Yes, she's strange and different...but not THAT different.

15 October 2007

Just in time?

Not content with an approval rating even lower than that of Duhbya, the Congress of the United States has decided to branch out into the international arena of dislike by potentially passing a non-binding resolution denouncing the Turkish massacre of Armenians as genocide. Was it genocide? Yep. Should the resolution be passed? Yep. However, there IS a small problem involved in the timing of the resolution: the massacre took place almost a hundred years ago during World War I and was perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Hopefully Congress will be able to get this pressing business taken care of soon and move on to some lesser issues ... like overriding the S-CHIP veto, passing a T-inclusive ENDA, passing Hate Crimes legislation, and - oh, yeah - maybe pulling the country's ass out of a war in the Middle East. Unless maybe there's also another possible bill pending to label the American government's treatment of the native Americans as genocide. Or maybe another to label the Australian government's treatment of the native Aborigines as genocide. But first things first, I guess.

  • On 10/15/2007 7:12 PM, Blogger robkroese said…

    Hey, I just learned that congress imposed a telephone excise tax to fund the Spanish American war. And guess what? Apparently it's not paid off yet, because we're still paying the tax.

     
  • On 10/15/2007 7:56 PM, Blogger soccer mom in denial said…

    Sigh. This all started over the summer with a letter to the editor of a very local (read small town) paper complaining that the Anti-Defamation League does not recognize the Armenian genocide. It is a wonderful story of local activism impacting huge non-profits, town government, international affairs. Really. Stuff to make a social change activist pee in her panties.

    And I also grew up in a region that has the 2nd largest population of Armenians outside of Armenia (the first is LA, CA). One of my friend's grandfathers told harrowing stories of being chanced by Turkish army members and shot at. As a little boy.

    I think the Jewish community has been hypocritical with history. When it serves them (e.g. Sudan) it is a genocide. When it compromises their reality (e.g. all things done by Isreal is good) then their "never again" mantra is wrong.

    Those who are righteous should always be right. Otherwise they are hypocrits. (Hey, I just made that up!).

    So while I agree there are other things Congress should work on, I think this is great. The tipping point was a letter to the editor of a small town newspaper....

     
  • On 10/15/2007 8:00 PM, Blogger Nancy said…

    You deserve a seat with Jon Stewart ... delivering the news, in a truthful but dam hilarious way!

    ^5 Jami

     
  • On 10/16/2007 6:46 PM, Blogger Jen said…

    I think actually it was more than the small town letter. This has been a major point for the Armenian lobby for a long, long time. I think the timing has more to do with the U.S. wanting a launch base from which to attack Iran, hence Putin's "warning" today. And I agree this should have been out there a long, long time ago, say before FDR turned away the 15,000 Jewish refugees who came to our shores during WWII? Almost twice as many Armenians as Jews were killed in that genocide versus the Holocaust. Genocide to me is the most insidious of all hate crimes (well, duh) and needs to be named as such again and again and again - and it occurs by one group against another more than we want to admit as a global community. See... I AM on a rant today!

     

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