Posted by pancho from pool0242.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.250.242) on Thursday, November 21, 2002 at 5:13PM :
Next to turning Christian...being murdered has been the highlight of our existence in the last 2000 years. I just don't get it. It's almost as if people look forward to remembering it, to "celebrating" it. What makes it so damn incomprehensible is that we have Christian Assyrians very eager to direct more violence and misery at Iraq...to save the Christians there? Huh?
Bullets don't skip past Christians, neither do the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Is there any objective worth getting people killed for? We tell the Turks, "certainly not". We don't care what good reasons they thought they had...it was wrong to kill all those Christians. Yet our own Christian Assyrians see the war for the "liberation" of Iraq and the resulting death and misery, as during the Sanctions, to be "worth the price". Which is what Madeliene Allbright said about five thousand dead children a month...it was an "acceptable" price to pay...but for whom? I don't doubt some Pasha somewhere in Turkey said the tragic deaths of innocent Christians was a price worth paying for "national security".
Are you justified in killing anyone to save someone else?
All we've managed to do as Christian Assyrians is demand recognition for our losses. Jesus...if I just could have been shafted by Turks instead of Assyrians...how much better the shaft would have felt.
I don't know. It just doesn't seem enough...or much of anything. We can then be "recognized"...and stand in line behind a long list of people who've been bumped off. And this is supposed to be a prelude...to what, pity? If Afro-Americans can't get reparations...if American Vets can't get lifetime health coverage as they were promised...who the hell is going to do anything for us? Unless...unless someone figures out a way to use us...and bamboozles enough of our taxi driving, dish washing, college student world leaders by promising them $5.78 a month and a title to go with it.
I have a feeling our Genocides aren't over...and will never be as long as we focus our own attention and energy primarily on reminding everyone that we get killed every so often...then do nothing much until more of us get killed...then remind everyone...and wait till more of us get killed...then remind everyone...and then wai....
Anyone interested in celebrating Life...in creating something besides a list of all our victims?
well...enjoy
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Last night, as I was on my way to a lecture, given by an Armenian professor, I bumped into a man and asked him how to get to the building the lecture was being held at. He told me he was on his way as well, and asked why I was so interested in the genocide. I explained to him that I am an Assyrian and that many of our people were persecuted as well during the horrible genoicide. I also told him that I hoped the lecturer would mention our people in his talk.
Well it turns out that the man i was walking with to the auditorium was that profesor giving the lecture. He never told me who he was, and i had no clue who he was either. He was interested though, in findingo out more about why I was going. Over 300 Armenians, Assyrians, and others filled the auditorium that night, and in matter of fact some were sent home for there wasa no more space. i sat on stage because with 50 other people because no other seats were available.
In his lecture Simon Paysalian mentioned American policy towards the genocide and why America did not intervene with military action. He went on to say that America has yet to admit the existance of the genocide. At the end of his one hour lecture, he turned to me and asked if he could tell the audiance about our suprising encounter. He told them that I came to hear about the Assyrians and that he did not want to disapoint me. The crowd cheered after that remark. He went on to say that although people claim the Armenian genocide to be the forgotten genocide, that the Assyrians are the ones with the truely forgotten genocide. It felt good to hear a scholar like him mention our people as well during those horrible times. Both our people suffered during the forgotten genocide, and it is time to start educationg others more about it, because it is part of our long history.
An Armenian woman then came on stage to say "Please join us for some coffee and sweets, because it is our cultural tradition to have something sweet after talking about something so bitter."
-- pancho
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