The Executive Director's Message

COPING WITH CRISIS: ADVANCING CHANGE

In a time of great crisis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

In 2009, we face our era’s own moment of unprecedented crisis, marked by multi-million dollar bonuses to Wall Street executives while our communities face record unemployment and homelessness.  Today, Dr. King’s words ring particularly true. 

It is my privilege to welcome you to our website in my new role as executive director.  For years, our organization has attempted to emulate the fight modeled by Dr. King and countless other leaders and foot soldiers for civil rights, both known to the world and unknown.

I especially want to recognize two of these leaders, who must be counted among our country’s greatest: John C.Gamboa and Robert (Bob) Gnaizda. As co-founders of The Greenlining Institute, John and Bob have dedicated their lives to overcoming injustice and working to develop win-win relationships with unlikely partners. They committed themselves to do this the hard way by developing a multi-issue and multi-ethnic coalition that would fight to make the ‘pie’ bigger and work to create systematic change on major economic issues affecting our country.

Following a path first paved by John and Bob, just a few weeks ago our diverse coalition and I personally delivered an urgent message to our world’s most powerful financial leaders in Washington D.C. Together we urged Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair, and others to act on Main Street’s behalf and bring critical resources to those that need them most.

2009 is a time of great crisis, to be sure. But it is also a time of renewal…and as President Obama has said, a time to look forward, not back. Now is the time to advance change and work towards the vision that brought us here in the first place. This vision consists of strong economic and healthy communities, health care for all, flourishing businesses owned by people of color, well-capitalized non-profits led by people of color, and energy independence that leads us to new economic opportunities for the new majority.

These are among the issues being discussed today at Greenlining and at the highest levels of decision-making about our nation’s future.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff of the Greenlining Institute, thank you for visiting our website.  I hope that you will help Greenlining remain strong and independent by making a financial contribution today.

Orson Aguilar
Executive Director