IGNORING GENOCIDE IS INEXCUSABLE
Michael Teahan
Glendale News Press
10/04/21/columns/gnp-teahan042110.txt
APril 21 2010
CA
It is difficult to make a more compelling case for the Armenian
Genocide resolution working its way through Congress than to recognize
the suffering of a people for whom the word "genocide" was invented.
There are, even for those without the gene for empathy, damn good
reasons to care. Reasons that go beyond the tragedy of the original
event.
How we choose to remember the Armenian Genocide will say a lot about
who we are as a people. This is no longer about the choices of the
Turkish government or the actions of the Ottoman Empire, but the active
role some in this country are about to play as accomplices after the
fact. To deny a historical fact for political expediency, or to say
that it doesn’t matter because it was another people or another time is
to take an active role in the crime. The truth is supposed to matter.
For a senator or member of Congress to vote against the resolution
means that they can never be trusted. It means that they are perfectly
willing to lie in service to a political agenda. In the face a
politically sensitive fight, I suppose that a politician can make
a case for anything. I think, though, that when the truth becomes a
commodity that can be bargained, it starts to lose its meaning.
It is that willingness to lie that is the core issue. It means that
when we expect to get straight answers about health care, banking
regulations or global warming, we will never be able to trust that
the answer isn’t colored by a political motivation in contravention
to the truth.
If a politician is willing to whitewash the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of innocent victims in service to the ego of a foreign
power, selling out the voter to the highest political contributor is
all too easy a task.
In some respects, this is an easy litmus test for how dishonorable
a politician can be.
More daunting than all of this is what it means to the victims
of genocide not yet born. If politicians outside Texas are given
a pass on rewriting history, it becomes a license to kill. Whole
generations are now being wiped out because the victor controls the
story. We rarely hear of Darfur, and our outrage over the atrocities
in Bosnia was tempered by our own bias toward the victims — many of
whom happened to be Muslim.
Our inability to stand firm to defend the truth gives permission to
exact cruel and inhumane acts in the future. This is no longer about
properly giving a name to a historical fact; striking a bargain with
propaganda is a crime for which we will condemn our children to pay.
For my part, I will not give my president permission to waffle on
the truth no matter what it costs in the near term.
I would gladly sacrifice the air space over any country if it is one
step toward drawing a line in the sand because I think it is better
to sacrifice a thousand lives for a just cause than to be party to
a crime to save one.
We can do little to heal the pain endured by the victims of the
Armenian Genocide, but our willingness to be honest and tell the truth,
even if a little politically inconvenient, might prevent the next one.