Posted by pancho (148.244.221.210) on November 07, 2001 at 11:59:44:
The idiot who wrote this and placed it on one the pedestals holding his stupid sculptures at the Great Love and Money Fest held in San Jose...had his sculptures tossed in a corner, damamging some but he had it coming, with a tablecloth thrown over them so no Assyrian would be affronted at the sight of so many pieces held in esteem everywhere else BUT among Assyrians and one neo Nazi....and was kicked out himself...nothing was to marr the dancing and political speeches...you know the ones, they´ve been giving them for 100 years. This was done by the same organization that was formed 68 years ago to promote the Assyrian heritage, the same one that removed a painting by another Assyrian artist because he used the color purple in a SAD way...and that was of course done only to spite ZOWAA, which considers that color to be its own...I know I know, but that´s the truth, what do you want from me!!!
No people should be forced to commit genocide against themselves…
Political turmoil in the MidEast has led to a decrease in our numbers there and a precarious truce with the Muslim population which has dominated that region for some time and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The resources of our own communities are not enough to address the needs of those few of us remaining there, caught as we are in the middle of a war zone. Modern day Assyrians remain an unknown entity in the world and this sort of anonymity leaves us forever vulnerable to abuse, violence and neglect. Others have found ways to tap into the common resources; the taxes and the wealth, which we help to create in the West, but which so far have been of little benefit to us. I believe our best hope for some measures of security will come from making our story known to the larger population we live among in the West. These monuments and Assyrian sculptures are intended for just that purpose.
At the same time in the West, where we are finally “safe” to practice Christianity, we run the greater risk of being assimilated to death as any kind of distinct ethnic group; all the more reason then for these monuments and other works. The Christian Heritage is as safe as it can be, but our Assyrian Heritage is in great danger. We need to remind ourselves, our children especially, as well as our neighbors, of the great, sublime, and refined civilization we come from…long before we turned Christian.
We Assyrians have been placed in the most awful bind of our long existence on earth…we are today residing safely in the West, forced to contribute to the destruction of the birthplace of our unique and great Assyrian Heritage, and our own people still living there. No people should be compelled to commit genocide against themselves. Our history and treasures are facing the greatest attack they have ever endured. That this destruction, this most inhumane treatment of a trapped and helpless population, is visited upon us by Christian nations this time, and with weapons and techniques of war unparalleled in history, presents as clear an indication of the extreme peril this heritage faces, as anything could.