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  • Weaver's Remarks Slammed

    WEAVER'S REMARKS SLAMMED
    By Jeremy Oberstein

    Glendale News Press
    August 7, 2008 12:07 AM PDT

    GLENDALE -- A small but irate contingent of Glendale residents
    admonished Councilman Dave Weaver during Tuesday night's City Council
    meeting for comments he made to a local publication last week that
    seemed directed against the city's sizable Armenian population.

    In the June 26 edition of the Pasadena Weekly, Weaver was asked about
    a possible ban on smoking in Glendale, to which he said: "I don't care
    if it's popular. It's the right thing to do. But there will be a lot
    of opposition from one segment of the population that loves to smoke,"
    a veiled reference to many of the city's Armenians.

    Due to an editing error, the quote was attributed to Mayor John
    Drayman, and the article was eventually amended to reflect Weaver's
    sentiment.

    The Glendale chapter of the Armenian National Committee immediately
    seized on Weaver's comments, issuing an alert to its more than 7,000
    members to contact Drayman and the four other councilmen to "condemn
    Councilmember Weaver's continuous unethical behavior on the dias
    [sic] and to request a public apology from the councilmember."

    On Tuesday, residents called for Weaver's censure, his resignation
    and expressed outrage that an elected official was behind comments
    perceived to be directed against Glendale's largest minority.

    "I am dismayed in the year 2008, anyone would stereotype a segment
    of an entire community on any single issue," Glendale ANC chairman
    Artin Manoukian said. "It is even more shocking when the person
    doing that is an elected official. When someone is elected to office,
    it is their responsibility to demand equality and justice."

    Missing from Tuesday night's meeting was Councilman Bob Yousefian
    and Weaver, who said a family matter precluded his attendance at
    the meeting.

    Weaver declined to comment about Tuesday night's reaction, saying:
    "I'll be there next week."

    Not all of the meeting's attendees berated Weaver for his comments.

    Glendale resident Evelyn Hanson sought to cool the heels of outraged
    reaction by recognizing what she felt unified those in the chamber
    instead of what divided the group.

    "People just need to let go of the anger," Hanson said.

    "Sometimes people say things they wouldn't have said otherwise,
    but we need to let go of the anger and forget the prejudice and
    forget perpetuating prejudice. They really need to let go of the
    divisiveness."

    But others in the chamber, including Councilman Ara Najarian,
    said Weaver's comments represented a chance for the city to combat
    prejudice and that peo ple should be encouraged to stand up for what
    they believe to be a racial slight.

    "I think it is an important thing to stand up [against] racial
    prejudice wherever it's seen, especially someone on the council,"
    Najarian said. "Should we tell Rosa Parks to chill out, that the back
    of the bus wasn't so bad? No. We've got to bring this up. We've got
    to confront it with the hope that we improve the situation and people
    realize they can't make stereotypical comments and racial comments."

    That sentiment was shared by the ANC, which has seen a sharp increase
    in membership since Weaver's comments were first circulated.

    Officials with the group have recorded 127 new contacts and said they
    have received about 760 letters and more than 60 calls a day since
    the article was published.

    ANC leaders were quick to say Wednesday that though they had benefited
    in the form of increased membership from Weaver's comments, the focus
    should remain on the issue at hand.

    "I don't want any one to turn this into an Armenian, non-Armenian
    issue," Glendale ANC Executive Director Elen Asatryan said. "It really
    is not about the smoking issue or the Armenian-American community.

    It's deeper than that. I was happy to get phone calls from
    non-Armenians who said Councilman Weaver has always taken an extreme
    stance on things and his reaction20to any minority is open and
    ugly. It's one thing to hear it from Armenians, it's another thing
    to hear it from non-Armenians."

    The ANC also took umbrage at the portrayal of Armenian smoking habits
    in the Pasadena Weekly article in which reporter Carl Kozlowski wrote
    that Weaver was referring to "the city's substantial and politically
    influential Armenian community, where smoking tobacco -- both in
    cigarette form and from hookahs -- is a widely enjoyed after-dinner
    cultural tradition."

    Asatryan strongly dismissed that contention and said support and
    opposition for the proposed ban against smoking is divided among many
    of Glendale's Armenians.

    "[Smoking] is not an after-dinner tradition, I promise you," Asatryan
    said. "Something like this should have never been published."

    A survey that the ANC recently conducted showed that 45% of the 740
    people asked supported the proposed ban while 61% of survey takers
    claimed to be nonsmokers.

    Kozlowski and editor Kevin Uhrich appeared at the meeting and expressed
    regret for the misattribution -- which they corrected after the error
    was found -- and met with ANC leaders July 31 to sooth relations.

    To assuage their concerns, officials with the Pasadena Weekly agreed
    to let Asatryan write a guest column in a future issue breaking down
    the tenets of the survey and listing some of the ANC's=2 0primary
    grievances.

    "We try really hard, but we make mistakes -- we're human," Uhrich
    said. "This is just one of those unfortunate occurrences where we've
    taken, I think, appropriate action to correct."
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