Letter -- Saro Senekeremian

This is in response to a letter written by Larry Glenn on Jan.

Larry writes, “If the Armenians want a memorial to commemorate the

Armenian Genocide, let them buy some land and build it. Jews built a

memorial in West Los Angeles to commemorate the Holocaust, and Armenians

have every right to do the same here in Glendale. It should not be done

with any taxpayer dollars and not on public property.”

On the mall in Washington, D.C., near the great museums and monuments

to America’s founders and heroes, the largest and costliest Holocaust

museum was opened in April 1992. Although construction costs were covered

by donations, the museum was built on federal government land by the

United States Holocaust Memorial council, a taxpayer-funded federal

government agency. The taxpayer bill for the Holocaust Museum between

1993 and 2000 amounted to more than $110 million.

The United States is a country that prides itself on equality. If it’s

OK to use taxpayer funding to build a Holocaust Museum, then Armenians

also have “every right” to use taxpayer funding to build a genocide

memorial.

SARO SENEKEREMIAN

La Crescenta