Dispatch from the Armenian Centennial March in Los Angeles on the Corner of My Street

Looking north toward the Hollywood hills, I had never seen it quieter in the seventeen years I've lived in Los Angeles.

It was positively deserted and definitely eerie looking south.

People were trickling in, probably from Glendale, the second largest city behind Los Angeles of people claiming to be of Armenian descent. The Greater Los Angeles area claims over 40% of the nearly 400,000 Americans of Armenian descent. They form the largest community in the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in Russia.

I'm not Armenian, and today I am grateful perhaps not to be Turkish, and other than a brief spat with a group of men throwing their cigarette butts onto the sidewalk (I told them to knock it off and respect the neighborhood, they told me that someone would pick it up and that they were bringing money to the neighborhood),  I enjoyed the spectacle today. There's really not much more exhilarating than a massive peaceful protest march.