100

"Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  John 8:32

100 years ago

100

years

ago

My great grandfather and great grandmother

My great great grandfathers and great great grandmothers

Brothers and sisters

Aunts and uncles

Friends and beloveds

Reforged Dante's path

Reignited the flaming passions of evil

Recreated the harrowing of hell

Not by choice

Not out of necessity

Because of who they were

A people of a homeland

A tribe of believers

Thrown into violence

Thrown into madness

Thrown into death itself

When an archduke dies

And the world goes to war

Empires remember only how to kill

Kill the enemy

Kill the other

Kill the souls within yourself

Round them up like the Israelites of Jerusalem

When mighty Babylon rears its terrible head

Round them up like the Jews of Nazi Germany

When a fanatic calls himself the Fuhrer

Round them up, like the dissidents

Of Soviet Russia and Cambodia

Of Rwanda and Sudan

Of a world incapable of compassion

Unmoved by mercy and protection

Unable to see that within, without, in, out,

Around and over

Throughout and between

There will be only death

Only the wages of sin

Our great sin

That we dare not name for what it is

Genocide

One and a half million women, men, children

Mothers and fathers

Brothers and daughters

Sisters and sons

Doctors and teachers

Pastors and lawyers

Lovers and leaders

Wiped away, blotted out

Ground up and gone

Like the dusts of yesteryear

Like the rush of the wind

Like the wind we move on

Forget giving them honor

Forget giving them truth

Forget them all

Give us the military bases

Give us the airspace

Give us the strategic convenience

Of forgetting what we have done

And what we have left undone

We bring shame upon ourselves

We bring shame upon our world

We bring shame upon our state

But who cares?

It is only a memory

Of 100 years ago

And yet...

It is so much more

It will always be so much more

In memory of the one and a half million women, men, and children murdered in the Armenian Genocide that began one full century ago on April 24, 1915, with the pogrom against the leaders of the Armenian community in Istanbul.

The Armenian Genocide's status as a genocide, while largely agreed to by historians and scholars, is denied by the governments of both the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey to this day.

Despite referring to the Armenian Genocide as a genocide as a U.S. Senator, President Barack Obama has repeatedly and inexplicably refused to label it as such as President.  That refusal was renewed today.

But, one day, may we know the truth, and the truth shall set us free.

(Image courtesy of armenianchurchwd.com)