Mood: Content and Happy – it’s cool and sunny again yet
disgruntled at the direction the US is headed
Listening to: Two Steps Behind by Def Leppard and Sponge Bob
Square Pants
So there have been some amazing things happening in the news
lately. And by amazing – I don’t mean in a good way. I was rather surprised
that many of the books I have been reading and reviewing have come into
(glaring) relevance lately and have given me some perspective on the
lunacy. As usual, I have been listening
to quite a bit of Guns N Roses. Specifically, Civil War. It’s been helping me to organize my thoughts
of disbelief and rage over said lunacy.
The Armenian Genocide:
As you may or may not be aware of, the Turkish/Armenian
genocide has been in the news for the past half a week. For some perspective,
read my blog on An Extraordinary Evil – or better yet go read the book.
Recently, congress has decided to grow some balls and pass a resolution actually
naming the conflict as genocide. Up until now, it has not been recognized as
such anywhere in the world. In fact, you get thrown in jail in Turkey for
mentioning it as such.
Now this happened about, oh, 90 years ago. It’s hard to
believe that anything other than guilty consciences is preventing it from being
called as it is. Even the US can admit that we wiped out a massively wrong
amount of American Indians in our pursuit of becoming a nation.
As a reaction to the proposition, Turkey has threatened to
remove support of the US and restrict our access to the military bases we have
in Turkey. You may be thinking – so what? We aren’t attacking Turkey any time
soon (someone knock on wood please!) why should this stop up? Turkey is a major launching point for all of
the foolishness we have been undertaking in Iraq, and possibly Iran in the
future, but more on that idiocy later. I
was so excited when I heard that congress was trying to pass this resolution as
I find it important to publicly recognize tragedies such as this as they are. I
then saw our “Decider” in boots stand up and announce that this wasn’t the
correct response to the issue.
Um, what? I think I need to turn up my hearing aid. I
thought I heard you say it wasn’t appropriate recognize the slaughter of
hundreds of thousands of people as it happened. Oh. You did say that. You did just publicly slap the entire
Armenian population (both living and the memory of those who died). Because you
have an agenda (of which the legitimacy is more than a little questionable)
that would be threatened. La Dee
Frickin Da.
I’ve heard some rumblings that the democratic congress
has been pursuing this resolution as a punishment to Bush for all of the Iraq
nonsense. Uh, so what? It would be
fantastic if all political and legislative incidents occurred from honorable
intentions, but that is just not reality. This resolution carries so much
importance beyond bothering Bush, I’m willing to not care if it’s a blow for
the plan in Iraq. (I’ll cover more on what the hell the plan actually is in
Iraq later too) Most of us agree that the whole Iraq situation is beyond
ludicrous anyhow. Why not make something positive out of it?
President Bush, we need this resolution. It is SO
critical to recognize history in an honest way, I cannot even stress this
enough. I know it’s an overused cliché, but it’s true - Unless we study and learn history how it
happened – it will repeat itself. I don’t know about you, sir, but I value
human life over political agendas. You have got to start looking beyond your
own power and agenda and recognize that sometimes you have to take a hit for
the good of humanity. I would love to hear you explain how exactly this would
threaten the security of our sacred nation. Then again, I have enough reasons
to be disgusted with you – don’t give me another one. As Pink so aptly said it – How can you
possibly hold your head up high after voicing an opinion like this? I hope
Laura is kicking your ass in private!
What happened to the huge support for Never Again? How
can we promise Never Again if we can’t even label an event as it really
happened? Ladies and gentleman, stand behind congress on this. I don’t care if
you’re a Democrat, Republican, Alien, or a bath mat. We should all be able to
recognize and fight for the value of human life over rhetoric. The sacrifices
in this instance are completely outnumbered by the benefits of taking a stand
on this issue. I know very few people
who would want a horrific event like genocide to reoccur. Those that would do
not mind sacrificing people for political agendas and power. (Sound familiar?)
I don’t mean to roast GWB/the administration on a spit,
but recognition is such a huge part of education and our president got stuck
being the mouthpiece for the administration on this issue. Write your congressmen and women. Give them
your support. Urge them of the importance of what they are doing and thank them
for having the courage to value human life.
Write the president and tear him a new one for not having the balls to
have some integrity on this issue. Get involved. If we just sit here, they get
to do whatever they want, and we’ve seen how well this has turned out.
To anyone reading who is Armenian:
I know there isn’t much for me to apologize for.
I’m not Turkish. I did not participate in the genocide. Hell, I didn’t even vote for Bush. However, I
still want to apologize to you. It cannot be easy for you to watch the leader
of the most powerful, influential nation in the world deny what happened to
you. I hope it makes you feel marginally better that many of us here consider
him a Grade A ass hat. Keep your head
up. There are plenty of those here who
would fight for recognition, even if it means the alienation of the Turkish
government. We have the freedom of expression here to fight for the truth. I
sincerely hope we can help you gain the recognition and support that is so
crucial to your people after what happened. You are in our thoughts.
Becky
