Posted by pancho (148.244.221.92) on January 26, 2002 at 18:38:46:
None of the monuments were made for my own sake...none of them. We all know what a thankless task it is working for this community as it has been composed for the past several years and longer. For my own sake I would have steered clear and gone to make other kinds of sculpture for other people entirely.
I was accused of having stumbled onto a new and clever way to use the love of this Heritage which might yet reside in some hearts as a way to make a buck. Except that the people who gave, excepting Helen and Narsai...for the most part didnīt have all that much love, or they certainly didnīt have much faith...not several thousand dollars worth.
And the way I have been treated only proves what we all knew anyway...the Assyrian community has as leaders the most selfish, self centered and power mad dwarfs imaginable, and they will do anything, stoop to any level, practice any chicanery, to maintain what they believe to be their one shining distinction.
I am also not suing these people and their clubs for my own sake only. If these kinds of things prevail...if a young Assyrian artist with absolutely no hope of earning a dime from his efforts, canīt even show a painting because of some stupid jerks somewhere...if a leader of ours can threaten to sue an American city if it dares install a monument for our children, if a podunk engineer who works for a company that make cars malfunction and cause death and injury, yet goes vandalising a recognized artistīs work with impunity, if a haridan of a screech owl can get away with blocking an art project because her own brother canīt sing while she struts her stuff on the podium during an installation of a monument meant for the rest of us...and writes threatening letters to people who might support the work still, and writes other letters spreading lies and rumors with the intent of burying anyone who crosses her...if these things can be done and gotten away with to an artist we have who has shown the capacity to get our name the kind of honor and recognition no one has been able to do for several hundred yeras, including all the time we have been coming to this country...if these things are allowed to stand, you will all pay for it...if that is, you care what happens to us from here on out...especially the message we send to our younger ones coming up...who will look to us for some guidance in how to value this unique heritage we seem to not be able to care enough to save from the grasping hands of a passle of dwarfs and illiterates.
It isnīt my battle alone people.