Genocide is the Word

For much of my adult life I was aware, on a minimal level, of the genocide engineered by the Turks against the Armenians, a genocide that claimed the lives of 1.5 million people in the early part of the 20th century. We don't like to talk about that genocide in this country. Much like our refusal to discuss the malignant indifference of the entire U.S. government to the Rwandan genocide, led by then President Bill Clinton, as I previously mentioned in my blog mention of Hillary.

In the 1990's I married the daughter of an Armenian American. His parents escaped the genocide and fled to the United States. Now, I am the proud father of two Armenian American daughters.

In recent weeks there has been a new and contentious debate going on here in New England about the supposed Armenian Genocide, along with yet another shameful response from the Turkish government and the Anti-Defamation League. Please take time to read up on this and other related articles in the Boston Globe. Also take time to read Peter Balakian's groundbreaking work: The Burning Tigris.

All of us, as an international community, must take a firm stand against the nation of Turkey through political and economic pressure. The Turkish government, and the Turkish people, must be accountable to all of the human community. We must also call on our own government to officially acknowledge and condemn the Armenian Genocide.

The words we use are vital, and ultimately create their own reality. The word was, and is, GENOCIDE!

Nothing like picking
11 pounds of blueberries
on an August morning
to get your head right

News of the Day

(From BBC News)
Pet Camel Kills Australian Woman

A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal may have tried to have sex with her. The woman had been given the camel as a 60th birthday present earlier this year because of her love of exotic pets. The camel was just 10 months old but already weighed 336lbs and had come close to suffocating the family's pet goat on a number of occasions. On Saturday, the woman apparently became the object of the male camel's desire. It knocked her to the ground, lay on top of her and displayed what the police delicately described as possible mating behaviour. Young camels are not normally aggressive but can become more threatening if treated and raised as pets.