Social Justice

Phyllis Brown, 84, formerly of Cherry Hill, co-owner of the popular Paperback Forum Cherry Hill Books when the Cherry Hill Mall opened and through the early 1980s, died of emphysema Tuesday, May 25, at her home in Oakland, Calif. For the first 15 years of Ms. Brown's marriage to her ex-husband Stanley Pogran, she focused on raising a family. But they both had envisioned owning a little bookstore one day, their daughter Lynn Kahn said. When the couple heard about Cherry Hill Mall's opening, they jumped at the chance to open a bookstore there.

Perhaps, by sheer volume or the absence of merit, blogs that allow anyone to publish and cell phones that make photographers of us all ultimately will dull our reactions to the strife that surrounds us. But if that happens, don't blame Harvey Finkle. A documentary photographer whose black-and-white stills are extensively exhibited and published, Finkle records the struggles of individuals in need and the activists who rally on their behalf. At demonstrations where the cause was accessibility for the disabled, justice for the criminally accused, protection for workers, or respect for cultural difference, Finkle, now 75, has stood vigil for more than 30 years on Philadelphia's streets, training his lens on emotions that exceed words.

'WHERE is my vote?" screamed the protesters in the streets of Tehran. Bloodied opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made their disenfranchisement public and demanded that the world pay attention. And we did, using the magic of the Internet, logging on to Twitter and YouTube, and sharing, in real time, the agony of the Iranian people. We watched, horrified, as one young woman was murdered by government thugs and we witnessed the beatings of countless others. Votes are precious currency.

"Maya Angelou makes me cry," the filmmaker Jonathan Demme said of the poet and co-recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, bestowed at a Kimmel Center gala last night. "And Norman Lear makes me crack up," Demme noted of Angelou's co-honoree, the TV pioneer and social activist. The event was star-studded and politically connected. Harry Belafonte, the first recipient of the award given in the name of the Philadelphia contralto who used her art in the service of social justice, sat for dinner with Demme and Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Norman Lear, once and future king of television, manfully struggles with the remote. The new flat screen is not working, and he wants to share his latest production, "Born-Again American," an inspirational music video. Forget the uncontrollable remote. Nothing flaps the jaunty Lear, 86. His step is bouncy. His smile is wider even than the 180-degree view from his office, an aerie over Wilshire Boulevard. One week after a historic election, the man in the porkpie hat is thrilled that Declare Yourself, his voter-registration initiative, processed 2.2 million first-time voters.

S. Gordon Elkins, 77, of Melrose Park, a lawyer, community activist, and advocate for civil liberties, died of frontotemporal dementia Wednesday at Sunrise of Abington. Mr. Elkins had a 40-year career with the law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young in Philadelphia. He retired as a partner and chairman of the firm's litigation department in 1998. "He was my mentor," said Stradley Ronon's chairman, William R. Sasso. Mr. Elkins hired Sasso, then a Harvard law student, for a summer clerk position in 1970.

James T. Ryan, of Lansdowne, 71, a labor educator and social justice activist, died of cancer Tuesday at home. For 26 years, Dr. Ryan was director of the Training and Upgrading Fund of District 1, Local 199C of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees, AFL-CIO. The fund was created in 1974 in a collective-bargaining agreement between the union and nine Philadelphia hospitals. Its purpose is to provide educational benefits to assist union members and the community to upgrade job skills and to keep pace with increasing technological demands.

Some words still echo where they were spoken. At Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., the echo is strong - that's where, 40 years ago today, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last speech. He was in Memphis for the sanitation workers' strike, but he was not meant to speak that night. Ralph Abernathy, whom King described as "the best friend that I have in the world," had begun to speak. But he recognized immediately that it was not his crowd and called for Martin. King was exhausted.

PLANNED Parenthood affiliates have prevented more abortions than many so-called "pro-life" organizations ever will. I repeat: Planned Parenthood and other family-planning organizations are leaders in preventing abortions - no matter how many restrictions the anti-abortion movement constructs against legal abortion, no matter how many times they march on Washington as they did yesterday, the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. It's family-planning services, plus honest, comprehensive information about sex, that prevents the unintended pregnancies that create the need for legal abortion.