1981_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1981

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Hye Sharzhoom
December 1981
Letters to the Editor
Editor:
I want to tell you we all enjoyed
reading your newspaper especially the
article written by Charlotte Booloodian
(see March 1981 issue). She expressed
herself in a very intelligent and
interesting way.
Alice Eknoian
San Francisco, California
Editor:
This is a quick note to tell you how
very much I enjoyed your touching
piece on Saroyan in the September
1981 issue of Hye Sharzhoom.
Shoghere Markarian
New York, New York
Editor:
I shall be very happy if you send your
newspaper Armenian Action to my
friend's address by airmail during the
year of 1982.
There are a lot of difficulties in subscribing to your newspaper from
Turkey. This is the reason why I am
writing to you from France.
M.Anil
Paris, France
Editor:
Hope all goes well... That's a good
newspaper you people put out, better
than most college publications I have
seen. Bravo and congratulations!
Leo Hamalian
Editor, Ararat Quarterly
New York, New York
±W oUPoMlNJ*
HYE SHARZHOOM
Editors:
Flora Tchaderjian
Cynthia A vakian
Staff:
Pennie Console
Anahid Hamparian
Angela Khushigian
Contributors:
Alan Atamian
Catherine Burke
Garo Istanboulian
Aram Saroyan
Boghos Tchaderjian
Advisor:
Dickran Kouymjian
Hye Sharzhoom is the official
publication of the CSUF Armenian
Students Organization and the
Armenian Studies Program, is
funded by the CSUF Associated
Students.
Please acknowledge Hye Sharzhoom when reprinting any articles
Jrom this newspaper.
Editor:
I grew up in Fresno, and I very much
appreciate your work as evidenced
in the Sharzhoom paper.
I do believe it is very important not
to become so singletracked as to overemphasize national origin, and national
specialities in a world which is in
turmoil and needs to have the barriers
of parochialism broken down. I do see
in your publication and your work a
clear openness to all kinds of people,
and to the whole world and to the whole
earth. Your section on culture, and the
presentations there are indeed
excellent.
It occurs to me that we, as Hyes,
have a marvelous opportunity with the
young Iranian students here in the
United States, who are caught between the demands of their rather
narrow and oppressive regime back in
Iran, and the intolerances of American
public opinion brought about by the
hostage issue. After all, these are
aliens among us, and we can draw upon
our experience as aliens to be of nurture and comfort to them. This, I think,
is an opportunity to promote understanding. I trust that the Fresno Armenian students' organization will
take whatever opportunity it finds
available officially, if possible, to ease
some of the pains that many of these
Iranians must be going through.
Incidentally, I was very pleased at
the vigil that you sponsored on
April 24.
Unfortunately, the townspeople
(many of whom were Armenians) were
not in tune with what was going on, and
did not even know that the vigil was
taking place. I guess they're too busy
even to read their own newspapers.
In any event, keep up the good work.
Your vitality and God-given spirit,
and your apparently balanced sense of
fairness and love are a great asset to
the central Claifornia community as a
whole to the Armenians in the United
States, and to the vitality of ethnic life
with cosmopolitan dimensions.
Edward Ardzrooni
Oakland, California
Editor:
It has come to my attention that an
unusual amount of criticism has been
expressed, by letter and spoken word,
over the recent publication of the poem
"HyeMartotz" by Zevart. A poet,
myself, I regard highly the gift of
criticism, because it offers a different
perspective, or point of view, in
regards to my own expression. But
criticism, like a bad piece of art, can
also be unwarranted and incorrect
when put into the mouths, or words, of
amateurs and foolish people pretending to be wise.
I found the poem to be a genuine
expression of an Armenian's fear of
extinction. The first generation of
Armenian-Americans were brought up
in an atmosphere of social prejudice,
which forced them to blend into the
American mainstream in order to
survive. The second generation, however, in the transition, began to dissolve into the "American Melting Pot,"
leaving the generation of Zevart,
myself, and a cast of thousands looking
for our identity as Armenians. One
must never forget, "Toon Hye Es."
(You are Armenian.)
Zevart sustains this theme in each
stanza. Repeating like an echo the title
of the poem, the poetess chants her
ancestral rites of culture and preservation. Zevart's lament is a genuine
summons to an Armenian Man for
cultural preservation.
Zevart is a young poetess who
chooses her language well in representing the modern situation with a
direct and honest diction. Because the
rhythm flows with the language, I
never feel lost or obscured  in this
poem. I find myself revisiting the book
of Proverbs, while reading "Hye
Martotz" with its vaudeville wisdoms,
of question and answer.
Zevart is a fine young poetess.
Critics should look forward to hearing
more from her; and wait with anxious
ears and quiet mouths,
And listen to the poetess speak.
James Baloian
Fresno, California
—Editorial-
Why Armenian?
Amidst the turmoil of adjusting to the American way of life, the
second generation Armenian-Americans buried the everyday use of
the Armenian language in their subconscious and most of them
refused to share it with their offsprings. As a result, the majority of
the third generation Armenian-Americans do not speak, read or write
Armenian, and the frightening apathy they have for the language of
their ancestors predicts a gloomy future.
The use of the Armenian language in the third generation Armenian-Americans ' lifetime is restricted to church masses, college or university language courses, as well as to the study of linguists, scholars
or a few people interested in learning foreign languages. Another
result of the disappearance of the Armenian language from its everyday use is the alienation created between Armenian-Americans
speaking primarily English and the newly arrived immigrants from the Middle East, for example, who are primarily Armenian
speaking. This alienation, the natural outcome of such a phenomenon, is the result of superiority and inferiority complexes.
It is pathetic to state that a language that has survived at least 1500
years during the most catastrophic times of Armenian history, is now
gradually fading in America, the land of freedom and prosperity,
and this process is taking a scandalously short time—less than 100
years.
Our fear for the reduction of the Armenian language to the status
of a museum object is a valid one simply because language (along
with literature, art, history, music, folklore, dance, cooking, etc..)
constitutes an important component of a culture, and it is by a culture
and a land that a nation is to preserve its essence, its uniqueness.
A diasporic nation has the disadvantage of not being able to identify with a land, and consequently has to resort to its culture as its
sole means of identification. A culture flourishes only when one of its
components is not strknghtened at the expense of others. It would be
erroneous, to believe that an Armenian can identify herself/himself as
an Armenian by merely dancing to Armenian music at a local church
picnic, or by just speaking, reading or writing in Armenian. Yet the
Armenian who is acquainted with her/his ancestral tongue has the
advantage of filling the communication gap between herself/himself
and the Armenians speaking Armenian. She/he will further have the
means of being exposed to a tremendous wealth of Armenian literature produced in its original language, and through that literature to
the creative spirit of the Armenians that has given us our immortal
Barouyr Sevags.
It is imperative for us to revive the everyday use of the Armenian
language, yet it is a difficult task. It takes an extra for a CSUF
Armenian student for example, to go to an Armenian language course
four days a week to learn at least 25 new words per chapter—words
that sound utterly foreign to her/him—and the complex grammar of
the Armenian language, all this simultaneously with the regular'load
of the required university courses. But the satisfaction that this
CSUF Armenian gets from the gradual yet definite acquisition of her/
his ancestral tongue is worthwhile.
Armenian Studies Programs in colleges or universities and Armenian Day Schools are the very cradles of our language. These centers
of thought do not, however, flourish without our support and uncomp-
romised devotion. We can not consciously tolerate the relaxed attitude some of us take in sitting back, arms folded, and waiting for
our Armenian Day Schools, for example, to flourish miraculously and
spontaneously, so that we, then, caring Armenians, can send our
children to those schools.
Now is the time to be actively involved in preserving one of our
most valuable belongings—our endangered Armenian language.