About 50 people gathered in front of Amherst Town Hall to hear Select Board member Jim Wald read a proclamation issued by the town to remember the "mass extermination" of the Armenian population 100 years ago.
Ellen Story addresses the crowd. Adrienne Terrizzi and Gregory Bascomb on her left, Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy and Jim Wald on her right
Even today Turkey, in an attempt to whitewash history, bans the word "genocide".
But as long as there are good people who pause to remember the horror and pass it down through talks and the written word, it's a sad chapter in human history that can be avoided in the future.
Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy, author of the book, 'Sacred Justice: The Voices and Legacy of the Armenian Operation Nemesis', addresses the crowd
16 comments:
We need go no further than this country for a history of genocide and the lack of use of the term and denial.
Walter Graff, when has the U.S. committed "Genocide," the targeted killing of a group of people of one race with the intent to exterminate that race?
Good thing my grandparents came here after slavery and the genocide of the Indians. Otherwise, I might feel guilty. As it is , I do not.
We only need to go back a few moments and look at how the protesters were locked up in Baltimore just a few days back and locked 10-15 in a 10x10 room with little water, no charges or explanation of what is happening for days....this included reporters, bloggers and housewives.
The concept of humans treating other humans as trash is not over and it still strongly exists in both Amherst and Baltimore.
We all know that the US is the nation of Mass Incarceration. We also know that once someone is locked up, even without charges, most of us don't care about them anymore. The most unthinkable things happen in our publicly sponsored jails. Most young folks know that a trip to jail, even with no charges, may leave them crippled and will likely leave them mentally unstable from mistreatment or false imprisonment.
History is interesting, current events are pressing....more than 1 out of 20 of the kids you know will be locked up within a decade by our collective system. More than 1 out of 20 of your kids will be locked up. 1 out of 20 of the kids you grew up with have been locked up, many for no legit reason. More than one kid per American classroom, over and over and over and over. You don't talk to them about it, they are locked up, and are likely considered scum.
Where are you getting these statistics? Please cite a source for these claims you make. What you say would be more believable if you did.
Here is some more information about mass incarceration:
Ted talk by Bryan Stevenson
ACLU initiative
Put out by the ACLU...cletely unbiased I suppose. No agenda there of course. Lol
Er...completely
Of course they have an agenda. Every organization has an agenda. That's why they form an organization -- to carry out their agenda.
If someone's agenda is to fight injustice, I'm with them.
The ACLU defends Islamic Radicals. Don't stand with them, please.
Let's not forget the ACLU also defends NAMBLA. ACLU are lawyers. They'll defend anyone with the money to pay. Oh--except you. They won't have the time of day for you. And we should trust their stats??
They get their stats from federal sources like the Bureau of Justice statistics. If you'd like to see it presented by a different organization, try this:
prisonpolicy.org
This posting discusses some of the issues in data collection and also presents a long list of primary sources you can click on.
Do we view drug offenses as "victimless?"
I love the idea that drug offenses are considered victimless crime. Tell that to the families of those who died either using or dealing. Or the families of those cops who died upholding the law.
And what do you mean by "most of us?" And what would you have us do? Not enforce the laws?
Mass incarceration does not exist. We do not "mass incarcerate." I suppose you think that we shod just turn a blind eye to lawbreakers. Go ahead and by all means change the laws.
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