Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Peter Camejo Memorial This Sunday, 2 PM!

Peter Camejo Memorial: Sunday, November 23,
2 PM at International House (I-House), Berkeley


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Please Forward Widely!

The Memorial is less than a week away. Help us get the word out to all who might like to attend.

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International House (I-House): Directions and Parking

International House (I-House) is at the top of the UC Berkeley campus, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, California, 94720-2320. Please leave ample time to park and get to the Memorial, as we will be starting on time. We have a full program.

International House at UC Berkeley

International House Parking and Directions page

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Doors will open at 1:30

We will have tables at the rear, with slide shows of photographs of Peter, books and pamphlets Peter has written, and clips of interviews and speeches by Peter. The program is scheduled from 2 pm to 5 pm.

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Program

Speakers from a wide range of Peter's life and activity will share their memories. The program follows a chronological route. There will be a welcome from Peter's wife, Morella, and family. Then his brother Tony will speak about his early family and Berkeley years, followed by Gus Horowitz, speaking on Peter's Socialist Workers Party years.

There will be a number of speakers from the 70s through the 90s, when Peter founded North Star, and then Progressive Asset Management, worked on environmental issues, worked with Dr. Agha Saeed, from the American Muslim Alliance, who will speak, and worked on issues concerning Brazil and Venezuela.

Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez will speak about his later years in the electoral arena, as will some of Peter's co-candidates, including Donna Warren. His work with the Immigrant Rights movement, the May 1 demonstrations and the Santos Reyes case will be highlighted by Alicia Mendoza and Nativo Lopez. Barbara Becnel of the Stan Tookie Williams Legacy Network will speak, and the program will end with Leslie Evans, speaking on Peter's autobiography, that he finished just before his death.

There will then be an open mike. We have asked Jo Chamberlain, who worked with Peter in his campaigns in the Green Party, and Barry Sheppard, who knew Peter for fifty years, to start off the open mike portion. We have asked others also to share their reminiscences on the open mike, that we would like to have had on the program, but it is very long as it is. Peter knew, influenced and inspired so many.

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After Memorial Socializing

Friends of Peter have organized a get-together for after the Memorial. The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists have made their facilty open to us. The address is 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita Avenue), Berkeley. There will be modest refreshments. Additions welcome.

BFUU directions

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Messages and Reminiscences: Please use the Blog

Some messages have been sent to us. There will be an opportunity for those attending to write brief reminiscences also. For those who have not sent their memories of Peter, and who will not be attending the Memorial, we encourage you to use the blog to leave comments and messages. Those can reach us all in real time. As time permits, some may be read at the Memorial.

Messages can be left there as 'comments' to this message, which will be posted on the blog. The blog also has interviews with Peter from YouTube, and earlier comments from friends (primarily as comments to the very first message - scroll down to find them).

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Willing to help?

Those willing to help with the arrangements on the day of the Memorial, please contact Claudette or Alex at the phone number or email below, and plan on being at the Memorial at 1:00 PM.

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Peter's autobiography/ DVD of the Memorial

If you'd like to be informed of the publication of Peter's autobiography or would like to find out how to receive a DVD of the Memorial, there is a link at the bottom of this email to be added to the Peter Camejo Memorial list, or you can send a request to achis@igc.org.

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Claudette Bégin & Alex Chis
P.O. Box 2944
Fremont, CA 94536
510-489-8554
achis@igc.org

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Peter Camejo Memorial

Peter's Memorial will be on Sunday, November 23, 2:00 PM at International House in Berkeley, CA.

International House (I-House) is at the top of the UC Berkeley campus, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, California, 94720-2320. We are including a link to the I-House website, and later messages will have further details, including parking and directions. We just wanted to get the confirmed date, time and place out quickly for those of you making travel plans.

International House at UC Berkeley

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Ralph Nader will be speaking at the Memorial.

Also other friends of Peter from different aspects of his life. Details to follow.

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Socializing

A number of people have asked us about the possibilities of socializing after the memorial. We have to be out of I-House by 5 PM. We are looking into finding a place where people who wanted to could gather afterwards.

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We are still asking for photos of Peter

We haven't received any photos yet!

As part of the memorial meeting we are soliciting two things: photographs of Peter and hard-copy reminiscences (brief is fine!) to be put in a memory book for the family, which will also be available at the memorial and eventually perhaps be put online. Physical photographs will be scanned and returned.

Both the photographs and the reminiscences should be sent to Peter's brother Dan Ratner at

Dan Ratner
1350 Broadstone Pkwy
Apt 4413
Folsom, CA 95630

If you have high quality scans of photos, you can send them to Dan at

dr_public@lovetohack.org

If you'd be willing to have these photos appear on the blog, please also send them to

achis@igc.org

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Please visit the blog

Where we have links to interviews with Peter and the picture of the Abdul Ghaffar Khan Peace Award he just won.

The blog also has all the previous messages we sent out, as well as many comments from friends of Peter.

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Claudette Bégin & Alex Chis
P.O. Box 2944
Fremont, CA 94536
510-489-8554
achis@igc.org

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Peter Camejo Memorial Meeting (and more)

October 5, 2008

Dear Friends,

This message has four parts:

1. Peter Camejo’s Memorial

2. The blog, ongoing new information

3. Brief report of an award Peter won

4. Communication details

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1. Peter’s Memorial Meeting

The Memorial meeting for Peter will be held on Saturday or Sunday, November 22 or 23, in the afternoon, in Berkeley or Oakland. We hope to have final details by the end of the week, but there have been some complications in reserving a location. However the weekend of Nov. 22-23 is definite, for those of you wanting to make travel plans.

As part of the memorial meeting we are soliciting two things: photographs of Peter, especially earlier ones, and hard-copy reminiscences to be put in a memory book, which will eventually be put online. Physical photographs will be scanned and returned. Both the photographs and the reminiscences should be sent to Peter's brother Dan Ratner at

Dan Ratner
1350 Broadstone Pkwy
Apt 4413
Folsom, CA 95630

If you have high quality scans of photos, you can send them to Dan at

dr_public@lovetohack.org

If you'd be willing to have these photos appear on the blog, please also send them to

achis@igc.org


2. Blog

This is just to remind everyone that the blog

http://petercamejoupdates.blogspot.com/

is still active. All messages about the memorial will also appear on the blog. In addition we have been adding interviews and speeches of Peter's in YouTube and mp3 format. There are now six YouTube clips, from three minutes to twenty minutes each. These range from his campaign for governor to his August 2008 speech at the Peace & Freedom party convention. There is also an mp3 clip of a 1976 interview with Peter and I hope to have a link to a 1967 speech of his at Sproul plaza up soon. If we get pictures of Peter, we will try to add those too.


3. Award

On September 27 the Pakistan American Democratic Forum presented Peter the Abdul Ghaffar Khan Peace Award. Dr. Agha Saeed presented the award, which was accepted on Peter's behalf by Jo Chamberlain. There will be a picture of the award up on the blog soon.


4. Communication details

Due to the large number of people wanting to be informed of memorial plans, we have had to go to a list format. Our internet service provider shut our account down for a few hours when we sent out the last message, so that we had to try sending from the web, with the result that many people got the message very late and some perhaps not at all. However this is not a discussion list, but only an announcement list, whose only purpose is to inform people who are interested of the plans for Peter's memorial and information about the publication of his memoirs, when that is available.

This list consists of names we had that we knew would be interested, names Peter gave us when we started the blog, and names of people who have written in. If for some reason you have received this message and don't want to be on the notification list, please write to

achis@igc.org

and you will be removed.

Also if you have received this message as a forward from a friend, and would like to be added to the list yourself, just write to the same address and you will be added.

Please do forward this message to those who you feel would be interested. Over the years Peter has touched many people, and we have the names of very few of them.

Thank you,

Alex Chis & Claudette Begin
P.O. Box 2944                           
Fremont, CA 94536-0944                      
Phone: 510-489-8554                            
Email: achis@igc.org       

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Peter Camejo died this morning, September 13, 2008.

Dear Friends,

We are very sorry to bring the following message from Peter's family to you.

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9/13/2008


It is with great sadness and regret that we have to inform you that Peter Camejo died this morning. Peter decided that he would be more comfortable at home, and the doctors agreed. Arrangements were made, and ultimately Peter returned home yesterday. Peter’s health had declined rapidly over the last two days due to the aggressiveness of his cancer and the strength of the drugs used to combat his disease. His wife was at his side when he passed peacefully this morning.

Peter is survived by his wife Morella, his daughter Alexandra, his son Victor, three brothers Antonio, Daniel, and Danny, and three grandchildren Andrew and Daniel and Oliver.

Arrangements and memorial services will be announced at a later date. As a courtesy, the family requests that there be no calls at this time.


The Camejo Family

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The family is planning private funeral services. A public memorial will be held in late fall or winter. Peter had discussed plans for his memorial with Claudette Begin and asked her to organize it. She will obviously need to be in contact with the many people he has been in touch with and affected over the years, and will welcome your help. She can be reached at achis@igc.org

People are invited to send hard copy reminiscences of Peter to be included at the memorial. Please send these to his brother Dan Ratner, The Camejo Group, 520 Third St., Ste. 201, Oakland, CA 94607-3505.

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Claudette Begin & Alex Chis
P.O. Box 2944
Fremont, CA 94536-0944
Phone: 510-489-8554
Email: achis@igc.org
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Update on Peter Camejo, September 9, 2008

Hi All,

This is just a quick update on Peter, beginning with a statement Peter's family just sent us:

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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

A Statement from the Camejo Family

Peter Camejo is currently undergoing treatment at UC Davis Medical Center for a re-occurrence of his lymphoma. He has already received a dose of aggressive chemotherapy and is recovering. Peter is in good spirits and is actively involved with his treatment. He has made no plans for his treatment to end nor have the doctors indicated a desire to withdraw care.

Peter and his family appreciate all the well wishes and letters that he has received. However, Peter’s family urges the public to respect their privacy during this difficult time.

If you need additional information please contact:

Catherine Cartier or
Daniel Ratner
Camejo Group
510-587-0800

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Some friends have written us hoping for more information on the blog. We have deliberately not posted "progress report" type messages. Cancer treatment is a process, and there are ups and downs. And although it may be hard to believe for many of us, even Peter has up and down days. However, he is still the fighter he has always been.

Also just a reminder that the blog

http://petercamejoupdates.blogspot.com/

is the best place to leave messages of support for Peter. We recently posted a YouTube video on the blog of Peter speaking last month at the Peace & Freedom Party Convention in Sacramento, CA (August 2, 2008) as part of the successful effort to get the P&F Party to nominate Ralph Nader. Ralph will now be on the ballot in California.

Many other friends have left messages on the blog, and some have also given links to videos of older speeches of Peter's.

Claudette Bégin and Alex Chis

Monday, May 26, 2008

Peter Camejo Update 1

Dear friends,

Peter Camejo has lymphoma cancer for a second time. He successfully fought it back once and he is aggressively pursuing available medical treatments, chemo and even stem cells. These treatments could give him one or more extra years. His attitude is to go forward with his life as if the treatments will be successful. While he is undergoing treatment he is continuing with his work at his brokerage firm, which is undergoing an expansion. He is also working very hard on his memoirs to share his experiences, both personal and activist related.

Several of us would like to organize an event where we would honor Peter for his lifelong activism and learn about his upcoming book. He has been an inspiration to so many people.

I hope you can help us get the contact information of friends and comrades, whose lives Peter has touched over his years of activism, and who are now spread far and wide. We have set up a blog where people can read updates and write in

http://petercamejoupdates.blogspot.com/

Peter is upbeat and wants everyone to know that he appreciated all those who contacted him during his first battle with cancer and knows people care. Because Peter doesn't have the energy to respond to everyone, Alex and I have taken on the role of coordinating. He wants to focus on getting his book done because of the uncertainty of his conquering the cancer this second time, so he would prefer people not contact him directly, using instead the blog to post comments, or contacting us.

Claudette


Claudette Bégin
Alex Chis
P.O. Box 2944
Fremont, CA 94536
510-489-8554
achis@igc.org