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BUILD ONE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MONUMENT IN PASADENA:
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
April 24 2013
San Gabriel Valley Tribunesgvtribune.com
A congressman with a lot of Armenian-American constituents bothers to
learn enough of the Armenian language to give a speech on the floor
of the House this week.
Local political leaders of all ethnic stripes gather each year to
commemorate the dead in the Armenian Genocide, which began 98 years
ago in the Ottoman empire.
Even if President Obama still declines to use the word genocide to
describe the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands out of deference
to the delicate political situation vis a vis contemporary Turkey,
San Gabriel Valley residents know, after more than five generations
of living side by side with Americans of Armenian descent, just how
horrible the slaughter was.
So even though some in the local Armenian-American community are
asking "outsiders" to stay out of a long-simmering split between
rival factions in Pasadena who want to build separate monuments to
the victims of the genocide, and though there is another split among
members of Montebello-area Armenian groups who attend ceremonies at
different times at that city's monument, it's time for all to heed
a simple plea that we all just get along on the subject.
With the two Pasadena groups just beginning to raise funds to build
monuments in that city, the time is now to settle the feud and stop
the rivalry. The argument by one group that "we thought it up first"
is especially specious, especially since there seems to have been
some poaching of plans from contest participants at Art Center College
of Design.
Here's the bottom line: The bickering dishonors the memory of those
ancestors systemically massacred between 1915 and 1923 by the Ottoman
government. It dishonors the original 250 Armenian intellectuals and
leaders who were first arrested April 24, 1915, in Constantinople. It
dishonors the pain over the last century borne by the survivors and
descendants of those killed and those marched through the desert. And
it dishonors as well the decades of efforts of Armenian Americans
in the San Gabriel Valley to educate all of us about how important
it is to understand the depths of the tragedy and learn its lessons
lest the awful history repeat itself - one reason we study history
in the first place.
Build one monument to the Armenian Genocide in Pasadena. Have one
fundraising effort. A united community will have it no other way.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_23099518/build-one-armenian-genocide-monument-pasadena-editorial
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
April 24 2013
San Gabriel Valley Tribunesgvtribune.com
A congressman with a lot of Armenian-American constituents bothers to
learn enough of the Armenian language to give a speech on the floor
of the House this week.
Local political leaders of all ethnic stripes gather each year to
commemorate the dead in the Armenian Genocide, which began 98 years
ago in the Ottoman empire.
Even if President Obama still declines to use the word genocide to
describe the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands out of deference
to the delicate political situation vis a vis contemporary Turkey,
San Gabriel Valley residents know, after more than five generations
of living side by side with Americans of Armenian descent, just how
horrible the slaughter was.
So even though some in the local Armenian-American community are
asking "outsiders" to stay out of a long-simmering split between
rival factions in Pasadena who want to build separate monuments to
the victims of the genocide, and though there is another split among
members of Montebello-area Armenian groups who attend ceremonies at
different times at that city's monument, it's time for all to heed
a simple plea that we all just get along on the subject.
With the two Pasadena groups just beginning to raise funds to build
monuments in that city, the time is now to settle the feud and stop
the rivalry. The argument by one group that "we thought it up first"
is especially specious, especially since there seems to have been
some poaching of plans from contest participants at Art Center College
of Design.
Here's the bottom line: The bickering dishonors the memory of those
ancestors systemically massacred between 1915 and 1923 by the Ottoman
government. It dishonors the original 250 Armenian intellectuals and
leaders who were first arrested April 24, 1915, in Constantinople. It
dishonors the pain over the last century borne by the survivors and
descendants of those killed and those marched through the desert. And
it dishonors as well the decades of efforts of Armenian Americans
in the San Gabriel Valley to educate all of us about how important
it is to understand the depths of the tragedy and learn its lessons
lest the awful history repeat itself - one reason we study history
in the first place.
Build one monument to the Armenian Genocide in Pasadena. Have one
fundraising effort. A united community will have it no other way.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_23099518/build-one-armenian-genocide-monument-pasadena-editorial