Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Turks say the Genocide never happened. It’s a figment of our collective imagination. Americans are afraid to use the G word. What’s happening here? To those who don’t understand, allow me to explain. Both Turks and Americans are guilty of massacres. Very probably they have killed an equal number of innocent civilians: the first to preserve their empire, the second to raise it. As imperial powers they speak the language of top dogs which might as well be incomprehensible to underdogs. They have neither friends nor enemies, only interests. Arguing with them is a waste of time. They will never see the world as we see it. We may be successful in convincing isolated voices here and there, now and then, but we don’t have enough money to convince the majority. In politics and international diplomacy, right and wrong might as well be irrelevant commodities. There is only one way out of this impasse: to vote as a block. On the day American candidates realize We have the numbers to make or break them, we may have a better chance to be heard. Until then we might as well be a voice in the wilderness. The Jewish vote is a deciding factor in American politics because Jews are better at presenting a united front. I feel justified therefore in suggesting that our leadership – our lords and masters, or bosses, bishops and benefactors, or the gang that can’t shoot straight …call them what you will – are as guilty as denialists because instead of uniting the community they have polarized and paralized it. Very much like Turks and Yanks they have allowed their interests, or powers and privileges, to speak louder than the interests of the nation. That indeed is the root of our status as perennial losers. Dostoevsky is right: “You can’t imagine how powerful a single man can be.” Or, for that matter, a single community or nation, when it speaks with one voice. Ara Baliozian

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