Today marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the massacre of Armenian by the Turks. The Turkey government still denies their culpability. Neither the U S or Brittan can claim innocence if similar acts. Please note that the Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20) is designed to prevent future violence on us. I have met the granddaughter of one of the survivors of the Armenian massacre. She told a Yom Hashoah event a few years ago of how her grandmother was the sole survivor of an extended family of over 100. I also know know descendants of the Trail of Tears. Also, my son is a B'Nay Shoah (his great grandmother was killed in Auschwitz). I have twice had to name someone I knew in two different Transgender Day of Remembrances.
"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."
George Bernard Shaw
“It is not often that nations learn from the past,even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.”
― Henry Kissinger
"I have issued the command — and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" --part of a speech by Adolf Hitler 22 August 1939 Note of over 135,000 Jews in the district in Southeast Poland my great grandmother came from in 1939, less than100 were alive in 1945.
"When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?"--chorus from "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
The real question is: what can we do to stop this violence?
shalimar, getting off her soap box and walking away
Comments
Thank You for Reminding Us
We must not forget.
Portia
Yes...
It's already happened here too many times to count. And our "leaders" just KEEP DOIIING IT!
It's happening almost everywhere in the world right now. Though perhaps the present focal point is in Israel this time where the people who should know better the most are now doing it to their Arab/Palestinian neighbors. Many of those people who are now committing genocide are survivors of the holocaust. Very sad.
Abigail Drew.
You Can Stay On Your Soap Box As Long As You Like
Great post. I might add that the Turkish government decided to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli a day early. That couldn't be to deflect the world's attention from a massacre they still don't acknowledge actually took place, could it?
And they think we're crazy enough to fall for that?
Then again...
https://youtu.be/MkvgqgaVvUM
If you don't listen to the music then please read the lyrics.
I had such great expectations
Of the world's benevolence
Of benevolence
But I prefer hallucinations
'Cause they tend to make more sense
Than experience
'Cause it was just another sneak attack
Of temporary sanity
It was a pleasant stay, but now I'm back
From temporary sanity
My temporary sanity
I began to grow dependent
On a thing called "common sense"
It was common sense
But my world grew so resplendent
That the strain was too intense
Without self-defense
'Cause it was just another sneak attack
Of temporary sanity
It was a pleasant stay, but now I'm back
From temporary sanity
My temporary sanity
The pool spreads across the pavement
Where the sniper made him lie
And he looks just like my youngest
And I'm watching him die
I must remind myself I've seen this
It's all ancient history
One long trail of twisted bodies
As the strong crush the weak
We must be crazy
We are crazy
This is our natural state
As our children die around us
We just sit here and wait
For a little temporary sanity
Some temporary sanity
There's a chance that we would still get the picture
If reality just came up and bit ya
But the news team would never report it
Because there's too much evidence to support it
If we were stupider, the problem would vanish
But our brains are much more than we can manage
We say we want something so bad we can taste it
But once we get it, then we turn 'round and waste it
We got a twisted fixation with marketplace
And every suffering soul is just another face
We think we're being manipulated from outer space
It's the collective guilty conscience of the human race
We get joyful when we look upon a lesser man
A specimen that we can be sure that we are better than
There is no shortage of supply of pride and vanity
There is no other explanation but insanity
You're listening to Prozac
While the message goes unheard
It's the final word
We must be crazy
We must be crazy
There's no explanation
So we must be crazy