FIRED FOR SAYING THE WORD "GENOCIDE"

LAist, California
April 24 2007

John Marshall Evans became the US ambassador to Armenia in August
2004. Six months later he visited California and was convinced by
Armenian-Americans here to cut the political B.S. and simply say that
the 1.5 million Armenians who were the victims of genocide at the hands
of the Turks from 1915 and 1923… were indeed victims of genocide.

Today President Bush will tapdance around the word in fear of insulting
our ally Turkey, a country that is critical in our actions in the
Middle East. Infact over the last 13 years on April 24, ridiculously
but officially dubbed "National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity
to Man", US Presidents acknowledge the Armenian tragedy without ever
saying the G-word. Whereas most of the EU recognizes the genocide,
Switzerland and France have taken it to the next level making it a
crime to deny the genocide.

Ambassador Evans’ crime was saying the word. In a interview with the
LA Times today, he explains that because no one ever really said the
word he didn’t really know what the punishment would be.

Clearly when I was here in February 2005, I knew that by mentioning
this word, I could get myself in trouble. I didn’t know precisely
what the degree of that trouble would be, but I knew that it could
range from a slap on the wrist to being immediately canned. And as it
turned out it was something between those extremes: I got more than
a mere slap on the wrist, I wasn’t immediately canned. I basically
was eased out after about 18 months, although I had more time on my
clock. […] I was basically asked to go ahead and retire.

The entire interview with the Times’ Matt Welch is fascinating, as is
Welch’s piece on Sunday explaining the dilemma President Bush faces
today as to how he will approach the G-word.

We’re sure the president will handle it as gracefully as he normally
does when slamdancing with the English language.

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