Las Vegas - Serbian Unity Congress

CHAPTER NEWS
SAN DIEGO SERBS RECRUIT
CONGRESSMAN ISSA
With Darrell Issa: (left to right) Dr. Vojin Joksimovic, Ljiljana
Pantovich, Darrell Issa, Dr. Sam Mikolaski.
Two of Issa’s assistants were present including his District
Director.
A delegation of SUC members met
with Congressman Darrell Issa, California
Republican in the San Diego North County
to brief him on the Balkans and to invite
him to join the Serbian Caucus. The members
were Dr. Sam Mikolaski, past chapter
president and Issa’s constituent, Lilly Pantovich,
chapter president, and Dr. Vojin Joksimovich,
past SUC president. Two of Issa’s
assistants were present including his District
Director.
Darrell Issa, 50, was first elected to
Congress in 2000 and currently serves on
the House Government Reform Committee
where he is Chairman of the Subcommittee
on Energy and Resources. He is also a
member of the House International Committee
and House Judiciary Committee. .
He is best known in California as the architect
of a successful effort to recall former
governor Gray Davis in 2003.
Prior to election to the Congress,
Issa was a technology industry leader and
CEO. He founded Vista based Directed Electronics,
the industry-leading manufacturer
of automobile security and convenience
products. He had served as Chairman of the
Consumer Electronics Association, Director
of the San Diego Economic Development
Association and the Greater San Diego
County Chamber of Commerce. In 1994 received
the Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Issa is the grandson of immigrants and an
Orthodox Christian.
Sam offered introductory remarks
in which he pointed out that Serbs are loyal
Americans who believe in democracy and
market economy, but are concerned about
the welfare of the Serbian
people in particular those
living in Kosovo where
their human rights have
been violated daily for
almost six years. Lilly expanded
on the history and
work of the SUC and the
recently formed Serbian
Caucus. Congressman Issa
told us that he had already
decided to join the Caucus
and was looking forward
to working with congressmen
Dan Burton and Rahm
Emanuel.
Hence, the further discussion
was focused on
Kosovo. Vojin added the
concrete data on the present
situation and left some
materials with the congressman
including his Kosovo book. Issa
questioned why Kosovo independence was
unacceptable to the Serbs. He was told that
Kosovo to the Serbs is equivalent to what
Jerusalem is for the Jews, Vatican to Roman
Catholics, Mecca to Muslims and Alamo to
Texans. Issa was of the opinion that our best
case was human rights violations. When
Vojin mentioned terrorism, he said that everybody
was using that argument. However,
it turned out that he was unaware of White
Al Qaeda existence in Kosovo and Bosnia.
Vojin recommended that Bodansky should
brief him.
Vojin Joksimovich
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEETS LAS VEGAS SERBS
On Sunday, March 27, 2005, several
BoD members traveled to Las Vegas, and
gave two-hour long presentation to about
100 Las Vegas Serbs in the St. Simeon Serbian
Orthodox Church. The BoD members
were met with great hospitality and interest,
and friendly discussion about presented issues
and ways for better collaboration lasted
long after the presentation was over.
We would like to express our gratitude
to Fr. Uros Todorovic, dr Aleksandar
Knezevic, president, and Veselin Jevtic,
vice-president of the Executive Board of St.
Simeon, and particularly to Marko Rucnov,
Zoran and Kristina Savicic, who help with
the organization of our visit. Also, we are
grateful to Prof. Michael Pravica, who recently
joined the faculty at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, for agreeng to help with
our Washington efforts.
Present in Las Vegas were Nenad
Vukicevic, President of SUC, and Vice Presidents:
Radmilo Bozinovic, Dusan Bilbija,
Vojin Joksimovic, Mirjana Samardzija, Ljiljana
Pantovic and Jasmina Vujic.
The presentations covered the following
topics:
US POLICY TOWARDS OUR HOLY
LAND OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
(Can we do anything about it? What SUC is
doing through its Washington-based office.
The Serbian Congressional Caucus is being
formed. You can contribute too by participating
in this meeting and find out how to
inform your representative.)
PRESERVATION AND PROMO-
TION OF OUR KOSOVO HERITAGE
(Special presentation about visit to Gracanica
and Visoki Decani)
HOMELAND COOPERATION
AND DIASPORA PARTICIPATION
(Are you of Serbian origin? Can you get a
citizenship?)
Having in mind that Nevada has
only 2 congressmen (Jim Gibbons, R-NV2,
and Jon C. Porter, R-NV3) and one congresswoman
(Shelley Berkley, D-NV1) we prepared
3 sets of packages that also included
the Census 2000 data for ethic groups from
former Yugoslavia for all three congressional
districts . For example, in Nevada Congressional
District 1 there are 54% Serbs, 35%
Croats and only 2% Albanians, while in Nevada
Congressional District 2 there are 65%
Serbs, 22% Croats and 2% Albanians.
Overall, the BoD members meetings
with local Serbian communities were
very successful in informing our members
and getting them involved in our projects.
We are planning to continue with this project
and invite our members in local communities
to organize similar events.
Destination
-Las Vegas-
Our annual convention
is to be held in Las Vegas,
Nov 11-13.
Mor information to follow.
8 www.serbianunity.net