Autobiography - The Galindo Group

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Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 216 HOME (Chapter 4), my daughter Lis was a key factor in helping him accomplish his goal. Despite my initial misgivings, Ricky delivered on all the expectations we had for him and he now makes me a proud father-in-law. He is more living proof that in America, even today, those who want to can still lift themselves to unprecedented heights. While speaking of self-help, I feel compelled to share the story of Raul Veliz. During one of my trips to Cochabamba to see my parents in the early 1990s, my sister Toqui introduced me to a nun from the Midwest, Sister Frances Kerjes, who worked there as a missionary for the blind. She was affiliated with the U.S. Maryknoll Catholic Mission Society. I saw an opportunity to restore some dignity to these handicapped people by directly supporting her efforts to help them. Through her I met Raul Veliz, a Catholic priest who was blind himself. At age 19 Raul had a basketball accident as a consequence of which he totally and permanently lost his eyesight. Instead of falling into despair and misery, he studied to be a priest motivated by his desire to help other similarly affected people. When I met him he was running an institute for the advancement of blind people that he had founded. Inspired by his courage and leadership and confident of the nun’s help with fiscal management, I sent him funds to seed some of his many projects. My wife Susan and I also convinced other compassionate people, including my generous friend Phil Adams, to complement our donations. Over the years we funded electronic musical equipment for a band that had been organized by four blind teenagers. They played at parties and made some money in the process. We helped enlarge their Braille library to teach reading. We provided the investment to set up a bakery that employed a few partially blind people and baked enough bread for several other charitable organizations, and also for sale. This revenue helped Father Raul buy other supplies for his own institute. No doubt Father Raul was a dynamic leader, and as such he attracted many admirers. A young lady who worked at his office fell in love with him and wound up expecting his child. At this news the Catholic bishop of the area defrocked and unceremoniously removed him from his own institute, which had been chartered under the church’s authority. Raul wrote me explaining that he wanted to continue serving the blind but that he would not bring a new life to the world and then abandon it. He loved the mother and the child very much and he saw no conflict between this love and his work. I agreed. In response, Susan and I announced that we would continue helping him with his work. Raul’s new business plan was to set up an artisan’s shop where vision-impaired people could weave wicker baskets, make brushes, brooms and other similar products. At this point, the Cochabamba Diocese secretary called me to suggest that I send him the money instead. I point blank denied his request. However, I had already made arrangements to remit the money through the Maryknoll Catholic Mission to Bolivia, who assured me that the full remittance would be handed over to the former father Veliz and that it could still be classified as a deductible charitable contribution under the IRS code. Autobiography.doc 216 of 239
Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 217 My brother Chris took the money with him during a trip he made to Bolivia and my sister Toqui delivered it to the Maryknoll office in Cochabamba. She was told that the priest who had offered this help was out of town and that they couldn’t take the donation. Disappointed by the clerics’ duplicity, she gave the money directly to Raul. In my opinion his work and life’s example is to be admired and supported, rather than punished. He not only gave dignity to himself and his new family, but to many other vision-deprived persons as well. He is the archetypical underprivileged entrepreneur who bootstrapped himself to a better life, and although not able to see light, lights the paths for others to achieve happier futures. His example is totally uplifting, and in the view of most observers it is not his reputation that was diminished, but that of the Catholic Church. As I so often have found in my experience with Catholic Church prelates, Raul could have hidden his love affair and accepted his son as his “nephew.” Without much doubt he would have been allowed to keep his job. He rejected this hypocrisy and I supported him. --- 053--- TAX FAVORITISM In moving from light to darkness one has to go through an area of semi-light, or semidarkness. Similarly, the transition from one clearly defined position to another is always an area of confusion and poor visibility. Separating true compassion and solidarity from pseudo-charity and disguised greed is not easy. By granting favorable tax treatments for certain activities, politicians have attempted to encourage the very desirable virtue of sharing one’s possessions with those in need. Unfortunately, the use of tax exemptions has grown well past the point for which, in my recollection, it was originally created. I believe studying its current abuses would be a good first step to return to its original purpose. As it can be gleaned throughout this book, my posture about public policy to enable individuals to pursue happiness is the encouragement of self-reliance, not its curtailment. This position does not ignore the fact that often in life, at one point or another, we all need help. I am a great believer in directly helping people who want to help themselves and I believe that the government’s take, through taxation, of part of a person’s production or assets is, in general, not the best public policy. One problem with tax exemptions is that neither taxes nor exemptions are applied uniformly. Certain privileged persons manage to escape taxes for one reason or another and others are not taxed at all. Regardless of how impersonal and impartial the rules for tax exemption are written, by the mere fact that they exist, they are likely to create inequities and Autobiography.doc 217 of 239
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Autobiography - The Galindo Group

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