The Mysterious Trunk and the Armenian Genocide
By Rachel Melikian A Canadian woman, Wendy Elliott, became a graphic designer because she liked building things, and solving puzzles and mysteries in her childhood. She later became a design instructor in colleges in Ontario out of her love for education; she also had a love for history. Elliott’s interest in history and puzzles took […]
Aurora’s Silent Prayers
By Rachel Melikian An orphaned unknown teenage girl, the greatest, bravest woman in history, miraculously arrived alone in the United States 101 years ago, after three and a half years of wandering on foot from her hometown in Western Armenia. She had escaped slavery and a harem after her entire village had been massacred by […]
MGM and The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
By Rachel Melikian What do Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Franz Werfel, Clark Gable, Sarky Mouradian, and Sylvester Stallone have in common? They were fascinated by the Armenian heroism explored in Franz Werfel’s book, “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.” This literary-historical gem was published in 1933, translated into 18 languages, and instantly became a national and international […]
“Eat the Peas”
America, We Thank You By Rachel Melikian On Oct. 29 this year 405 Congress members struck a historic bipartisan vote for the house resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923. The H. Res, 296 strives to “commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance.” Sadly, some of the histories of the Americans’ […]
Broken Worlds in a Photographic Gallery
By Rachel Melikian Photographs preserve history and teach us about the past without any language involved, but as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words. Now most of us are amateur photographers using smartphones to capture selfies and personal photographs, gather images when we travel, and chronicle our personal histories. Professionally skilled […]
Behind the Muddied Glass: A Doctor’s Look at Untreated Mental Illness
By Susan Partovi I met “Carrie” while making rounds at the Los Angeles County women’s jail with a group of mental health professionals. A woman in her mid-50s, she had no clue what day it was. Naked and thin, Carrie ambled over, peering through the muddied glass of her jail cell. But it was not […]
Sex Trafficking: From Naïve Innocence To Life On The Streets
By Rosemary Jenkins Years ago when I was working with and for the homeless, I learned a lot about a neglected segment of our population. Would it surprise you to know there are young people in far greater numbers than we might otherwise imagine, females who find themselves walking the streets of Los Angeles – hopeless, filled with fear, […]