There is no excuse to not participate!!
The form this year is the shortest in history – just take 10 minutes to answer 10 questions!! Check the 2 samples of Question 9, which asks for race/ethnicity. Let's make sure to write in either ASSYRIAN OR ASSYRIAN-AMERICAN, NOT Iranian Iraqi, or White. There are enough Iranians and Iraqis count for themselves but there are so few of us.
Why Participate in the Census?
1) Power: In a democracy, power comes from numbers. After the 2000 Census, the official number of Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac was around 80,000, but I believe the actual number is at least 3 times this amount. The largest concentration was recorded in Detroit, but only 15,000 were counted in all of Illinois!!
2) Money: Each year $430 billion of the U.S. budget is influenced by census data. That's over $4 trillion in the next 10 years.
3) Influence: Politicians, businesses, schools, cultural institutions, government agencies, financial aid, civic centers, and more depend on public census data to tailor their services to each community.
4) Opportunity: If we miss this opportunity to be counted, we have to wait until 2020 to try again.
5) Safe: Individual census data is absolutely confidential – it is against the law for any government employee to disclose census information (punishable by a 5 year prison term and/or a maximum fine of $250,000). It can never be shared and cannot affect your immigration status in any way.
6) Important: Getting us all counted for Census 2010 is easily the most important thing we can do for ourselves and all Assyrians in the next 10 years.
The Census form should be mailed very soon – once you fill it out, send it back! Just 10 minutes of your time will go a long way for our Assyrian people in the years to come!
prayer_for_st_mary_church