Staying home

This year, I decided to spend April 24th at home. As a kid, I would attend demonstrations in Chicago with my family and the local community in front of the Turkish Embassy. "We demand justice", "Turks are murderers", and slogans such as that would be seen by a few passersby. Sometimes the Turkish flag would be lit on fire with a bunch of older men stomping on it. Stuff like that. Looking back, I remember being thrilled at such a community bonding/venting event. But, I also reflect back and have concluded it didn't really buy us a whole lot of our "15 minutes". Often times, the news was buried on the back section of the Local/City sections of the paper, if that. And, TV? Once in 5 years if lucky. But still, hanging out with my fellow AYF'ers and members of the church, it was a strong communal experience that taught me to respect those who perished, tell myself I am lucky to be alive, and manufacture and create a hatred against the Turk for what they did- what they all did.

As I migrated to Boston, I would either organize stuff through our Armenian Club on go to the ACEC in Watertown for a lecture by Hovhanessian, Dadrian, etc. Again, the bonding and communal experience was strong. Community events would be earnest in commemorating the dead, if not somewhat predictable. Selfless organizers always did a great job in putting together programs and such.

These days, Genocide recognition should be more subtle in using the press and media to tell OUR story while putting pressure on Turkey. The internal commemoration should stay our business, but, utilizing all our resources in using the media to tell the story is now at a crucial state. The Boston Globe had an extraordinary expose on 4 Genocide survivors on the April 24th issue of their paper. It was oral history as told by the survivors themselves with no narration from the Boston Globe. it was raw, chilling, and very effective. Haunting, really. And, the use of the term "Armenian Genocide" was used, something banned from the pages of the Globe and Times for years. Times are changing.