I was honored that the Houston Peace and Justice Center (HPJC) awarded me one of the four Peacemaker Awards at their 17th Annual Peacemaker Award Dinner. The other honorees were the Honorable Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Rabbi Amy Weiss, and keynote speaker and National recipient Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. The gratitude I feel to our supporters is infinite.
Egberto Willies accepting HPJC Peacemaker Award
The Honorable Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was a co-honoree at the Houston Peace and Justice Center 17th Annual Peacemaker Awards dinner. We should all be proud of the transfer of the baton to a younger generation. It is time for them to take us to the next level. Her speech made it clear Harris County Texas made the right choice with a new people based transparent type government. It is time for a new kind of county, state, and national leadership.
Honorable Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speech after accepting the HPJC Peacemaker Award
Who is Houston Peach & Justice Center?
HPJC will be central to peace and justice activity in Houston. Its membership includes most of the area’s eligible institutions and organizations.
Those institutions and organizations that aren’t members nonetheless will have a good working relationship with HPJC, meaning that they are responsive to its emphasis on collaboration and networking to achieve particular objectives. They will habitually think in such terms, and look to HPJC as the way to enlist broad support for their agendas.
A majority of Houston’s religious institutions and social action agencies will look to HPJC to help fulfill their obligations to create a just, nonviolent world. Just as they now use the collaborative mechanisms and networking of Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston to live up to their social service mission, so they will use HPJC to live up to their social change mission.
Beyond its importance to our area, HPJC will be a leader in collaborative regional work for peace and justice. This work includes advocacy in state legislatures, campaigns to achieve goals such as changing a multinational corporation’s behavior, and mass mobilizations. [More]