社评 1119 年会过后

年会过后

上週五我们庆祝了美南国际贸易中心二十年週年大会，包括赵小兰部长、特纳市长、格林议员、日本、韩国、印尼、安克拉等国之总领事及工商文化界近五百人出席这次盛会是我们毕生荣幸，更是我们华亚 裔社区向主流社会彰显我们的实力及社会之贡献。

认识赵小兰部长已经是二十多年前的事了，以往她虽然贵為部长，不 论是交通部或劳工部任内，不但提携许多华亚裔后进，而且每年在农 历新年时大开派对庆祝，我们曾多次在华府参加盛会，她总是面带笑容， 迎来各方人士，并耐心和数百位宾客合照，大家都以此為容宾主尽 欢，是华府每年一大盛事，此次她再度回到德州专程支持我们，勉励我 们，心中万分感激，最重要的是赵部长在美国登上主流最高峯，是我们华亚裔之表率。

我们和特纳市长相识也已经有十年之久，在他任内从不在我们每年新年游园会上缺席，他对我们国际区及华亚裔十分关心，当然过去多年来，我们国际区已成為休斯敦之经济示范区他在年会上对贸易中心及 国际区大加表扬，我们是由哀之感谢和感动。

回想过去数十年的辛酸岁月，我们在这块土地上锲而不捨之奋斗，能為社区贡献簿力，也是万分之荣幸。

我们要再次感激近五百位参加年会的各界宾客和好友，你们给予之温 暖将永远牢记心坎。

                                                                                      After The ITC Gala 

 The International Trade Center’s twenty-year anniversary Gala was held last Friday in Houston Texas. Almost five hundred honored guests attended our party, especially our Honorable Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who traveled from Washington, D.C., to attend the event. Also our Mayor Sylvester Turner, Congressman Al Green and many diplomats, including those from Japan, Korea, Angola and Indonesia -- leaders from many communities came together and gave us many warm messages of support.

We have known Secretary Chao for over twenty-five years, even before she was Secretary of Labor and Transportation. She always celebrated the Lunar New Year at her office and invited many Asian leaders to attend. I was very lucky and was one of them. I remember that she had photos taken with all of us on those occasions and took hours to include everyone. Secretary Chao is really our role model and an outstanding leader in our community and in the nation. She came to join our Gala and made us all so very proud.

Houston’s Mayor Turner has been with us for over the last ten years. He would never miss our annual Lunar New Year Festival, and he always brought us his congratulatory message.

Now that the Gala celebration is over, we are so touched and honored to have had so many good friends who came to support us.

We will continue to work at the International Trade Center to build it up like a battleship and continue to be of service to all and continue to move forward.