CASA CRY AUGUST 2016
We thank all those who helped with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Casa Maria. Special thanks to Jeff Kroupa, Don and Roberta’s son, who did the cooking, and community members of Casa and the neighborhood. It was great seeing once again some of our ex-guests and former workers at Casa. A special thank you goes to Annette and Michael Cullen for coming down from up north to be with us and giving us the history of the beginnings of Casa Maria. We all had a great time. Our hope is that Casa Maria will always remain a home for the homeless and that the other houses, Mapendo House, Sister Pat’s House, Harmony House, along with Lazarus House continue to serve those in need of love, housing, food, clothing, furniture and other basic needs of people. Our present community is Carlton Jones, Mikel Komba, Lincoln Rice, Colleen O’Conor, Amada Morales who runs Sister Pat’s House, Caitlin O’Brien, Jim Huber, Brian Traut (away at present helping refugees in Arizona), Mikayla Kinnison, Ceasar Jamel Crayton, Roberta Thurstin, and Don Timmerman. Others who help us are Reda and Annie, who for many years have worked in the adult clothing room, Dimah Doty who helps with the children and baby clothing room, Jim Fenske and Chris Jazsewski who do pick ups of donated items, Rose, who helps with the gardening, Cullom Cahill, who does carpentry work, and Larry and Roseann Matthias who for years have managed and maintained Mapendo House. Sarah Fairchild watches the house once a week, and Kevin Reger coordinates the liturgy held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Casa. Please join us. Many thousands of families have been helped through the efforts of these people and others who have donated time, energy, money and other items needed by our guests. We also thank all those who joined us in attempting to bring about a more peaceful and just world where all people will be treated with love and dignity. Jesus taught, “What you did to the least of these you did also to me.” ----Don Timmerman
Can you imagine the Apostles and disciples of Jesus joining with Jesus as a band of soldiers called a Roman Legion and going forth with Caesar to kill barbarians on the other side of the mountains? It is unthinkable. Why? Everyone knows why! ---Rev. Howard Goeringer in Haunts of Violence in the Church
“Church leaders just say privately or publicly—usually privately—‘I don't care who Jesus is, or what His authority is, or what He taught about violence and enmity, I will not follow Him. I shall not obey!’” ---Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
HOUSE NEEDS: We still need a computer for Sister Pat’s House. We thank the person who donated the printer. We also need a grill, hand towels and bath towels.
JOKES
You can lead somebody to Congress, but you can’t make one think. How did you find your steak? Oh, I just pushed away my mashed potatoes, and there it was. Buddhist to hot dog vender: “Make me one with everything.”
A music store was robbed. They made off with a lute! What does a Triceratops sit on? Its Tricera-bottom. How do you ask a tyrannosaur out to lunch? “Tea, Rex?”
The reason they bury politicians 26 feet under is because deep down they’re nice people. Welcome to the annual plastic surgeons convention…Nice to see a lot of new faces this year. What’s faster, hot or cold? Hot is because a cold is easy to catch.
The husband brings the child home from kindergarten and tells his wife, “He’s been crying the whole way home. Isn’t he sick or something?” “No,” replies the wife, “he was just trying to tell you he isn’t our Frankie.”
INTERESTING FACTS
The report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, analyzes 473 U.S. strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, the vast majority of which were carried out by drones. It says 2,372 to 2,581 so-called combatants were killed in these attacks. According to the Obama administration, just 64 to 116 civilians have been killed in its secretive drone program. ---Salon, July 1
Since the illegal U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraq’s oil production has skyrocketed, while domestic consumption has only slightly increased. Less than five years later, the U.S. had exceeded its goal, with Iraqi oil production up 175 percent.
----Salon, 7/8/16
Twenty- nine pages of documents showing the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks were finally released after 14 years. The Western-backed Saudi regime has also spent an estimated $100 billion in the past few decades exporting its extremist interpretation of Islam throughout the world, infusing its fundamentalist ideology in its ostensible charity work, funding madrasas, mosques and other institutions often in poor Muslim communities
.
Despite this, the Saudi regime remains a close U.S. ally. In the past several years, the Obama administration has done more than $100 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia. Widows of victims who died in the 9/11 attacks have long called on the U.S. to declassify the 29 pages of the report. In an op-ed in The New York Times in April, five wives of Sept. 11 victims blasted the close U.S.-Saudi relationship. Of the 19 Sept. 11 attackers, 15 were Saudi citizens. The Saudi monarchy has long staunchly denied involvement in the attacks. ----Salon, 7/15/16
Some 12 million barrels of oil are used each year to make plastic bags in the US alone. But that is trivial, since the US uses some 7 billion barrels of oil a year, mostly by its military. But it turns out that 80% of the world’s consumer products are made to be used only once. Think of the waste. Think of the labor, the money, the human time, the resources that are used to make things that are only used once. ---Creation Newsletter, July 2016
The average American produces more than four pounds of trash every day If you’re an average American, you produce 4.4. pounds of trash every single day, significantly more than the global average of 2.6 pounds. In a nation of nearly 324 million people, that amounts to more than 700,000 tons of garbage produced daily — enough to fill around 60,000 garbage trucks. ----AlterNet
Before Alton Sterling, Louisiana Police Have Killed 38 Mentally Ill People Since 2015 Louisiana police officers have a recent history of pulling the trigger without cause. ----Salon
Obama is the “only president in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.”NYTimes,5/20/16
Statistics show that 4% of the US population holds 90% of the guns. Likewise, psychologists say that 4% of the general population are sociopaths/psychopaths. ----Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center
In 2015, the United States “probably had more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.” The roughly 800 U.S. military bases around the world compared to no foreign bases on U.S. soil. Special operations funding has ballooned from $3 billion in 2001 to just under $10 billion in 2014. The Pentagon even runs an estimated 170 golf courses around the world. The U.S. was directly or indirectly involved in wars in 74 countries at one time. The overseas hub for America’s “war on terror” is the massive Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany. Nearly ignored by US media, Ramstein serves crucial functions for drone warfare and much more. It’s the most important Air Force base abroad, operating as a kind of grand central station for airborne war----- David Vine in Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
Fracking is responsible for 175 million gallons of toxic wastewater spilled since 2009. It also depletes water in drier areas in the U.S. ---Common Dreams, 9/9/15
If all states had right to work laws, 2 million fewer U.S. workers would receive healthcare. And 3.8 million fewer U.S. workers would have pensions.----The Nation, Jan./Feb., 2016
Norway will allow anyone in the world to study at their universities completely free of charge. ---US Uncut
In the past year, nearly 1 in 5 insured people has not filled a needed prescription because they couldn’t afford it. In Wisconsin, the average health insurance consumer pays over $1,200 before their insurer even starts to pay for prescriptions! ----Citizen Action of Wisconsin
According to a Huffington Post investigation, at least 810 other people have died in jails across the United States since Sandra Bland’s death one year ago.--- Democracy Now, 7/14/16
NOTES FROM 21ST STREET: I have been in my garden weeding. Don and I were on vacation for a week, and the weeds took full advantage of my time away. It is an unending task to save the fragile plants from destruction from the invasive fast growing weeds. I spend some time each day trying to bring a safe place for each plant to grow. Working for peace seems to take the same kind of diligence. I have a prayer by S. Joan Chittister O.S.B. which hangs on my fridge. The following are a few sections from the prayer that reflects on the diligence needed to bring about peace. “Save us from the desire to hurt as we have been hurt, to punish as we have been punished, to terrorize as we have been terrorized. Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to bring peace even when peace eludes us. Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power, to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that violence begets violence and to bring peace, not war, wherever we go.” To try to do what this prayer asks takes much diligence, but to keep the fragile earth and its inhabitants safe from invasive destructive unbridled power we must try. Peace, Roberta
CASA MARIA CATHOLIC WORKER
casamariacatholicworker.weebly.com
facebook.com/casamariacatholicworker
1131 n 21ST ST. BOX 05206
MIWAUKEE WI 53233
(414)344-5745
We thank all those who helped with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Casa Maria. Special thanks to Jeff Kroupa, Don and Roberta’s son, who did the cooking, and community members of Casa and the neighborhood. It was great seeing once again some of our ex-guests and former workers at Casa. A special thank you goes to Annette and Michael Cullen for coming down from up north to be with us and giving us the history of the beginnings of Casa Maria. We all had a great time. Our hope is that Casa Maria will always remain a home for the homeless and that the other houses, Mapendo House, Sister Pat’s House, Harmony House, along with Lazarus House continue to serve those in need of love, housing, food, clothing, furniture and other basic needs of people. Our present community is Carlton Jones, Mikel Komba, Lincoln Rice, Colleen O’Conor, Amada Morales who runs Sister Pat’s House, Caitlin O’Brien, Jim Huber, Brian Traut (away at present helping refugees in Arizona), Mikayla Kinnison, Ceasar Jamel Crayton, Roberta Thurstin, and Don Timmerman. Others who help us are Reda and Annie, who for many years have worked in the adult clothing room, Dimah Doty who helps with the children and baby clothing room, Jim Fenske and Chris Jazsewski who do pick ups of donated items, Rose, who helps with the gardening, Cullom Cahill, who does carpentry work, and Larry and Roseann Matthias who for years have managed and maintained Mapendo House. Sarah Fairchild watches the house once a week, and Kevin Reger coordinates the liturgy held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Casa. Please join us. Many thousands of families have been helped through the efforts of these people and others who have donated time, energy, money and other items needed by our guests. We also thank all those who joined us in attempting to bring about a more peaceful and just world where all people will be treated with love and dignity. Jesus taught, “What you did to the least of these you did also to me.” ----Don Timmerman
Can you imagine the Apostles and disciples of Jesus joining with Jesus as a band of soldiers called a Roman Legion and going forth with Caesar to kill barbarians on the other side of the mountains? It is unthinkable. Why? Everyone knows why! ---Rev. Howard Goeringer in Haunts of Violence in the Church
“Church leaders just say privately or publicly—usually privately—‘I don't care who Jesus is, or what His authority is, or what He taught about violence and enmity, I will not follow Him. I shall not obey!’” ---Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
HOUSE NEEDS: We still need a computer for Sister Pat’s House. We thank the person who donated the printer. We also need a grill, hand towels and bath towels.
JOKES
You can lead somebody to Congress, but you can’t make one think. How did you find your steak? Oh, I just pushed away my mashed potatoes, and there it was. Buddhist to hot dog vender: “Make me one with everything.”
A music store was robbed. They made off with a lute! What does a Triceratops sit on? Its Tricera-bottom. How do you ask a tyrannosaur out to lunch? “Tea, Rex?”
The reason they bury politicians 26 feet under is because deep down they’re nice people. Welcome to the annual plastic surgeons convention…Nice to see a lot of new faces this year. What’s faster, hot or cold? Hot is because a cold is easy to catch.
The husband brings the child home from kindergarten and tells his wife, “He’s been crying the whole way home. Isn’t he sick or something?” “No,” replies the wife, “he was just trying to tell you he isn’t our Frankie.”
INTERESTING FACTS
The report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, analyzes 473 U.S. strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, the vast majority of which were carried out by drones. It says 2,372 to 2,581 so-called combatants were killed in these attacks. According to the Obama administration, just 64 to 116 civilians have been killed in its secretive drone program. ---Salon, July 1
Since the illegal U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraq’s oil production has skyrocketed, while domestic consumption has only slightly increased. Less than five years later, the U.S. had exceeded its goal, with Iraqi oil production up 175 percent.
----Salon, 7/8/16
Twenty- nine pages of documents showing the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks were finally released after 14 years. The Western-backed Saudi regime has also spent an estimated $100 billion in the past few decades exporting its extremist interpretation of Islam throughout the world, infusing its fundamentalist ideology in its ostensible charity work, funding madrasas, mosques and other institutions often in poor Muslim communities
.
Despite this, the Saudi regime remains a close U.S. ally. In the past several years, the Obama administration has done more than $100 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia. Widows of victims who died in the 9/11 attacks have long called on the U.S. to declassify the 29 pages of the report. In an op-ed in The New York Times in April, five wives of Sept. 11 victims blasted the close U.S.-Saudi relationship. Of the 19 Sept. 11 attackers, 15 were Saudi citizens. The Saudi monarchy has long staunchly denied involvement in the attacks. ----Salon, 7/15/16
Some 12 million barrels of oil are used each year to make plastic bags in the US alone. But that is trivial, since the US uses some 7 billion barrels of oil a year, mostly by its military. But it turns out that 80% of the world’s consumer products are made to be used only once. Think of the waste. Think of the labor, the money, the human time, the resources that are used to make things that are only used once. ---Creation Newsletter, July 2016
The average American produces more than four pounds of trash every day If you’re an average American, you produce 4.4. pounds of trash every single day, significantly more than the global average of 2.6 pounds. In a nation of nearly 324 million people, that amounts to more than 700,000 tons of garbage produced daily — enough to fill around 60,000 garbage trucks. ----AlterNet
Before Alton Sterling, Louisiana Police Have Killed 38 Mentally Ill People Since 2015 Louisiana police officers have a recent history of pulling the trigger without cause. ----Salon
Obama is the “only president in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.”NYTimes,5/20/16
Statistics show that 4% of the US population holds 90% of the guns. Likewise, psychologists say that 4% of the general population are sociopaths/psychopaths. ----Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center
In 2015, the United States “probably had more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.” The roughly 800 U.S. military bases around the world compared to no foreign bases on U.S. soil. Special operations funding has ballooned from $3 billion in 2001 to just under $10 billion in 2014. The Pentagon even runs an estimated 170 golf courses around the world. The U.S. was directly or indirectly involved in wars in 74 countries at one time. The overseas hub for America’s “war on terror” is the massive Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany. Nearly ignored by US media, Ramstein serves crucial functions for drone warfare and much more. It’s the most important Air Force base abroad, operating as a kind of grand central station for airborne war----- David Vine in Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World
Fracking is responsible for 175 million gallons of toxic wastewater spilled since 2009. It also depletes water in drier areas in the U.S. ---Common Dreams, 9/9/15
If all states had right to work laws, 2 million fewer U.S. workers would receive healthcare. And 3.8 million fewer U.S. workers would have pensions.----The Nation, Jan./Feb., 2016
Norway will allow anyone in the world to study at their universities completely free of charge. ---US Uncut
In the past year, nearly 1 in 5 insured people has not filled a needed prescription because they couldn’t afford it. In Wisconsin, the average health insurance consumer pays over $1,200 before their insurer even starts to pay for prescriptions! ----Citizen Action of Wisconsin
According to a Huffington Post investigation, at least 810 other people have died in jails across the United States since Sandra Bland’s death one year ago.--- Democracy Now, 7/14/16
NOTES FROM 21ST STREET: I have been in my garden weeding. Don and I were on vacation for a week, and the weeds took full advantage of my time away. It is an unending task to save the fragile plants from destruction from the invasive fast growing weeds. I spend some time each day trying to bring a safe place for each plant to grow. Working for peace seems to take the same kind of diligence. I have a prayer by S. Joan Chittister O.S.B. which hangs on my fridge. The following are a few sections from the prayer that reflects on the diligence needed to bring about peace. “Save us from the desire to hurt as we have been hurt, to punish as we have been punished, to terrorize as we have been terrorized. Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to bring peace even when peace eludes us. Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power, to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that violence begets violence and to bring peace, not war, wherever we go.” To try to do what this prayer asks takes much diligence, but to keep the fragile earth and its inhabitants safe from invasive destructive unbridled power we must try. Peace, Roberta
CASA MARIA CATHOLIC WORKER
casamariacatholicworker.weebly.com
facebook.com/casamariacatholicworker
1131 n 21ST ST. BOX 05206
MIWAUKEE WI 53233
(414)344-5745