Justify

Posted by parhad on July 05, 2001 at 08:30:30:

People have asked how I justify the money spent on monuments when there is so much need among our people. The short and easy answer is that the people

donating to these monuments give money to other causes as well, or don't...but are motivated to fund monuments.

The other answer is that without "advertising" we will remain an unknown entity and people can thrash us anytime they feel like it anywhere in the world. Any proud

and noble children we produce might be repulsed by the sight of so many people wailing and moaning generation after generation till it would seem to them that we

couldn't possibly be descended from those people of old...and turn away from what's being called an Assyrian Heritage when it's just been a Christian heritage of

meekness and cheek turning.

Everything that the AAS or ZOWAA have built could be dismantled in 24 hours. Then we'd be back saying.."Mr. could you give some money to re-build those

villages we rebuilt two years ago again"? I've wondered the same thing...how do you justify it?

There's no way around it, we have to make ourselves better known. For one thing there aren't the resources in our community alone to handle the need. There is

money available through all sorts of organizations, but there again we have to get our story told. There is also the hope that younger people, children even, will be

moved by what they see and feel, especially as they see the reaction of OTHER people that then might grow up wanting to work for this heritage. That's one of the

reasons people build monuments and write symphonies and plays and novels and poetry...to inspire.

Our peculiar brand of Christianity, stoked as it is by the clergy, sees humility as our only salvation. The idea of trumpeting our story from the rooftops is not their

notion of Christian piety. Besides any money, or any effort, that does not go into church business is a potential loss from their own coffers. It does seem sort of venal

and self-centered of them but there you have it.