| esquire within |

Obamawatch.

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

-Abraham Lincoln

Our newly inaugurated president has been a busy, busy bee.

The day after his swearing-in, we saw policy guidance issue from the Oval Office regarding the Freedom of Information Act.  "All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure," orders our president.  His memorandum called for new guidelines from the Attorney General that embody that presumption -- with an eye to transparency in our government.  This was complimented by Obama's Open Government Directive, which lays out three guiding characteristics of his administration: transparency, participation, and collaboration.

Next, salaries in excess of $100,000 were frozen for White House aides.  "In this challenging economic period, it is only appropriate that senior officials on the White House staff forgo pay increases until further notice."  Amen to that, brother.

As for his executive orders -- which carry the force of law -- there's even more cause for enthusiasm. 

Executive privilege, the Bush Administration's abuse of which would have brough a blush to Nixon's droopy jowls, has been redefined and explicitly narrowed.  He effectively reversed President Bush's 2001 order that granted ex-presidents broad authority to stonewall the release of White House records. 

He has tightened restrictions on lobbyists and how they can move in and out of the administration.

He has ordered a review of the detention of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a man who has been held in the United States as an "enemy combatant" -- without formal charge -- for more than five years (and who would not have been covered by his executive order re: Guantanamo Bay detentions).

He has revoked the Bush Administration's most recent perversion of the Geneva Conventions, and has mandated that all U.S. personnel must adhere to the U.S. Army Field Manual with respect to interrogations.  This is particularly significant because the Field Manual expressly bans torture and inhumane treatment, and establishes an exclusive list of permissible interrogation techniques (which the CIA has heretofor not been obliged to follow).  He has also denied every agency's ability, in the context of interrogations, to rely on any interpretation or policy guidance issued by the Bush Administration regarding the Geneva Conventions or federal law.

And -- to my unending relief -- he has ordered the suspension of prosecutions at and closing of Guantanamo Bay, as well as the full review of all cases against detainees.  (I note, with no small disappointment, that there was no mention of other detention facilities, such as Baghram.)

All this in the span of 48 hours.

Now, I'm not thrilled that he's authorized a review of the Field Manual's 17 interrogation techniques in order to determine if additional techniques can be added to it -- but there's reason to hope, in light of the foregoing, that anything addendum would be in step with the Constitution and our international human rights obligations.  And I harbor a similar hope for the black site detention facilities we've spread abroad.

HOW REFRESHING it is to have a President who has studied and deeply respects the letter and spirit of our Constitution.  HOW REFRESHING it is to have a President who understands the obligation we have as a nation to the human condition and the rule of law.

I shudder at how close we came (and it wasn't even all that close) to a McCain/Palin Adminstration -- because I know, and you know, that what has been set in motion over the last two days would not have seen the light of day in that alternate universe.

Anyway.  So far so good, Mr. President.

I was not ready to come back to work last week.  And after what I would call a less-than-rejuvenating weekend, I'm not ready to be here this week, either.

But Americans are expected to bounce back from funerals very quickly.  Especially when the loss is not "immediate" -- when that injury is sustained somewhere outside the short reach to parents, children or siblings.  When it's just an uncle, just a relative, just someone who lives far away and you see all too infrequently, well, you're supposed to be just fine. 

If I sound bitter, it's because of the probably good-humored but entirely unwelcome flak I got for taking two weeks off over the holidays, the bulk of which I spent beside my uncle's bed in the ICU.  And after speaking at his funeral to the friends and family who had traveled hundreds of miles to grieve the loss of a profoundly good man, I can't maintain even the shadow of an illusion that this job is anything but pointless.  Pointless assignments, pointless disputes, pointless outcomes.  All of it boiling down to which pockets can be filled a little fatter, and which can be sewn up tight against probing fingers. 

Words for my uncle.

This morning, three eulogies in three languages were given in a small chapel outside of Dallas.  This was all I could think to say.

I stand here today, inadequate and unprepared, without the grasp of language this task requires:

Our Keri Vahe deserves words finer than I command.

He deserves words that can paint a picture of the cherished details: his impish grin, his oversized pajamas, the way he hovered by his grill while kebab sizzled over the fire.  The sound of his voice as he welcomed guests into his home. 

He deserves words that can stretch to embrace the infinite fullness of his spirit. He deserves words that can describe the way his eyes lit with profound and endless humor.  Words that can impart his secret understanding of the world – that light and laughter could be found in every darkened corner, if only you knew how to look.

Our Keri Vahe deserves words that can reach into his character and capture with clarity the knowledge of him that all of us here share, but cannot wholly express: 

That he was a good man. 

That we were better for knowing him. 

That the world was a little less dim while he walked it. 

Words that can reveal the tapestry woven by the threads of his character –- by laughter, sincerity, and great compassion; by strength, integrity and practical good sense; by generosity and comedy and a deep and abiding love of family and friends.

Our Keri Vahe deserves such words -– but I do not know them.  I am not certain those words exist.

Perhaps today, that is the best I can hope to convey: the acknowledgement that our memory of him can never be contained by simple words.  That language fails us.  That our time with him was borrowed -- a gift that can be deeply felt, but not explained.

I miss you.

April 10, 1947 – December 31, 2008

To know Vahik Khachatourian was to love him.   

He was many things to many people: Cheeky Husband, Loving Father, Adored Little Brother.  He was Dearest Uncle and Grandfather Most Proud.  He embraced each role with passion and great humor.  But above all else – to all who had the privilege of knowing him, whether fifty minutes or fifty years – he was a Friend unlike any other.  

Vahik brought light and love to a world in short supply of both.  Laughter came as easily and naturally as breath to him. On his lips a joke was always ready (more often than not, a dirty one), and in his eyes an unwavering delight in life and the people who filled it.  Vahik knew what the world was made of, and he still loved all of it.

Memories of Vahik will endure, vivid and colorful, and the echoes of his knowing laughter will carry us through the years ahead.

Vahik is survived by his wife Artemis, daughter Nina, granddaughter Nyrie, and the countless friends and family who loved him.