Letter to the President

Dear President Obama,

I am greatly disappointed, hurt and betrayed by you. When I cast my vote for you as the next president of the United States, I legitimately thought I was making the right choice. After following your campaign for almost a year, and even neglecting my girl Hillary, I was confident that you were the only person capable of moving our country in a new direction that would take us out of the dark hole we were in for eight years.

However, it is with great sorrow that I must say that you proved me wrong. Out of all the campaign promises you made, there was one that stuck out to me more than the rest. You said that once you were elected you would acknowledge the atrocities committed upon the Armenian people during the beginning of the 20th century as an act of genocide.

When I heard this statement, I thought I was finally going to have a president who would have my people’s best interest at heart. Unfortunately, on the day of the 94th anniversary of the genocide you disappointed me in a way I never thought you would.

As a first generation Armenian American, I was raised with stories from the genocide and photographic documentation that will stay with me forever. During my 13 years at a private Armenian school, the motivation was fostered in me to always keep fighting so the United States and Turkish governments would one day recognize the horrible acts committed on my people.

It has been 94 years since the beginning of the atrocities and Armenians, myself included, are still carrying on the fight for recognition. As a small nation, more prominent in the Diaspora, it is up to the young generation to make sure our ancestor’s deaths receive the recognition they deserve.

As I am writing this letter to you Mr. President I cannot help but shed a tear. You weren’t just any presidential candidate to me. I felt there was something special about you and that you didn’t possess the characteristics of the heartless politicians that have come through Washington in the past.

It pains me to say this, but I was wrong. When your politically correct statement about the Armenian Genocide was released on Friday, Armenians all over the world were remembering the 1.5 million massacred. Instead of finding the word genocide next to the word Armenian, as you vowed during your campaign, what we found was a broken promise.

Mr. President, you should be ashamed of yourself. You were praised by the people of this country during your campaign as the ultimate agent for hope and on the night of Nov. 4 you were given the opportunity to make good on the promises you made. But ever since you took office in January you haven’t been the president I hoped you would be.

Mr. President, you failed the people of this country by not sticking to your word and acknowledging the actions committed by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. You failed Armenian Americans and Armenians all over the world. Particularly, you failed me. Now you’re just another politician among the rest of the corrupt people in Washington that can’t keep their promises.

Sincerely,
Eileen Mansoorian,
Opinion Editor