Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide Film Showings in September

by Joan Cavanagh, PAMAS member

Recently produced by Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) and Karyl Evans Productions LLC, the 36-minute film, Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide, will be presented followed by discussion with the filmmakers and audience members at the Fair Haven Public Library, 182 Grand Ave., on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 6-7:30 p.m. and at the Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden, on Sept. 14 from noon until 2 p.m.

The film considers the historical context, current practice, and impact on health care of enabling medical providers to offer lethal drugs to patients for the purpose of ending their own lives.

With poetry and song written and performed by West Haven, Connecticut-based poet, songwriter, and performance artist Elaine Kolb, it features interviews with disability and social justice activists including Anita Cameron of Rochester, New York, former Director of Community Outreach at Not Dead Yet; Jules Good, programs coordinator of the Autism Self Advocacy Network and the founder and director of Neighborhood Access LLC of Barrington, New Hampshire; nationally and internationally recognized palliative care specialist Dr. Diane Meier, professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; retired Connecticut disability rights attorney Nancy Alisberg; and five local community activists. It is narrated by Scott Harris, producer of the WPKN radio program, Counterpoint, and includes ASL interpretation by American School for the Deaf Community Interpreting.

Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide premiered at the Miller Library in Hamden on March 25 and has since been shown at five other venues in Connecticut, including the West Haven, Woodbridge, and Westville Public Libraries, as well as two classes at the University of Hartford. It is streaming on the PAMAS website, https://pamasprogressives.org, into September.

Please contact PAMAS at progressivesagainstmas@hotmail.com if you know of a venue that might be interested in a future showing and discussion of the film.

For more information, visit the website at https://pamasprogressives.org.

Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide was partially funded by the Haymarket People’s Fund and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, with support from the Patients’ Rights Action Fund and Not Dead Yet, and fiscal sponsorship from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Center for Disability Rights, New York.

Fiesta Latina! Celebrating Hispanic Culture noon to 5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 27 and Sunday, Sept. 28

Junta for Progressive Action will hold a free, family-friendly street festival with live music, dance performances, food vendors, kids’ activities, and cultural pride in full force on Saturday, Sept. 27 from noon to 5 p.m. at its location on 169 Grand Ave. in New Haven.

The Peabody Museum will hold a day of curated exhibits, youth performances, music, dancing, and educational engagement celebrating Hispanic culture on Sunday, Sept. 28 from noon to 5 p.m. at the museum, 170 Whitney Ave.

News about New Haven’s Peace Garden

by Paula Panzarella, Friends of the West River Peace Garden

On July 23, a contingent from Friends of the West River Peace Garden met with managers from Cofield Estates to talk about mutual programs and community resources. The West River Peace Garden is bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Ella Grasso Boulevard, and Legion Avenue. The Cofield Estates is a new housing development that abuts the garden.

For decades, where Cofield Estates now stands, this was an empty parcel of land. Members of the West River Self Help Investment Plan (WRSHIP) worked to bring housing to this area for almost 25 years. Finally, it’s been created.

We talked about how the garden became a designated United Nations Peace Garden and why New Haven is a Peace Messenger City. Previously, Mayor Justin Elicker was in contact with Cofield Estates about the Peace Garden.

We mentioned that the Peace Garden would like to have access to a water spigot, and that we can help involve Cofield Estate residents in neighborhood and environmental organizations. We can set up canoe rides at West River Memorial Park, offer bicycle safety classes and repair workshops, and have residents’ teenagers earn volunteer hours at the Peace Garden.

The representatives of Cofield Estates were enthusiastic about the various ways we could help bring programs to the residents, the first of whom moved into the new 56 apartment complex in April.

Within a week of our July 23 meeting, Friends of the West River Peace Garden were given a key to the water spigot on one of the buildings. We now can run lengths of hose to the garden to keep the plants and trees watered. We also can fill up a rain barrel that will store enough water to keep the garden in good shape for two weeks. We look forward to the residents joining us in the garden and in other collaborative projects.

Please consider volunteering! For more information, contact Aaron Goode at aaron.goode@gmail.com, or 203-507-8985. Our website is https://westriverpeacegarden.org.

Do You Have a Garden? It’s a Good Time to Get Your Soil Tested

A soil test can advise you when you are planting something new, and when an existing garden area is doing less well than expected. Following the recommendations of a soil test can save you money and improve the quality of your plantings. Adding soil nutrients when they aren’t needed can negatively impact our water supply.

Home gardeners have two sources for soil testing in Connecticut: The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), free; and the UConn Soil Testing Lab (UConn), $15 per test. They each test for major and minor nutrients and pH. in addition, UConn tests for lead, while CAES analyzes soil texture and organic matter.

For the CAES form and instructions, go to bit.ly/3JtbThr.
For the UConn form and instructions, go to bit.ly/3Hrqae1.

2025 Walk to End Alzheimer’s, Sunday, Sept. 28

The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, this inspiring event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to join the fight against the disease.

The New Haven walk will take place on Sunday, Sept. 28 at Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road in New Haven. There is the option of a one- or two-mile walk.

The event opens at 9 a.m., followed by a ceremony at 10 a.m. Paula and Frank Panzarella, PAR Planning Committee members, will be in the walk, which begins at 10:30 a.m. You can register to join their team and walk with them or make a donation at bit.ly/3VfxtIN.

Info: Caroline Kachmar, 860-362-0936, ckachmar@alz.org.

The PARty 2025

Join the PARty 1-4 p.m. July 19, 2025, Edgerton Park Carriage House

It’s summer, which means it’s the time for Progressive Action Roundtable readers and supporters to gather together for food, music, fellowship and fun.

See old friends and make new ones from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, July 19, 2025, at the Edgerton Park Carriage House. Offerings for the potluck are welcome.

Please RSVP at parnewhaven@hotmail.com or by calling 203-887-4778.

Thank you and we hope to see you there!

 

Born in an internment camp, blind CT man is determined to protest at 82 years old

By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster | Danbury News-Times

Stan Nishimura took a taxi to get his brand new walker. It’s cherry red, the kind with a seat installed that lets him have a rest if he gets winded. The walker will give him some more mobility, allowing him to walk the grounds of his retirement community, but that’s not the sole reason he made the trek.

Stan Nishimura, 82, of New Haven.Jordan Fenster/Hearst Connecticut Media Group

Stan Nishimura, 82, of New Haven. Jordan Fenster/Hearst Connecticut Media Group

Nishimura, now 82, had been to a recent protest at Yale, but he “really wasn’t able to get around.”

“That’s part of my life,” he said. “There’s real limitations.”

Nishimura, the grandchild of Japanese immigrants, was born in an internment camp in Arizona, one of those set up after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, which authorized the use of military personnel for the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans. Most of the 125,000 people put in those camps, like Nishimura’s parents, were American citizens. The order referred to them as “alien enemies.”

Nishimura is legally blind and, having survived stage IV lung cancer, his lungs aren’t what they once were. He needed the walker to attend the No Kings protest in Hartford. There, he was among thousands in Hartford and elsewhere around Connecticut and the country, protesting against President Donald Trump and what organizers have said are authoritarian actions.

“That’s how I see my life,” he said. “First defeating the Trump MAGA fascists and then getting to a whole other world is a prime focus. Secondary to that is my individual concerns, because they’re doing it, not just for me, and it’s nice that I can go, but they’re doing it in terms of what is needed for humanity.”

Click here to read the rest of the story on the News-Times web site and fo more photos. .

https://www.newstimes.com/connecticut/article/ct-japanese-internment-camp-trump-no-kings-20379100.php

Save the Date for Refresh & Recharge 2025, July 19, 1-4pm

Join a host of CT environmental organizations for the second annual Refresh & Recharge. In these times, it is good to gather with friends old and new to discuss important issues, how to move forward and gain momentum. The afternoon will begin with networking and lunch followed by a panel discussion about how to extend our reach. The fantastic panel will include:

  • Attorney Cynthia Jennings (a civil rights and environmental lawyer and longtime activist in Hartford)
  • Christine Palm (founding director of Active Voice and former 3-term state legislator)
  • Alycia Jenkins (an organizer for Sierra Club CT and an author)
  • Pramod Pradhan (community engagement librarian and liaison to the West Hartford Human Rights Commission and co-founder of the Nepali Association of CT)

Following the panel, participants will have a choice of activities (beginner Pilates, poster-making, or advocacy mini-workshop). REGISTER

—
Deb Roe, Program Manager

Peace Activists Attend Yale Commencement 2025

by Susan Klein and Henry Lowendorf, New Haven peace activists

On Monday, May 19, Yale University’s commencement procession filled several blocks of Elm Street with over 4000 graduates in caps and gowns, while their happy families and friends in colorful spring attire lined the sidewalks. Led by a marching band and black-gowned dignitaries of the Yale administration and Yale Corporation, students from each of Yale’s colleges streamed from Cross Campus on High Street to the upper Green on College Street before entering Old Campus through Phelps Gate for the commencement ceremony.

Everyone had to pass half-dozen keffiyah-clad community activists from the Greater New Haven Peace Council, Veterans for Peace, and Jewish Voice for Peace, along with one Yale student, standing at the intersection of College and Elm.

We held posters reading “Celebrate Yale Grads with Moral Clarity to Demand Ceasefire and Divestment,” “Yale Divest from War” with QR codes linking to the Hunger Strikers, and “I Stand Against Genocide.” The response was overwhelmingly positive, many of the students also wearing keffiyehs, with resounding cheers, call and response chants and thumbs up from both graduates and families.

On the previous day, five seniors chosen by their fellow students on the Class Day Committee had highlighted campus free speech and activism, according to this article in the Yale Daily News: https://tinyurl.com/2drctn84.

After the undergraduates had passed, we moved up Elm Street to greet the postgraduate degree recipients from the Yale School of the Environment, many wearing keffiyehs and whimsically decorated caps as they entered Old Campus through Battell Chapel. Their response was equally enthusiastic.

Some of us had stood at commencement in 2024, just after university police violently dismantled Yalies4Palestine’s encampments. This year’s graduates may have been even more responsive to us, after Yale’s continued repression of pro-Palestine student activism and of caving to the Trump regime’s suppression of free speech and academic freedom. The repression led to a group of pro-Palestine Yale students entering a hunger strike on May 10. The QR code links to their demands on Instagram.

Schools Protest at Capitol Ends with Arrests

by Mona Mahadevan, May 21, 2025, New Haven Independent

Ten public education advocates, including five New Haven teachers and one student, were arrested at the state Capitol Wednesday [May 21] afternoon during a sit-in outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s office. ….

Chief among their demands: raising the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) foundation amount and adopting a higher weight in the ECS formula for students with special needs.

The demonstration — organized by the New Haven Federation of Teachers, AFT Connecticut, and Connecticut For All — took place as New Haven Public Schools Supt. Madeline Negron considers laying off 129 employees, including 56 teachers and all 25 librarians, to close an anticipated budget shortfall of $16.5 million for the 2025 – 2026 school year. …

Included among those arrested as part of Wednesday’s act of civil disobedience were New Haven teachers union President Leslie Blatteau and Wilbur Cross student John Carlos Serana Musser, a student representative on New Haven’s Board of Education.

[To read the article in its entirety, please go to www.newhavenindependent.org/article/teacher_arrests]

June 8th – Rally to Defend Civil Liberties

Come to the New Haven Green on June 8, 12:30 p.m. for a legal, peaceful, mass demonstration!

• Free Mahmoud Khalil and all targeted activists
• Hands off Rumeysa Ozturk
• Stop all attacks on the rights to protest, organize, and due
process
• Stop all deportations, return Kilmar Abrego Garcia and all
other CECOT prisoners
• Stop passport confiscations
• Stop all attacks on queer and trans people
• Stop RFK’s Autism Registry
• Protect and expand healthcare and social services
• Protect and fund our schools and universities
• Hands off our unions

Our civil liberties are clearly under attack.

The Trump Administration is kidnapping activists, revealing private information of people of color, and waging a rapidly escalating war on our most basic rights to silence its critics.

Activists and community members are building a fightback in defense of democratic rights. Union leaders, rank-and-file workers, and community organizers have formed the CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee.

https://tinyurl.com/46yhbza4

Join I Heart New Haven Day, Saturday, June 7

by Jane Hendrickson, Exec. Director, Bridges of Hope

Bridges of Hope is a group of diverse New Haven area churches from across denominational, social, and cultural lines that have agreed to come together as one to serve the New Haven community as members of the community.

This year, we are organizing our tenth annual “I Heart New Haven Day,” which will take place on June 7, 2025. The goal is to serve the city through over 29 different projects with over 400 volunteers participating from Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Vox Church, Vertical Church, Trinity Baptist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, All Nations Church, Shoreline Community Church, St John’s Episcopal Church, CT Korean Presbyterian Church, and several other churches. This is our tenth anniversary of coming together to build partnerships, serve immediate needs and give back to the city our volunteers know and love. People know these volunteers as the “blue shirts,” but they are also residents, public servants and leaders in the city. The day will begin at 9 a.m. on the New Haven Green with words of encouragement from the pastors of the churches, and then the volunteers will be sent off to their projects to serve from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

2025 Walk to End Alzheimer’s, Sept. 28

The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, this inspiring event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to join the fight against the disease.

The walk will take place on Sunday, Sept. 28 at Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road in New Haven. There is the option of a one- or two-mile walk.

The event opens at 9 a.m., followed by a ceremony at 10 a.m. The walk begins at 10:30 a.m.
To register, go to https://bit.ly/43yz7ZP.

For more information, contact Caroline Kachmar, 860-362-0936, ckachmar@alz.org.

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