BULLETIN - Serbian Unity Congress

FROM THE PRESIDENT
From the President
September 2007
Dear Members and Friends –
A great deal of time has passed since our
last bulletin. Since I consider communications
to members to be very important, I sincerely
apologize to all our members for the
delay. Nonetheless, our Web site has been
kept up to date and you can easily track our
activities there.
In late June we completed our 3rd Serbian
Day on Capitol Hill and filled the beautiful
Caucus Room in the Cannon Office Building
of the House of Representatives with our
event participants and guests. Serbian Unity
Congress members from 14 states attended
the luncheon and evening Vespers and Memorial
service. Five Congressmen attended
-- Melissa Bean, Dan Burton, Rahm Emanuel,
Peter Roskam, Jim McDermot -- along with
representatives of the State Department,
the Serbian Embassy, and Armenian and
Greek organizations. Metropolitan Mitrofan
also attended and gave the blessing.
At the start of our luncheon, we had the
bittersweet occasion to introduce Tina Hone,
who originally conceived our Day on the Hill.
Tina was in fresh mourning for her beloved
aunt, Desa Tomasevic Wakeman, to whom
she paid tribute. Desa was a shining light in
the Serbian community and a founder and
long-term supporter of the Serbian Unity
Congress. She will be missed. We are carrying
Tina’s remarks as obituary for Desa in
this issue.
Author Gregory Freeman spoke briefly
about his forthcoming book, The Forgotten
500: The Untold Story of the Men Who
Risked All for the Greatest Rescue of World
War II. Freeman said that the lunch was the
first time he had been in a room full of people
who knew so much about the story of our
heroes in World War II. Our member, George
Vujnovic, one of the heroes in the book, traveled
from New York for our event. We were
honored and happy to see him.
We recognized the remarkable achievement
of Xenia Lynn Teresa Wilkins [see our
prior bulletin] and had her present to Congresswoman
Melissa Bean the some 57,000
signatures on the Internet petition that she
organized to Save Kosovo. Also, thanks to
our Chicago and Detroit chapters, on June
27 we distributed about 600 letters to their
Congressmen in support of House Resolution
445, which calls for negotiations for a
mutually agreed solution in Kosovo. Each of
us must send a letter to our Representative
urging him or her to support H.R. 445.
Our eloquent keynote speakers were
Alex Machaskee, Chairman of the International
Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC),
and Major General Gregory Wayt of the Ohio
National Guard. Alex spoke movingly about
the scope and importance of the IOCC. He
also spoke about the need for Serbia to
modernize its laws and institutions and to
crack down on graft and corruption in order
to be able to attract investment and see its
economy grow. General Wayt told us about
the organization, size and mission of the
Ohio National Guard and about its successful
ongoing partnership program with the
Serbian military.
There is more information about the
event both in this issue of our bulletin and
on our Web site: www.serbianunity.net
Soon after Vidovdan, I traveled to Serbia.
Along with board members Dushan Bilbija
and Nenad Vukicevic and the BLAGO team,
we visited Kosovo and Metohija with. My essay
on aspects of the trip also appears in
this issue of our bulletin.
At its meeting on August 25, 2007,
based on input from a committee that had
been tasked to study the structure of our organization,
the Board adopted a number of
Bylaw amendments. The Bylaws, as amended
are posted on our Web site. In addition,
you will soon be receiving a letter pointing
out highlights of these amendments and the
reasoning behind them.
Finally, our 17th Convention will be held
on October 26-28, 2007 in San Francisco.
On Saturday, October 27, the Honorable
Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Republika
Srpska, will be our keynote speaker and the
entertainment will be the famous Serbian
pop-rock group, Bajaga i Instruktori. See
you there!
Sincerely,
Jasmina Theodore Boulanger
President
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you have a story to share or a comment
on a recent article in our bulletin
or the web site, please send it to the editor@serbianunity.net.
It will be reviewed
by our editorial staff and printed in the
bulletin or our web site if appropriate.
Activism Works!
During the past few months we have
sent a number of alerts. We achieved
some results.
A Serbian Unity Congress activist
called the office of Congressman Jim
McDermott (D-WA 7th District). As a
result of this call, Congressman Mc-
Dermott chose to attend the Serbian
American Day on the Hill lunch, where
Congresswoman (and Serbian Caucus
Co-Chair) Melissa Bean spoke about
her upcoming Congressional Delegation
(CODEL) to Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.
Congressman McDermott signed
up for the CODEL.
Another Serbian Unity Congress activist
met with the office of Congressman
Charles Gonzalez (D-TX 20th District).
Congressman Gonzalez subsequently
called Congresswoman Bean’s office
to cosponsor the H.RES.445.
Zoran Golubovic, President of the Illinois
Chapter and Vice President of
the SUC, organized an effort to collect
signatures of support for H.RES.445.
People from the local church began
faxing letters to the SUC office, where
they were sorted and sent to area Congressional
Representatives. Over 500
letters have been sent, and as a result,
the SUC office has been able to schedule
a number of meetings with offices
of potential new Serbian Caucus members.
Call your Congressman,
meet with them (or their
legislative aide)... Activism
works !
2 www.serbianunity.net
Serbian Unity Congress Newsletter, No. 282, Summer 2007