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Thursday, March 24, 2011
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LAMENTATION
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Let others recycle propaganda.
I will continue to use my reason and common sense
because I believe them to be valuable tools
even when they make me vulnerable
to charges of treason and betrayal
by Ottomanized and Sovietized dupes.
*
If the scriptures,
to which we all pretend to believe
to be the word of God,
clearly and unequivocally states
“A house divided against itself cannot stand,”
I shall have no choice but to call our leaders
the architects of our own destruction.
And if you say,
all rules have exceptions,
I say, greed for power, incompetence, stupidity, and corruption
that lead to defeat, massacre, and dispersion
are consequences not of rules but of aberrations.
*
No one is perfect?
I suggest, that idea does not justify dishonesty.
As imperfect beings
we have made our share of mistakes,
granted.
Let us therefore begin
by being honest enough to admit them,
instead of brainwashing generations of children
to believe we never had it so good
because we are in the best of hands.
*
Best of hands?
I have every reason to suspect,
it’s the worst of hands:
bishops who fornicate,
bosses with secret fascist agendas,
benefactors who harbor royalist ambitions,
and academics willing and eager to kiss
any posterior for a regular income.
Amot!
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Friday, March 25, 2011
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LAMENTATION / II
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“We have the leaders we deserve.”
“We are ungovernable.”
“Where there are two Armenians
there will be three opinions.”
*
We are all familiar with the story
of the two shipwrecked Armenians
on a desert island
who build three churches.
When asked by their rescuers
why a third church, they reply:
“That’s the one we don’t go to.”
*
I am not convinced.
To blame the people
is to victimize the victim all over again.
Solidarity is a function of the leadership
not of the masses.
If we remain divided today
it’s because there are among us deceivers
willing to place their careers
above the welfare of the nation.
To that end
they fabricate ideological and theological reasons
(reasons that most Armenians neither know nor understand,
and if they know and understand, they don’t remember)
and call their opponents heretics or infidels.
*
Mighty empires begin as a collection of tribes.
It takes a charismatic leader with vision
to unite them into a single force.
This is as true of the Athenian Empire
as it is true of all empires
from the Roman to the Ottoman.
*
Even our monastic orders
with identical belief systems and aims
like the Mekhitarists are sooner or later divided
and consigned to the dustbin of history.
*
It was Raffi who once described us
as a flock without a shepherd.
It would be more accurate to say
we are several flocks with as many wolves
as shepherds – wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“Mart bidi ch’ellank!”
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Saturday, March 26, 2011
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WRITERS
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A reader writes:
“When someone speaks plainly
I sort of go into shock and
get somewhat disoriented.”
If I write plainly it’s because
I want to be honest, objective, and accessible.
I have nothing to hide,
no interests to defend,
and no prejudices to legitimize.
Our writers today cater
to a variety of readers
with specific demands.
They treat bishops as men of God
(therefore untouchable),
bosses as infallible
(therefore beyond criticism),
and benefactors as sacred cows
(therefore gifts from god).
As for objectivity and honesty:
they might as well be skunks
at a garden party.
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