The Supreme
President's openning remarks
during Banquet
the 62nd Convention
5-29-08
Αντιπρόσωποι του Ελληνικού Κοινοβουλίου, κύριοι Παναγιωτόπουλε, Αηδόνη και
Πλεύρη, Πρόεδρε της Δημοκρατικής Αναγέννησης κ. Παπαθεμελή, Νομάρχες Πιερίας και
Σερρών, κύριοι Παστεργίου και Φωτιάδη, Δήμαρχε Σερρών, κ. Βλάχο, κύριοι
Δήμαρχοι, κυρία Σπυρίδου, πρώην Ύπατοι Πρόεδροι της Παμμακεδονικής Ένωσης
Αμερικής, Αντιπρόεδρε της Παμμακεδονικής Ένωσης Καναδά, κ. Τζίμα, Πρόεδροι κάθε
Ελληνικού Σωματείου, αδέλφια μου Έλληνες,
Κι’ εγώ με τη σειρά μου ευχαριστώ τα αδέλφια μας τους Κρητικούς για το χώρο αυτό και για το γεγονός πως σήμερα είναι μαζί μας, διότι αυτό είναι μια ιστορική παράδοση. Οι Κρητικοί ήταν στο πλευρό των Μακεδόνων και κατά την περίοδο του Μακεδονικού Αγώνα.
Καλωσορίζω τους κυρίους Βουλευτάς, απεσταλμένους από το Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, καλωσορίζω τον Πρόεδρο της Δημοκρατικής Αναγέννησης, κ. Παπαθεμελή, καλωσορίζω τους Νομάρχες Πιερίας και Σερρών, καλωσορίζω τους Δημάρχους Σερρών, καλωσορίζω όλους τους Μακεδόνες της Διασποράς, καλωσορίζω τους Σερραίους, καλωσορίζω τα μέλη της Χορωδίας Ορφέας, καλωσορίζω το καμάρι μας την Νεολαία της Διασποράς!!
Opening up this year’s Pan-Macedonian 62nd Convention, I would like to inform everyone that this particular Convention will be different than our previous annual gatherings. Our 62nd Convention is dedicated to our Youth. We will sit and they will speak; they will take the microphone and we will listen.
We are proud of our young people, it feels good to have them here with us because their presence is the guarantee of our Association’s continuance. We are proud of our young people because their being here with us today, indicates that they are proud of their origins, they are proud of their ancestral home, they are proud of their Hellenic roots.
Serving the Pan-Macedonian Association for some time now, I had the chance to get to know our Youth quite well, I am aware of their contributions, some of their problems, but mostly their achievements and accomplishments.
I remember during our Convention in Kavala, Greece our Youth chapters of New England, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Houston were there with us. They danced, they had fun, and they enjoyed the sandy beaches of Thassos, but they also walked with us when we walked in the steps of St. Paul. When we visited Philippi they listened to the guide’s explanations with great concentration and if by any chance they did not understand something they did not hesitate to ask questions. In the academic speeches of professors Lazarou, Fotiadis, His Eminence Archbishop Dimitrios, and Mr Nikolaos Martis, our Youth were there listening what the academicians had to say.
I was also with our Youth during their last conference in Chicago this year. Our young people worked hard and arranged a well-organized gathering. I was really touched to see young people of second, third and fourth generation Greek origin to seriously be interested about our national issues, but also about the future of Hellenism here in US.
In addition it is quite a site to see the these young people of second, third, and fourth generation of Greek descent to watch them carry on our traditional dances with such passion, such dexterity, such love for the Greek music and to dance in its rhythm traditional Greek dances. During our conventions in Greece our Youth from New England performed throughout the Greek mainland. They also performed in Western Macedonia, where I was an eyewitness and I saw that they mesmerized the local population when they were dancing with such comfort and mirth!!
Our Youth through their dance, music, friendships that have been cultivated among them, their pride of their Greek heritage, have become the Ambassadors of the Pan-Macedonian Association. And they are engraving their own history their own way!
What can we do? Let us be Cavafy’s “Ithaca” for them. Let me just recite a few verses that I think they fit nicely right now:
…Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony.
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars…
…And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
One more issue that I would like to address before I conclude is that a lot of things are being said about the Skopjan issue, that it is a matter of days before the issue is closed… and that the compound name with the derivative Macedonia is given… However the Macedonians of USA in collaboration with the Pan-Macedonian Association the world over, will continue our tireless efforts - persisting on the position THAT WE DO NOT ACCEPT the TERM MACEDONIA and its DIRIVITIVES for the FYROM, especially after the last provocative developments in the Vatican on behalf of the Archbishop of the self-proclaimed “Macedonian” Orthodox Church who appealed to St. Cyril that “in His and their city Thessaloniki everything turned to stone and nothing has remained from St. Cyril’s language and their language. And after the demonstration of the Skopjan Diaspora in Melbourne who claimed Thessalonica would be theirs again, that the Greek government changes route and rejects any compound name that contains the name Macedonia and its derivatives.
Young people, fight for your inheritance and derive from it.