ANCIENT MACEDONIANS AND MODERN MACEDONIANS

ANCIENT MACEDONIANS AND MODERN MACEDONIANS

Why are US State Legislators unknowingly passing inaccurate resolutions?

MAFA CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTI-MACEDONIAN RESOLUTIONS - HIGHLIGHTS

Official MAFA Protest Letter Sent to Texas State Legislature

UNIVERSITY-WIDE COUNCIL OF HISPANIC ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH MAFA

Letter Sent to Pan' Macedonian' Association: 'Nicholas NELSON'

March 11, 2003 Columbus, OH: The Macedonian Ambassador to the US Nikola Dimitrov visits Austin and meets with the chair of the Border and international affairs Committee, Norma Chavez, The Texas Governor Rick Perry , and the Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. He also attends a reception hosted by the MAFA Focus Group, meets its members and exchange ideas about further moves against the resolution. He received assurances from Rep. Norma Chavez that her Committee has no intention of wasting time on Rep. Bonnen's resolution. The El Paso Times reports on the developments and clarifies that the resolutions at best going to be left to die in committee.

February 28, 2003 Columbus, OH: The campaign of MAFA, its Texas Focus group refocuses it attention on the House Committee on Border and International Affairs where the resolution is referred. MAFA writes a letter to all the members of the committee further clarifying the overriding reasons for and the other Macedonian Americans in Texas and US against the anti Macedonian resolution. Several members of the focus group also write letters to all the committee members and to the media; some of the letters are published by the respective newspapers. The Austin biweekly, The Texas Observer features Rep Bonnen's resolution in its Bad Bills section and quotes Professor Loring Danforth from Maine saying that the claims in Rep. Bonnen's resolution are "the exact opposite of the consensus of the scientist in the field" on these issues. The committee chair Rep. Norma Chavez assembles a dreadfully convincing dossier of letters from MAFA members and others and newspaper stories and testimonials against the resolution and pressures Rep. Bonnen to withdraw the resolution.

February 18, 2003 Columbus, OH: First Success The campaign of MAFA, its Texas Focus group, and the other Macedonian Americans in Texas and US against the anti Macedonian resolution in the Texas House of Representatives achieved its first success. Instead of being referred to the Rules and Resolutions Committee, to which such honorary resolutions are automatically assigned, the resolution in Texas was assigned to the Committee on Border and International Affairs. Unlike the Rules and Resolutions Committee, where this and hundreds of other resolutions are routinely passed in bulk without debate and without even being read by anyone, The Committee on Border and International Affairs is expected to scrutinize it closely. The displeasure with this resolution that the legislators that wrote back expressed and other feedback that we are receiving indicate that the resolution will be most likely either withdrawn or rejected.

February 11, 2003 Columbus, OH: MAFA fights back : Since an ant Macedonian resolution prepared by a Greek-American extremist group was passed in the Illinois, California, and Missouri legislatures quietly without anyone even noticing it or reading it, MAFA decides to fight back. In response to the same anti Macedonian resolution being submitted to the Texas and the New Hampshire Legislature MAFA wrote letters to all Texas and New Hampshire legislators. The letters expressed MAFA's opposition to the resolutions and outlined the reasons against adopting them. MAFA also recruited and coordinated a Focus Group of highly eloquent Macedonian American intellectuals and and friends of Macedonia in Texas who mounted an effective campaign to inform the Texas legislators and media about the truth behind this resolution