Seattle Human Rights Network

Title: “Initiative 1000″
Monday, November 3, 2008
12:00 -12:50 p.m.
Room C5
Pizza will be provided.

The Criminal Justice Society invites students to join a discussion about the “Death with Dignity Act”- Initiative 1000. This initiative, on the November 4th ballot, will legalize physician assisted suicide in Washington State. Professor John Mitchell and members of the Criminal Justice Society will lead a discussion on this very controversial topic.

The event started with an open discussion of fears. Almost everyone had something to say on this topic 45 people skipped lunch to show up to this event. Here are some of the reoccurring issues:

1. Wages; do I have to keep 2 jobs can we work at an NPO and pay off loans?
2. Funding is unstable at NPO’s
3. The economic depression
4. Is federal loan forgiveness stable
5. Westlaw dependence.. I am trained to use it but not can not afford it in the NPO world.
6. Where do you get experience without turning to the dark side?
7. Am I gambling away my families security for a social justice career?
8. Abandoning my community, can I serve the poor community I came from if they can not pay?

It was amazing how many concerns students have. The next part of the disscussion forcused on why we have issues around money general:

In the 80’s the focus of pop culture moved away from portraying average people in favor of the rich.
Myth that money equal hard work.
Myths on meritocracy
Myths on Scarcity
An us v. them mentality - a war on poverty

Solution:

Fight for livable wages
Tithing give back support other orgs
Redefine needs (read more at EnoughEnough.org)
Find a balance between time and money donations
Redefining your entitlements and your standard of living

This event was run by Dean Spade.

Yesterday HRN organized a video presentation and discussion on the human rights abuses occurring at detention centers across the country. The presentation and discussion was lead by AJ McClure of OneAmerica (www.weareoneamerica.org) and immigration and international human rights attorney Karol Brown (www.globallawpartners.com).  

The event was held as part of Seattle University’s Social Justice Mondays and was based on OneAmerica’s Night of 1000 Conversations (http://nightof1000conversations.org/) designed to raise awareness of the Department of Homeland Security’s policies and practices that routinely violate basic human rights of people in this country, particularly immigrants. 

We began by watching a short video containing interviews with detainees and then broke off into a lively discussion of the problems with our immigration system and the reasons why allowing our government to strip immigrants of their basic rights is opening the door for similar treatment of citizens. Many people in the room were shocked by the standard wait time for obtaining an immigration visa. Attendees were similarly horrified that the people portrayed in the video could be robbed of their rights, treated terribly, and then sent back to nations they didn’t know for seemingly no reason.

At the end, we discussed ideas of what we could do to ensure that the government restores these basic human rights, including writing to our representatives (sample letters were provided), encouraging immigrants to naturalize, and organizing further group discussions on the topic. 

The following is an e-mail I received from regarding a screening tomorrow night of the film Call + Response.

I just found out about a “rockumentary” that is showing this week regarding human trafficking.  I thought I would pass the message on to you.  Perhaps your org members might be interested. 

Call + Response is a “rockumentary” by  Justin Dillon about the reality of human slavery today. It features a variety of leaders including luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West (theologian, philosopher, rap artist) and Gary Haugen (Former State Department Lawyer and head of International Justice Mission) among many others. The bands musicians include Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. 

Monday thru Thurs (nothing over this weekend).  For tickets and more info visit: http://www.callandresponse.com/tickets%5Fseattle.html.

Monday, October 13th, Brian Howe, a schoolmate and 3L, will be helping lead a group discussion after the 7 pm showing at the Metro Cinemas (U. District).  After the film we’ll go to Bilbao’s Spanish Tapas (literally next door) to a downstairs room for food, drinks and reflection.

You can contact Brian Howe for more info:

Brian Howe
3L, Seattle University
howeb (at) seattleu.edu

Soul of Justice will transport viewers through the inspiring life and work of Thelton Henderson, the first African American attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and one of the first African American
federal judges in the United States.

Wednesday, OCTOBER 15

Film Screening

4:30 p.m., Courtroom

Film Discussion and Welcome Reception
for the National Bar Association’s Wiley A. Branton Symposium

5:30 p.m., 2nd Floor Gallery

with Filmmaker Abby Ginzberg, Professor Hank McGee,
the National Bar Association’s Board of Governors
and Daniel Gandara, King County Bar Association President

A Social Justice Week event sponsored by Black Law Student Association, Latino/a Law Student Association, Office of Alumni Relations and Access to Justice Institute

Seattle University School of Law

SOCIAL JUSTICE WEEK IS COMING OCT 13-18

The 2008 Social Justice Week is brought to the law school through a coalition of individual students and student organizations working to initiate a new dialogue among all social justice visionaries who are fighting for a just and humane world. The week brings together students, faculty, staff and community members for a common goal: to explore and expand on social justice as an integral part of every legal education and career.

To participate:

1) Save the date for the events listed below. Unless otherwise noted, no RSVP is necessary.

2) Sign up for Professor Brownbags* on Social Justice Coalition’s TWEN page.

3) Sign up for the SU Day of Service at the table on C-Level.

This week is organized by the Social Justice Coalition and supported by the following organizations: SIRJ, APILSA, PILF, NLG, SJSJ, LSRJ, HRN, Outlaws, LLSA, BLSA, WLC, DR Board, ACS, and ABLS.

Questions? Email Riddhi at mukhopad <at> seattleu.edu or Dana at diederic <at> seattleu.edu.

MONDAY

12:00 to 1:00

SJW Kickoff

2nd Floor Gallery

6:00 to  7:30

Attorney General Candidates Debate

Piggott Auditorium

5:30 to 7:00

Alliance for Equal Justice Legal Aid Day

ACT Theater

——

TUESDAY

8:30 to 10:00

Breakfast with Dean Kellye Testy: “Social Justice at SU: Past, Present and Future”

2nd Floor Gallery

12:00 to 1:00

Professor Brownbags*

5:30 to 7:30

Introduction to Statewide Access to Justice Network

2nd Floor Gallery

—-

WEDNESDAY

12:00 to 1:00

Professor Brownbags*

12:00 to 1:00

DREAM Act Workshop

2nd Floor Gallery

4:00 pm (New time and location)

Abby Ginzberg: The Soul of Justice movie screening and panel discussion

Courtroom

Reception follows at 5:00 in the 2nd Floor Gallery

—-

THURSDAY

8:00 to 10:30

Restorative Justice In the Juvenile Justice System

Courtroom - RSVP only

12:00 to 1:00

Seattle Journal for Social Justice Author Reading

2nd Floor Gallery

12:00 to 1:00

Professor Brownbags *

4:00 to 6:00

Know Your Voting Rights: Poll Observer Training

Room 328

—–

FRIDAY

10:30 to 11:30

Public Interest Law Foundation Grant Recipient Panel

Room C-1

12:00 to 1:00

Professor Brownbags*

1:00 to 4:30

Public Policy Forum: Congress vs. the President

Room C-5

——

SATURDAY

SU DAY OF SERVICE

Sign up at table on C-Level

*Professor Brownbags

These discussions provide an opportunity to engage in meaningful, small group conversations with professors about social justice movements in all areas of the law. Participating professors include Professors Antiowak, Avila, Bowen, Brodoff, Chon, Delgado, Holland, Mahmud, O’Kelly, Pardo, Shapiro, Siegel, Slye, Spade, Stefancic, and more! Sign up for brownbags on the Social Justice Coalition TWEN page.

Juan Melendez, the 99th death row inmate to be released and exonerated, spoke last night at the Seattle University School of Law to a spellbound audience.

Mr. Melendez was convicted based on a police informant’s testimony, in spite of no physical evidence against him. Nearly two decades later, he was exonerated after a taped confession was found in his trial defense lawyer’s office, with corroborating documents, and proof that that prosecutor had access to evidence about the real killer before Mr. Melendez’s trial.

He recounted 18 years in Florida State Prison, where he watched many of his friends, fellow death row inmates, commit suicide, be executed, or die due to lack of medical attention.  He shared a message of the humanity, recounting how many of his fellow inmates helped him turn his life around by teaching him to read, write, and speak English.  He also spoke of the importance of faith and family in surviving his ordeal.

Mr. Melendez closed his speech by calling for the crowd to become active in the movement to abolish the death penalty.  Without the attention and action of all of us, he said, this change will never occur.

Also speaking at the event was Jeff Ellis, president of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. who stated that Mr. Melendez’s case was one of many that illustrate that our country’s “experiment” with the death penalty has grave consequences.

One of my personal favorite speakers is coming to Seattle Dr. Cornell West. Dr. West is an amazing philosopher, critic and scholar.  He is coming to town for a fund raiser for the Social Justice Fund a local foundation that provides funding to Northwest organizations to strengthen grassroots efforts in the broad-based movement for progressive, systemic social change.

This is a fund raising event so the tickets are expensive at $125 a person but tax deductible and for a good cause. I will let you know if he is doing any more financially accessible events.

Professor Sumi Cho

DePaul University

“Critical Race Resistance in the ‘Post-Racial’ Era”

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

12-1:30 p.m., Justice Fred H. Dore Courtroom

Sullivan Hall, Seattle University School of Law
Professor Sumi Cho employs a critical race feminist approach to her work on affirmative action, sexual harassment, legal history, and civil rights. She speaks nationally on these issues, as well as racial profiling, multiracial politics and coalitions, and remedial theories.  She was the principal investigator for a Civil Liberties Public Education Fund grant on the first coordinated legal research on Japanese American interment, redress, and reparations.  In addition to a J.D., Professor Cho holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.  She serves on several boards, including the African American Policy Forum, the Asian American Institute, and LatCrit. The AALS Minority Groups section honored her with the first Junior Faculty Award. Professor Cho has served as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and University of Iowa law schools.  She has been published in the University of California at Davis Law Review; the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law; the University of Iowa’s Journal of Gender, Race and Justice; and both the Law Review and Third World Law Journal of Boston College. Professor Cho’s recent publications include: From Massive to Passive to Righteous Resistance: Understanding the Culture Wars from Brown to Grutter,   7 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 809 (2005); and Understanding White Women’s Ambivalence Towards Affirmative Action: Theorizing Political Accountability in Coalitions, 71 UMKC L. Rev. 399 (2002);

Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 7:20 p.m.
Location : Seattle University Law, Sullivan Hall, Room 109
Cost: FREE
Reception to follow 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

This event is co-sponsored by:
ACLU, Seattle University chapter
National Lawyers Guild, Seattle University chapter
Seattle University Public Interest Law Foundation

Seattle University Human Rights Network