Reprinted from Casa Cry, the newsletter of the Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June/July 1998.


1.3 billion people now live on less than a dollar a day. "We can have a democratic society or we can have a great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We can't have both." - Justice Louis Brandeis from Integrities, 4-98

Wisconsin has 600,000 citizens without health insurance (43 million nationwide), and 70 organizations statewide have committed themselves to getting the state to adopt a Universal Health Plan. They hope to get 100 organizations to endorse this plan and will be having a teach-in conference on-this on Sept. 12, 9 a.m. - noon at St. Ben's, 9th & State Sts. Call Mike Nigbor, RN at 384-4898 now to get involved in this project. Thanks.

Months after Martin Luther King Jr. publicly called the US the "world's greatest purveyor of violence" that he was killed: 2. Minimum distance, in feet, that Orlando beggars must by law maintain from those they ask for money: 3. Maximum fine for begging without a permit in Orlando FL: $500. Portion of IRS audits that are conducted on large corporations: 1/500. Ratio of average amount a US family spent on food, clothing and shelter last year to what it spent on taxes; 3:4. Ratio net worth of richest 1% of US households to the size of the national debt: 2:1. - Harper's Index, Feb, 1998

It is unknown where the 23 million pounds of Vietnam-era napalm that was to be dumped by the Navy in Fast Chicago IL actually was dumped there. What's this all about? The napalm was to move through seven states before being dumped on East Chicago.- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There is estimated to be 150 political prisoners in US prisons. - Workers World, 4/9/98

The US share of the cocaine trade alone was worth $38 billion in 1995. The total world trade in all illicit drugs is worth $400 billion, and US banks covertly handle much of that money. Citibank, a subsidiary of Citicorp has connections of Carlos Salinas, drug trafficker and brother of former president of Mexico. - The Nation, May 4, 1998

State of WI allocated $180,000 for the first year of a chain gang that employs just 12 prisoners out of 15,000. In the next 2 years, WI residents will pay $65 million for the care and maintenance of prisoners housed outside its borders. - Shepherd Express, 4-16-98

Today Mexico has a $13 billion deficit. Most of it goes for interest payments on the foreign debt. Mexico exports 87% of its goods to the US, and 76% of its imports come from the US. Over 50% of the maquiladoras that generated $4.2 billion in Oct. '97 are US or jointly owned by US-Mexican capitalists. - Z Magazine, April 1998

There are 24 billionaires in Mexico. The majority of Mexicans barely survive from day to day. - NCR, 4-3-98

A total of $72 million is proposed by Clinton to forgive some of the debts of the poorest nations. This amount is less than the price of one F/A-18 E/F fighter plane. The US plans to order 30 of these planes in FY99. The $1.5 billion owed by US to the UN is less than the cost of a single B-2 bomber. The US, has 21 of B2 bombers. - FCNL, March 1998

Only 34% of Milw. welfare recipients found full-time jobs. Only 1 in 6 of these families had incomes above the poverty level. Forty Milw. child-care centers and 75 home day-care providers now refuse to take children of parents in the W-2 system because Milw. County is so far behind in making payments. Only families making less than 165% of the poverty rate are entitled to child care, and a co-payment is required. - The Progressive, 5/8/98

The US has an arsenal of 16,750 nuclear weapons, more than all other nations combined and yet still refuses to sign on to the nuclear weapons test ban treaty. - Workers World, 6-11-98

India and Pakistan have had nuclear weapons tests. But the US has has conducted over 1,000 nuclear tests in the last 5 decades and continues to carry out simulated nuclear weapons tests. -Dr Rashmi Mayur of International Institute for a Sustainable Future

The US plans to invest $4.5 Billion per year for the next 13 years on new nuclear weapons design and testing. - Rep. Lynn Woolsey

In Haiti, women who sew Disney pajamas that sell for $20 in US stores are paid less than 7 cents a pair and could never afford to outfit their own children with these.- CLR (202)544-9355

United Fruit donated $110 Million to help the CIA engineer a military invasion in Guatemala, including the use of its boats to transport US troops and weapons into the country. The banana companies of Del Monte, Chiquita and Dole are notorious for paying workers in Central and South America small wages, have sprayed pesticides on the workers in the field, have persecuted those who attempted to form a union for the workers and has relocated civilians by force for the use of their land for profits. When a tabloid tried to uncover this injustice it was sued by Chiquita bananas recently for $11 million because the truth had been gotten through "illegal" means. -Human Rights Action Service

According to NCR Chiquita was involved in the transport of cocaine into the US. as well. See NCR, 5-15-98

US military sales to Mexico rose from $4.8 million in 1996 to $26 million in 1997 in spite of the continued military oppression of the indigenous people in the State of Chiapas where atrocities are still being committed with these very weapons. - Bill Hackwell of Chiapas

Amount by NASA is over budget on its international space station: $3,900,000,000. Number of 534 subpoenas issued in Rep. Dan Burton's campaign-finance investigation that have gone to Republicans: 9. Percentage change in the annual number of fed. indictments of elected officials since Watergate: +291. Estimated number of Rwandan households headed by children: 85,000. Number of Juvenile offenders awaiting execution in the US: 69. Percentage of US plant species cited as "threatened by extinction" by World Conservation Union last April:29. Ratio of pollution generated by a leaf blower in I hour to that generated by driving a car one hundred miles: 1:1. - Harper's Index