RIC says 'thank you' to Cong. Kennedy

By: Maria José

05/16/2008

PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island College's Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies is a bit richer now.

      Several months after President George W. Bush called learning Portuguese "wasteful," in his explanation for cutting funds for the Rhode Island College Portuguese program as part of a congressional earmark, he was overruled.

      Thanks to the efforts of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy in Washington, $97,000 has been secured in federal funds to assist in furthering the mission of the Institute.

      The Institute provides those of Portuguese speaking cultures (and those who wish to explore them) with the courses, workshops, and community outreach programs to open new career paths and enhance personal development within the state and the Portuguese community. "I was just part of the team to make this come about. What an appropriate celebration that we can have... it's a very important institute here in Rhode Island, which celebrates its Portuguese-American heritage with such great fanfare, as anyone of us can testify to, especially as springtime approaches and all the festas begin," said Cong. Kennedy.

      A reception was held last Friday in Kennedy's honor at the residence of RIC resident, Dr. John Nazarian, and attended by distinguished members of the Portuguese community. On hand were former State Treasurer Paul Tavares, State Senator Daniel DaPonte, Portuguese Consulate Chancellor Leonel Teixeira and his wife, Dr. Luz Teixeira, former Vice-Consul Rogerio Medina, and PALCUS representative Alda Petitte, among others.

      Shortly after 6 p.m. RIC's president welcomed Kennedy by saying: "I've known him for many years... he was a student at Providence College at the time, and I told him that he made a mistake by not coming to Rhode Island College, but you know, he went on and became a congressman, so what am I going to do about it? So, on behalf of the Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies, we wish to express sincere appreciation to Congressman Patrick Kennedy for is assistance in supporting the work of the Institute and its service to the citizens of Rhode Island..."
"You've really been the ones who have been at work bringing this about, responded Kennedy. "It really would not have come about, had you not done all the homework and all the footwork to make it possible to get this started."Kennedy said that it was important to take advantage of the skills Portuguese-Americans bring to the university - understanding of language and culture and build upon them. "We need to provide the students with all the new ammunition that they need in this new battlefield, the global battlefield of this new economy," he said. "And just as we wouldn't want any of our soldiers in the battlefield to be left behind, we don't want any of our new future employees - the ones that we are sending to the universities- to be left behind because of inadequate tools, inadequate preparation, inadequate abilities to fight the weapons of economic war that we are going to have to fight to remain predominant in the world as an economic super power. We have our work cut out for us in other initiatives and we'll keep working on those." But Kennedy was not the only one delivering good news. Margaret Brown, vice-president of college relations and executive director of the RIC Foundation, told the group, John Lima, a Portuguese-American had also recently handed the university another large check in memory of his parents.." Today he transferred $50,000 to the Institute to establish a scholarship in his parents' name and he has promised a similar gift in January of '09," she said. Kennedy told O Jornal that his work will continue for the Portuguese community. "I know who my friends are, who I represent, who elected me to office," he said. "I remember when I first ran for office, I was embraced by my colleagues in the state legislature like Bill SanBento was my treasurer, Joe Faria was my coordinator, from Central Falls, Henry Rose and Ray Coelho in East Providence, coordinated things for me. I had support all up and down the East Bay. Paul Tavares was a great supporter. And I know that when they took me with them over to the Azores where so many Rhode Islanders came from originally, I really got to feel more connection with so many of the neighbors that live here in Rhode Island. As a result, when I campaigned here for congress, I made a special emphasis to always be respectful and attentive to the traditions and the culture of the Portuguese-American community in the state. I think that I went out of my way to acknowledge their influence as a community because they hold a lot of political power. They are very united, and very much a part of the strength of our state in terms of the neighborhoods. They are very tightly knit, well established, family-orientated and very traditional with good family values and strong neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods.

When everything else about American society pulls people apart, I admire the fact that, in large part, (the Portuguese family values) has kept a lot of neighborhoods together.

We can get better policies economically. We can get better job protections. We can have better monetary policies, better trade policies, all those will help people. We can fight for secure pensions so they don't lose their pension after they work a lifetime. We can fight for better health care opportunities, we can get better access to descent health care, but at the end of the day, we can't fight against the disintegration of the family. Only tradition, family values, can help us do that and the Portuguese community has been a very powerful embodiment of those values and has helped fight that. Whereas many other parts of our American society have fallen apart because they have not had that infrastructure."

For the original article please click the link below: 

O Journal "RIC says thank you..."

©O Jornal 2008