I actually started to compose this post in the evening of April 24. Anticipating already the sentiment that the days following when Armenians commemorate the Genocide, everyone’s social media posts and online news would go back to “regularly scheduled programming”.

Then I stopped for a moment began to ponder about the possibilities of continued posts and articles that talk about the Armenian genocide, as well as the current blockade in Artsakh. Perhaps this year might be different than the past. Maybe we would continue to at least the end of April talking about the Genocide. 

Like a child awaiting gifts on their birthday or awaiting to see a loved one come home from a long trip – the hope I had was that the gas pedal would still be pressed and I would continue to read posts or news items focused on the Genocide and Artsakh. 

I paused on April 24 to finish writing this post…

On May 16, I picked up where I left off. What I feared came true. We all but stopped posting stories, personal anecdotes, pictures, etc by April 25th. Some postings still lingered, but the news outlets moved on to other news and just like that – sadly, we wont see these types of posts until next April. 

Of course the first question that comes to my mind is (and has always been) Why has the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide turned into a one or two day event throughout the United States? When I read social media posts what I see is one lecture/educational event hosted by an Armenian organization for Armenians, and then a church service.  Why is our focus on one day a year? 

When the world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide a few years ago, I was (pleasantly) amazed by the amount of events and creativity surrounding commemorating this important anniversary. Throughout the year, I thought, maybe we have finally understood the magnitude of how to get the worlds attention. We certainly had shown we have the talent and creativity to promote awareness of the Genocide. 

However, we have now reverted back to years prior to the 100th anniversary and subsequent years. 

There is more that could be written, but this was meant for us to reflect and I welcome your comments as to how we can do better….