Ahepa Chapter 281,
4795 Lakeside Drive ,
Officers
President John Lagios 882-2421 doclagios@gmail.com
Vice President John Copoulos 885-7907 ioannis51@sbcglobal.net
Treasurer Jim Nicholson 775 786-7951 tkanis@aol.com
Secretary Pete Lemonides 775-677-1834 canlem@charter.net
Calendar 2008-2009
Regular Meetings on the Third Thursday of the Month
Special Events
Congratulations to: The Recipients of the AHEPA "Gift" Scholarship
to graduating High School Seniors were:
Leslie Cladianos, Christi Mannos, Nadin Abboud and Annika Chryssos.
And to Robert "Robby" Woods, Jr. for receiving the Ahepa Graduate School Scholarship.
Ahepan History
One hot summer day in 1922, two Greek American businessmen, George Polos and John Angelopoules, both traveling salesmen working out of Atlanta, met by chance in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Among other things, they talked about the growing wave of hostility that targeted their nationality and religion, It was a time when the Ku Klux Klan, reorganized in 1917 and thriving on militant patriotism, was enjoying a renaissance of hatred in the South. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Congress and the Federal Government were discussing ways to stem the tide of ''less desirable" immigrants from ''certain'' countries, which invariably included the Balkan nations.
Both men agreed there was a real need for a patriotic organization that would direct and channel the energy of the Greek community in the United States, a group that would be politically nonpartisan and religiously non-sectarian.
They presented the idea to a group of twenty-five members of the Atlanta Greek community. Seventeen men offered their support, Now this group met in closed session, On July 26, 1922, the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association-the Order of AHEPA was a reality.
AHEPA continued its educational and humanitarian efforts and civic-minded programs, focusing much of its energy on scholarships for our youth.
Scholarships
Scholarships have been a part of Ahepa since 1925. Today AHEPA gives scholarships on the local and national levels to promising Greek American students. Its "Journey to Greece'' program, for high school students, emphasizes Hellenic culture, history and language.
Each year we give scholarships to graduating high school students.
The Importance of Ahepa
For the last 30 years the Ancient Greeks have been under attack in the American school system. The study of Ancient Greece has been de-emphasized, while the study of classes that often distort Greek history are frequently required.
Many, if not most, students educated in this school system during the last 20 years have no idea about the importance of Ancient Greece. This is tragic since the foundation of Western Civilization began in Greece.
The immortal British poet Percy Shelley stated,
“We are all Greeks, our laws, our literature, our religion;
our arts have their roots in Greece.”
Indeed, many Greek-Americans are not aware of the fact that
Democracy
Consensual/Constitutional Government
Separation of Church and State
Civilian Control of the Military
Equality Under the Law
Modern Science
The Rational Pursuit of Knowledge, and
Organized Sports Competition
ALL BEGAN IN ANCIENT GREECE
Emphasizing the importance of Greece in the school systems was a foundation of the educational system in both Western Europe and North America for nearly three centuries. Until the mid 1970s, any student in the American public school system received a generous introduction to Ancient Greece in the 8th grade and again in the 10th grade. In college, students were required to take Western Civilization—and Ancient Greece was definitely emphasized there.
From the mid 1970s a dangerous trend was established in public education to try to make history “sensitive” and “inclusive,” whether it is true or not. One pervasive theme is “multiculturalism” – the notion that all cultures made equal contributions to Western and, specifically, American society.
As a result, in public schools the study of Ancient Greece is frequently minimized or omitted, while the study of non-Western cultures, such as the Islamic religion and Latin-American cultures, are taught as being as significant to American Civilization as Greece, Rome, or Renaissance Europe. The inaccuracy of these assertions does not seem to bother educators who are concerned with “sensitivity.”
On the college level, Western Civilization is no longer required by most universities, while taking classes in ethnic studies and “cultural pluralism” are required. Militant ethnic studies classes frequently teach distortions.
In Black Studies classes a theme that is frequently taught is that the Ancient Egyptians were black and that the Ancient Greeks stole most of their core cultural foundations from the black Egyptians.
The Greek Culture is the foundation for our Democratic way of government.
It is the Basis of our Philosophy,
Mathematics, Logical Reasoning, Plays, Music, Healing Arts,
and our language.
It is vital that we keep this heritage strong
and protect it from destruction and dilution.
Two of the most successful are Victor Davis Hanson and Mary Lefkowitz. Hanson co-authored Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, while Lefkowitz wrote Not out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History .
Both Hanson and Lefkowitz have been honored by the Government of Greece for their writings. These scholars have had some impact, but multiculturalism is still stressed in public schools and ethnic studies distortions are still taught at universities