The Watertown TAB
Watertown, MA
www.watertowntab.com
LETTERS
July 26, 2007
Letter: ADL: Issue of genocide is for Turkey and Armenia to resolve
Your editorial “Keep ‘No Place for Hate’” (July 20) is an important statement for why the Watertown community should retain and benefit from the Anti-Defamation League’s program for rejecting hate and bigotry. Watertown is one of hundreds of cities and towns across America that pledged to ADL to be a community where there is “No Place for Hate,” and there is deep commitment to promoting respect and understanding.
Unfortunately, the editorial mischaracterizes ADL on the issue of the Armenian Genocide Bill now before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Neither ADL nor our national director, Abraham H. Foxman, has lobbied against the legislation. Rather, when asked by media, we expressed an opinion that the issue was one to be resolved between the two countries — Armenia and Turkey.
There may be disagreement with our opinion, but, as you rightly say, getting rid of “No Place for Hate” is not the answer.
Andrew H. Tarsy
New England Regional Director
Anti-Defamation League
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Letter: Good intentions sometimes fail
I respectfully disagree with your editorial “Keep ‘No Place for Hate’” (July 20). While the intentions of the Town Council were honorable when they adopted the Anti-Defamation League program, there is no way of avoiding that in doing so, they are also supporting that organization and its leader, Abraham Foxman.
His active role in blocking our country’s long-overdue recognition of the Armenian Genocide was an egregious act against Armenians, and it resonates particularly in this community. Watertown has been an “Ellis Island” for Armenians, and current census figures do not account for the thousands in surrounding towns and intermarriages that have ties to our town and the Armenian-American community.
The Town Council reaffirmed its participation in the program when the debate was free speech, and I surely hope that their good intentions have not painted them into a corner. Now that we know that this slogan salts the wounds of not just a small vocal minority, but a very large number in our community, why would we want to continue to inflict that pain?
Keeping the program actually creates or, at least, contributes to hate where there was none. The question is no longer whether the program is a good one, but whether we will stubbornly continue to hurt more people than we help.
Robert Fantasia
Main Street
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Letter: 'No Place for Hate' does important work
I am writing today to highlight the important work of our local No Place for Hate program. No Place for Hate has worked collaboratively with the Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders for more than two years to sponsor Diversity Day held annually at Watertown High School. Specifically, No Place for Hate provides funding, support, photography and displays, including video interviews with Watertown residents and a large historical, photographic display of Armenian people.
On March 28, the second annual Diversity Day was held at Watertown High School. The Watertown Youth Coalition peer leaders, No Place for Hate, Watertown High School, the Armenian Club at WHS and Wayside Multi-Service Center sponsored the event. More than 23 different languages were listed on a survey given that day, including Cantonese, Punjabi, Serbian, Arabic, Thai, Tibetan, Albanian, Turkish, Japanese, Armenian, French, African, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Vietnamese.
I think the importance of this event is summed up in the words of students. Their many wishes for the future included: “I think people should just get along, I wish everyone could look past all these things, say something when intolerance is used, don’t ignore it, tell people that racism is wrong, appreciate differences and see the good, interesting things people can contribute to society and community.” One student summed up Diversity Day by saying simply: “get along.”
In closing, the Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders developed a rich community collaboration with the local No Place for Hate program and worked hard to create a successful Diversity Day at Watertown High School, making WHS a more welcoming environment for young people and contributing to the warmth and openness of the entire Watertown community.
Becket Rhodes
Watertown
Youth Coalition
Peer Leadership Advisor
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Letter: 'No Place for Hate' should sever ADL ties
By denying the Armenian Genocide, the Anti-Defamation League supports attempts to minimize and cover up this tragedy. Genocide is an internationally recognized hate crime. The No Place for Hate organization should sever its relationship with the ADL until the ADL practices what No Place for Hate preaches.
Joseph Dagdigian
Harvard
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Letter: 'Potato Famine' was really the 'Irish Holocaust'
I read with interest the letter to the editor from Mr. David Boyajian of Newton about the “Armenian Genocide” (July 6, “ADL works against recognition of Armenian genocide.”) I belong to the Ancient Order of Hibernians and several years back we organized, with several other ethnic groups, to pass a bill to teach in the Massachusetts school system the truth and recorded history of the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the “Potato Famine” of Ireland.
The bill was greatly helped at that time by state reps. Steve and Warren Tolman. The bill was unanimously approved by both committees and sent on to the then Speaker of the House, Tom Finneran. However, the Speaker of the House said he would not approve the bill to be mandatory, even though the vote of both committees was unanimous. It was passed only with the stipulation that if a local School Committee wanted it as part of their curriculum, they could use it. So there it sits, and no one is teaching the truth about these historical events.
Now to me as being of Irish ancestry, when people refer to the greatest human tragedy of the 19th century, where 1 million people died as a “famine” is an insult. We choose to call it “An Gorta Mor” or The Great Hunger. In 1845, a blight hit the potato crop in Ireland, the main food of the Irish table. This blight also hit the main continent of Europe. However, there was enough food in Ireland to feed 4 1/2 times the population, which was about 8 million plus.
Why did the Irish population not get this food that was available? Because it was exported out of the country and mostly to England. This was often done at gunpoint. People were literally dying in the street by the thousands. They couldn’t bury them fast enough. Most were buried in a common grave and lime was poured over them and then covered. Over 1 million died and more than 2 million more left Ireland for foreign countries, out of total desperation. Tens of thousands died on the “Coffin Ships” that sailed the Atlantic. Many who made it here to the United States were sent to quarantine stations where they perished.
Locally, Deer Island is a mass burying place where many are buried in common graves. The population of Ireland at that time was a little over 8 million and it was reduced to a little over 4 million because of An Gorta Mor, and it has never recovered to this day, where the population is still less than 5 million.
This was an “Irish Holocaust” not to be taught in the Massachusetts school system. This is a state where the Irish ancestry is the largest in the USA per capita. It represents about 25 percent of the population. In addition, this state has the second largest Armenian population next to California. It is a shame that both ancestries, Irish and Armenian, are not taught the truth and are ignorant of recorded history. It should be mandatory to teach the truth.
Dick MacDonald
Needham
Former Watertown resident
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Letter: 'No Place for Hate' is an autonomous local group
In recent weeks, the No Place for Hate Program in Watertown has been the subject of many letters, as well as an editorial in this newspaper (July 20, “Keep ‘No Place for Hate.’) Some of the letters raise important questions about the program, which we would like to clarify.
The No Place for Hate program, originally established in 1999 by the New England Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League in partnership with the Mass. Municipal Association, now includes 65 cities and towns across the state. However, it is very much a local initiative. All program decisions are made within each individual community. In Watertown, we have a broad-based NPFH committee of residents, town officials and community groups.
In planning our programs, we seek to collaborate with other town organizations wherever possible. We have received program grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield through the ADL, from the Watertown Rotary Club and from the Helen Robinson Wright Fund of the First Parish Church. Some of our projects have included: a video and traveling exhibit celebrating multiculturalism in Watertown; assisting the Watertown High peer leaders in presenting their diversity days at the school; co-sponsoring the annual Unity Breakfast on Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and working with the World in Watertown to present two very successful forums on immigration issues.
Currently, the NPFH Committee, in partnership with Project Literacy, has embarked on a new translation project. The goal of this initiative is to provide essential information about local services for non-English-speaking residents, translated into a variety of languages. Information will range from how to get help in an emergency to how to navigate the MBTA. Today in Watertown, there are more than 25 different languages spoken in the homes of public school students, and Project Literacy’s services are in great demand, with long waiting lists of eager students.
Watertown has always been a welcoming community, as witnessed by our large and well-established Armenian and Greek populations, among others. In 1912, the Abraham Lincoln House was established in the East End to provide educational services to immigrants, and particularly to newly arrived Armenians. The No Place for Hate program is one of the ways in which we may continue this tradition, making sure that we remain open and welcoming for our hard-working and highly motivated new neighbors. They are here to stay, and our town will be stronger, richer and more peaceful if every citizen feels valued and respected.
Hopefully hate crimes will not occur in Watertown, but we must work to prevent them. Hatred often arises from fear, and that fear grows from unfamiliarity and lack of understanding. An important role of the NPFH program is to promote interaction and friendship between individuals and groups who otherwise might remain strangers, thus helping everyone to feel included in the community.
No Place for Hate is about basic human decency, about treating one another with respect, and about making an effort as a community to be welcoming to all. It is our hope that we may move forward together in Watertown, united by this vision, with a commitment to making all of our neighbors, regardless of where they are from or how long they have lived here, feel respected and valued. This is the true spirit of community that has, and will continue to make Watertown such a special place to live.
A number of recent letters to the TAB and Press have alluded to the Anti-Defamation League’s position with regard to the Armenian Genocide. The Watertown No Place for Hate Committee, as an autonomous local group, fully recognizes the indescribable tragedy of this horrific event. Our hearts go out to every family member of genocide victims. We hope that all who are inspired by their courage will work locally to prevent hate, and globally to combat and end further devastation in Darfur and other turbulent parts of the world.
For further information about the program, please call 617-926-8130, or Sgt. David Sampson at 617-972-6529.
Will Twombly
Sgt. David Sampson
Co-chairpersons
Watertown No Place for Hate Committee
2007.07.26 -- Watertown Tab: Letters to the Editor Published on July 26, 2007
