It is with great dismay we watched the unfortunate political mockery at the recently concluded TANA conference in Chicago. The plain, ugly arguments between the political leaders regarding YSR, CBN & their kin’s were in poor taste and lacked respect for the audience who spent lots of money, time and efforts to be at the conference.
It’s conservatively estimated to cost $50,000 per hour for the organization to run a conference of this magnitude. The community is heart broken to see our hard-earned tax dollars going down the drain with hopeless programs that were part of the conferences for the past few years. Is it worth to spend that kind of money if not time to discuss why YSR won or CBN lost the elections in Andhra Pradesh. The question begged to be asked how the discussion relates to the telugu community of North America and how it is going to influence their daily life’s here in USA.
We as a community are facing lot of challenges in recent times due to the worsening economic crisis. Where were the serious issues like housing turmoil, economic depression affecting the job market and community folks who are on H-1 visa, proposed health care reforms by the new administration? Why can’t we invite the local politicians and express our views and concerns as a society and lobby for the betterment of our community.
For the past few years the organization totally lost focus and was working for some individuals rather than for the telugu community. The above incident is a simple example for this and we, as a community needs to demand the executive committee to concentrate and work for the hard working telugu families here in USA. If not the organization will disintegrate in to oblivion in no time. If you look at the significant drop of attendees for this Chicago conference you will agree with this assessment.
Venkat Kolli
Omaha, NE
