This post was picked up and published by Insider Magazine in its March 2021 issue.

By Stacey Harris-Papaioannou

At 25, she was the educated aristocrat who became a passionate rebel. In war she fought like a man, in love she was betrayed like a woman and even her country deserted her after she used her entire fortune to bankroll the revolution.

In the political activism world, you lose some and you win some. In DAGR’s case, we’ve lost the services of one of our Communications volunteers, Barbara Euser, for the coming year. On the up side, Barbara and a friend, Kelly Gregory, are circumnavigating the world in her Bristol 34 sloop, “Islander.”

by Rebecca Lieb
7 March, 2021 - Tsangarada, GR

Last month, Greece passed what for many of us was long-overdue legislation permitting the country's legal residents who are ineligible for AMKA to obtain a temporary AMKA number in order to register for a COVID vaccine appointment.

The Pandemic’s Impact on Harassment and Violence Against Women

Democrats Abroad Greece Women’s Caucus will hold an online conversation on March 31 at 8 pm via Zoom, for the Women’s Web March: Sexual Harassment, Violence Against Women and the Pandemic

This event, now celebrating its 5^th anniversary, gives each attendee the opportunity to take action on the most pertinent female issues through the expertise of three women hailing from different fields: law, politics and the arts.

Article is coming.....

by Robin Rafaelidys, DAGR volunteer
Mar 09, 2021

In autumn 2020, Robin Rafaelydis went back to the US to fight the good fight where needed most. She decided on Kentucky and the effort to pitch Mitch.

Kentucky, to my surprise, boasts one hundred and twenty (120) counties.  California, which is almost four (4) times as large and has eight (8) times the population, has fifty-eight (58).  It's not the first thing one thinks about when contemplating the states UNLESS one is going to a chosen state one month before what one considers a life-and-death presidential election. Because for election purposes counties are king. And I wanted to depose a king, one self-proclaimed “Grim Reaper”.

by Vasilis Frangiskos
Mar 08, 2021

Vasilis Frangiskos spent a few years in Texas. Now back in Greece, he details one of the ‘strange’ things he noted while there, a tendency to shoot one’s self in foot.

by Rebecca Lieb
7 March, 2021 - Tsangarada, GR

On March 5, the Greek parliament finally ratified legislation granting foreign residents ineligible for AMKA (a Greek social security number) the right to obtain a temporary number, enabling them to get in line for the COVID vaccine. This law rectifies a grave and dangerous oversight that affected tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of legal residents.

When Democrats Abroad Greece (DAGR) elected its board for the next two years on Jan 20, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Election Meeting, for the first time, due to ongoing lockdowns, were entirely ‘remote.’

The AGM preceded the Biden-Harris inauguration, which attendees were then able to watch together.

The DAGR officers, referred to informally as the ExCom, are listed at the right of the Greece home page, See All Leaders button. Standing committee and local caucus chairs are also there. There’s an email or other contact for each, and members are invited to be in touch!

For a closer look at the ExCom, the article just before this one has bios of everyone on the slate.

This year’s election was run by a three-member Nominations and Elections Committee (NEC), chaired again by Nikki Fellouris. Their work began in November 2020, with the call for nominations. It ended with conduct of the Election Meeting and counting of ballots.

The DAGR board currently comprises its Executive Committee, formally the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Counsel. The Chair and Representative of each Chapter are also voting members, as are the two At-Large Representatives for members living outside chapter areas. At present, the full DAGR board has 11 members, with a quorum of six to conduct business.

Hope took wing when Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 presidential vote. Relief, perhaps, better describes what we felt when the House and Senate were finally able to complete their work this week and declare him well and truly elected.

The challenging task of righting the ship of state and pulling the country back together again lies ahead. In this spirit, DAGR is sending him our ‘Prayer’ for his work.

‘Prayer,’ the moderately sized and eminently shippable painting, was donated by Katerina Zafirakis-Papadea, who presented another of her works to President Obama during his 2016 visit here. Older members will remember Katerina’s late husband, Kostas Zafirakis, one of the founding members of DAGR and one of its most devoted supporters.