Saturday, July 29, 2006
Ram Chavez out of GI Forum
Chavez was expelled last month after the national board found him guilty of removing members from the group who questioned spending three years ago. Chavez will appeal the decision but declined to discuss his game plan. He said, though, GI Forum records and documents will clear him in the end."The chapter voted for everything we did, so we can account for it, but we will do it within the American GI forum where it belongs." It's no secret that the two American GI forum chapters in Corpus Christi have been at odds and many hope the division will stop.See Nueces De La Parra, and previous posts - here and here.
5 Comments:
- At 10:51 AM, Ta1999 said...
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Sad how the GI forum, LULAC ect in this town allways have to fight.
" cant we just all get along " - At 1:33 PM, TolucaSi said...
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LULAC and the GI forum have stupid leaders, if you call them that. I don't even think they ar leaders, they're a bunch of wannabes like ohnonoyola!
Ohnonoyola!!
Hee....Haw....Hee....Haw.... - At 6:15 PM, Jaime Kenedeño said...
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In response to the Red State's Article Juan Garcia: The Making of a Medical School in the Coastal Bend
What about the National Archives / Hector P Garcia / GI Forum / Bright Street Clinic??
Nueces De La Parra: G I Forum Solution Suggestion
Juan, in order to snatch the HD #32 seat from the Sea Man you need the little people. Big magnificent visions of grandeur are great but here is an issue that is in your hands already. You sit on the board of the National Archives and you spoke of an audit?
Juan Garcia III said he hopes the financial review will rebuild trust in the beleaguered foundation. He said the results of the review would be made public.
Where are the results?
Now, for visions of grandeur meeting reality here in the Body of Christ and South Texas as a whole let's get to work on something YOU CAN do something about right now! Do you want to win?
Unity of Historical Districts within the Body of Christ. Al Gonzalez Center, Rene Rodriguez Youth Center, Mikal Watts Philanthropist and Power Broker, Donald Trump Critique of our Community in preparation for his turning the UN around (like Iacocca 180'd Dodge). Del Mar College, TAMUCC, Solomon Coles Center, Whataburger Field, The Harbor Bridge Foundation, The National GI Forum Archives and the Hector P Garcia Institute of Education, Integrity, Culture and Public Policy. The Ann Matilde Kenedy Fernandez School of Law with a Strong Arm Watchdog Student Body. We can put it together with a consolidated UNITY but the only way it will work is by the engagement of our youth and our family support system being injected with an active vigor. Conceptualize a Bill Gates installed community outreach system ( provide a whole South Texas with wireless Laptops) implementing the cutting edge transparency features while locating the meetings in the America Bank Center once a month or so. A Berkshire Hathaway mixed with a W R Grace Corporate digital roundtable for the meeting format so as to enable an engagement for the whole community of South Texas and not unlike the "emergency command center" sans the leaky city hall; coordinate our community outreach effort from the roundtable. We got a lot of things to accomplish like the Education and the engagement of our youth in sports participation, community improvement JOBS where they can earn. Make the money out there for all to see, just like on the TELETHON for everyone to watch the fluctuation with the effort they provide. Make the Contract Award Process and the Grant Process check and balance one another. Welcome the Jewish Community Center like where Brent Chesney is familiar and model a state of the art Summer Camp and Winter Camp and it can be done free of charge, to all. Like a YMCA / YWCA with swimming, tennis, golf, boxing, wrestling, dancing, nursery school, Science camps all with the coordination of fixing and restoring our Historical Communities, neglected, crime ridden, and impoverished communities. Everything for the most part is already there; we just need to put it together
There's more - At 9:49 PM, Jaime Kenedeño said...
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Who @ the Caller wrote this Editorial?
Unfinished business for Dr. Garcia's legacy
The Bright Street clinic is in better shape today, but it is a long way from becoming a living memorial to the late civil rights leader.
July 29, 2006
This week's well deserved recognition of the accomplishments of the late civil rights leader Dr. Hector P. Garcia was also a reminder of the unfinished business at the building that once housed the doctor's clinic.
The vacant clinic building is now in far better physical shape than it was a year ago, when its dilapidated condition signified by its overgrown, unkempt surroundings and vandal-scarred and neglected appearance, made it a shameful legacy for a noble and heroic career.
At one point the building was on the verge of being put on the auction block to pay off the mortgage debt to Garcia's widow.
Thanks to a $20,000 grant from the City of Corpus Christi, the building on Bright Street is now secured by fencing, its windows are boarded against vandals and its roof has been replaced.
The building has at least escaped the ignoble end of becoming a blight on the very neighborhood that Garcia so selflessly served.
What remains unfinished is turning to reality the ambitions of creating a living educational memorial to the late doctor.
Those hopes have revolved around a vision of a center where scholarly work on Dr. Garcia's papers could be done, where meeting places for conferences would be available and where the future generations could learn about the Garcia's fight on behalf of the poor and the victims of discrimination.
The chief vehicle for this has been the National Archives and Historical Foundation of the American GI Forum.
The Foundation has a line on a $250,000 grant and is looking for matching grants. But there's groundwork to be laid even before the first dollar is donated, and that's working on the transparency and accountability that the Foundation has long lacked.
The Foundation has in fact received thousands of dollars in the 10 years since Dr. Garcia died. None of that money has ever been accounted for, other than assurances from the Foundation chairman Amador Garcia, a cousin of the doctor, that it's been well-spent.
Almost a year ago, as the clinic building faced foreclosure, Garcia gave assurances to the Editorial Board that he would reach out to the community.
Shortly thereafter, an audit was promised; if that audit has ever been made public, we're unaware of it.
A year later the Foundation is still saying it needs input from community leaders.
To be fair, there has been some new blood on the board. Juan Garcia, a former Navy pilot who is no relation, has been added and is involved in the fundraising effort.
Accountability must be instilled before there will be the necessary trust for donors and the community at large to support the clinic vision. Absent accountability, the dream of a living memorial to a wonderful man will remain just that, a dream.
"when its dilapidated condition signified by its overgrown, unkempt surroundings and vandal-scarred and neglected appearance, made it a shameful legacy for a noble and heroic career." Jaime Kenedeno says:
If overgrown grass is a sign of dilapidation then it is still in the same dismal condition. JAG came out and had the grass mowed after the news focused it on the five o' clock news and by six it was being mowed. Transparency is a KEY issue here. Amador Garcia needs a lot of help as he was the one chosen by Dr Garcia to carry the torch. Amador is definitely deficient but this project now belongs to a whole South Texas due to the public influx of dollars. Let's get this thing going and implement it for our education and historical value. Quit griping and do something people! Let's get some proven leadership to help Amador Garcia. And to you Amador when somebody calls you up and offers a gallon of paint take it when they offer enough to paint the whole building accept it and call JAG to get the kids to help paint it. When somebody donates it is not to take away your thunder; it is to produce the lightning to go along with the thunder.
- At 10:17 PM, Jaime Kenedeño said...
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Juan Garcia: Here is a HD # 32 victory or defeat in a nutshell.
How you gonna act?
Get busy and show us some progress.
A lot can be accomplished before November.
Productivity with the center is productivity for YOU.
Here it is, I am handing your path to victory.
You can ignore it like you have everything else or you can go for it.
WATT have you got to lose?
Get busy and show us WATT Juan Garcia can do!
Flying around the district and uploadable IPOD videos will not bring victory.
Give us some video of the Clinic being restored give us some plans for the National Archives to start taking a lead in the historical Culrural and Public Policy Areas of our Educational Architecture.
Come on start making productive accomplishments right here right now.
We all win if this materializes.
In a final decision Ram Chavez has been expelled from the GI Forum
Today in his final appeal at the GI Forum National Conference in Kansas City, the National GI Forum Board of Directors voted to expel Ram Chavez. In doing so, this action begins the charter re-instatement of the Hector P Garcia Founding chapter and bars Mr Chavez from all GI Forum activities. GI Forum National Director of Civil Rights Joe Ortiz in confirmation from the Convention floor in Kansas City looks forward to the Founding Chapter bouncing back and working in a unified manor to restore the legacy and namesake of Dr Hector P Garcia and the building, at the corner of Morgan Avenue and Bright Street, where activists planned the strategy for the landmark 1968 case Cisneros et. al. v. CCISD, which set the stage for courtordered school integration in Corpus Christi from 1976 to 1982. The building has been under the care of the National Archives & Historical Foundation of the GI Forum, which was set up in 1978 as a fundraising arm of the larger GI Forum - which was established by Dr. Garcia.
Juan Garcia: Here is a HD # 32 victory or defeat in a nutshell.
