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09/03/2004
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1. ANCA Endorses Senator Barbara Boxer 2. Bush Administration Disastrous for Armenian American Voters Announces AADLC 3. Injuries, Lack of Funds Justification for Poor Olympic Performance 4. For Whom The Zell Tolls 5. Cultural Amnesia: The Museum of Tolerance 6. Glendale Police Department Seeks to Diversify Force 1. ANCA Endorses Senator Barbara Boxer WASHINGTON, DC--The Armenian National Committee of America announced on Thursday it will endorse two term Democrat from California, US Senator Barbara Boxer for reelection. Boxer is challenged by Republican Bill Jones who most recently served as California's Secretary of State. The ANCA endorsed the Senator based on her long and faithful record of public service with special consideration to Armenian-Americans living in the State of California. Since her tenure in Congress, Boxer has held an open door policy toward her constituents, carrying their message to the halls of Congress. In a letter to Senator Boxer, the ANCA stated that while the Senator's responsibilities as an elected official have increased, she has managed to maintain close working relationships with even her smallest constituencies. California is the nation's most populous state and home to the nation's largest Armenian American community. On issues of concern to her constituents of Armenian heritage and to the Armenian-American community at large, Senator Boxer has time and again defended their history and rightful place in American society. As recently as this year, she made statements of support for the official reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide, including letters to President Bush urging to end the illegal Turkish blockade of Armenia. In addition to these measures, Senator Boxer has co-sponsored legislation, and actively sought the support of Democratic party leaders, on the issue of Genocide reaffirmation. Additionally, Senator Boxer has been a staunch advocate of aid to the Republic of Armenia as it undergoes the difficult process of transition towards democracy and a free market economy. Senator Boxer traveled to Armenia to witness firsthand these changes and returned as an even stronger advocate than before. 2. Bush Administration Disastrous for Armenian American Voters Announces AADLC LOS ANGELES--The nation's largest Armenian American Democratic political organization announced on Friday that the Bush Administration has compiled one of the most anti-Armenian American records in history. From actively denying the Armenian Genocide, seeking to slash US assistance to Armenia in half, attempting to list Armenian immigrants on a terrorist-watch list, to forcefully attempting to provide four times more military aid to the Republic of Azerbaijan than to Armenia, the Bush track-record represents an affront to tens of thousands of Armenian American voters in California and other Western States, according to the Armenian American Democratic Leadership Council (AADLC). "George W. Bush and his advisors in the Pentagon, like Paul Wolfowitz, have carried on a four year sustained campaign of attacking Congressional legislation that is of concern to the Armenian American community," remarked an AADLC spokesman. "At the behest of foreign governments, like the Republic of Turkey, the Bush Administration has denied the Armenian Genocide, weakened US ties to Armenia, and worked hard to boost the military strength of Azerbaijan - a nation which is committed to the total destruction of Armenia," the spokesman added. The AADLC is working with Democratic Party officials and the Kerry campaign in reaching out to Armenian American voters in swing states like Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. All three states already boast Armenians for Kerry groups and are working with the official Armenians for Kerry organization (<;). In its evaluation of the Bush Administration, AADLC officials stressed that in 2002, the Bush Administration attempted to require that Armenian immigrants register with an anti-terrorism program. Armenian Americans learned of the Bush Administration registration plan only after the Federal Register--the official record of government regulations--stated that males age 16 and up from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Armenia would join a list of men from 18 other countries considered at risk for terrorism. Such men would be required to visit local Immigration and Naturalization Service offices to be photographed, fingerprinted and show certain documents. Only a massive grassroots protest, led by the ANCA, overturned the Bush Administration's attempt to list Armenians as individuals "at risk for terrorism." The Bush Administration never offered a full explanation of why Armenians were listed in the initial Federal Register notice. According to the AADLC, the Bush Administration has also continued to support the Republic of Turkey, even after Turkey's refusal to allow access for the United States to mount a northern front in the war against Iraq. Specifically, the Bush Administration supported a $1 billion taxpayer aid package to Turkey that was passed by Congress in 2003. The Bush Administration also continues to be the one of the few countries pushing for Turkey's admission into the European Union. 3. Injuries, Lack of Funds Justification for Poor Olympic Performance YEREVAN (RFE-RL)--Senior sports officials and coaches on Thursday blamed Armenia's extremely poor performance at the Olympic Games in Athens on a lack of state funding and injuries suffered by their top athletes. None of the 18 Armenian athletes that participated in the games won medals--the country's worst Olympic showing since independence; several Armenian-born athletes now representing other countries won silver and bronze medals. The results sparked an outcry from the media and leading politicians who unanimously pointed the finger at Ishkhan Zakarian, the head of the State Committee on Sport and Physical Fitness and the National Olympic Committee, who was accused of incompetence and mismanagement. In a newspaper interview published on Thursday, Zakarian rejected the accusations, saying he will not resign voluntarily. "I could not have stepped on the arena in place of a boxer, wrestler, or weight-lifter," he said. Zakarian did not appear at the news conference, but was represented by his deputy Mikael Ispirian who said that only seven Armenian athletes had realistic chances of doing well in Athens and most of them suffered injuries in the middle of the competitions. Asked about the quarterfinal elimination of Aleksan Nalbandian, Armenia's sole boxer at the Olympics, he said, "Maybe he lost narrowly. But in essence, it was a victorious bout." "If we felt that resignation would change things positively we would all be ready to quit," Ispirian said. "And if you think that the specialists sitting here are not as professional as you journalists are, then you are wrong." The coaches, for their part, complained that government funding allocated to sports is highly insufficient for proper training of their athletes. The Sport Committee's budget for this year is only 350 million drams ($680,000). "To win medals you need money, money and money," said Vahan Bichakhchian, the head coach of the national weight-lifting team. "What do you think I can achieve with a monthly salary of $50?" 4. For Whom The Zell Tolls By Skeptik Sinikian Asbarez Columnist This has been some week! The Olympics are finally over and I heard that an Armenian from Uzbekistan or Khazakhstan or one of the other stans (except Hayastan) finally won a bronze medal (that's third place for the metallurgic challenged)! My friend who called me to tell me about this medal reassured me that even though the medal is only a bronze, the winner has some relatives who work in the Jewelry District in Downtown LA who will have it gold plated at no extra charge. So I guess that should hold us over until 2008. But the Olympics aren't making headlines anymore, so let's put the ancient games to bed. The fabricated CNN and Fox News headlines are being churned up in New York where the Republican Convention has captured the attention of the nation. On Wednesday night the key note speaker was US Senator Zell Miller, an unabashed Democrat turned Bush supporter. Senator Miller, or Zell as we will call him, took the podium and delivered a fiery "Armageddon is upon us if Kerry is elected" speech that had Republican delegates hooting and hollering like the Dukes of Hazzard. Zell tore into Kerry's voting record like a rabid hyena attacking a carcass. Even if you disagree with his statements, almost everyone agrees that Zell was the best speaker so far at the convention, outshining even Dick "potty mouth" Chenney. But even with the Zellmeister beating up on Kerry like a birthday piñata, there was very little substance in his remarks. Now wait! (I can hear Republican Party loyalists and conservative readers grinding their teeth or sharpening their knives). I think that Zell did a heck of a job of painting Senator John Kerry as the flip-flopper who wants to arm the US army with spitballs instead of bombers, missiles, and jet fighters. In fact, if I were Kerry and were watching this speech, I'd make sure to have my assistant or butler or sidekick take Zell off the Christmas card list. But there's more to this speech than meets the eye. Aside from being a superb Republican hatchet job, it was rift with moronic rhetoric. Here's my favorite line from the speech that exemplifies the ignorance of war mongers in our country. "In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could." That's right folks, a brilliant gem of a statement (not taken out of context, I assure you) from Senator Zell Miller. What a brilliant child he was at the tender age of 8. Apparently young Zell thought the Germans and Italians were "crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could." The same Germans and Italians who gave us Mozart, Beethoven, the Roman Republic, the Catholic Church, spaghetti and pizza, hamburgers and hotdogs, Sigmund Freud, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, not to mention Michalengelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and countless other contributions which this country is based on. These same folks have been reduced to being irrational homicidal maniacs. But I guess if you're running around the Appalachian valley in overalls covered in mud, chasing frogs and playing the banjo when you're not steeling moonshine from the neighbor's still, then it's pretty hard to see Germans and Italians as anything other than "crazy men" bent on killing innocent children. Is it any wonder why this administration and the Republicans see Arabs as maniacs and wild freaks who live in the desert, one notch above the Jawas and one notch below the Tusken raiders (Star Wars reference folks). I haven't met one person yet who thinks that if Kerry is elected President, he will ask everyone in the army to turn in their guns for rhythmic gymnastics batonsthe ones with long flowing ribbons like Will Ferrell's in "Old School." I'm just tired of having patriotism shoved down my throat night after night after night. We get the point already! The Republican party claims to be the party of Homeland Security and superior intelligence; yet before the convention even started, a well-known news agency reported that "a welcome e-mail that was sent to hundreds of volunteers for the Republican National Convention inadvertently included the name, address, social security number, race, and other personal information of those volunteers." This is the Party of securitydefending the rights of every Americanyet they can't even send out an email without botching the job. The real sad thing about this whole election is that Kerry is taking all of this without any comebacks. Maybe it's part of the "play dead and they'll leave you alone" campaign strategy that's going to pan out later on. But seriously, there are two months left until the election and Kerry just got handed the ass whooping of a lifetime. In fact, the Republicans hit him so hard that he should pack his bags and head back to his palatial resort getaway in the Cape. When you can't harm a monolingual President who can't even speak English coherently, then you have problems. Anyway, Zell has spoken and regardless of what people say about this political Judas, he has dealt Kerry a body blow. Kerry needs to win states in the southand having pretty boy Edwards by his side just won't cut it. It's time for Kerry to follow the Boston Red Sox motto from last year and either "Cowboy Up!" or resign himself to the Michael Dukakis Massachusetts Presidential Candidate Hall of Shame. Time is running out. Skeptik Sinikian loves to make bold accusatory statements with no factual foundation. Skeptik claims that if you're not with him, then you're against him and if you're against him, then you don't love America. If you would like to "bring it on," do so at skeptiksinikian@aol.com or visit 5. Cultural Amnesia: The Museum of Tolerance By Farris Wahbeh "The world should know we are not building a bunker. We're building something that breathes with life, just as God breathed life into us." So said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last May 2, in Jerusalem at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Simon Wiesenthal Center for Human Dignity and a Museum of Tolerance, which is the Center's educational arm. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), named after the Ukrainian-born survivor of the Nazi Death camps who later became a world famous Nazi-hunter, was founded in 1977 as an international center for "Holocaust remembrance, the defense of human rights and the Jewish people." The organization is supported by an international member base of 400,000 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Jerusalem, Paris and Buenos Aires. The SWC's first Museum of Tolerance (MOT) was opened in 1993 in Los Angeles as a "high tech, hands-on experiential museum that focuses on two central themes through unique interactive exhibits: the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America and the history of the Holocaustthe ultimate example of man's inhumanity to man." The new MOT in Jerusalem, which was conceived by SWC's Dean and Founder, Marvin Hier, is slated to open between 2006 to 2008 with a price tag of $150 million. The MOT Jerusalem will be designed by the esteemed international superstar-architect-of-the-moment, Frank Gehry. The SWC in Jerusalem will house not only MOT but also a full three-acre museum campus including an international conference center, a grand hall, an education center and a library. While the SWC in Jerusalem seems like an ideal ground for highlighting violations of human rights against the Jewish people, something seems to have been forgotten in the processhuman rights violations against Palestinians in Israel by the Israeli government. One example of this historical amnesia is the fact that the SWC will be built on top of an ancient Muslim cemetery that has now become a dilapidated parking lot. The leftist politician and former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Meron Benvenisti, writing in Ha'aretz, confirms the hesitation that many feel about the SWC and MOT moving into Jerusalem: "It is difficult to imagine a project so hallucinatory, so irrelevant, so foreign, so megalomaniac, as the Museum of Tolerance. The mere attempt to stick the term tolerance to a building so intolerant to its surroundings is ridiculous." Benvenisti also acknowledges the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories: "Fanatic, brutal Jerusalem, saturated with the ambition to gain exclusive possession over it, will take pride in a site that preaches equality between communities and the brotherhood of nations, and from its rooftops will be seen the homes of Palestinians, whose struggle for freedom is always defined as 'terror.'" According to Samuel G. Freedman in the New York Times, while the museum's content is still in the early stages, the director of Los Angeles' MOT, Liebe Geft, has already solicited ideas from Israeli novelists, political scientists and religious leaders. So far, however, the central exhibition at MOT Jerusalem, which is conceived by Mr. Hier, will highlight the journey of the Exodusa ship that carried Jews from Europe after WWII and was later denied entry into British controlled Jerusalem. Since the museum's mission is to specifically highlight the violations of human rights against Jews, Mr. Hier, speaking to the New York Times, has said that MOT is not about Palestinians. "It's not about the experience of the Palestinian people. When they have a state, they'll have their own museum." For a museum that boasts of highlighting the effects of human rights violations and the practice of tolerance, it seems rather odd that such an intentional omission would be allowed. The SWC's MOT Jerusalem directly conflicts with their mission of confronting "important contemporary issues," such as racism, terrorism and genocide, when it turns its back on the Palestinian situationa situation that is known worldwide as an "important contemporary issue." For instance, in 1949, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 302 (IV) to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestinian refugees that were displaced following the Israeli incursion into Palestine, otherwise known as the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 1950, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which works with refugees and refugee camps in Israel and has seen the number of Palestinian refugees rise to 4 million in 2002, was the off-spring of Resolution 302 (IV), and the General Assembly has renewed UNRWA's mandate repeatedly since 1949 until June 2005. After Israel invaded East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day-War, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 242 which calls for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and highlights the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." Interestingly, the SWC is an accredited NGO at both the UN and its cultural division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Even if this form of cultural etiquette may come as a surprise to many, this is not the first time that the SWC has turned its back on human rights atrocities. The center's MOT in Los Angeles came under fire by the city's Armenian communitywhich is one of largest outside of Armenia todayin 2003 when the museum retracted their pledge of including the Armenian genocide by the Turkish Ottoman Empire as part of their permanent installation. A group of Armenian-American college students [Armenian Youth Federation members] even staged a six-day hunger strike in front of the MOT as a sign of protest against the museum's refusal to incorporate the topic into the permanent exhibition. Another Los Angeles-based artist/activist group created an on-line museum titled Museum of Amnesia (MOA) in protest against MOT's omission of the Armenian genocide. One of the members, speaking to F News about MOT's handling of political themes within their museum, responded by saying, "In general I think the MOT (LA) appears as this fortress that exhibits filtered-down (Wiesenthal's filter) and in some cases filtered-out information on complex issues. I think the Palestinian writer/ scholar Daoud Kuttab who was quoted in the [New York Times] article really echoes part of MOA's position when he said "What we often see is an attempt to give a superficial meaning to tolerance." In response to the Armenian community's protest, MOT's Director Geft responded the Jerusalem Post, saying, "Whatever we do, it won't be enough for some members of the Armenian community." Clearly, the SWC's track record in recording human rights violations at their museums is shaky at best. What that means for Palestinians living within Israel, in a museum meant to display Tolerance and Human Rights abuses within that very same country, remains contentious. Israeli Reservist Art While Israel is bracing herself for a new cultural display of "tolerance," several Israeli reservists are exhibiting the exact opposite. In a June exhibition titled "Breaking the Silence" at the Academy for Geographic Photography in Tel Aviv, three Israeli Reservists, Micha Kurz, Yehuda Shaul and Yonathon Baumfeld, who finished their three years of mandatory service in Hebron, exhibited videotapes and photographs detailing the mistreatment of Palestinians under Israeli army rule. The exhibition was intended to portray what actually occurs during mandatory service with the Israeli army. In a letter addressed to visitors at the entrance of the exhibit, the soldiers said: "We decided to speak out. Hebron isn't in outer space. It's one hour from Jerusalem." Among the exhibition photographs, some images included Palestinians that are blindfolded and bound, and countless pictures of racist and near fascist graffiti created by Israeli settlers and directed towards the Palestinians. One such photo includes the phrase: "Arabs to the Gas Chambers." The videotapes included in the exhibition comprise testimonials by 70 Israeli soldiers who reveal the use of Palestinians as human shields and the overall mistreatment of Palestinians in general. The Israeli Military Police interrogated several of the artists-cum-reservists, including Micha Kurz. Kurz, after a seven-hour questioning session, responded to the press: "The army wants to keep us quiet and scare us way. They're not going to shut us up, because we have a lot to say, and they're not going to scare us off." 6. Glendale Police Department Seeks to Diversify Force By Ani Shahinian Asbarez Staff GLENDALENever in the history of the Glendale Police Department have more positions been available for those thinking of pursuing a career in law enforcement. "It's a golden opportunity; there are positions for officer recruits, police cadets, and community service officers," says Sergeant Vahak Mardikian who is always ready to talk to potential applicants. "It is always helpful to talk to any officer within the department to gain a better understanding of what it takes." Lt. Bruce Fox, who heads the department's Professional Standards Bureau and is responsible for all hiring, said that while the department is working more diligently to be representative of the community, the task becomes difficult when trying to expand and hire in larger numbers. "The pressure is on to not only expand but to also diversify the department at the same time," says Fox, addressing the number of applicants who actually qualify. While there were a good pool of applicants seven to ten years ago, there has been a huge shrinkage among all nationalities since then. Fox explained that all Southern California departments face the same problem, and attributed the trend to the current low level of unemployment, along with the public's perception of police in general. But Fox says that the opportunities are expansive. He especially described the department's Cadet Program as an ideal means to attain experience in law enforcement. The part time program is open to full time college students currently enrolled in an accredited college or university carrying 9 units or more per semester, or eight units or more per quarter, with a GPA of at least 2.0. The program allows participants to tailor work schedules around school schedules, allowing exposure to a variety of areas in the police department, and the opportunity to attain diverse experience. The process to become a police officer begins by filing an application, followed by a written test covering basic writing, vocabulary, and comprehension skills in English. If successful, applicants go through a physical agility test, followed by an oral examination. It is during the oral examination that maturity level and decision making skills are measured. Once an applicant successfully completes these stages, a background check, which can take up to three months, is conducted. It is during this stage of the process, says Fox, that many problems arise. Considering that trustworthiness is a must for all positions, Fox emphasized the importance of a clean background. In order to better inform the community about what it takes to become a successful police officer, an information session will be held on Tuesday, September 7, at the Glendale Police Department's Community Room. It is presented by the Glendale Human Resources Department in conjunction with the Glendale Police Department. "The session will allow prospective applicants to better understand whether they are ready to serve the community," says Lt. Fox. The program, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will have speakers and officers on hand to answer any questions, including Sgt. Mardikian who says that the Glendale Police Department is ready to assist in any way it can. "The community has so much potential and is such a positive place to work. In the bigger departments you get lost in the shuffle, but in Glendale, you feel like you accomplish something every day. It's a good balance," says Lt. Fox, who has wanted to be a Glendale police officer since 8th grade. 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