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April 27, 2006
Dedication Ceremony at Caltrans
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Wadie P. Deddeh Speech
April 5, 2006 /Official Naming Ceremony of New
Caltrans
Senator Wadie P. Deddeh
Bldg SD, CA, TRT 19:19:01
Thank you, Thank you very much, thank you very
much, your Excellency Bishop Sarhad Jammo, my bishop, and George Plescia,
Assemblyman from San Diego county and I will tell you something about him. The
director of Caltrans, the guy responsible for the building of this great
edifice, which my grandchildren every time they go to school, they look at it
and they say “Daddy, is this going to be our building?” No, No, No, but really
it is their building because it belongs to every Californian.
George Plescia is a very modest man, for those of
you who do not know who he is, he represents this county in the State
Legislature, about 3, 4 weeks ago, George Plescia, by his own colleagues,
unanimously was elected as the Republican leader in the Assembly. What does
that mean? It means that he and 3 other members of both houses can sit down
with the governor within 2 months, negotiate the budget, issue that affects your
life and mine, and the life of 37 million Americans. George Plescia is a modest
man, unfortunately, and I have to say that, unfortunately for something we call
term let, he will have probably within 2, 3, 4 years out of the Assembly, that’s
enough comment on that.
I stand before you as a very proud American. I
stand before you also as a very proud Chaldean and in case you don’t know who
the Chaldeans are, with my bishop sitting here checking everything I say, I said
“Your Excellency, if I make any historical mistakes, don’t scold me publicly, it
is not nice”, and he said “I will not scold you publicly”. Who are we,
Chaldeans? We come from the land of the 2 rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates;
we sent civilization to the whole world. Hammorabi is the greatest lawgiver in
the history of man; his code is still being taught in many colleges and
universities.
Like all Amercians, as Franklin Roosevelt said
“We are a nation of immigrants”. Our 1st wave of Chaldeans came to
this country almost about 100 years ago with faith in God; they couldn’t speak a
word of English. They couldn’t read or write but they had a determination and
commitment for their families. They worked hard, 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a
week, and they saved some money to send to the old country. A village called
Telkepe from where every Chaldean has come from, my father, my late father was
born there. Their children struggled; their grandchildren and they are here.
Who are the grandchildren who are here? They’re doctors, they’re lawyers,
they’re Scientists, they’re professors, they’re optometrists, they’re dentists,
name it. In Detroit, they have their own Chaldean American Chamber of
Commerce. In Detroit, they have their own Chaldean American Bar Association.
In this community, we have our own Chaldean American Bar Association. The
President is here, where are you Zain? Raise your hand.
In Detroit, we have what we call here a municipal
court judge related to me indirectly. I know my son will scold me for saying
that, but I am so proud and I say that thank you God that in this county we have
a Chaldean American, the only one in the country, who sits on the Superior Court
bench. Behind me, Peter raise your hand, with him is his charming wife Elita,
and my wife not a 45 years, George, a 55 years and going, and then the
grandchildren, Trevor who says “Papa, I want to be a Senator like you, what is
Daddy become a superior court judge if you don’t mind Papa, I want to be a
superior court judge”. Then in the election of 2000, he came to me “Papa, what
does this chad mean, hanging chad and pregnant chad”, and I explained it to
him. “Wow, is this how you became a president of the United States?” I said
“This is how it is possible”. He said “If you don’t mind, Papa, I want to be
President of the United States”. I will not be here to vote for him, 30 – 40
years from now. Trevor, raise your hand, [pointing to the audience] take a good
look. You know for those who are familiar with English literature, George
Bernard Shaw said it the best “Some men dream dreams and say why, others dream
dreams and say why not? Why not be a president of the United States? Or
whatever you want. This is America; you can do whatever you want to do.
We are proud of our heritage, proud of this great
country, and I flash back as I entered New York, New York harbor, and I saw the
Statue of liberty, and all of you if you came that way, you saw that great
statue facing Europe, saying “Give me your tired, give me your poor, give me
your haggled masses yearning to be free”. Doesn’t that apply to all of us?
Immigrants, all of us, we came, tired, but faith in God, poor, commitment and
belief in ourselves and we made it. This is the Promised Land. This is the
land similar to what our God asked Abraham that came from my city, Ur of the
Chaldees, and He says go to the Promised Land. That’s what God asked Abraham to
do. We came to this Promised Land, and like I said, our grandchildren now,
they’re just part of this American Scenario, and they will be more, and more,
and this is what this country is all about. That was described by a man who is
not with us, he’s in heaven, who served us 8 years governor of this State, 8
years as our president, and he said America, and he looked at it, is a shining
city on the hill. That is what Ronald Reagan described, how he described
America. It is a shinning city on the hill.
To my colleagues in Sacramento, and they’re still
my colleagues, I am their ex-colleague, thank you George for your effort, thanks
everyone of those people who voted for it, and I deeply appreciate that. As I
go, and all of us will, I know, I know, that our great grandchildren as they
pass Wadie P. Deddeh, that’s a Chaldean name, a funny name, yes it is, a funny
name as I was told when I ran for office. Why don’t you change your name? I
will not change my name, you vote for me as Wadie P. Deddeh or you don’t vote
for me. And I stuck by my tradition, by my custom, by my faith, by my heritage,
and if you deny your heritage, if you ever deny your heritage, you have nothing
to hang on, and so I thank you for honoring me.
Did I not introduce my granddaughter? Wow, Alex
and Samantha, Alexandra Marie who is a poet, believe me, in the 4th
grade, and Samantha Jane who writes, and you should see some of her writing, and
you will read, your children will be reading her writing, and the poetry of my
granddaughter. I am proud of them. God bless them. May God bless this great
land of ours, the United States of America. Thank you very much.
Blessing of the
Building
By Bishop Sarhad Yawsip. Jammo
Almighty God, Father of
all creation,
Creator of Land and
oceans,
Designer of mountains
and valleys,
Maker of humans in His
own image.
You gave the first human
family a paradise to cultivate and enjoy.
You brought us together
from many nations in this pretty land of California, a true modern-day
paradise.
You entrusted it to our
care and you bestowed it to us for our enrichment.
We thank you for the
land you have given us, we thank you for its beauty and its fruits, most of all
we thank you for so many good people of great minds and hearts that were
entrusted for the care of this land.
Today we thank you
solemnly for the stewardship of a great civil servant of the people of
California, Senator Waddie Deddeh, who with generous dedication of self served
our state with outstanding integrity and genuine love, and as it is written that
the memory of the just remains forever let this building be a monument of
lasting recognition and appreciation to his noble service and be the pride of
his family and his Chaldean community and be a blessed site in the service of
the people of California, Amen.
Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo
kaldaya.net
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