Cogitator Feb 19, 2014

GUESTS

Chuck Wilson was a guest of President-Elect Ron Winde.  Chuck, an East Greenwich resident, is a long-time ESPN Radio talk show host who in 2013 founded Even Field, a non-profit ‘character education organization’ for kids.  (www.Evenfield.org)

ROTARY ANNIVERSARY

Happy Rotary anniversary this week to Past President (2005-2006) Pat Lenihan, who has been working hard for the club since joining sixteen years ago, February 25^th, 1998. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

-President Jodi Gladstone reminded us that February is World Understanding Month.

-Saturday, March 22^nd is the date for this year’s Rotary Leadership Institute, to be held at Amica Insurance in Lincoln.  The day will start at 8:30am with breakfast and registration, and lunch will be served later as well.  Incoming officers and club leaders are encouraged to attend.  Please see Jodi if you would like to be there on March 22^nd. 

-The District 7950 Rotary Winter Ball is coming up!  Sign up today for a great night out Saturday, March 1^st, 6pm to 9pm.  Tickets are only $55 per person, or $100 per couple.  There will be a special auction to benefit the Rotary Foundation, and the winner will head to Africa for a photo safari. 

http://portal.clubrunner.ca/50054/Event/a0ae0c01-0ab2-4b79-a84f-b2690184f651

CHOOSE TO MATTER

Bill TenEyck reported on the Choose to Matter event last week at the high school.  Assistant Principal Tim Chace was on hand, as were several Rotarians for this important two-day event, including Bill, Gill Thorpe, Matt D’Agenais, Judy Pratt, and Jane Boynton.  The message to the hundreds of kids in attendance was clear—they do indeed matter, and, they can indeed help change the world. 

PRESIDENTIAL MINUTE

Richard Waterman, President during the 2002-2003 Rotary year, said he was proud to have served such a special club.

He remembered the incredible show of support from the club that year when District 7950 vowed to participate strongly in Rotary International’s Polio Eradication campaign.  Recalling Andy Erickson’s suggestion of $25,000 for our club’s goal, Gill Thorpe’s initial pledge of $1,000, and the sudden wave of additional pledges…we ended up amazingly at more than twice our original goal—$52,000! 

‘Now that’s Service above Self!  What a great club!’ 

HAPPY BUCKS

-Kathy McMahon has a new job as director of marketing for Kohl Cabinets in Cranston.  Congratulations, Kathy!   

-Bonnie Sauer happily reported that Chuck Sauer made it safely, despite the challenging wintery weather, to South Carolina with his youth mission group. 

-Bob Miller gave a ‘we’ve missed you, Jodi’ buck in honor of our esteemed president.  Also, Bob was recently stranded on the airport tarmac, thanks to a snowstorm, while trying to head out West to see his niece and her new baby. 

-Dave Iannuccilli has had it with the plow he has owned for several years.  ‘It was a neat idea in the beginning,’ but after hitting two cars recently he’s ready to trade it in! 

-Judy Pratt was thankful and happy that daughter Sam was finally cleared to play sports again.  Sam suffered a serious concussion several weeks ago while playing hockey for the Toll Gate Lady Titans. 

PROGRAM/SPEAKER

Cliff Monteiro, Past-President of NAACP, Providence Branch

Cliff Monteiro’s mom was African American, Native American, and Jewish.  His dad was Cape Verdean, Italian, and Catholic.  He was a native Rhode Islander, and an American.  Yet, the label given to him, to keep him in his place, was ‘Portuguese Negro.’

Cliff’s father was a rubbish man, proud to have owned his own truck.  His mom was a domestic, which Cliff often tried to hide from his friends, worrying some might look down on him. 

He grew up in a tough age for people of color to find good jobs, go onto college, and advance in the world.  However, Cliff was proud of his hardworking parents and learned a great deal from them. 

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded in 1909.  Cliff Monteiro, who first heard the ‘N-word’ as a five-year-old while growing up in Providence, served for several years as president of the NAACP’s Providence Branch.   

Cliff remembered sit-ins at the State House which years later, in 1965, ultimately pushed the passage of the first Fair Housing bill in Rhode Island.  A national Fair Housing bill was passed by Congress in 1968. 

Once a Providence policeman, Cliff quit the force over an alleged racist episode involving an Italian American colleague.  ‘If they could do something like they did to him, I didn’t have a chance,’ he said.  ‘After all, who enforces racism laws?  The police department!’  He added that things were truly terrible during the Jim Crow days in the South, during which times the police were often as much a threat as civilians. 

Cliff Monteiro was part of Martin Luther King’s famous march on Washington, DC in 1963.  He also took part in the Selma to Mongomery (Alabama) march in 1965.  His time in Selma was ‘scary,’ and if it weren’t for two Caucasian CORE (Congress on Racial Equality) members smuggling him out of town, he made not have made it out of there alive.  The CORE members hid him under blankets in a car with a confederate flag flying from it.  ‘They looked like Klansman, and that’s why no one bothered them,’ he recalled. 

‘There were many scary civil rights marches.  There were many scary episodes.  And they were all about the right to vote.  Today, I’m not a Republican or a Democrat…I love my country…and I’m for a better United States.’         

http://www.naacpprov.org/presidents_message.cfm

Cliff Monteiro with Andy Erickson