouchers, which divert tax dollars out of public schools and into private and parochial schools. Vouchers were originally passed in 2011 to provide parents who have children with special needs an alternative to public schools. Since then the voucher program has expanded to include children of people in the military on active duty, foster children, all children attending failing schools and children living on Indian Reservations. Supporters of the law argue that vouchers provide more opportunities for low-income students to receive

2 min read This is a letter to the editor on the most recent National Catholic Reporter, one of my favorite sources of news. -Brian Flagg Protest Coverage It was disheartening to see how NCR covered recent national protests in the Feb. 10-23 edition. The front-page article, “Catholics find their voice as Trump debuts,” showed a small group of “pro-life” supporters with “anti-abortion” signs, while Page 5 reviewed the massive Women’s March. The bias is in NCR continuing to give such prominence to “anti-abortion” supporters. Let’s be clear that “anti-abortion” is not really “pro-life,” and that so-called “pro-life” supporters willfully ignore the vast array of

2 min read Much to my surprise I received an email this morning from the moderator of TUSD’s School Community Partnership Council (SCPC) announcing her resignation. SCPC is a collective group of site council representatives from schools across the district. Over the past four years I have been part of this council and have seen a huge shift in the way it operates. When I began attending the meetings I felt as if this group only existed for the sake of existing. There was very little opportunity to communicate our concerns, and more importantly, no way of making sure there was follow through

4 min read “Sanctuary makes a ring of fire around our people.” – Marisa Franco and Not1More Deportation As I write this requested response to the question, “What does being a Sanctuary City mean anyway?” I am watching friends and compañer@s who have locked down to keep an ICE van from deporting loved ones from Phoenix to Mexico. As I write this sentence the Phoenix PD is beginning to attempt to clear the site of Phoenix residents intervening with Trump’s, and formerly Obama’s, immigration dragnet. The young, fierce Latinx who is narrating the scene is telling me that none of the local politicians