LUNCH WITH THE ELDERS

PURPOSE: To create a venue for dynamic and engaging conversation (dialogue) between select UNF Student Leaders and local SENIORS (80+) whose lives witness a life-long commitment to social justice and peacemaking.

This event coincides with the Peace Festival on the Green, and is scheduled for Thursday, October 4th from 12:15-1:30pm in Room 1601-02 in Robinson Center.  The Luncheon will begin with a brief testimony about the life commitment of our 7 ELDER Guests. Then, the main portion of the program will be devoted to conversation among the Elders and the students at their respective tables. Each table will consist of one Elder, 8 students, and one faculty moderator. The aim is to create a venue for vibrant conversation between these Seniors and UNF students.

STUDENT APPLICATION: Students should submit the ONLINE APPLICATION by 5PM TUESDAY, October 2nd. Applicants will need to select their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice for the Senior they would like to have lunch with. Selected Students will be notified via email by NOON on WEDNESDAY, October 3nd, and will be expected to participate in the full luncheon program on Thursday, October 4th.

==============================================================================
1. Willye Dennis is a retired librarian, veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, and former Florida State Legislator.  In 1978, she founded Fam-Co Learning and Development Center, a non-profit child daycare center. The agency would go on to provide additional counseling services for unwed mothers and at risk teenagers.  Willye Dennis served as president of the Jacksonville NACCP Chapter from 1994-2004. She gained national attention when a bomb was addressed to her at the offices of the Jacksonville NAACP.  In 1992, Ms. Dennis was elected as a Democrat to the Florida House of Representatives (District 15) and subsequently reelected. She served as the Vice Chair of the Education K-12 Committee, on the Financial Services Committee and the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee. Dennis is Adult Consultant with the St. Paul Community Empowerment Center. Mrs. Dennis has a message for young people. "There is a sea of opportunity that awaits you at a point in life in which anything is still possible and growth is word of the day". Mrs. Dennis hopes her life would be an inspiration for our upcoming leaders.

2. Stetson Kennedy is a native of Jacksonville who turns 9l on October 5.  At an early age Stetson resolved to devote his life to combating injustice of every sort—which turned out to be a fulltime job.  “The system of white supremacy and Jim Crow apartheid was the cruelest and most wanton injustice of all, so I have spent most of my life doing what I could to help overcome that,” he says. To that end, he ran as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in l950 as a “color-blind candidate on a platform of total equality.”   He didn’t get elected, but did get jailed. He also infiltrated the KKK and a score of other racist terrorist groups, and exposed them in his books The Klan Unmasked and Southern Exposure.  In addition, he authored Jim Crow Guide and After Appomattox:  When Terrorism Triumphed in America.  Some of his books appeared in as many as 20 languages.  “I was deliberately trying to give Uncle Sam a global hotfoot,” Stetson says.  Recognition of his work has come from the NAACP, Urban League,   Bahai, City Council, the Mayor’s Mary Singleton Award, Governor’s Heartland Award, Florida Artists Hall of Fame, and, from Jacksonville’s sister city, Nantes, the Jules Verne Medal, among others. http://www.stetsonkennedy.com/

3. Henri Landwirth – Holocaust survivor, immigrant, retired hotelier, and humanitarian — has experienced the very worst and the very best life has to offer.  After decades of silence, Henri is sharing the story of his Holocaust experience with others.  His remarkable forgiveness of those responsible for the loss of family members and years of unbelievable hardship, coupled with his extraordinary acts of kindness and service to others, creates a powerful example for others to follow.  His experience demonstrates the ability of the individual to choose the direction of one’s life and, with determination and hard work, to overcome personal challenges and adversity.  Henri’s example inspires others to live in harmony with one another.  Why now, in his 80th year, is Henri undertaking this difficult and challenging task?  His reasons are disturbing.  Hate group membership and activity are on the rise.  Violence in schools and on the streets is increasing, both in America and abroad.  Acts of discrimination and hatred are reported almost daily.  And although the world promised long ago that the Holocaust would “never again” occur, genocide is ongoing. These problems diminish our lives as human beings; they compel Henri to stand up and speak out.

4. John X. Linnehan: On October 14, 1983, at 6 AM, Martina, my life-partner, I and another member of the Immanuel House Peace Community strung a 60 ft. cable across the entryway to the General Electric Neutron Devices Plant in Largo, Florida.  This GE plant was producing the triggers for nuclear bombs. Over the cable we draped a large banner that read, “In God’s Name, No Bombs Today.”  We were arrested, went to trial and served five months in jail. This was the first civil disobedience action against nuclear weapons in Florida.  This nonviolent direct action projected us into the peace movement in Florida.  In 1986, we founded the Metanoia Peace Community at St. Marys, Georgia, the location of the Kings Bay Trident Submarine Base. For ten years we organized demonstrations there as an “alternative voice” to the madness of nuclear weapons. Each of the 14 Trident subs has the potential to vaporize 192 cities of over 100,000 population and to endanger Planet Earth itself.  Hundreds of citizens gave witness to their concerns in acts of civil disobedience during our 10 years there.  Metanoia is a Greek word that means to change one’s life and go in a new direction. I am convinced that this is what is needed today if indeed the human species is to have a tomorrow. I now consider my peace efforts in a larger perspective. We, humans are not just warring among ourselves; we are, as a species, warring against our natural world. We must change and find a new way (metanoia). That is our most urgent challenge.    

5.  Peg McIntire is a life-long peace activist with a strong background in the labor movement. She lives in St. Augustine and is widely known for her activism for social causes.  (She writes in the first person) …. I come to the Council of Elders Luncheon at the age of 97 years. Is that too much?  … Only if I stop thinking, stop caring, stop acting.  Those three things keep me going and I hope they keep me useful. Those three things are the guiding principles of my life.   First, to think and to identify what is good and what is necessary, and conversely, what is bad and what is harmful -- not to myself, but to society, and to the planet.  Once the issue is identified, and I care enough to want to do something about it, I go for it.  Actions speak louder than words.   I act alone, or with others.  I think my first “action” was campaigning for Al Smith back in the late 20’s.  Vassar College provided an open forum.   I learned how to organize, to speak out, to write publicity releases, petitions, etc.  Since then I’ve taken on a number of causes: to stop the war in Vietnam, to stop Star Wars, to oppose the war in Iraq, to build a Farmer's Union for sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the deep south, to elect a third party presidential candidate, to organize a cooperative Credit Union, to strengthen the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, to nurture Grandparents for Peace, to close the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, to help the homeless, and more. I believe every person should think, care, and act toward the betterment of others.  Cooperating with and in solidarity with others, we CAN and we DO make a difference.

6.  Lloyd Pearson is a native of Jacksonville, graduate of Edward Waters College, husband to Mildred Odessa, father of 6 children, 17 grandchildren, and 27 great grandchildren. He worked in the postal system for 35 years before retiring and has served in numerous church leadership capacities. Lloyd comes out of a strong background in the Civil Rights struggle and the Jacksonville NAACP, where for many years he chaired that organization’s voter registration drive in a community where blacks were for all practical purposes denied access to the political process till the mid 1960s. He led the voter registration of some 65,000 African Americans in our community, and personally registered over 35,000 of those persons. He participated in many NACCP civil rights marches and was a community leader in the struggle to overcome the adversity of a segregated society.  Lloyd walked in many picket lines in front of many institutions as he sought in solidarity with others to get rid of discriminatory employment practices in established Jacksonville businesses. He was also a key player in the struggle to integrate Jacksonville’s schools in wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision. In assessing the significance of his life, he underscores the critical need to inform public opinion and sees that as critical to the life of our American Democracy. He challenges the contemporary African American community to understand the true value of the ballot as the best means to social empowerment and the advance-ment of our collective interests, and to educate one another regarding our constitutional right to practice our civil liberties and engage the political process wherever and whenever there is need to speak out against social injustice.

7. Robert (Bob) Ragland (MD) is something of a "voice in the wilderness" of humanity, and a provocateur of social consciousness.  By profession, he is a retired pediatrician and child psychiatrist, for the past 35 years has been deeply committed to restoring humanity’s relationship with the Earth. In the late 1950s, he inherited “Grandma’s Farm,” as he calls it, on the Westside of Jacksonville, and soon became embroiled in a struggle to keep the Duval County from locating a High School on a portion of that land. He eventually lost the battle to divert the construction of a major interstate highway (I-295) that eventually spit "Grandma's Farm" right down the middle.  That was the catalyst that led to a new direction in his life, setting the stage for his deep commitment and driving passion for preservation of the earth and its ecosystems. He has spent his years since then promoting education around issues of environmental sustainability. Dr. Ragland has fought many a battle in his efforts to advance the values the holds so dearly, whether it is environmental justice, social justice, or world peace. One struggle in particular was deeply personal and would have a lasting mark on his legacy.  He came to terms with his homosexuality late in life, and continues to speak much from the pain and anguish of that experience of being "different." That has contributed much to his passion in promoting understanding through dialogue, and appreciation of difference. He is currently publishing his Autobiography, Genesis of a Rebel.