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Totah Confusion
By Garen Yegparian
I’ve always advocated action, participation, doing something
over doing nothing—in a word, activism.
But all along, I’ve held a bias that’s now been revealed to
me. I suppose I owe everyone an apology. I’d just always
assumed that activists, especially any who survive into
their twenties and beyond, also develop/have good judgment.
At the very least, I’ve observed most organizations checking
the overzealousness of some of their members/activists in
the interest of not doing damage to their cause. It seems I
am dead wrong on this front.
Some time within the past month or so, Annie Totah, who sits
on the Armenian Assembly’s Board of Directors (and has even
been its chair and vice-chair) and is ARCA’s national chair
(the Armenian Rights Council of America—the ADL/Ramgavars’
version of the ANC), sent out an e-mail that could have
negative repercussions for the Armenian community. She is
also heavily involved in the Jewish community, having
married into it. Check this and more of her credentials out
on the Assembly’s and ARMENPAC’s (the Assembly’s political
arm) websites.
Normally, this is exactly the kind and level of
participation I’d be advocating and lauding. But, here that
judgment thing pops up again. The e-mail she sent negates
many of the positives of her involvement. I have not been
able to secure a copy of the e-mail, and that’s secondary.
What’s more important is a piece by Ed Lasky it references
found on the “American Thinker” website. You can find the
reference to this on Ben Smith’s Blog, Politico.com.
The problem is the nature of Lasky’s piece and being
associated with it. Eyeballing some of his other writings
quickly conforms his conspiracy mongering approach. The
piece in question, titled “Barack Obama and Israel,” does a
smear job on that candidate. There’re subtle and overt
references to Obama’s choice of religion and denomination;
attempts to assign guilt by association using some of
Obama’s supporters alleged transgressions against Israel;
and even an attack based on Obama’s opposition to John
Bolton’s nomination as UN Ambassador. The article even takes
potshots at members of Congress, some of them H.Res.106
sponsors, among these Adam Schiff, one of our strongest
Congressional supporters.
Annie Totah’s e-mail, presumably sent to a Jewish audience
to demonstrate the superiority of her chosen candidate
(Hillary Clinton), may or may not sway its intended readers.
Frankly, I don’t care. In fact I wouldn’t even care if the
other candidate were targeted. That’s not the point. Totah
and ARMENPAC have chosen to support Clinton. That’s actually
good. This way, regardless of who wins, with the ANC’s
endorsement of Obama, one faction of our community plugged
in.
But resorting to sleazy, innuendo-laden tactics like using
this article reflects poorly on us as a community. It
certainly reflects poorly on the organizations in which
Totah holds high positions. But then, in the Assembly’s
case, perhaps this is to be expected. Remember, they won the
“coveted” SpitRain Award last August. In case you think I’m
overreacting, here’s how Ben Smith describes Totah: “a
Washington society figure and Armenian-American activist
who’s also a member of Clinton’s finance committee.” Those
who don’t personally know any other “Armenian-American
activists” might, given human nature, attribute to the rest
of us a love of gutter politics.
I’m not starry-eyed, nor delusional. Politics is blood
sport. Of course these kinds of things will be done. But
there’s a wisdom that’s expected of those holding visible
positions in organizations. They cannot be associated with
this kind of activity because it reflects poorly on the
organization. For all I know, the Clinton campaign may have
been following exactly this line of thinking by feeding
Totah Lasky’s piece to disseminate.
Please call on Annie Totah, ARCA, ARMENPAC and the Armenian
Assembly to apologize for this embarrassing gaffe. If she
refuses, those organizations and others she serves should
remove her from any offices she holds.
If they don’t, then we the community will know how to judge
and not support them in the future.
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