Tuesday, June 28, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
NEWSLETTER
ՀԱՅ
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
ՀԱՅ
No Result
View All Result

Remembering Robert Setrakian

by Asbarez Staff
October 7, 2010
in Columns, My Name is Armen, Op-Ed
2
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BY ARMEN BACON
The news came out of nowhere. Fantasizing he was the kind of man who might defy the odds, I had imagined him living forever, personifying Saroyan’s famed words, “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.” I wanted him to be the exception.  The unexpected sight of his name in a Fresno Bee headline – cradled between the front page and A7 caused a sip of early morning coffee to spill uncontrollably from my mouth, nearly drowning the story announcing his death. The headline read: Setrakian, friend of Saroyan, dies. Reeling, my mind created a run-on sentence, one much too long by any journalistic standard. I whispered in silence that he was my friend, too.
We first met on a beautiful fall morning back in 2001. I had said yes, reluctantly agreeing to meet him in the parking lot of the Radisson, located on Ventura Street, in the exact location where the Asbarez building had stood once upon a time.  He came to Fresno with ambitious plans to organize a festival in Saroyan’s honor.   I said yes because his last name ended in ‘ian.’
As he entered the hotel’s circular driveway, the sight of the ancient battered vehicle caused my eyes to roll backwards. It took him an eternity to climb out of the car but he instantly lassoed me into his world of dreams.   Afflicted with polio since youth, he emerged limping, dragging half of his body as if it were filled with cement. Eyes dancing, he charmed me with a smile that formed a half moon tilted toward the sky. Within minutes of listening to his vision, I was dizzy with excitement. I had contracted Saroyan fever.  I cancelled my morning appointments and we talked endlessly.  By day’s end, we had forged a friendship and, admittedly, I was putty in his hands.  No wonder Saroyan loved him.
The timing of the festival was, in a word – inconvenient.  My personal life was in shambles, it was my busy season at work, and the last thing I needed was a new project, another committee.  My insides were screaming, “No.” A little defiant voice kept nudging, “Yes.”  Fortunately, I lacked the guts to tell him how badly I wanted to opt out.
I had admired Saroyan ever since laying my hands on a copy of My Name is Aram back in sixth grade. He seemed to understand the human spirit. He loved outcasts, anyone fighting insurmountable obstacles.  In the back streets of my own private world, I was waging a personal war, one I couldn’t confess or explain yet to Setrakian – after all, we had barely just met.  Like many of Saroyan’s characters, I felt vulnerable, isolated, displaced and at a complete loss for words. I arrived home that night hopeful that the team of Saroyan and Setrakian might somehow anoint me with the courage and passion to write and punctuate whatever life sentence I was destined to live. Was it possible, I wondered, that William Saroyan, the man capable of using words and language to resuscitate a peach, might also revive me?
A few days before the launch of the Festival, Robert took me for a private tour into the Art Museum gallery, showing me priceless, never before seen works of William Saroyan, our native son, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and playwright from Fresno. There was a hush in the museum that felt sacred to my ears. I wandered aimlessly at first but then took notice that much of Saroyan’s artistry was composed on hotel stationary. How odd, I thought to myself, that I had also collected hotel stationary since college days and early travels to Europe. I sat breathless in the gallery, staring off into space, wondering if some kind of divine intervention was in the works. That night I went home and found my stash of stationary.  At 2:00 a.m. I began writing.
At first I wrote about the small, precious moments most of us are too busy to savor and celebrate.  Chance meetings, uncommon friendships, those obscure occasions when dots connect and the world suddenly makes sense.  Buried memories from my past surfaced.  Bringing these moments to life, creating a series of docu-memories, was like breathing pure oxygen. The team of Saroyan/Setrakian had thrown me a lifeline. I grabbed hold. In the months and years ahead, Robert Setrakian would graciously read everything I wrote, offering comments, feedback, encouragement and of course, his unique side-bar commentary.
Long after the festival closed, he and I continued to correspond. Our friendship flourished despite the miles and years between us. My husband and I attended his wedding in 2004, when at the age of eighty he married Patty, the love of his life. His dear friend from college, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, officiated at the ceremony. It was a sight to behold, a veritable love fest, a moment I will never forget.
I spent the good part of this past weekend rereading many of the letters we exchanged between 2002-2010. While they are all treasured keepsakes, one note in particular, written right after the Festival, is probably my favorite.
“Since the final curtain of our Saroyan celebration, I have been searching through my festival memorabilia with the hope of finding the item(s) that, for me, best describe the meaning of the two month long event and all of the creative time before it.  What I shall cherish most, is not the successful activities of the Festival itself, but rather the warm, loving friendships that have become a new part of my life. And for that, I am grateful.  And for this, I owe Saroyan my heartfelt gratitude.  And now, life goes on.”
Life, indeed, moved on.  Robert Setrakian, much like William Saroyan, was a man whose wonder and whimsy could set a room on fire. On a beautiful fall day in 2001, he rolled into Fresno and not only brought his good friend Will back to life, he resurrected a community and ignited a passion that still burns in many of our hearts. Like so many of Saroyan’s beloved characters, Robert Setrakian was honest and real, made of pure heart and soul, and a man worth cherishing.
My husband and I attended the private memorial service held September 17th in San Francisco to celebrate Robert’s life.  The afternoon was filled with music, memories and laughter, ending with Saroyan’s timeless words, “In the time of your life, live – so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it.”
Thanks to my friendship with Robert Setrakian, I continue to discover a new life that exists in the amniotic fluid of my own words and language. I made him a promise to keep writing, venturing off to wherever this leg of the journey, fueled and propelled by Saroyan and Setrakian, is fated to take me.   Just as Saroyan’s most passionate love affair was with life itself, so was Robert Setrakian’s.  And it was this generosity of spirit that made his lust for life also his greatest gift to all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.

Asbarez Staff

Asbarez Staff

Next Post

Wells Fargo Joins Armenian American Network to Host Nataline Sarkisyan Foundation Benefit

Comments 2

  1. Azeezaly Jaffer says:
    11 years ago

    I worked with Bob while he was the Chairman and member of the Board of Governers for the US Postal Service. I was thinking of him today and happened to google his name. I had no idea that he had passed away. Afterall, I retired several years ago as well. And to be thinking of him on the eve of his death a year ago only tells me that his spirit was calling out to me. Your reflection brought him back to life and I was touched as you and many others were by his gentle spirit and care for humanity. Thank you for so eloquently capturing the persona of the man we all called “friend”.
    Azeez

    Reply
  2. Sylvie says:
    4 years ago

    I have had the chance to meet Mr Setrakian in San Francisco and Washington DC
    He is probably the person that have count the most in my life
    I will never forget his Gentlemen attitude, his deep generosity and peaceful smile
    I cannot found words to express the profond sadness I feel at this instant.
    He got people closer to each other fare before internet
    Thank you Bob
    Since then I have always feel close to the Armenian community in Europe where I Live.
    I would like to express my most sincere condoleance to his entire family

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Menendez, Schiff Alarmed that Biden Again Approves U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan

Menendez, Schiff Alarmed that Biden Again Approves U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan

8 hours ago
Press Boycotts Pashinyan’s ‘News Conference’

Press Boycotts Pashinyan’s ‘News Conference’

11 hours ago

Connect with us

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

    Readable Experience

    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned

    Visually Pleasing Experience

    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors

    Easy Orientation

    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Virtual Keyboard
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Navigation Keys

    Asbarez.com Accessibility Statement

    Accessibility Statement

    • www.asbarez.com
    • June 28, 2022

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
    3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to