‘Op-Ed’ Archives
Food is the Great Unifier
By DANETTE BILLUPS Outside, a woman sits on a bench and has her wagon. She is waiting for this week’s free meals to be delivered. She feels fortunate to be part of the program offering the meals. When her food box is delivered, she quickly opens it to see what is inside: Swiss chard, ground turkey, canned beans, grits, tomatoes, and bell peppers! What a lovely surprise! And she received a bonus: there are two recipe cards in the box as well! She hurries inside with her food and tells everyone in sight about what she has received for the week.At the community meet and greet, community members come together to see who is new in the neighborhood. There is a nice spread of food on the tables. Across the street, there is a city bus, covered with pictures of food. It is the Twin Cities Mobile Market! The Mobile Market visits different locations in the Phillips neighborhood, bringing the grocery store to the community. People shop for their weekly food and chat afterwards about what’s [...]
What Purpose Would an Immigration Reform Serve?
By MARCO DÁVILA Why should the US pass comprehensive immigration reform? Here some reasons: Immigrants, apart from paying their respective “fines” and fees to obtain permanent residence or citizenship, would also contribute more resources to the economy of the United States. They would have access to better jobs, would have the opportunity to buy their own home, and many would become professionals and/or entrepreneurs in various areas. As legal workers, they could develop greater skills and make bigger contributions to the economy.There would be no need to lock people up in detention centers. Detention centers, in addition to not solving anything, create suffering and disorder and cost millions of dollars in public spending. Unnecessary and unfair deaths during these lockdowns would be avoided.Millions of people would avoid suffering the psychological damage of seeing their family members humiliated and locked up, and living in fear of authority at all times. Children and [...]
