Carl,
It's just a thing they do. Now with Michelle Obama, they hit the jackpot. She
did a fantastic job reading her book. She sounded like a professional actress.
But there's an author whose name escapes me, who is a really good author and I
remember that when I was still buying books from Audible, I got one of her
books that she narrated. There were two Audible email lists, a blind one and a
not blind one, and on one of those lists, someone said that she'd ruined the
book and he never would have bought it if he'd known she was going to read it.
He was right. But I do have an ax to grind about the books anyway. I like books
read competently with appropriate expression. But they're books and I don't
want a dramatic production or accents. I want a beautifully read book. There's
a book on BARD about the history of the audio book. It came out a few years ago
and I read part of it because someone told me that something I wrote was quoted
in the book. I didn't believe it, but it was true. Way back in the 70's, Fred
and I wrote a letter to Dialogue Magazine in which we talked about talking
books and said basically, what I said in this email. Interestingly, back then,
there were no commercial audio books and the NLS talking books were not as
extreme in terms of dramatic presentation and accents as books are now. But the
author of the book on the history of audio books had found two letters that
we'd written about what we thought an ideal talking book should be, and our
letters were included in his book. How nice, but no one ever listened to us.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2019 5:19 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Regarding the 'Armenian Genocide Resolution,'
and Ilhan Omar's response
Miriam,
I usually get an email from Thom Hartman, covering the topics of the day. I'll
have to look it over and see what the grumbling was all about, but it sounded
very much as if the caller was mad because the Representative did not include
all the other ethnicity's. But usually the problem is that I'm dooing other
important stuff, like making a bowl of Oatmeal or some toast, and my mind
wanders until I hear a key word. Then I come back around...usually too late to
make any sense.
Speaking of that, I checked the author and the reader for "These Truths". I
had not paid any attention when I began reading it...about two months ago, and
I chuckled when I saw that you were right. All I can say is that this woman is
a thousand times better at writing than she is as a reader. It's bad enough
that she shouts when she's quoting someone, but so often she drops into a sort
of wandering garble. that's another grumble I have with BARD, they tell me who
the author is, at the start of the book. And after that all they repeat is the
title of the book. Old guys like me forget the name of the author. I could
always go back to the beginning of the book, but then I'd have to find my place
again.
I'd email her and suggest that she demand that they have one of the better
readers reread her book, but she'd probably be insulted. I doubt she make much
money from it.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/1/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So what is the problem? I guess she was supposed to talk about the
Greeks and Asyrians and she may not have known Well, these people are not
scholars.
They're politicians and they know what their constituents and the
lobbyists and their staffs, tell them. AOC is demanding that Facebook
regulate speech, which is an insane thing for a leftist to advocate.
Bernie doesn't know what he's doing, half the time, or more than half
the time, when it comes to foreign policy. They're all just flawed human
beings, not Gods.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2019 3:29 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Regarding the 'Armenian Genocide Resolution,'
and Ilhan Omar's response
That's the thing, she voted for it...but without comment.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/1/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well now I'm curious. Did she vote against it?
I don't listen to call in shows. I've listened to the first part of a
program during which information is presented, but I have no patience
with the call in part.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2019 2:05 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Regarding the 'Armenian Genocide
Resolution,'
and Ilhan Omar's response
Exactly. I also did not know all who were included in that slaughter.
A caller on Thom Hartman this morning went off on how she voted.
Thom gave him the main legislative number in Washington DC., and
suggested that the caller speak to her office directly. Good advice.
Often times I get a strong sense that folks are simply letting off
steam, or trashing someone whom they would never confront face to face.
Unless Hartman has a special guest on his program, I can only take a
few minutes of listening to callers. I first listened to him on Air
America, long years ago. In all those years I have never called in.
Although there have been issues affecting the blind, which I could
have done so. But I'm better at writing my thoughts, than speaking
over the telephone.
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 11/1/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wonder if it's how she voted or if it's just that she didn't know
about all of the other ethnicities involved. I certainly didn't.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2019 1:21 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Regarding the 'Armenian Genocide
Resolution,'
and Ilhan Omar's response
Ilhan Omar will need to be held accountable for how she votes. But
whatever her rationale, no votes today will undue the disgusting
violence of those who slaughtered so many innocents.
Apologies seem about as worthless as shoes on a double amputee.
Sadly, we are a very long way from being civilized.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/1/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Regarding the ‘Armenian Genocide Resolution,’ and Ilhan Omar’s
response Opinion Thea Haloon October 31, 2019
(1923) Greek and Armenian refugee children from Anatolia standing
outside one-story building, near Athens, Greece. Greece, 1923.
[Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709161/.(1923) Greek and Armenian
refugee children from Anatolia standing outside one-story building,
near Athens, Greece. Greece, 1923. [Photograph] Retrieved from the
Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709161/.
Everyone concerned is very proud that the House of Representatives
finally, after over 100 years, passed a resolution (H.Res.296)
recognizing the Genocide of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians by
Ottoman Turkey. It is definitely long overdue. However, although
the resolution does include the Greeks and Assyrians, most news
reports fail to mention that the Greeks and Assyrians suffered the
same fate as the Armenians, and continue to call it “The Armenian
Genocide Resolution,” and/or “The Armenian Genocide,” which misses
a few major points.
To put Martin Niemöller’s poem in a new context, it should be
pointed out
that:
First they came for the Greeks of Eastern Thrace in 1913, And no
one stopped the slaughters.
Then they came for the Greeks in Western Asia Minor (Anatolia) in
1914, And no one stopped the slaughters.
Then they came for the Assyrians in Eastern Anatolia in 1914, And
no one stopped the slaughters.
Then they came for the Armenians in 1915, And no one stopped the
slaughters.
Then they came for the Pontic Greeks in 1916, And no one stopped
the slaughters.
Then they exiled the remaining Assyrians —who had arrived in
Anatolia around 2,400 BC— and the Greeks—who had arrived in
Anatolia in 1200 BC and the Armenians, who had arrived in Anatolia
in 600 BC, thus ending over four thousand years of Assyrian, Greek,
and Armenian presence in Anatolia.
Then they gave Anatolia to the Turks, the perpetrators of the
Genocides, and descendants of the Turks who had invaded Anatolia
and conquered Constantinople in 1453 AD, almost 4,000 years after
the arrival of the Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians.
Then they named Anatolia Turkey.
Total Assyrians slaughtered: 275,000, more than half their population.
Total Greeks slaughtered: 1.2 million Total Armenians slaughtered:
up to 1.5 million.
Totaling 3 Million Assyrian, Greek and Armenian victims of the
Ottoman Genocide.
Yet few news reports bother to mention the Greek and Assyrian
victims of this Genocide.
My mother, a Pontic Greek lived through that genocide. By age 12,
she was the only known survivor of her family. It was an Armenian
family who took my orphaned mother in and brought her to safety in
Aleppo, Syria when the Armenian family fled Turkey. And it was the
Armenian family who arranged my mother’s marriage to my father—an
Assyrian who fled Turkey on pain of death in 1905, and came to
America. My mother was only 15 when she married my father. My
father was 45. My father brought my mother to America in 1925.
Memorialized in“Not Even My Name,”my mother’s story represents the
story of millions of other Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians who
lived through that terrible genocide. They should not be dealt with
as an afterthought by the press or by Congress. As Rep. Anna
Eshoo’s reminds us, her Assyrian family lived through that genocide.
Lest we become complacent, we must remember all the victims of a
genocide equally. This was a Genocide of the Christian minorities
of the Ottoman
Empire: Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians.
If Ilhan Omar needs confirmation by genocide scholars, that the
Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians suffered Genocides at the hands of
the Ottoman Turks, she should be directed to the 2007 Resolution of
theInternational Association of Genocide Scholars(IAGS), which was
affirmed by hundreds of the world’s leading genocide scholars.
(View IAGS Resolution here)
Elie Wiesel describes denial as a“double killing,”as it also
murders the memory of the crime. But he also reminds us that “To
remain silent or indifferent is the greatest sin.”
Updated: November 1, 2019, 12 p.