Speakers for August

  Our Sunday services at 11:00 a.m. feature a different guest speaker each week, either a member of our congregation or someone from the surrounding community. We address a variety of topics, from literature and history to politics, religious thought and social issues. We welcome suggestions for speakers, please contact Donna Orchard donnaforchard@gmail.com

 August 6 

Speaker: Debbie Jessup
Title:  Anti-Miscegenation Laws: A Tragedy and a Disgrace
Summary: Anti-miscegenation laws existed in almost every state from their birth in colonial times through their height following deconstruction, until the mid-nineteenth century. They exacerbated racism and influenced attitudes that changed only gradually, even to this day. Debbie Jessup will trace this history, adding opinions of her own and soliciting opinions from the audience. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Debbie taught at the college level before changing careers to become a practical science writer, first at Foster Associates and then at the Bureau of National
Affairs, both in Washington, DC. She and her husband, John, live in Daphne and are members of our UU Fellowship.
Introduction: Thelma Topper

August 20

Speaker:  Gloria Corona
Title: After the Music Stops
Summary: Gloria Corona’s late former husband, Captain Ben Ringsdorf, endured several years of imprisonment and torture during the Vietnam War, and those trials took an immense toll on him, Gloria and their family. While he was greeted at home with a hero’s welcome, their patriarch soon found himself debilitated by alcoholism and haunted by past memories and paranoia—signs of the not-yet-diagnosed PTSD. Ms. Corona, a proud Alabama native who loves her country and knows the horrors of war firsthand, hopes her book, After the Music Stops, will enlighten others about what American fighting men, women and their families go through. Gloria lives on the shores of Mobile Bay with her husband, Barry, and her dog, Tommy.
Introduction: Mary Renfro

August 13

Speaker: Cari Searcy
Title: Marriage Equality
Summary: After being denied access to her hospitalized infant son, Cari Searcy and her wife, Kim, have spent just under a decade battling for her to legally become his mother. Her contention is that while the nation has moved rapidly toward marriage equality for all, Alabama harks back to the civil rights era with its intolerant resistance to progress. Recently, Ms. Searcy has been the subject of a film by Frameline Studios, Alabama Bound, which debuted at the Victoria Theater in San Francisco. With a mission to advance full equality for LGBTQ Alabamians through education, advocacy, and collaboration, she is an organizer of Equality Alabama. She is also the founder and director
of All Good Creatives.
Introduction: Ray Ables


August 27

Speaker: Donna Orchard
Title: The Deconstruction of the Administrative Biography
Summary: During the 20th century, the very grounds of biography shifted: biography democratized. Biography’s central justification had been rooted in the “great man” view of history—that knowledge of the life illuminated great achievement—but in our time the “great man” idea was rejected in favor of the notion that circumstances, not individual attributes, produce the great individual. Richard A. Pride, in The Confession of Dorothy Danner, gives voice to a complex, strong Southern woman in the early part of the 20th Century. He leaves his readers, after an encounter with Dorothy and nature, to do as they will. Donna Orchard is a former public school administrator turned writer who works out of her home office in Robertsdale. Her work as an advocate for children has taken her into county facilities and juvenile halls. Her books include The Roughneck Series: Roughneck Daddy, Roughneck: A Daughter’s Story, Behind the Schoolhouse Door and a recently finished children’s book, Nanners for Nana. Donna visited the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship as a presenter about two years ago and never left!
Introduction: Bill Orchard