Travis County Commissioners Court
November 7, 2006
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first. And the first citizen to sign in is mr. Kirkson. If you would come -- mr. Kirkson? First name looks like kes. Last name drugson, medical school attendee apparently. Have a seat. Give us your full name that the judge is unable to read.
>> yes, sir. My name is keisha dirkson and I'm here today on behalf of the Austin our urban' league to tell everyone that achievement matters. So much so that the Austin area urban league has a 2007 achievement matters scholarship program with $40,000 to give away in scholarships to underserved youth in the Austin area. The requirements are that the youth must have a 3.0 gpa or higher and show need, but please know that we will not turn anyone away. It's very important that we encourage our youth everyday, but it's important that today we encourage our youth to enhance the opportunity for their future. The Austin area urban league 2007 scholarship program deadline is November the 15 its. For more information visit the aaul.org website. Thank you very much.
>> is is there a phone number for those persons who do not have access to computers?
>> yes, sir. You can call the Austin area urban league at 478-7176. And ask for rashad caldwell at extension 208 and can you also call my office at 371-0577 for more sis 10. 10 tense.
>> thank you.
>> November 15 its. Not a whole lot of time to dilly daily around. That's Wednesday of next week. Gus pena is second.
>> morning, judge, Commissioners. Gus pena. I'm going to try to keep it brief within the three minutes. I'm here to speak upon regarding the us marine corps birth day. We were born November the 10th 1775 in philadelphia. That makes it 231 yeez old. We will have the marine corps birth day ball which I'm attendognovember the 11th on a Saturday with the fourth recog sans retall on. We're going have fun with our fellow marines, fellow recon marines. Judge, one of the thing that I wanted to mention is this and I had a budge of stuff written up but I'm going to cut to the chase. We have a lot of military veterans that are homeless. By what means, manner or reason I don't know. That's not my point here. My point here is to bring awareness. But I will give you some name of the veterans that I know specifically that I've dealt with and have sent to Austin-Travis County mhmr. Rock man, jumble. Some of the name are off the wall, but that's what they call themselves. Ms. Stone, jackson, ms. Trudy, kale, rock fish, homeless veterans on the treats. We're here speaking partially about it and giving a proclamation about -- and recognition of veterans day, but it's very add that the richest country in the world would have these many military veterans that are homeless. I will tell you this, the veterans need transitional housing for homeless veterans and also for their families. It's something that we need to do more funding for substance abuse and alcohol abuse treatment. And I'll harp on this again, more funding for mental health needs and issues. Whatever your position is on the iraq war, whatever it is, afghanistan, we need to decide to support our military personnel over there. They're sufg. This is a war that is not like I've ever seen. I serve bed in the vietnam war and this is totally different and I feel for everybody. I feel for the moms and dads, especially the moms. They carried their children in their womb and we just need to support our troops. I was not able to make the memorial day meeting over here, but I brought this that I carry with me for the rest of my life. This is a friend of mine, alex. May he rest in peace. Good friend of mine. We tended school tend attended school together. He was the last infantryman to die in vietnam. This park is named after the first one. Let's not forget the military veterans. 365 days. Like I tell everybody, don't just remember your moms and dads on father's day and mother's day. Everyday. A lot of problem that our country is not addressing, our military veterans, a lot of health issues, job training, etcetera. It's just not guilty I served six years in the marine corps -- I'll put it off here. Support our troops. It's important. They need help, housing all that stuff. Thank you very much and god bless america and god bless the marine corps.
>> thank you mr. Pena. Anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not? Then the consent items are next.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 7, 2006 10:11 PM