“I am your voice!” That is the declaration Donald Trump made to struggling Americans as he accepted the Republican nomination for President in July. Trump maintained and built upon that message throughout his unconventional campaign. He repeatedly promised working class voters that he would create an economy in which they could thrive, and it was on that message (among others) that he won the presidency. 

The Case of 1954 Guatemala Coup

BY SUE WEISHAR, PH.D.

The Affordable Housing Crisis in the Gulf South 

BY JEANIE DONOVAN, M.P.A., M.P.H.

by Edward "Ted" Arroyo, SJ, Ph.D. 

Pope Francis’ recent prayer at the Juarez/El Paso border led to this airborne response to a journalist’s question: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.” These simple words opened up in the blogosphere floodgates of anti-papal as well as anti-immigrant inundations reaching far beyond the Rio Grande’s tiny arroyo dividing the U.S. and Mexico. 

A ten year retrospective - Part 2

by Fred Kammer, SJ

Public Schools. New Orleans public education “can claim the most dramatic before-and-after Katrina picture.”[1] In the 1950s and 60s, whites fled integration to private and parochial schools. Middle-class blacks followed. The pre-Katrina system was 94% African-American with 73% qualifying for free and subsidized lunches. Orleans Parish public schools ranked 67th out of 68 Louisiana districts in math and reading. 62% of students attended schools rated “failing.”[2] Corruption was widespread.  

by Alí Bustamante 

Recently the Annie E. Casey Foundation updated its Kids Count Data Book, which measures and ranks the wellbeing of children across the U.S.  Louisiana ranked 48th among the 50 states in overall childhood wellbeing, the state’s lowest ranking since the Kids Count rankings began in 2012. Only New Mexico and Mississippi ranked lower than Louisiana this year, 49th and 50th respectively.  The rest of the Gulf South also performed poorly, Alabama ranked 45th, Texas 41st, and Florida 37th.

by Fred Kammer, SJ

The Regressive Nature of State-Local Tax Systems

By Fred Kammer, S.J.

In the news lately are calls by Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and other governors to eliminate their state personal and corporate income taxes and to substitute higher sales taxes in plans that will remain “revenue neutral” (namely, no additional income, just shifting tax burdens). To assess such plans morally, one needs to look first at the current state-local tax burdens of state populations. Then we can assess the impact and morality of proposed changes.

In testimony submitted to a Senate subcommittee on December 12, 2012, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described how zero-tolerance policies that heavily use suspension and expulsion and police officers contributes to a “school to prison pipeline” that funnels students into the criminal justice system.  The policies disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities in the Gulf South region.  The SPLC also filed complaints in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  In Meridian, MS, students are routinely arrested and transported to the juvenile detention

New hope comes into a world of impossibility

By Sue Weishar, Ph.D.