台美公民協會通訊1988

A Message from the Chairperson of the Board:

GO FORWARD TOGETHER

Daniel K. Kao, M.D.

Four years ago when I first visited London, the thing that impressed me the most was the World War II museum. This is a place where they preserve the working environment in which Winston Churchill and his war cabinet worked during the darkest hours of World War II. It really moved me how they overcame the most difficult conditions and achieved the final victory.

I bought a cloth with Winston Churchill printed in the center and the words, “Go Forward Together” at the bottom, which now I hang in my office. It inspires me to persevere to overcome all adversaries and to go on forward toward the goals that I set in my life.

This is the third year that the TACL is in existence. This is the year 1988, a year full of hope and prosperity according to the Chinese Year of the Dragon. In Taiwanese, 88 (Ba ba) means the same as really full. We really have a good charm for a wonderful year, and I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year.

At the citizens’ league, the new board of directors has met twice already and have planned plenty of activities for this coming new year. I would like to say a few things to share with you.

Internally, we would like to strengthen our organization by:

1) Systematizing the organization, keeping better minutes of the meetings, providing a good track record of the accounting, and being more responsive to members’ inquiries.

2) To strengthen the dialogue between the citizens’ league and its members. We plan to issue two bulletins and five newsletters in the coming year. The newsletter will be published bimonthly, and the bulletin will be published semiannually. You are all welcome to write to the citizens’ league about any suggestions that you have or any matter that you think the citizens’ league should be concerned about.

3) To have a more successful membership drive so we can appeal to more people, not only in California but throughout the United States. It is estimated there are at least a quarter million Taiwanese living in the United States. With effort, we should at least be able to double our membership and should be able to establish more charters in big cities such as San Diego, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, etc.

Externally, we would like to be able to establish dialogue with various ethnic organizations in the United States, particularly with those organizations which have similar backgrounds and cultural heritage as ours. We would also like to improve our visibility in our society that we will be considered as the sole legitimate spokesmen for the tens of thousands of Taiwanese in the United States.

We would also like to be able to exert our influence in the political and economic issues that affect every aspect of our lives. We would like to encourage our members of our second generation to actively participate in the political processes of this great society. We should also exert our influence in socioeconomic issues, and we shall achieve a real equality for our people in this society full of undercurrents of discrimination and oppression.

Let’s all join hands and be united so we can go forward together.