At the state Capitol today, Armenian-Americans and their friends joined together to mark an annual remembrance of the holocaust that consumed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Armenians nearly a century ago.
State Rep. Chris Wright, a Bristol Democrat, prepared these remarks for delivery at the yearly event:
Good Morning and welcome to the State Capital and welcome to the 95th anniversary remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. As we gather here today I am reminded of why we still do this, why we are so determined to remind the world of what happened to the Armenian People. In the weeks leading up to today, I would get a polite but blank stare when telling people that we were having an Armenian Genocide Commemoration ceremony. The sad fact is that few people know the story of the Armenian people. As the events move closer to the 100 year mark, the task of reminding the world grows even more important.
We hear the saying that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, and it sounds like a cliché. But one just needs to look at the obvious examples of Nazi Germany, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur to know just how true this saying is. If we allow the world to forget what happened to us, we make it all the easier for the next dictator, the next fanatic to preach ethnic cleansing or racial purity and start the killing all over again. We must not let this happen. For the sake of those who died in the Genocide, and for the sake of those who survived, let us leave here today and keep their memory alive until the words “never again” truly fulfill their meaning.
*******
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment