Political Gumbo: Never Forget

Armenians call it the Great Crime.

More than 1.5 million Armenians were hanged, poisoned, drowned or marched into the desert to die from 1915 to 1923 by soldiers with the Turkish Ottoman Empire. 

The Armenian Genocide was the first Genocide of the twentieth century. 

Of course, the Turkish government has historically still denied the events that occurred.

And for a long time, the United States co-signed on that.

Republican and Democratic presidents alike refused to acknowledge the Great Crime.

And, yes, that includes Barack Obama. Truth to tell, Obama’s refusal to acknowledge the events was probably the worse.

Candidate Obama, said several times, he would acknowledge the genocide. But in his eight years in office, he never did.

Yes, Obama can get called out too.

Obama, like past presidents, made the decision to block display of the Armenian Genocide rug.

Adam Schiff made it clear that the rug is not only a symbol of the resilience of the Armenian people through their darkest days; it also serves as a tangible expression of the inherent truth that not only were 1.5 million people killed in the first genocide of the 20th century, but that the American government was a central player in efforts to call attention to the plight of the Armenian people and provide relief to survivors.

The rug was hand-woven by orphans of the Armenian Genocide in an American-sponsored orphanage run by a US charity created by an act of Congress. 

The rug has more than 4 million hand-tied knots.

Schiff was right when he said the Armenian Orphan Rug is a piece of American history and it belongs to the American people.

President Biden did acknowledge the genocide in 2021.

But even sadder is this was not taught by the PUSD when I was a kid.

For decades, the only genocide I read about in history books was the one that impacted people that looked like me.

Black people.

And even then those paragraphs were there to praise President Lincoln.

No, we were not taught about the Jewish Holocaust either. From 1941 to 1945, the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jewish people. 

True history must be taught in our schools.

Of course now several school districts close schools on April 24 to honor those who lost their lives during the Great Crime.

I have learned about Armenian culture and the impacts of the Great Crime on its people from many discussions with former Mayor Bill Paparian. 

In those conversations we have talked about Jim Crow’s impact on my family, and how the genocide impacted his family, 

Brotherhood. 

We need more of that, people sharing culture and both sides curious to learn about history. 

Maybe then there would be no calls for cease fires and intolerance would be a 

Today, we are all Armenian.