April 24th is the birthday of Carolyn Cole(born 1961), a well-known staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. For a few years in the late 1960s, the Cole family lived next door to JWR’s parents’ house in Livermore, California. That little girl with whom he played hide-and-seek would grow up to earn a Pulitzer Prize, two World Press Photo awards, and be named Photojournalist Of The Year. Congrats and Happy Birthday, Carolyn!
This is also the Remembrance Day of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, where Ottoman (Turkey) Muslims slaughtered 1.5 million of their Christian neighbors, intellectuals, and community leaders. The Ottoman government proceeded with multiple phases to round up men in mass executions and drive women and children into the desert on death marches. They also led the general Muslim populace to participate in brutal periodic massacres within their communities, signaled with the blow of a bugle. It is one of the first modern genocides and serves as a warning for us today. Sarah Latimer, decades ago, spent most of a day on a flight speaking one-on-one with an elderly woman, who told of her account as a child escaping this horror and of her faith in God, which her family would not renounce and for which most died. She lost most of her family, including her father, because they would not renounce their faith. This woman had a great impact on Sarah. There are chilling accounts contained in Islam scholar Andrew Bostom’s book, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War And the Fate of Non-Muslims
Mr. Latimer
Thank you for recognizing the Armenian Genocide on April 24th. There is no Armenian family in the world that the Genocide has not touched. Since 1915 the Turkish government has prevented a film from being produced about it. Finally this year the movie, “The Promise” which has just been released does justice to what occurred. It was a self produced film with a budget of 100 million dollars. The movie was funded by an American business man of Armenian decent, Kirk Kirkorian who did not live to see the fruits of his labor as he died in 2015 just before filming began. The profits of the movie will go to charities concerned with genocide prevention. The movie stars Oscar Issac, Christian Bale, and Charlotte Le Bon. The movie does a great job of weaving factual events into the story line of a love triangle. Thank you for bringing attention to the little talked about first genocide of the 20th century.