Letter

[Guest]

Letter

Show unity in remembering atrocities

 

 

My dear friend recently returned from U.C. Santa Cruz to La Crescenta to attend

the ceremony celebrating her, her mother's and her brother's new U.S. citizenship.

She is proud and happy to have this official validation of the only national identity

she remembers. She is majoring in American studies, fascinated with the political

process, and excited about voting. My friend was an American long before the process

that declared her as one; she attended and contributed much to local schools from

kindergarten through her senior year, she cared for our community's children at the

YMCA, and she volunteered her time and energy to benefit us all through programs as

diverse as voter registration and feeding the homeless.

The ethnic heritage of this lovely young woman and her family is Armenian, although

none of her family have ever been to the home of their ancestors, a testament to the

homelessness, displacement and intolerance that plague victims of genocide and the

generations that follow them. Yes, this family has embraced much of what it means to

be an American, but they also bring with them what it means to be Armenian, adapting

their lives and identities to the cultures they encounter on their journey to a safe place, a

home.

My ancestors also endured intolerance and heinous oppression, but they did so

many generations ago and no one in my family knows anything but an American

experience and does not know intimately the prejudices and injustices these ancestors

faced in their new homeland as refugees. Through the years, the suffering of my people

has become dilute, with the extent of destruction a point of disagreement. If the terror

had been acknowledged then and remembered, would we have a collective memory

now to strengthen our struggle to eliminate all destructive divisiveness? The memory of

the Armenian Genocide is intimate, with living family members recounting stories of

horror and grief. As a community, we have the opportunity to retain the knowledge of

these great atrocities and others that have cut a bloody swath through the lives of those

living yet today among us.

Let us bicker no longer. The flag was flown half-staff at Columbine. The reason?

Because it was a visible symbol to the nation that an event that adversely affected a

portion of the population of their community was collectively grieved over.

The Armenian-Americans are a significant portion of our community's population

and their memory of suffering is a part of their experience, which they bring to their lives

as Americans. This is not exclusionary. Anyone with any issue can present it and ask for

representation. This is not taking away of anything.

My proposal is to embrace this need to never forget the terrible possibilities that lurk

within us all and unite our community by erecting a monument to past memory and

future unity. Place circular seating in one of our many downtown parks. Surround it by

staffs and fly the flags representing the ethnic heritage of our community's people from

the staffs.

Our people represent a host of nations comprising every continent of our world.

Include banners representing the Native American nations, the very first people of this

land to suffer a genocide. These flags may be lowered at appropriate times to

remember the sad destruction we have done to one another as members of the human

race. More hopefully, at all other times, with an American flag in the center, we will be

reminded of the great strength we can celebrate as a nation of people blended together,

respecting and admiring our ability to retain our cultural differences while embracing the

American experience in unity.

Cyndi Donelan

La Crescenta