Dear Sottosegretario Amendola, Consul General Genuardi, and Deputy Consul General Grangione:
The Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition is a nationwide advocacy group specifically dedicated to supporting Italian heritage and culture by defending against discrimination, bias and negative stereotyping of Italians and Italian Americans and all other people.
Our organization is headquartered in the State of New Jersey and we are very pleased that our state has an Italian Heritage Commission, as well as several other Commissions for other ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the Italian Heritage Commission has not received funding for several years, while the other ethnic Commissions have received significant funding. We believe this is an injustice to the millions of Italians and Italian Americans in the State of New Jersey.
Just recently our organization, along with many other groups, worked with two NJ elected representatives, Assemblymen Ralph Caputo and Gary Schaer to sponsor a bill to include some modest funding for the Italian Heritage Commission. We were shocked when just recently our own Governor Chris Christie, who has Italian Heritage, chose to veto this modest funding specifically for the Italian Heritage Commission, while leaving intact the significant funding for the other ethnic groups.
We are contacting all of you due to your upcoming meeting with Governor Christie. We very respectfully request that you ask the Governor why he has chosen only the Italian Heritage Commission to deny funding while maintaining all other ethnic groups funding. Your support of our request will, hopefully, send a message to our Governor that Italians and Italian Americans deserve, at the very least, EQUAL treatment, even to the modest amount of funding being requested.
I would be pleased to discuss this with you or answer any questions. Please feel free to contact me at any time. In the meantime, please accept my sincere best wishes and gratitude for any assistance you can provide in supporting our Italian heritage and culture in this serious situation.
Most sincerely,
Dr. Emanuele Alfano
Founder and President
Italian American ONE VOICE Coalitions, Inc.
www.iaovc.org
973 429-2818
The Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition is a nationwide advocacy group specifically dedicated to supporting Italian heritage and culture by defending against discrimination, bias and negative stereotyping of Italians and Italian Americans and all other people.
Our organization is headquartered in the State of New Jersey and we are very pleased that our state has an Italian Heritage Commission, as well as several other Commissions for other ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the Italian Heritage Commission has not received funding for several years, while the other ethnic Commissions have received significant funding. We believe this is an injustice to the millions of Italians and Italian Americans in the State of New Jersey.
Just recently our organization, along with many other groups, worked with two NJ elected representatives, Assemblymen Ralph Caputo and Gary Schaer to sponsor a bill to include some modest funding for the Italian Heritage Commission. We were shocked when just recently our own Governor Chris Christie, who has Italian Heritage, chose to veto this modest funding specifically for the Italian Heritage Commission, while leaving intact the significant funding for the other ethnic groups.
We are contacting all of you due to your upcoming meeting with Governor Christie. We very respectfully request that you ask the Governor why he has chosen only the Italian Heritage Commission to deny funding while maintaining all other ethnic groups funding. Your support of our request will, hopefully, send a message to our Governor that Italians and Italian Americans deserve, at the very least, EQUAL treatment, even to the modest amount of funding being requested.
I would be pleased to discuss this with you or answer any questions. Please feel free to contact me at any time. In the meantime, please accept my sincere best wishes and gratitude for any assistance you can provide in supporting our Italian heritage and culture in this serious situation.
Most sincerely,
Dr. Emanuele Alfano
Founder and President
Italian American ONE VOICE Coalitions, Inc.
www.iaovc.org
973 429-2818