Group answers Rogers’ endorsement questions

In debating how to respond to Will Rogers’ column on Feb. 19, “When 3

goes into 2, and my drug use,” we were tempted to heed numerous calls

from members of the Armenian community who gave us earfuls of vitriol

at what was written, most of which would not be permitted in print.

Fortunately, the Armenian National Committee does not

indiscriminately endorse any opinion or platform from all “-ian’s”

and we were actually pleased to have such a revered columnist give

our endorsements the prime real estate of the sought-after space in

his column.

But to set the record straight for a second -- we just want to

assure everyone that we don’t make endorsements based on a shared

appetite for shish kebabs and hummus -- every candidate, Armenian or

not, is equally considered in any election in which we are involved.

Second, we are sorry to have caused such puzzlement as to why we’ve

endorsed three candidates for two seats in the Burbank City Council

primaries. If Will has ever been invited to an Armenian dinner he

would know there is never just one main course served -- “excessive”

is one way to look at it. But in the case of the Burbank primaries,

we would [have been] happy to see any of the three candidates we

endorsed -- Jef Vander Borght, Gary Bric and Vahe Hovanessian -- move

on to the runoffs in April, where four candidates advance.

To further alleviate confusion on the “who” and the “what” of the

ANC -- our organization is not only part of the largest Armenian

grass-roots organization worldwide, it has the broadest base of

grass-roots support locally in the Armenian community. As for the

message left on our machine hours before the article was printed even

though the press release has been issued for a month, we sincerely

apologize for not returning the call immediately. We were overloaded

with calls from the community with questions on voter information.

STEPAN BOYAJIAN

Chairman, Armenian National

Committee of Burbank