Don’t Panic: What is the Armenian genocide?
Like many victims of long-ago crimes, if the Armenians can’t have justice, they at least want recognition
On March 4, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the following nonbinding resolution:
“Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.”
You read that and probably wonder what the big deal is. Appropriate understanding is great. Sensitivity is swell. Besides, Congress is constantly honoring, commemorating, remembering and noting events and people of the distant past. Congress loves it some symbolic declarations.
Sometimes they’re innocuous. For example, last November, the House voted to name a post office for W. Hazen Hillyard, a deceased former Utah postmaster. Did you know Hillyard won the Boy Scouts of America’s Silver Beaver Award in 1961? What exactly is a silver beaver, anyway? Is it anything like a GILF?
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(Photo courtesy Library of Congress)