I was going to write about the resolution in the US House of Representatives officially labeling the mass killing of Armenians by the Turkish government as genocide. I had every intention of musing over the inability of the human race to even agree on atrocities commited in the past, and how that helps explain our inability to comprehend the present. I would have comented on the duplicity of Americans to condemn the atrocity of other nations, while failing to do the same with their own, while also noting the moral failing of the Turks to reckon with their own past.
It was that last part that undid me. Angry Turks are taking to the streets of Istanbul to take back the good name of their country. The right and the left clash in Istanbul. The government issues proclamations from Istanbul.
Istanbul. Istanbul. Istanbul.
And if you know me, you know where this is leading. Yeah, it's totally off topic, but how can I constantly type the word Istanbul without getting to this?
Well, obviously, I couldn't.
Yet in searching YouTube for Istanbul (Not Constaninople) clips, I found a homemade video for another They Might be Giants recording, a cover of the great Phil Ochs song One More Parade, which eloquently crystalizes my thoughts on the human race's inability to prevent history from repeating itself. Not a happy song or a happy clip, but when we can't even agree on the definition of genocide, we aren't living in happy times.
