Letters to the Editor: Commissioner explains vote on proposals for Verdugo Park work

This past Monday our commission met to discuss the proposed Verdugo Park renovation. Although I cannot speak for my fellow commissioners, I want to clarify the reasons why I voted against the three options presented.

First, we should consider Verdugo Park in its entirety instead of just the northern section. That approach would be more cost effective and would also allow us to make more informed decisions. Second, the southern section of the park is already an active park with amenities including the Verdugo Skate Park, Stengel Field, a smaller softball field and a basketball court.

The northern section of the park has always been a passive park, one of very few open spaces left in our city. I drive by the park at least once nearly every day and have observed people from all parts of Glendale enjoying picnics and impromptu activities on the park’s lovely grass, in the shade of its mature trees. If we lose this resource now, when and how will we ever replace it? With all the pressures on us, I suspect we never will.

Susan Wolfson

Glendale

The writer serves on the Glendale Parks Recreation and Community Services Commission

Gift Wilsonian Armenia to Mother Armenia

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson arbitrated the borders of Armenia in the Treaty of Sèvres, 1920, which specified the Black Sea is in Wilsonian Armenia. After Wilson’s death, the provision was not honored. Armenians declared independence on May 28, 1918. The perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide brutally attacked Armenia to annihilate every single Armenian.

According to Christopher J. Walker, had Armenia lost the Battle of Sardarabad (fought by women and the orphaned children of the genocide) “It is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term.” Once again Armenians survived. Armenia was absorbed into the Soviet Union.

April 24, 1915: Not one flower was left because winter had fallen in spring. I came to know when lies happen, everything dies: season, people, civilization and culture.

Why not let the light shine that gives flowers to the season for man to smell; for the birds to sing their love songs; and to make the world peaceful, the world that does not care when Armenians fell?

What makes the world lose their beloved friend, whom they had cared to defend, but then suddenly disappeared? In their heart or with their lips they cannot utter Armenia or Armenians anymore or write and witness about them. The book of the world became as void as its empty soul.

Today our borders are under constant attack. Mother Armenia’s precious youth are becoming victims to the enemy’s attack on a daily basis, who are vigilantly protecting her borders to promise her future independence. World, say “enough.” Gift Wilsonian Armenia to Mother Armenia to safeguard her borders and to end Mother Armenia’s tears over her fallen soldiers.

Rachel Melikian

Glendale