President's Message Leon Kimura , 2011 Chapter Co-President Happy New Year everyone! This is my last message as your President. After two years of service, I will be joined by Tom Maruyama as Co-President in 2011! Tom has been serving in the State of California Emergency Management Agency as the Director, Office of Statewide Operations-Law, Fire & Rescue, and Recovery Divisions. Tom has extensive experience in handling (and preventing) major disasters and we can all count ourselves as fortunate to have the high caliber of support from Tom. During the past two-years, I feel gratified that our chapter has respected our heritage in supporting American Democracy and in pursuing Civil and Human Rights. We continue to strengthen the JACL mission and our ability to address the needs of serious community concerns through an ever growing network of leaders, individuals and organizations. We have earned respect through an established track record of engagement and advocacy. And besides the JACL core pursuit of justice and advocacy, we also offered a full program including leadership development, youth, education, and both community and cultural support. So, what's in store for us this coming year? The preservation of the historic Issei Memorial Building will continue to be a Chapter and community priority. And critical to the JACL organization, increased membership will be key to its future survival. Membership is our support base and all our efforts are made more effective with more members. The National JACL also depends upon and sorely needs membership revenue. With a strengthened base, then we can all enjoy increased resources and vigilance to combat discrimination ranging from intellectual bias up through instances of mean-spirited and/or violent acts of discrimination. We see the Muslim and LGBT communities' under-fire the most in this day and age and therefore, partnerships here are especially critical. But ignorance constantly rears its ugly head, impacting us all and there is an on-going need to fight discrimination in all its forms and not allow America to become complacent by tolerating injustice. We will all lose if this happens… Let's all choose to be winners! I would like to close by thanking you for your support including your generous donations to both maintain the historic Issei Memorial Building and to continue the Chapter's activities! Please let us know how you think we are doing. We cannot do it without you! Leon Kimura