On their Facebook page, the website Kaurista posts a touching letter from fifth grader Gurjaap Singh to the young victims of the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The full text is below.
Categories: Reflections • Tags: Connecticut, Elementary school, Gurjaap Singh, Kaurista, Newtown, shooting
Things have changed in Oak Creek, of course, in the months since a gunman with white supremacist ties took the lives of six temple members and wounded four others. Oak Creek and the Sikh community are strangers no longer; they will forever be linked with each other. — An article in the Oak Creek Patch describes Sikh awareness presentations being provided to Oak Creek, Wisconsin city staff, police department and schools by the Sikh Coalition. The article also includes an […]
Categories: Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Gurdwara, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Sikh Awareness Seminar, Sikh Coalition, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin
In the Huffington Post, Joshua Stanton, of the Center for Global Judaism, explores what makes a text sacred: Humans sanctify themselves not in the passive resonance they feel with stories that transcend time, but in the active engagement and re-crafting of these stories through the questioning of premises, derivation of overarching truths, and a willingness to unweave and reweave these initial narratives in forms that more closely resemble that which we understand to be ultimate meaning. The Sikh faith is […]
Categories: Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Guru Granth Sahib, Huffington Post, Joshua Stanton, sacred text
Dilveer Singh Vahali writes an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he reflects on when he was subjected to “terrorist” epithets in public: I was on my way to lunch with one of the partners at a prestigious law firm when we both heard it: a random person on the street yelling at me, “Terrorist … hey, terrorist!” I was in the process of trying to secure a job. Like any other law school student, I just wanted […]
Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Dilveer Singh Vahali, Discrimination, Los Angeles Times
In an article published on the Not In Our Town blog, Amrit Kaur Sidhu, an intern with United Sikhs, relates personal experience to make the salient distinction between promoting diversity (“plurality”) and promoting pluralism — “the active engagement of plurality” — in the classroom: I realized that schools are the first institutions that must become a model of pluralism, in order for pluralism to seep out into the rest of society. Students are placed in a social setting with other […]
Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Amrit Kaur Sidhu, bullying, CREATE Wisconsin, Education, hate crimes, Navjot Kaur, Not In Our Town, Oak Creek, pluralism, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin
It was just over a week ago that we learned of the results of the elections in the United States, including that to represent California’s 9th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. In that race, a Sikh American named Ricky Gill challenged incumbent Representative Jerry McNerney to represent the district in Congress. Rep. McNerney would win this election by receiving almost 55% of the vote. As a Sikh American, I followed the Ricky Gill campaign on this blog. His […]
Categories: Politics, Reflections • Tags: 2012 elections, California, California 9th Congressional District, Jerry McNerney, Ricky Gill, Stockton, Tom McClintock
As a Sikh I feel incredibly inspired by the courage and leadership that the sixth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Hargobind Sahib Jee, showed in 1619. The Sikhs celebrate this event as ‘Bandi Chorr’ at the same time as the Diwali festival. There are a number of messages that come from Guru Sahib’s compassion and determination during his captivity, and when ensuring the release of the 52 Hindu kings with him, despite the chance to be freed alone. For me, […]
Categories: Events, Reflections • Tags: Bandi Chhorh Divas, Diwali, Guru Hargobind, Immy Kaur
This week, most of those of South Asian descent around the world are celebrating Diwali, the “festival of lights” that is rooted in the Hindu tradition. It is one of the major celebrations of the year for Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, and was even recognized in a video by President Obama in 2009. I have written in past years about Bandi Chhorh Divas — the Sikh celebration at this time of year that commemorates the release from the prison at […]
Categories: Events, Reflections • Tags: Bandi Chhorh Divas, Barack Obama, Diwali, Guru Hargobind
For those looking for a break from the nation’s focus on today’s US elections, I offer a change of pace. In addition to being the month of the election, November is Sikh American Awareness and Appreciation Month in California. Moreover, November is also “Movember” in many parts of the western world — a growing movement to raise awareness for men’s health in which men grow mustaches during the month of November for the cause of prostate cancer research. Movember started […]
Categories: Reflections • Tags: Adam Garone, Moustache, Movember, Prostate cancer, TEDx
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