There are few times when I truly can say that so little work produced major results when it comes to Hai Tahd work. Last weekend was one of the most productive weekends I’ve had in a while (outside of the daily work).
An intern of mine from 2 summers ago started this trend. She was determined to find ways to push the Armenian Genocide subject into classrooms throughout the US. She found the perfect outlet, a social studies conference in Chicago where teachers go to find materials to introduce in their classrooms. Well, we helped her prepare a booth last year, and this year we did even more. This year the conference was in Baltimore, Maryland, just an hour north of DC. So we did all the preparations here. It was a 2 day conference and with just a handful of people, we managed to distribute near 1000 packets of information to teachers from all over America, passed out postcards with www.teachgenocide.org to well over a thousand teachers, and even sold some books.
.
You wanna talk about an audience that would be most receptive to your cause, this is it. These people almost seemed hungry for the information we were offering. VERY few people passed by without inquiring and walking away with information. Some people approached us DESPARATE for material because they have been teaching the subject already, but didn’t have enough resources to use. I even had a long conversation with a gentleman who inquired extensively about the subject, happy that we were there and hoping we would get the recognition we deserve, but also inquiring about Kharabagh. He asked, playing devil’s advocate, if we consider what Armenia did to Azerbaijan in the Kharabagh conflict to be similar to the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks. I gave him a very diplomatic response explaining the history (Stalin-drawn borders, Sumgait massacres, etc.) and he appreciated the insight and said it now made sense. It was when he started to ask about the Dashnags, Hnchags, and Ramgavars that I realized he knew more than the average Joe. That was when he told me his parents were Turkish, but he considers himself an American and never identified with his Turkish roots. Imagine, the one Turk you run into at something like this is in 100% support of your cause. That’s the type of weekend I had: busy, but ever so rewarding.
The conference ended with a lecture by Samantha Power speaking about her book “A Problem from Hell” (now out on paperback). She was invited to talk about the importance of teaching about Genocide. There couldn’t have been a more appropriate tie-in to our subject. We managed to pass around our postcards to everyone in the lecture as well. And of course, I bought a book and had it signed by her, and took a photo with the other 2 volunteers with me.
The previous week was also notable… there was a great AYF Dance in Philly with Nersik Ispirian and hundreds showed up. During the day, I also went to a breaking event (see photos at www.digitalrailroad.net/Arsineh), a new and exciting experience.
This weekend is Thanksgiving… very low key this year as the whole family is dispersed and will be here for Christmas (sister and husband, cousin and fiancé, etc) so I can’t complain. But it’s very quiet and creepy around here these days. Good time to catch up on work.
An intern of mine from 2 summers ago started this trend. She was determined to find ways to push the Armenian Genocide subject into classrooms throughout the US. She found the perfect outlet, a social studies conference in Chicago where teachers go to find materials to introduce in their classrooms. Well, we helped her prepare a booth last year, and this year we did even more. This year the conference was in Baltimore, Maryland, just an hour north of DC. So we did all the preparations here. It was a 2 day conference and with just a handful of people, we managed to distribute near 1000 packets of information to teachers from all over America, passed out postcards with www.teachgenocide.org to well over a thousand teachers, and even sold some books.
.
You wanna talk about an audience that would be most receptive to your cause, this is it. These people almost seemed hungry for the information we were offering. VERY few people passed by without inquiring and walking away with information. Some people approached us DESPARATE for material because they have been teaching the subject already, but didn’t have enough resources to use. I even had a long conversation with a gentleman who inquired extensively about the subject, happy that we were there and hoping we would get the recognition we deserve, but also inquiring about Kharabagh. He asked, playing devil’s advocate, if we consider what Armenia did to Azerbaijan in the Kharabagh conflict to be similar to the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks. I gave him a very diplomatic response explaining the history (Stalin-drawn borders, Sumgait massacres, etc.) and he appreciated the insight and said it now made sense. It was when he started to ask about the Dashnags, Hnchags, and Ramgavars that I realized he knew more than the average Joe. That was when he told me his parents were Turkish, but he considers himself an American and never identified with his Turkish roots. Imagine, the one Turk you run into at something like this is in 100% support of your cause. That’s the type of weekend I had: busy, but ever so rewarding.
The conference ended with a lecture by Samantha Power speaking about her book “A Problem from Hell” (now out on paperback). She was invited to talk about the importance of teaching about Genocide. There couldn’t have been a more appropriate tie-in to our subject. We managed to pass around our postcards to everyone in the lecture as well. And of course, I bought a book and had it signed by her, and took a photo with the other 2 volunteers with me.
The previous week was also notable… there was a great AYF Dance in Philly with Nersik Ispirian and hundreds showed up. During the day, I also went to a breaking event (see photos at www.digitalrailroad.net/Arsineh), a new and exciting experience.
This weekend is Thanksgiving… very low key this year as the whole family is dispersed and will be here for Christmas (sister and husband, cousin and fiancé, etc) so I can’t complain. But it’s very quiet and creepy around here these days. Good time to catch up on work.
posted by Arsineh at 2:27 AM
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