The Beginning of the End for the Death Penalty in Louisiana?

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Featuring:

Gary Clements

Director of Capital Post-Conviction Project of La. (CPCPL)

Gary Clements has devoted the majority of his adult life to public interest work.  Before becoming licensed in 1992 by the Texas and Louisiana Bars, Mr. Clements was involved in labor relations as a union organizer and representative with the United Farm Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  Since 1992, he has spent the majority of his 22-year legal career representing indigent clients on Louisiana’s death row.  A common thread runs through his diverse professional experiences: with persistence and devotion, he has found that he can win justice for his clients, despite opponents who command far superior economic resources. 

At Loyola New Orleans Law School, Mr. Clements was a founding member of the Public Interest Law Group which spearheaded the launching of the seventh loan forgiveness program at a law school by 1991. 

His legal work in capital defense began as a summer intern in 1990 financed by a public-interest-fund.  He helped build a constitutional challenge against the electric chair in Louisiana. Although that claim lost in federal court, Louisiana legislators voted to dump the electric chair in 1991 (although they briefly considered reviving it in the 2014 legislative session).  Gary spearheaded the legal challenge of lethal injection in Louisiana, first in state court litigation lasting from 1995 to 2011, and now, assisting others in federal civil rights litigation in the Middle District of Louisiana.  Mr. Clements has trained attorneys in Missouri, Virginia and elsewhere on how to develop effective Eight Amendment challenges to lethal injection.  This lethal injection challenge has contributed in great part to the scarcity of executions in Louisiana in recent times: Louisiana has executed only a single person (a volunteer who abandoned his appeals) in the last 12 years.            

 Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am - Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am - Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact Brad Ott at (504) 269-4951 or email to info@thecommunitybreakfast.org.

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

What Would a Sensible Health System Look Like?

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Featuring:

  Elmore Rigamer, MD, MPA and Dr. Rade M. Pejic, MD, Co-Chairs
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) New Orleans Chapter

Elmore F. Rigamer, MD, MPA, is Medical Director for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans where he currently directs several disaster relief programs for victims of the Katrina hurricane disaster. He opened first the Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in New Orleans.

As co-founder and chairman of the Partnership for Access to Total Health (PATH), a coalition sponsored by the four Catholic Health Care organizations in Louisiana to improve systems of care of the medically under-served, he has worked to enhance the exchange of information between community health clinics and the Medical Center of Louisiana, develop organizational partnerships to implement population based health programs in  two pilot communities in New Orleans, and test models of coordinating social services and medical care for the uninsured.
    
Prior to joining Catholic Charities, Dr. Rigamer served the US Department of State as Medical Director advising the Secretary of State on international health issues while overseeing the health care of Foreign Service diplomats and their families.  He also served the US Department of State as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Medical Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mental Health, Director of Mental Health Services, and Regional Psychiatrist for Europe, the Soviet Union, and South Asia.  Dr. Rigamer has also held positions with Kaiser Permanente Health Maintenance Organization and the Ochsner Clinic as well as served as a Peace Corps Volunteer Physician in Monrovia, Liberia.

Dr. Rigamer is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Child Psychiatry, a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and Alpha Omega Alpha.  Dr. Rigamer received his training in psychiatry at The New York Hospital- Cornell University an Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received his MPA from Harvard University.  

------------

Dr. Rade M. Pejic, MD., FACS., is currently a surgeon in private practice and has practiced in various capacities for over forty years. He has a Chemistry degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.D. degree from University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Pejic is also a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Pejic spent two years in Viet Nam on two US Navy Hospital ships, the USS REPOSE AND USS SANCTUARY, from 1968 to 1970, performing major trauma surgery on American Marines, Army and Air Force military soldiers. "At that time," said Dr. Pejic, "I basically experienced how a "One payer Health Care System" would function."
Dr. Pejic completed his General Surgery Residency at the PORTSMOUTH NAVAL HOSPITAL in 1972 and became Board Certified in Surgery in 1973. He also completed a Cardiovascular Fellowship in Detroit in 1978 and have been practicing General, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery since 1978. Dr. Pejic said he also "had an opportunity to see how pure socialized medicine was practiced in Yugoslavia (now Serbia)" where he lived for several years (as an American citizen).
 -----

Both Doctors Rigamer and Pejic have been active members of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), the world's leading physician Single-Payer health organization, which recently just had its national conference in New Orleans.

 Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am - Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am - Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact Brad Ott at (504) 269-4951 or email to info@thecommunitybreakfast.org.

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

ISIS & Washington: A Relationship that Spells Trouble for Iraqis and Syrians

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Featuring:

   Mike Howells Ph.D. Political Science, University of New Orleans

Social Justice Activist

Political scientist and long-time New Orleans social justice activist Mike Howells explores the latest unfolding war in Iraq and Syria sparked by the rise of ISIS (also known as ISIL or "the Islamic State") and wider implications, including but not limited to a return to the U.S. war in Iraq. 

Mike Howells' Biography:

PHD in Political Science(UNO 92).

University of Southwestern Louisiana Faculty(1989-1991).

Social justice activist in New Orleans since 1983.

Veteran of New Orleans anti-movements that opposed US military intervention in Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama,Yugoslavia, Iraq(1991& 2003), and Afghanistan.

Street Entertainer in French Quarter since 1993, Member of NOLA Socialist Alternative & Bring Back the Avery Alexander Statue.    

        

 Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

Campaign Finance And Political Corruption In Louisiana

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Featuring:

Dr. Edward E. Chervenak, University of New Orleans

Dr. Chervenak earned his PhD at Tulane University and has taught political science at the University of New Orleans for 15 years, where he also is the Director of the UNO Poll/Survey Research Center.  Specializing in state and local politics, as well as U.S. political parties and political participation, Dr. Chervenak is a well-known commentator in broadcast and print media.  His discussion at the Community Breakfast on October 11 will focus on campaign finance and political ethics in Louisiana—a recent topic of investigative reporting by WDSU-TV and nola.com/The Times-Picayune, on which Dr. Chervenak was frequently consulted for his expertise.

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

Kids and Families in Crisis: The Influx of Central American Children and Families to the Border

Reminder:
Saturday, September 13, 2014

Featuring:

Ramona Fernandez, Hiroko Kusuda,

Sue Weishar, 

and recent Central American refugees (TBA)

A humanitarian crisis of epic proportions unfolded at the U.S. Mexico border this summer as tens of thousands of children and families fled Central America for safe haven in the U.S. and other countries in the region. Ramona Fernandez, Associate Director of the Loyola Law Clinic, Hiroko Kusuda, Associate Clinical Professor of Immigration Law, Loyola Law Clinic, and Sue Weishar, Migration Specialist for the Jesuit Social Research Institute, will discuss why the children are leaving Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in unprecedented numbers, the challenges they face to gain legal status in the U.S., and what is being done locally to help child migrants who have come to the New Orleans area. We also hope to have as guest speakers a refugee family from Central America to discuss the reasons they fled their home country and how they are adjusting to life in New Orleans. Approximately 65% of the 1275 unaccompanied child immigrants who have rejoined family members in Louisiana this year are now living in the New Orleans area.

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

Kids and Families in Crisis: The Influx of Central American Children and Families to the Border

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Featuring:

Ramona Fernandez, Hiroko Kusuda,

Sue Weishar, 

and recent Central American refugees (TBA)

A humanitarian crisis of epic proportions unfolded at the U.S. Mexico border this summer as tens of thousands of children and families fled Central America for safe haven in the U.S. and other countries in the region. Ramona Fernandez, Associate Director of the Loyola Law Clinic, Hiroko Kusuda, Associate Clinical Professor of Immigration Law, Loyola Law Clinic, and Sue Weishar, Migration Specialist for the Jesuit Social Research Institute, will discuss why the children are leaving Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in unprecedented numbers, the challenges they face to gain legal status in the U.S., and what is being done locally to help child migrants who have come to the New Orleans area. We also hope to have as guest speakers a refugee family from Central America to discuss the reasons they fled their home country and how they are adjusting to life in New Orleans. Approximately 65% of the 1275 unaccompanied child immigrants who have rejoined family members in Louisiana this year are now living in the New Orleans area.

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

Winning Social Change with the Justice and Beyond Coalition

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Featuring:

Nakita Shavers

Justice and Beyond*

Nakita Shavers, one of the principal members of the coalition Justice and Beyond, organized and won a statewide grassroots campaign that challenged and defeated the white members of the Louisiana Supreme Court when they violated their own rules to choose a white Chief Justice over the legitimate successor who is African-American. 

Ms. Shavers will discuss the activities and structure of the Justice and Beyond Coalition that allows this group to be free-wheeling, effective and democratic in its actions.  

Protesters with Silence is Violence

Nakita was born and raised in the Lower 9th ward of New Orleans, La. She is also the founder and executive director of the Dinerral Shavers Educational Fund (DSEF), and Co-Founder of Silence Is Violence Anti Violence Organization.  

Protesters marching to New Orleans City Hall
after murders of Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill in 2007

DSEF conducts a popular and thorough annual Scholarship Essay Contest, Back to School Extravaganza, along with College Tours, Operation Giveback Campaigns, Mentorship, and Music and Cultural Education Programs.

Nakita is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Political Science Pre-law, has a Master’s of Public Administration with a Specialization in Non-Profit Management & Leadership, and a recent graduate of Loyola University’s Institute of Politics.

*The Justice and Beyond Coalition meets every Monday at 4:45 p.m. at Christian Unity Baptist Church, 1700 Conti at N. Claiborne (parking underneath the building.)

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast 

has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983

A Celebration of the Life of Kit Senter

Saturday, July 12, 2014

10:00am to 12:00pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church Sanctuary
5212 South Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans
Corner Jefferson Ave.

We will forgo our regular second Saturday meeting this month to celebrate the full and meaningful life of Kit Senter, who died June 26, 2014 at the age of 87. According to her last wishes, this will take place at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, with music, song, poetry, photos and testimonials from her family and friends, and with special performances by her granddaughters, Lila Dunlap and Anna Sudie Dunlap. Please join us as we recount the many contributions to humanity of this monumental lifetime of social justice activism, caring, compassion, thoughtfulness, and generosity. 

This site may be updated up to the date of the event, so please save the link to return here for more info, including links to her published obituary:

Obituary in The Advocate                     

Obituary in the Times-Picayune            

Guest Book

Kit speaking on August 14, 2010 at the
Community Presentation entitled 
"Katrina Turns Five"
(click to go to the recorded presentation)

Below is Kit in a BBC interview from 1960 with other members of Save Our Schools, organized to support white families defying racist calls to boycott William Franz elementary, one of two elementary schools that launched racial integration of the Orleans Parish public school system. Kit and other women drove white children to and from school, joining Ruby Bridges, Franz's first black student. Save Our Schools drivers also ferried white children to join three additional black students attending McDonogh No. 19 Elementary -- becoming the first black children to integrate previously all-white elementary schools in the South.

Here is Kit speaking about her own commitment to energy efficiency with Alliance for Affordable Energy founder Gary Groesch in 1997:

These are but a few examples of the exceptional works and deeds of this great humanitarian and civil leader that will be celebrated on July 12. The world is diminished by her absence. 

We salute you, and we honor you, Kit. We will always love you. 

Charity Hospital will be _________________: Visioning the future of New Orleans' Charity Hospital

Saturday, June 14, 2014 

Featuring:

Janet Hays

Outreach Coordinator and Web Admin

Save Charity Hospital (dot) Com 

Join us to get an update from Janet on the current status of Charity and the various proposals out there for its adaptive reuse, and to hear what Save Charity Hospital is proposing. This is the question she poses to the citizens of New Orleans: "If Charity were to be used as a Mental Health Complex, what types of programs and facilities do we need and/or want?"

Janet is a long time human rights advocate and community organizer. 

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am – Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am to Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

Governor Jindal's Louisiana Budget Disaster: A Roundtable Discussion

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am –Roundtable Discussion

11am to Noon- Progressive Community Networking

Coffee Served

For more information, contact us:  

info@thecommunitybreakfast.org

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.