The SeattlePI has printed an eye-opening article on Sukhvir Singh, the recent victim of a hate attack in Seattle. The article traces Sukhvir Singh’s history and shows him for the person he is. It’s definitely worth a close read.

Robert Jamieson has done a great job of highlighting some deeper points, too. Here’s one of them, when Jamieson observes Vazquez at his sentencing:

I looked at Vazquez, too, and thought the venom he spewed in the cab was in him all along. Alcohol just opened the gates.

Definitely true. Had Vazquez not been inebriated, he would have thought Sukhvir Singh was an “Iraqi terrorist,” but wouldn’t have attacked him. There must be countless people who, dare I say, think like Vazquez, but thankfully don’t act on it. Hopefully we can turn the tide and correct these horribly incorrect assumptions.

Anyway, the article ends with Sukhvir Singh forgiving Vazquez and asking that Vazquez’s life not be ruined. Perhaps some of Vazquez’s community service will include promoting awareness on behalf of the Sikh community?

This reminds me of a case several years ago when a friend of mine, Gurpreet Singh, was attacked on a train in New York. His attacker was also convicted of a hate crime, and Gurpreet asked that he be required to serve food in the local Sikh temple as part of his community service.

Hey friends! I’ve posted the presentations from the Sikh Seminar Titled “Gurudwara and Sangat, Nurturing Sikh Heritage in Our Youth,” held at the Philadelphia Gurdwara last weekend. I also just recorded my presentation and have posted it as a YouTube video for your comment and review.

Please review the YouTube video and the other presentations and add your feedback in the comments.

The presentations were largely well received. I will add one anecdote–the Gurdwara Bhai Sahib, who has just finished katha before we took the stage, listened intently and had some comments on our presentations after we finished.

Here’s my English translation of the excellent story he told:

About 30 years ago, a group of Sikhs in England raised funds to purchase a church as their first gurdwara building. They were all very excited. Just before the Sikhs moved in, they had a meeting with the church’s pastor to get the keys. The pastor was fighting back tears.

“Why are you crying?” asked the Sikhs.

“You’ve purchased my church, and here you will build and wonderful and beautiful Guru Ghar,” said the pastor. “But what I ask of you is that while you build your gurudwara, you must also build interest in your youth. That is why we are here today–we built a beautiful building, but we didn’t engage the kids, so we are selling our church to you.”

The story really struck home as I have been to a few gurdwaras that are in old churches in New York and elsewhere. It’s a good point, isn’t it? What’s to say that we are any different?

The Next Seminar is May 4, 2008 at Sikh Sabha Gurdwara in Lawrenceville, NJ. The Topic is “The Relevance of the Sikh Rehat Maryada Today.” If you would like to participate, give a talk, or do any other sewa, please contact sutinder singh [ sutinders at gmail.com ].

Recorded version of my presentation:

I’ve also included the full slides from all of the speakers below.
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Washington Square News has an excellent article on a langar hosted by the NYU United Sikh Association. The article describes a win-win situation for all. The NYU students get some good food and expand their horizons by learning a bit about Sikhs. The NYU Sikhs get to do some seva (selfless service) and serve everyone a free meal in the time-honored tradition of the Sikh faith. I hope many more college Sikh organizations can follow the lead of NYU — they even have a full week of activities planned. Special thanks to Kate Thuma for her well-written article!

We previously reported on Parminder Singh’s success — and it looks like Mehfil Magazine is catching up. Parminder Singh is on the cover, flanked by Sonny Singh and some other Sikhs that I haven’t heard of until now, like Jatinder Singh, the guy that started “sikhcess” — the worldwide movement designed to feed the needy. Some great stuff to read, check it out, and click on my screenshot to see what I mean.

So I decided to try something different and put together a little presentation on SALDEF. I’ve been a volunteer for SALDEF since 1998, when I helped make one of their first web sites. Since then I’ve represented SALDEF in various settings, trained police officers, and given talks in schools.

Let me know what you think. Do you want more video reports like this? Better yet, do you want to be interviewed?

The Guru Gobind Singh Children’s Foundation is planning an ambitious nationwide relay run this summer, to commemorate the group’s 10th anniversary. The stated objectives are to raise money for underprivileged kids and promote awareness about Sikhi. As a fairly regular runner, I can say that this looks to be an exciting event. Check out the planning slide deck below for details on the relay (source page) and contact Parminder Kaur [p flora 23 at yahoo . com] for more information.

The Guru Gobind Singh children’s foundation is a youth run initiative has been raising money for underprivileged children in developing countries since 1999. Not only has the foundation raised tens of thousands of dollars, but it has also brought mainstream recognition for Sikhi.

The foundation’s main fund raiser each year is a relay run. In the past they have done runs from Toronto to Ottawa, Niagara Falls to Toronto and 24 hour runs in addition to a wide variety of runs and fund raisers.

To celebrate the foundation’s 10th anniversary in 2009, the youth are planning a relay run across Canada.
The run run will raise money for children as well as raise awareness of Sikhi in Canada.

The initial planning groundwork is in process and now the foundation mostly requires a large source of volunteers to actually take part in the run.

Sikhpulse reports that the Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey omits Sikhs. I checked it out and sent the following email to feedback@pewforum.org. I encourage you to do the same.

Hi Pew Forum!

I’m very impressed by the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Interviewing 35,000+ people is quite a feat.

But I’m suprised to see not even a brief mention of Sikh Americans–the most visible religious minority in America.

Please take a look at this recently released US Department of Justice video titled “On Common Ground” for some detailed info on Sikhs:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/video/ocg-video.htm
quotes: “…world’s fifth largest religion…there are over half a million Sikhs in the United States…distinctly separate from Hinduism and Islam”

Is there anything we can do to be included–in an appendix or a revision? It seems that you’ve produced some historic research, and we would love for Sikhs to be part of it–is there anything we can do going forward? What do you recommend?

Thanks for your help!

- Savraj Singh

Circa 1990 (anyone know the exact date?) a Sikh was featured on the Richard Bey show, a local New York City program. This charismatic young fellow (who is a few years my senior and now a well-respected doctor that organizes Health Fairs at gurdwaras) won the #1 fan competition. It’s an interesting clip, because Richard says a few things that may be considered a bit “off” today. At the same time, Varinder Singh shines through as the ultimate fan–his tenacity, dedication, and sheer entertainment value made him an easy first choice. He says, “I don’t smoke dope, I don’t drink bourbon, all I want to do is shake my turban.” I think I first heard that line from the Sikh Elvis impersonator–but that’s a different story. Anyway, with all the recent hoopla around Kenneth Cole Singh, what do you think of Richard Bey Singh?

The benefit of the Kenneth Cole campaign is that the focus is on Sonny the Sikh Entrepreneur. (I think that’s the title of a children’s book–Sonny the Sikh). Richard does make a joke about “Sikh”, but that’s not the focus of the program anyway. It’s just entertainment. I guess after watching this video again, it just makes me feel really glad that we have things like Kenneth Cole Singh, Waris Singh, and other prominent, positive representations in the American media.

The picture says it all. An excerpt from Amandeep Singh of the Sikh Coalition:

This world-wide ad campaign is for Kenneth Cole’s 20th anniversary, and the focus is on the fact that “we all walk in different shoes.” Kenneth Cole has a long history of supporting socially conscious initiatives, including the AWEARNESS campaign focused on AIDS and homelessness. Along with Sonny [Singh], the other “models” were selected for the adversity that they face in their day to day life (e.g., two Muslim sisters who escaped Taliban Afghanistan, a blond model who is HIV-positive, etc.). They will be launching a website in the coming weeks that features a video interview with each model, along with their story. This will obviously bring tremendous visibility to our community and hopefully move us closer to breaking the stereotypes we work so hard every day to counter. The attached pictures are of a 20-foot board outside the Kenneth Cole store in Rockefeller Center (49th and 5th). Similar posters and billboards should be popping up in the coming months. Pretty damn cool!

It’s also worth noting that Sonny is not a model by profession, but an attorney and entrepreneur. We’ll be looking forward to the website and congrats again to Sonny and Kenneth Cole for proving, once again, that Sikhs are stylin’ cool.

This seminar is at Glen Rock Gurdwara. Check it out yo. I’ll be there.