I have always been amazed at how people make quick final judgments on complex, controversial topics that require tactfulness. And I believe one should be tactful towards anyone: an official, or nonofficial, rich or poor, free or imprisoned.
The situation created around the dead soldier caused many such hasty judgments, and those who taking advantage of our emotions try to exert sharp, courageous and oppositional exclamations, are not at least tactful. The essence of the question, in my opinion, is as follows: on the one hand, it is clear that the church has not collapsed because of burying the boy without even baptizing, if a person or, in this case his closest relatives consider themselves as Armenian Christians, demanding a document from them is not so meaningful. For instance, I was baptized in Verishen during the war, and my godfather and priest, unfortunately, are no longer alive. Should someone dispute over my faith? It is another matter if a person is an atheist, Protestant or Catholic, and does not want to participate in our church ceremonies: no one has the right to force him.
On the other hand, making use of the situation to criticize the leader of the Shirak diocese and in general to all the clergy, is not appropriate either. The Bishop could not go deep into all the intrigues around this issue at once. This is not the case to make emotional generalizations (for example, “I am mourning for you, my Armenian nation”).
Such hasty and “bold-oppositional” judgments are made over the health sector as well. “Banning people to smoke in public places or make them buy antibiotics on their prescriptions is equivalent to the genocide of the Armenian people, and the Minister of Healthcare is today’s Talaat-Pasha”. Again, rather than discussing the essence of complex issues with no passion, people resort to populism and make figurative qualifications.
And, actually, there is a problem in both cases. In the first case, the problem, in my opinion, is in the “tolerant” attitude of our society towards nihilism, slovenliness and impoliteness, until each of us does not rebuke and threaten those who dare to smoke in closed areas by the law, no state restriction will help. And in the second case, the problem is the poor condition of our polyclinics, those are places that humiliate people and illegally extort money at any cost, which they will of course also do when writing out a prescription.
But all this is not a national tragedy. The national tragedy is the obsession with making emotional exclamations.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
