Discussion on essay-2-grading-rubric-sample-intro-and-links-to-other-examples-and-sources

[Justin A.]

Rough Draft
I'm currently not in Los Angeles right now and this is all the work I
have.

Throughout recorded history, Nazi Germany’s mass slaughtering of Jews
not just in their country but in countries they occupied was the most
well known act of genocide that has occurred in history. Hitler was
very thorough in his methods and he ended up being responsible for the
deaths of over six million Jews. It was not until the American
invasion of Europe that the discovery of the concentration camps was
made. Hitler systematically severed almost all Jews from Germany to
France and placed them in concentration camps. Hitler was able to
convince most of Germany that Jews were the reason why their country
was weak and that they were no good as a people. He defined that as a
people, the Aryan race was superior and that it was the Jews that were
making them weak. Goldhagen describes how the German’s thought of Jews
as “useless eaters”, and also of “life unworthy of living”. This
mentality was so embedded in the German’s minds that the torture and
brutality of the Jews was like “bread to the body” for them. They kept
Jews alive so that the next day they could make them suffer all over
again. The pictures of the Jews liberated at concentration camps and
the skeletal frames and hollow eyes still remain as one of the
testaments to the cruelty of the Nazis. The German mentality was so
severe that when they bombed the Warsaw Ghetto to put down a Jewish
rebellion they felt proud that they killed four hundred thousand Jews
and not a single house was left standing. The Germans brutality to the
Jews is legendary and it surpasses that of any genocidal act to date.
They even created a certain pyramid to which people in Europe were
judged on how sub-human they are. They would even perform experiments
on their captives to show how different they are with their own race
and also their superiority.

[William W]

William Wang
English 101 Section 0143
Professor O’Connell
04.02.2010 E2 rough draft

Intro/Problem
According to Daniel Goldhagen, mass murder and eliminationism begin
because man is a greedy species in nature. If man wants something,
then man will find a way to get it. Even if that way is by means of
mass murdering and genocide of entire groups of people. Man does not
discriminate on who to discriminate when it comes to achieving their
goals.

Explanation of Problem
Man, in order for him to get what he wants, is willing to go to
extreme measures. These include the Goldhagen’s 5 Pillars of
Eliminationism which are: transformation, repression, expulsion,
prevention of reproduction and extermination.

Solution to Problem
What we as a society can do is stand up for what we believe in and
speak our minds. If the people cannot take care of themselves, then
we need to take care of them. If the U.N. (United Nations) cannot
take care of the situation, then we need a private military company to
handle the problem.

Alternative Solution/Personal Opinion
My personal opinion is that we need to be flexible in our methods of
solving problems and the direction of our course of actions. Like
Bruce Lee once said, “Be like water.”

Works Cited
Goldhagen, D.J. 2009. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and
the Ongoing Assault on Humanity (pages 14-18)

[Rosemarie J]

The Armenian Genocide
E2
Rosemarie Johnson
Professor E. O’Connell / English 101, Class 3226
April 23, 2010


To Armenians, war has always been a determinant. When Turkey was
both an empire in decline and an emergent nation, the Armenians, a
small but significant minority in Anatolia, were subjected to two
massacres under the Sultan, who feared the secessionist Armenians
would hasten the demise of his empire. When the Sultan was deposed by
a nationalist, reformist group known as the Young Turks, the political
leaders, Talat and Enver conceived a transformation ideology that
Goldhagen describes as Imperialism at Home (Goldhagen, 2009, p 290).
Talat and Enver planned a “Turkey for the Turks,” an Islamic Nation
that would rid Turkey of its Armenian population, and restore Turkey
once again, to a position of importance. To achieve their
elimionatist aims, Talat and Enver indoctrinated the Turkish people by
“suitable and special” means against the hated Christian infidels.
The military, who were already predisposed to kill civilian women and
children, fell into line with the party position. It only required an
opportune moment for Talat and Enver to put their plans into effect.

The outbreak of World War I provided what Goldhagen rightly claims is
the “best context for undertaking pre-existing eliminationist
desires” (Goldhagen, 2009, p 270). War provided a cover of secrecy
with little threat of intervention. As Talat and Enver explained in a
memorandum to German officials, “The work that is to be done must be
done now; after war it will be too late” (Goldhagen, 2009, p 284).
The Turkish leaders having calculated the right opportunity, and
assessed their chances of implementing their plans with no threat of
intervention from the Allies, passed an emergency legislation to
enforce the roundup of Armenians simultaneously throughout Turkey to
prevent any retaliatory measures. When Henry Morgenthau, US
Ambassador to Constantinople tried to intervene, Talat explained
matter-of-factly that in order to politically restructure Turkey, the
Armenian question had to be settled.

In a prelude to the Nazi Holocaust, for the first time is the history
of modern genocide, technological inventions were adapted into killing
units run by a doctor, concentration camps were built and transport by
box cars utilized. Women and children, who were segregated from the
men, were forced to march without food or water to Zeir Yar in the
Syrian Desert. As Goldhagen (2009, p 99) correctly observes,
“volunteers are a characteristic of our age.” Kurds and local
peasants attacked the victims, raping the women and girls, and robbing
the Armenians of their few remaining
possessions. Not content with the depopulation of Anatolia, the cadre
of Turkish loyalists, who were exempt from prosecution at the trial
that convicted Talat and Enver in abstentia, violated the sovereignty
of Russia after the assassination of the Czar, and slaughtered
Armenian refugees once again with impunity. Russia, which was in the
throes of a Bolshevik revolution, and had its own internal problems,
was in no position to retaliate.

In the intervening decades, Armenians sought commemorative
resolutions in Congress with varying degrees of success but
reparations proved elusive. It was never a good time to address the
question of Armenian Genocide. World War II, which might have taken a
very different course if the Allies had seen Hitler as a later-day
Talat or Enver, came and went, and the Cold War took top priority.
The Armenians persisted through US entanglements abroad until the war
on terrorism destroyed Armenian-American’s hopes for reparations or US
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. When Hitler addressed his
generals in 1939, he proved as much a prophet as a politician when he
asked, “Who still talks about the Armenian Genocide?” (Goldhagen, p
34). When reported that when H Res 252, Affirmation of the United
States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution was cleared by the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs for consideration by the full
House, Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, speaking on behalf of the
Obama Administration, urged that the matter be dropped as reported by
(Watson, Labott, & Silverblieb. CNN 2010). Turkey is now a NATO
partner, an ally against terrorism, and most importantly, a
significant market for US munitions and armaments. (Gennet, 2010).
Expediency may trump justice but the Armenian lobby promises to make
its presence felt in the mid-term elections, and to hold both
President Obama and Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton to their
campaign promises.

For more than a decade, Armenian Americans have sought Congressional
recognition of the Armenian Genocide, only to find the Presidents
Clinton and Bush actively intervened to suppress the measure. The
Armenian lobby, well aware that candidates and incumbent presidents
would act differently and would renege on their promises, was
cautiously optimistic when Barack Obama promised, “As a US Senator, I
have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for
Turkey’s acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide. …and as President,
I will recognize the Armenian genocide.”(barackobama.com, January
2008).

Dr. Samantha Power, the National Security Council’s genocide expert
made a video telling Armenian Americans that as President, Obama would
definitely acknowledge their genocide. It was reported (Dissident
Voice, 2009), Dr. Power said, “Take my word for it.” The Armenian
lobby threw its significant political clout behind Obama, their only
viable choice for President. Once again the hopes of Armenian
Americans were dashed when the Obama Administration prevented the
passage of H.Res 252 by the full House.

In his documentary, Goldhagen questions Representative Adam Schiff
(CA), author of H. Res 252, which called on the President to affirm
the Armenian genocide, about the possibility of such a resolution ever
being enacted. Schiff held out no hope for the foreseeable future,
and Goldhagen appeared to accept the unspoken truth, that the
recognition of genocide is no longer part of US policy. By denying
genocide, Obama has affirmed a policy of non-intervention in future
atrocities.

Terence Des Pres observed “…great powers regularly demolish other
peoples’ claims to dignity and place and sometimes, as we know, the
outcome is genocide.” (Des Pres, 1986). The failure of the Allies to
carry out their threat to punish the perpetrators of the Armenian
genocide after World War I left a core of Young Turk followers in the
Turkish government, military, police and provincial bureaucracies.
This disregard for the consequences of crimes against humanity left
Turkey to adopt a revisionist policy that protected their fathers and
grandfathers from the stigma of a comparison with Hitler’s
elimionatist policies. The immediate results of the international
community’s failure to intervene took two very different paths. While
Armenian Americans sought peaceful resolutions and reparations for
property appropriated by the Turks, their countrymen in the former
Soviet bloc province of Armenia, on the Northern border of Turkey,
imbued with long standing hatred of the Turks, unexpectedly exploded
in a wave of terrorism.

Clandestine Armenian groups, formed in the 1970s, carried out a
campaign of political assassinations for a period of about ten years.
They were responsible for killing at least two dozen Turkish
diplomats. When Turkey closed its border in 1993, the US became
concerned about Armenia’s position as a Christian nation bordered by
three Islamic states, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan, and strong armed
Armenia to make peace with Turkey. Turkey insisted that Armenia’s
charge of genocide first be adjudicated by the International Center
for Justice (ICTJ). In considering the element of “intent,” the ICTJ
ruled that “…at least some of the perpetrators of the events knew the
consequences of their actions would be the destruction, in whole or in
part, of the Armenians of Eastern Anatolia, or acted purposely towards
this goal, and therefore possessed the requisite genocidal
intent.” (ICTJ, 2003) If nothing else was accomplished, the Armenian
genocide produced a definition of “intent to commit genocide” that had
previously been a hindrance to the International Criminal Court’s
prosecution of the leaders of eliminationist regimes.

Goldhagen correctly asserts that “…even if one nation is rebuilt,
even if only some eliminationist assaults are stopped, then such a
policy’s success would be historic…” (Goldhagen, 2009) The US is
unconcerned about potential reprisals by a hostile Turkey against a
vulnerable Armenia. Currently, Turkey has a rotating seat on the
United Nations Security Council, and the US needs Turkey’s vote on
sanctions against Iran.

Armenia occupies an inconvenient geopolitical position in the Islamic
bloc that could impede Turkey’s plans in the region. Ankara wants
free access to its ally, Azerbaijan, and is moving closer to the
mullocracy in Tehran, and attacking independent media while aligning
itself with militants and anti-Western Middle East regimes abroad.

Goldhagen is correct in insisting that: “The long-standing, well-
founded sense of impunity must be changed.” (Goldhagen, 2009, p 570),
but there is an immense gap between what should be done and actual
implementation. Aware of Obama’s refusal to recognize the Armenian
genocide, other countries with eliminationist regimes will assess the
chance of US intervention, and act with impunity. President Obama,
like his predecessors, is dedicated to obscuring the truth. If
President Obama can deny something so thoroughly documented as the
Armenian genocide, he is endorsing it. Should Turkey decide to resume
its iterative assaults against Armenians, President Obama who has
already put himself in the same category as Iran’s President
Ahmadinejad, who denied the Holocaust, will rightfully incur the
charges of instigator and facilitator, as well as the Congressional
representatives who lacked the moral fiber to vote according to their
conscience. There is nothing left now for Armenian-Americans to do
but to exercise their votes at the mid-term elections, which at best,
will be nothing more than a Phyrric victory.


References

Press Release (2003, February 13). International Center for
Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Report Prepared for TARC
Retrieved March 28, 2010 from
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.244/current_category.5/affirmation_detail.html


Obama, B. (2008, January 19). The Importance of US-Armenia Relations
Organizing for America / BarackObama.com
Retrieved April 4, 2010 from
http://www.barackobama.com/2008/01/19/barack_obama_on_the_importance.php

Watson, I., Labott. E. & Silverleib. A. (2010, March 6). Cable News
Network
Official: Armenian genocide resolution unlikely to get full House
vote
Retrieved March 28, 2010 from http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/06/us.turkey.genocide.debate/index.html


Z, M. (2009, May 15). Dissident Voice
Obama and the Denial of Genocide
Retrieved April 6, 2010 from
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/obama-and-the-denial-of-genocide/


Gennet. R. (2010, March 12). Huffington Post
Why the Armenian Genocide Matters
Retrieved March 28, 2010 from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robbie-gennet/why-the-armenian-genocide_b_496995.html


Schiff, Rep. A.B. (2010, March 6) House Resolution 252, (Thomas)
Library of Congress
Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide
Retrieved March 28, 2010 from
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:2:./temp/~bd2XG8::


Des Pres, T. (1986). “Remembering Armenia” In the Armenian Genocide in
Perspective
New Runswich, N.J.: Transaction Books


Goldhagen, D.J. (2009). Worse Than War
United States: Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group







SOPHIA
A Short Story
By
Rosemarie Johnson
(E2)
Professor E. O’Connell / English 101, Class 3226
April 23, 2010


It was quiet again today: A pall of silence hung over Haggia Sofia
as if all the bells had been muffled for the funeral of an important
dignitary. If the muzzeins in the minarets hadn’t begun the morning
call to prayer, I would have thought the city of Constantinople
abandoned.

Yesterday my brother was sent home from the army as if he were as
unfit to serve as one of the old Armenian men, who sit all day in the
shade, mumbling into their Turkish coffee about taxes, the good old
days, and the new Turkish leader, Talat. There are times when my
mother puts down her sewing and watches my brother pace up and down on
the terrace with sadness in her eyes that I’ve never seen before, but
my father fills his pipe and jokes about us all having to eat more
couscous and olives. I hate olives! I would much rather have figs or
sweet melons.

This morning my father has sent me on an errand to Gunduz, the olive
merchant. I would have rather wandered through the souks instead,
because I love the smell of sandalwood and rosewater candies. Some
day when I’m grown up, I will buy myself a turquoise necklace and a
tortoiseshell comb to put in my hair, that is if the souks are still
here. As I read the chalked signs on the Armenian bazaars, “Turkey
for the Turks,” I see soldiers helping themselves to the fruit and
sweet cakes as the shopkeepers remain silent.

As I walked slowly down the winding street to Gunduz’ store, I slowed
down not wanting to enter while he was talking to a Turkish customer,
but he must have seen me coming because the old olive merchant excused
himself and snatched my order, muttering under his breath as he
shuffled in old felt slippers to read it in the light.
“Three barrels of olive,” he growled showing his tobacco stained
teeth. “Your father isn’t going into the olive business by any
chance?” I didn’t reply for in truth I was dreading weeks and weeks
of eating olives.

In the early evening as I helped my mother sort skeins of silk for
her embroidery, I heard my father and my brother unloading the barrels
of olives. The day seemed like it would never end. No traffic could
be heard in the street, and a strange wind, unusual for April, rattled
the shutters and dimmed the oil lamps, so that dinner was unusually
late.

Mother and I had barely cleared away the meal when a knock came to
the back door. My father jumped up and said “I’ll get it, I’m
expecting someone.” In came my father with a man that I had never
seen before. He was about my father’s age and dressed like a sailor
I had seen in pictures. My father introduced him as Petros, a Greek
fisherman and offered him a drink of wine, which he laughingly
refused.
“There is no time to be lost, my ship sails with the next tide.” I
heard him say.

As I peeped around the corner to see what they were doing, the man
asked me “how much do you weigh girl?” I didn’t know, but my mother
answered for me as she led me to another room.

“You must dress warmly my dear, do what your father tells you and no
matter what happens be quiet!” “Petros is here to help us; we must
leave Turkey as it is not safe for us to remain here any longer. We
are going to hide in the empty barrels until we are out to sea. Do
not be afraid, your father has taken care of all the arrangements for
our safe passage. But I need you to be strong and do as you are
told. Do you understand, Sophia?” “Yes, mother, I understand, but
I’m scared.” “I know dear, but trust that God will watch over us in
our journey. Hurry, it’s time to go.”

My father explained to us that we would be hidden in the olive
barrels that I had ordered earlier in the day and that he would go
onboard the ship as a sailor. As we entered the barrels I tried not
to think about the olives and leaving the only home I’ve ever known.

After what seemed like the longest night of my life I heard the
crashing of water in the distance as the lid of my barrel was lifted
off, I saw my father looking down at me with relief. “We are in the
straits of Marmora,” he said as my family crowded to the rails to see
a last glimpse of our beloved Turkey. The Golden Horn of Turkey seemed
to be on fire.

Petros said, “we were just in time.” I still do not understand what
the meaning of those signs, “Turkey for Turks”, as we were Turks too.


Sophia’s Return

A summons to the Red Villa in the old section of Istanbul took me by
surprise. I, Sophia, the granddaughter of a little Armenian girl who
fled Turkey sixty-five years ago, never expected to visit that part of
the city. No one ever received an invitation from Talat’s widow,
Hayrike. If you’d ask anyone in the street, they would have shrugged
and said that she’d had died years ago.

I could have sent someone else from the Greek Embassy in Ankara but I
owed it to my grandmother, Sophia, in Athens to face the once great
beauty who might hold the key to our family’s tragic past, besides I
wanted to see for myself the notorious Red Villa where the Young Turks
once planned the annihilation of my people.

Time had changed the Red Villa to weathered gray, almost hidden in a
phalanx of cypress trees that cast long forbidding shadows over the
broken shutters and scattered tiles but the smell of jasmine and
damask rose reminded me that beauty once co-existed here with evil.

I was turning to leave the silent villa when the door creaked open,
and an old woman dressed in black motioned me to enter what must once
have been the grand salon. As I crossed the faded Sarouk Mahal rug, I
caught sight of a tiny figure swathed in purple veils lying on a
velvet sofa beneath a Byzantine triptych.

If this was indeed Talat’s widow, she must have sensed my surprise,
because she gave a low sigh and beckoned me towards her with a claw
like hand, heavy with topaz and moonstone rings.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I was once an Armenian who was forced to
accept Islam. What other choice did I have? All my family was
slaughtered by the Sultan.”

I searched for words to express my sympathy but something in her
voice told me that she was beyond compassion.

“Do with this as you will.” She thrust a cinnabar box into my hands,
sinking back exhausted onto a pile of cushions. I took one last look
at the peeling wallpaper and the tarnished gilt, and made my way back
to the quiet street that had never accepted modern Turkey.

The cinnabar box sat unopened on my desk until I learned of Hayrike’s
death. When I saw the contents, yellowed sheets of paper and a black
record book, I knew that I would need an interpreter, and there was
only one Turkish person of the utmost integrity, I knew I could trust,
Murat, a renowned historian. In less than an hour, he arrived, eager
to examine the contents that I had described only briefly.

“Mehmet Talat!” Murat exclaimed. “I should have known that a man
given to such meticulous detail would leave a record! Do you know
what this is, Sophia? It is the population record for 1915.” Murat
thumbed through the brittle pages, making rough calculations.

“There must be close to a million names of Armenians for 1915, gone
from the population record for 1916, and that is just the beginning.
Would you have any objection to me publishing these papers, Sophia?”

“Do with it what you will.” Hayrike had whispered to me at our
meeting. I handed the box and its contents to Murat, knowing that the
historian could be trusted with the truth.

Less than a year later, I received a copy of “Talat’s Black Book”
from Murat, who true to his word had kept faith with the Armenian
cause. This Summer when I go home to Greece, I will surprise my
grandmother with a copy of Talat’s Black Book. If she ever decides to
revisit Turkey, hopefully she will see the Red Villa for herself and
perhaps, the specter of Talat will finally be laid to rest.



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[William W]

William Wang
English
101 Section 0143
Professor O’Connell

04.23.2010 E2

According to Daniel Goldhagen, mass murder and eliminationism begins
in the minds of men. When men come together to form a group with
common interests, be it a political party, an ethnic community, a
racial group, a labor union or even a fan club for a particular sports
team, this is good. The problem starts when these groups become
fanatical in spreading their beliefs with other people who may or may
not share the same ideals. They start to get aggressive in order to
have their way, that is, if the opposition to their goal does not want
to budge or give way. The Federal government may cut funding to a
State government if the State government does not enforce the rules
set forth by the Federal government; the Nazis desiring to rid the
world of impure, tainted Aryans like the Jews by extermination; the
White Southerners who wanted to continue to enslave the Black race;
the trade union of Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike,
threatening the safety of thousands of innocent passengers traveling
by plane; and the San Francisco Giants fan who shot a Los Angeles
Dodgers fan in a dispute between their team loyalties. If man wants
to control territory or rule by their own accord, then man will find a
way. Even if that way is by means of mass murdering and genocide of

entire groups of people. Man does not discriminate on who to

discriminate when it comes to getting what they want.

The problem becomes magnified or increases exponentially when the
means of mass murder become easier with the advancement in today’s
technology. Add to that the relative ease by which nuclear weapons
are developed and obtained, being widely available and, “Houston, we
have a problem.” Goldhagen’s concern is addressed by Congress having
recently passing a bill “to establish the transfer of any nuclear
weapon, device, material, or technology as a crime against humanity”.
This is a formal document that lets the crimininals of our world know
that what they are doing is wrong, as if they did not already know
that what they were doing was a crime. And if that wasn’t enough, let
us add insult to injury when these architects of genocide think that
they can get away with their crimes because they know that the U.N.
(United Nations), who are supposed to be protecting our communities
and working for world peace, are effectively ineffective at stopping
them.

Our Team: America last year has even passed a bill that “support UN
Security Council referrals of situations involving genocide, war
crimes, and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal
Court...” Even then, the bill is quite conservative in the language
being used with words such as “support”, “exercise”, and “invoke”
which all sound very weak. Stronger and bolder words like “enforce”,
“exert”, and “instigate” would be more effective in striking fear into
the hearts of these lawless men. Another way to make a difference in
our world, is to follow Goldhagen’s advice in creating an authorative
international watchdog organization... to identify mass murders and
eliminationisms”. This would be a private military company so as to
prevent any conflicts of interest one nation might have with one
another while eliminating the threat in a given country’s territory.
Also, the name of the organization should sound intimidating, like
that of the private military security firm “Blackwater” who are the
largest of the three private security contractors of the US State
Department. I would call it “Holywater” or “Redwood”. Commercials
for Holywater would run with the tagline: “Got crimes against
humanity? Just add Holywater” and for Redwood, “Make like a tree and
leave!” It’s all marketing.

We, as a responsible society, have too be flexible in our methods of
solving the world’s problems because the terrorists, those who
threaten our freedom, get more and more creative each and every day.
If we can adapt to our “environment”, that is, the increased traffic
of terrorists and the manufacturers of WMDs or Weapons of Mass
Destruction, the world is ours. The radical and reactionary groups
who are in favor of violence cannot scare us or “phase” us (for lack
of a better term). We must be able to adapt, overcome and achieve.
We must be able to never give up and never surrender! We must be able
to believe that we can fly. We must be able to believe in magic.
Goldhagen challenges us as moral human beings and model citizens to do
the right thing. I believe that we are up to the challenge and so, we
must be. Like Bruce Lee once said, “Be like water.”

Works Cited

Goldhagen, D.J. 2009. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and
the Ongoing Assault on Humanity (pages 14-18)

Casey, Jr. Sen. Bob, 2009, July 16. S1464: to establish the transfer
of any nuclear weapon, device, material, or technology to terrorists
as a crime against humanity. US Senate.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1464:

Kennedy, Patrick, 2009, April 2. H.CON.RES.97: to support United
Nations Security Council referrals of situations involving genoicide,
war crimes and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal
Court...
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.CON.RES.97:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1619711

Short Story coming soon...