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PASADENA'S FITTING TRIBUTE TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: EDITORIAL
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Sept 18 2013
Pasadena City Hall was entirely correct this week to approve the
placement in the city's Memorial Park of a monument to the dead in
the Armenian Genocide.
More than a million Armenians died in the slaughter of 1915 at the
hands of Ottoman Turks. Many Southern California cities have been
enriched by the presence of large Armenian-American refugee communities
from the diaspora that began during and after that time.
But Pasadena's Armenian community goes back much farther than most -
there are fourth- and fifth-generation families in the city. M.S.
Pashgian was an early settler, business and cultural leader and
instrumental in founding of the Tournament of Roses, and served as
grand marshal of the, as it happens, 1915 Rose Parade. And former
Pasadena police Chief Barney Melekian's grandparents owned a bakery
in the city. Armenian Pasadenans are as entrenched in the city's long
history as are Latinos and African Americans.
Two controversies dogged the proposed new memorial in recent months
in a park that is now set aside for memorials.
There was a competing proposal for a memorial by another group
of local Armenians than the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial
Committee, which is sponsoring this plan. That was awkward, and
reflective of a long split over many issues, from religion to
politics, among Southern Californians whose descendants came from
the South Caucasus. It's akin to the internal polarization of other
peoples for whom war and economics have forced a diaspora, like the
Chinese split over loyalty to the Nationalists of Taiwan or to the
Beijing government. But this committee got its full act together
first, sponsoring a fine competition among local art students that
was judged by, among others, prominent architect and New Urbanist
planner Stefanos Polyzoides and was won by Art Center College of
Design student Catherine Menard. Several of the 17 entrants were
from Armenian families themselves; Menard is not, which shows the
open-mindedness of the competition and the fact that Armenian history
is part of the history of all of us by now.
To their credit, the competitors of the Armenian Community Coalition
have dropped their proposal in the name of not squabbling about
something so somberly important. If they did not show up at a recent
City Council meeting to formally back the current design for the
memorial, they have graciously decided not to publicly object.
Other demurs came recently from veterans who said that Memorial Park
should be set aside only for monuments to Americans who have fought in
the nation's wars. It is true that there is a longstanding Civil War
monument there. There is a Vietnam War memorial inscribed with the
names of the 31 men from Pasadena who died in that conflict. There
is even a Batchelder fountain "Dedicated To Our Mothers By Daughters
Of Union Veterans Of The Civil War 1861-1865." And there is a coming
proposal to place a Korean War memorial there based around the legacy
of Medal of Honor winner Reginald Desiderio, which would also be a
welcome addition to the park.
But public spaces grow in their significance through proper additions.
Memorial Park was once Library Park, and still contains the entrance
arch of Pasadena's first free library. There will never be room
for every memorial in its limited acreage. But for this moving and
appropriate design, there very much is room.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinion/20130918/pasadenas-fitting-tribute-to-victims-of-armenian-genocide-editorial
From: Baghdasarian
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Sept 18 2013
Pasadena City Hall was entirely correct this week to approve the
placement in the city's Memorial Park of a monument to the dead in
the Armenian Genocide.
More than a million Armenians died in the slaughter of 1915 at the
hands of Ottoman Turks. Many Southern California cities have been
enriched by the presence of large Armenian-American refugee communities
from the diaspora that began during and after that time.
But Pasadena's Armenian community goes back much farther than most -
there are fourth- and fifth-generation families in the city. M.S.
Pashgian was an early settler, business and cultural leader and
instrumental in founding of the Tournament of Roses, and served as
grand marshal of the, as it happens, 1915 Rose Parade. And former
Pasadena police Chief Barney Melekian's grandparents owned a bakery
in the city. Armenian Pasadenans are as entrenched in the city's long
history as are Latinos and African Americans.
Two controversies dogged the proposed new memorial in recent months
in a park that is now set aside for memorials.
There was a competing proposal for a memorial by another group
of local Armenians than the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial
Committee, which is sponsoring this plan. That was awkward, and
reflective of a long split over many issues, from religion to
politics, among Southern Californians whose descendants came from
the South Caucasus. It's akin to the internal polarization of other
peoples for whom war and economics have forced a diaspora, like the
Chinese split over loyalty to the Nationalists of Taiwan or to the
Beijing government. But this committee got its full act together
first, sponsoring a fine competition among local art students that
was judged by, among others, prominent architect and New Urbanist
planner Stefanos Polyzoides and was won by Art Center College of
Design student Catherine Menard. Several of the 17 entrants were
from Armenian families themselves; Menard is not, which shows the
open-mindedness of the competition and the fact that Armenian history
is part of the history of all of us by now.
To their credit, the competitors of the Armenian Community Coalition
have dropped their proposal in the name of not squabbling about
something so somberly important. If they did not show up at a recent
City Council meeting to formally back the current design for the
memorial, they have graciously decided not to publicly object.
Other demurs came recently from veterans who said that Memorial Park
should be set aside only for monuments to Americans who have fought in
the nation's wars. It is true that there is a longstanding Civil War
monument there. There is a Vietnam War memorial inscribed with the
names of the 31 men from Pasadena who died in that conflict. There
is even a Batchelder fountain "Dedicated To Our Mothers By Daughters
Of Union Veterans Of The Civil War 1861-1865." And there is a coming
proposal to place a Korean War memorial there based around the legacy
of Medal of Honor winner Reginald Desiderio, which would also be a
welcome addition to the park.
But public spaces grow in their significance through proper additions.
Memorial Park was once Library Park, and still contains the entrance
arch of Pasadena's first free library. There will never be room
for every memorial in its limited acreage. But for this moving and
appropriate design, there very much is room.
http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinion/20130918/pasadenas-fitting-tribute-to-victims-of-armenian-genocide-editorial
From: Baghdasarian