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| Affiliation | Independent |
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| Name | Shafeek Nader |
| Address |
, Connecticut , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
March 06, 1926
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| Died | October 19, 1986
(60 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Mr. Matt
Feb 07, 2023 07:25am |
| Tags |
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| Info | Shafeek Nader, Ralph's older brother and the founder of the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest, died of prostate cancer in 1986.
Shafeek Nader, and brother Ralph, shared common values
Submitted by administrator on Wed, 02/07/2007 - 15:06.
By JOSE de la ISLA
Thursday, February 08, 2007
It is somewhat rare to find a contemplative Ralph Nader writing his personal reflections instead of pleading a public-policy issue.
But in Nader's new book, "The Seventeen Traditions," he reflects on lessons learned growing up in a town in northwest Connecticut, at the family restaurant and from his mother, father, an older brother and two sisters.
We have come to know Ralph Nader as a wooden personality, a willing naysayer when necessary, and as a conservationist, consumer protector, twice presidential candidate and foe of corporate excesses.
Now 73 years old, Nader enumerates the values that made him that way, a set of family traditions that became personal practices.
They include solitude, independent thinking, civics, patriotism, charity, business, work, listening, the value of the family table and eight others. Each one forms a chapter in this short 150-page book.
Ralph Nader burst onto the national scene after his 1965 book "Unsafe at Any Speed." It showed how faulty engineering went into the Chevrolet Corvair and numerous other U.S.-made autos. Ever since he has been known as a consumer crusader.
Half a dozen years after the book appeared, Shafeek Nader, Ralph's brother, telephoned me in Oregon and had me join him and Sheldon Manifee, a journalist and author, in Washington, D.C. Shaf was founder of the Northwest Connecticut Community College.
Together Shelden and Shaf spearheaded an initiative at the American Association of Community Colleges to revamp and improve colleges around the country to make them more publicly responsive. Then, as always, resistance and avoidance of change hides behind pretended ignorance and wacko priorities.
Shaf soon had me traveling around the country. One time he had me go to Bethlehem, Pa., to meet a dean there named Alfredo de los Santos.
In Washington, I had moved into a basement apartment on 19th Street near DuPont Circle. One day I saw Shaf coming out a building diagonally across the street. It was only the smallest leap of inference to know that was the famous rooming house where the Nader brothers lived. Ralph was reputed so frugal he didn't even have a telephone but used the pay phone around the corner.
At the time Ralph Nader was a legendary hero among people my age. General Motors had tried to discredit him and hired private detectives to tap his phones (probably why he had none), investigated his past and hired prostitutes to compromise him. But they failed to find any wrongdoing. In turn, Nader successfully sued the company for invasion of privacy and used the settlement to expand his consumer rights efforts.
Even though Shaf knew where I lived, he and I never walked home together. When he hopped a ride with me to some event (he didn't own a car), he had me drop him off at the Mayflower Hotel, saying he wanted to pick up the next morning's newspaper, which came out at 11 p.m., so as to not give away where he lived.
With the college association's convention coming up in Washington, Shaf, Alfredo and I came up with a new spark plug for the community college movement. We formed an affiliate group, Congreso Nacional de Asuntos Colegiales to advocate for recruitment and retention and relevant programs for Latino students. With the national college leadership converging in the city, the plan unfolded.
Following some strategically placed position papers, a cocktail party, and an imported mariachi serenade, the talk of the convention was the need to advance Hispanic community-college interests.
That was nearly three decades ago. Today, 55 percent of all Hispanic students enrolled in higher education are in community colleges.
Shafeek Nader _ an uncompromising advocate for local, democratic decision-making _ was a farsighted man who passed away in 1986. The civic values he lived by are memorialized in The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest that he created.
I sensed all along Shaf and his younger brother Ralph must have been a lot alike. Now, Ralph has confirmed it. From reading the book, I realized two things: They shared the same personal ethic and civic culture to wear as body armor to engage in public issues. And there are 17 traditions that made them that way.
(Jose de la Isla, author of "The Rise of Hispanic Political Power" (Archer Books, 2003) writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail him at joseisla3(at)yahoo.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com.)
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