November is the month of Thanksgiving and the warm anticipation for the coming 
Christmas holidays.   No doubt, there will be many exotic aromas permeating from our 
Armenian kitchens during this month -- aromas that relate to the many Armenian 
delicacies that will garnish our calorie-laden tables on this eventful day.


For many of us, it will not only be a day for giving thanks but also a mix of happy and 
mournful remembrances.  Be that as it may and regardless of our gratitudes, smiles and 
sorrows, we should also feel fortunate that we live here in America.


Starting with the rag-tag remnant survivors of the 1915 massacres --  to our displaced 
people who came here after W.W.II and followed by those who came here due to the 
upheavals in the Middle East, this great nation has not only given safe haven to our 
people, but it has also afforded them limitless opportunity.


As we sit around our tables on Thanksgiving Day, let us also take time to remember the 
plight of our people in Armenia and in Karabagh.  Let us hope and pray that they find 
peace and prosperity, and that the ever-present specter of death and hunger disappears 
from their tragic lives.  Let us also hope and pray that because of their precarious state, 
that they do not fall victim to political opportunists.


Over here in America, we are still a disassembled people.  Our leaders remain torn 
between their personal and ideological self-interests leaving our churches and 
communities divided.  I will pray for those who are responsible.  I will pray that they find 
and become infected with the friendly germ of love and human understanding -- that they 
put aside their unselfish self-interests and their senseless egotistical pride -- that they stop 
using our churches for personal or political advantage and in the spirit of true Christians 
that they start making a sincere and honest effort toward re-uniting our churches and 
communities in North America.


Recently, a renowned Armenian sage denounced me as being a “single issue” writer.  
Truthfully speaking, I suppose I am a “single issue” writer, but I can’t help feeling that 
what happens to Armenians on our side of this earth affects Armenians on the other side 
of this earth.  Furthermore, as the Turks proved in 1915, being Armenian is a single issue.   


Joseph Vosbikian