A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Marko Dapcevich

Marko Dapcevich (born 1969) is a former mayor of Sitka, Alaska. He is an "Honored Member" of a United Nations group, signed the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, which is part of the Kyoto Protocol, and spoke out against Touchstone Pictures' non-use of Sitka for The Proposal. Dapcevich has testified before the Alaskan state Senate Finance Committee and has run for the Alaska State Legislature, District 2.

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Marko Dapcevich was born in Sitka to John and Janice Dapcevich, a nurse and a business man of Serb Montenegrin origin. He attended Sitka School District schools culminating in his graduation from Sitka High School in 1987. From there he attended the University of Oregon and later graduated from Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon with a degree in automotive technology and attended University of Alaska Southeast in Sitka.

In 1994, he co-founded, with his brother, the Misty Fjords Water Company which was sold in 2004. As of 1998, Dapcevich has worked as a mailman for the United States Postal Service.

Dapcevich was first elected in 2000 to a three-year term on the Sitka City and Borough Assembly and was re-elected in 2003 to another three year term. His term was cut short when he won a two-year term as mayor in 2004 over the incumbent, Fred Reeder. In 2006 he won re-election to a second two-year term as mayor, beating former city administrator Gary Paxton.

As of 2005, Sitka and Dapcevich were recognized as cooperative members of the United States Geological Survey's water measurement agreement.

In 2006, Sitka residents approved an initiative that would affect the cruise line industry tourist visits. Speaking about the Sitka's Assembly majority vote, Dapcevich said, they used the words "cruise ship" because others might vote negatively against it.

On August 22, 2006, Dapcevich participated as Sitka's mayor to the International Association of Specialists on Russian America.

On April 10, 2007, Dapcevich testified from Sitka via teleconference before the Alaskan state Senate Finance Committee to retain the sharing of municipal revenue.

During May 2007, Dapcevish spoke about the housing construction boom on Baranof Island which is along Sitka's passage. He elaborated by saying, "Sitka has a very diverse population and income base."

On December 18, 2007, Dapcevich signed the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement thereby pledging Sitka to the Kyoto Protocol goal of reducing greenhouse gas by 2012.

In 2008, Dapcevich presented a framed picture of Sitka to a ferry service with Alaskan state Senator Bert Stedman in attendance.

When The Proposal, which suppposedly took place in Sitka and was filmed elsewhere, Dapcevich said, "If a film is going to somewhat showcase your community, you would really like it to be your community being showcased rather than another community that is impostering your town." The mayor stated that the city would have welcomed Touchstone Films but could not provide tax breaks or incentives because of Alaskan laws.

On December 7, 2007, Dapcevich announced his candidacy for the Alaska State Legislature, District 2. Dapcevich was beaten in the August 2008 Democratic primaries by Lily Herwald. He was succeeded as mayor of Sitka by Scott McAdams.

Dapcevich is an "Honored Member" of the International Royal Academy of the United Nations which has more than 1,000 members world-wide.

From Wikipedia


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People Directory

Bishop Firmilijan (Ocokoljić)

(1963–1992)

Te Right Reverend Dr. Firmilian, Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Midwestern America, was born on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, according to the Julian Calendar, on the 7th of January 1910. Born into a clerical family in Kaona, Serbia, he was the son of many generations of priests, specifically, born in the family of the protopresbyter Uros Ocokoljich and his mother, Darinka, nee Plazinic, also the daughter of a priest. To the delight of this family, the parents were blessed with the birth of twins, named at baptism, Stanko (later, Firmilian) and Ranko. Stanko was the tenth child.

Having completed his elementary (in the place of his birth) and secondary education (Gymnasium, High School, in Čačak,) young Stanko was admitted into the Orthodox Seminary in Sarajevo, Bosnia, from where he graduated in the year 1930. After having served the Armed Forces of his country, Stanko was married to Nadežda Popović. Following their marriage, Stanko was ordained to the diaconate and then to the priesthood, being assigned as assistant to his father, protopresbyter Uroš, in the Village of Kaona. He was ordained to priesthood in 1930 by Bishop Jefrem Bojović, brother of well-known Vojvoda Petar Bojović. Tragically, within the first year of his marriage, Father Stanko lost both his wife and son, during childbirth.

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The Hagia Sophia

The Mystical Light of the Great Church and its Architectural Dress

by Charalambos P. Stathakis

Dear reader, as you run like the rest of us along the dizzy main road, stop, stay aside for a while. Let the others be dizzy, and take the secret underground trail, which will lead you through the dewdrops of the leaves, the crystal smile of the sun, the city’s underground galler- ies, your knowledge, and your feelings, to the doorstep of the Hagia Sophia. Because all dew- drops, all sunrays, and all beauty lead there. That is what you will be told by my friend, the author, whom I am fond of and whom I send you to, Charalambos Stathakis: the doctor, the warm and humane researcher, the scientist devoted to his work and his patients, who has given a series of scientific papers, who, nevertheless, retains a nest of beauty untouched in his heart, which makes him outstanding—even though he is not a specialist in architecture, nor a historian, nor a theologian, nor a Byzantinist—it makes him stand out in all these together and in entirety.

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