Our Italian-American Cultural Society Newspaper is published monthly. It is our goal to unite and keep informed the Italian American Community of activities and events in the area.

This section is your opportunity to spread your message to the Italian-American community of Southeastern Michigan. In order to have your article included in this page, please e-mail it to news@iacsonline.net. We reserve the right to edit or refuse publication of any material.

Please HELP!!!!

AIUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

COMITES hosted a meeting at the IACS on Sunday June 21 to inform the community about the proposed plan to close the Italian Consulate in Detroit.

22 Italian Consulates around the world had been slated to close. This decision was made about two years ago by the Italian government as a means of cutting expenses. There is speculation that about 8 million Euros would be saved with this move.

The meeting lasted about 2 hours. A majority of the Comites members were present (see picture above). Other members Di Ponio, Caradonna, Nascimbeni, Dssa. De Sandre were not present due to previous commitments. The consul of Italy Dottor Marco Nobili was also present.

Though, it was "Father's Day", there were about 60 interested citizens and members of various associations that attended.

It was decided COMITES would prepare a letter to be sent to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, also everyone was asked to sign, and encourage others to sign, a petition that is circulating within our 5 states. A sample letter was provided and everyone was asked also to send a copy to the Italian government as a form of protest.

It was pointed out that with approximately 400 families coming to this area as a result of Fiat’s association with Chrysler, we would stress to the Italian government that this is not the time to close the Consulate in Detroit. In fact, we would be needing additional support to handle the needs of these families.

COMITES learned that Fiat president Sergio Marchionne was of great influence with his intervention in the postponement of the closure of the Consulate in Detroit.

We as a community should not stop gathering signatures or sending letters of protest. We need to continue our campaign in order to insure that the Consulate in Detroit will remain open.

If the Consulate in Detroit were to close, members of our community needing the various services provided by the Consul would need to travel to Chicago. The Consulate in Chicago would then be servicing 16 states. The quality of service that we could expect if that were to happen would be very poor indeed.

For information please contact:

COMITES
48770 Van Dyke Road
Shelby Twp., MI 48317

Telephone: 586.991.0193