First in a series.
Returning from a whirlwind trip to Vienna, Armenia and Paris that was socially and culturally intensive, I will try to take you with me through a series of observations and experiences.
I do not have discriminatory feelings racially or religiously, nor will I make judgments on the subjects I will be writing about.
As a professional sociological researcher, I am objectively studying situations.
The experiences of my trip brought to mind a story of my late mother.
A criminal was condemned by the court of justice to die. On the morning of the execution, as was customary, prison officials asked for his last wish.
He answered that he would like to kiss his mother for the last time, a decent, reasonable request. They summoned his mother.
Arriving in tears, she fell into the arms of her son minutes before his execution. The man asked his mother to allow him to kiss her tongue. An odd request, but one that can be tolerated from a person in his position.
She pulled out her tongue so her son could kiss it. Instead, however, in a very fast movement, he cuts the tongue of his mother with his teeth. Bleeding horribly, the woman was in enormous pain.
Authorities not only were confused but angry. The judge told him he never had seen such a heartless, cruel person. Instead of repenting, the man had committed an evil act toward his loving mother.
“Sir,” the son replied, “I tried to protect others from the danger of this tongue. It is this tongue that has pushed me to all that I have gone through until I reached this moment of execution.
The son recalled his first felony when he was five years old.
“I stole an egg from our neighbor’s yard,” he said. “I showed it to my mother. In all honesty, I told her that I had stolen it from our neighbor.
“My mother took me in her arms. ‘It is okay,’ she said. ‘You are just a child.’
“When I was six years old, I stole the pen of my classmate. My mother’s response was the same – I was only a child.
“In time, I gathered more courage. I continued stealing more and more.
“The egg became a pen, the pen a watch, then I stole houses and stores. My mother spared me every time.
“The more I stole, the more I would hurt people to protect my actions. I was lucky that the law was not able to catch me.
“My mother was aware of all my crimes. She never showed any reaction, never denounced me.
“Years passed. My luck in evading the law continued until my last big crime, one that you are aware of. I was robbing a bank, and I killed so many people.
“This time I was caught. I spent years in my cell, and now I am awaiting my execution.
“Your Honor, believe me, it is her tongue that drove me to this situation!
“If this tongue would have shown me the right path the first time, when I stole the egg, I never would have ended up here.”
(To be continued)
Dr. Rosemary Hartounian Cohen, who lives in the Fairfax District, received her Ph.D in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris. She lived in two other countries before moving, with her husband and four children, to Los Angeles in 1984. She has published four books in America. Since 1985, she has operated Atelier de Paris, an international art business, on Robertson Boulevard. Her email address is Rosemary@atelierdeparis.com.
