Since the attack on September 11th, hundreds of Sikh Americans have been targeted by hate crimes. Want to know how you can help? There is currently a House resolution and a Senate resolution that target hate crimes. You can do your part by writing your Senator or House Representative and ask them to support these resolutions. It will only take a few minutes (if that) and you can find all the info you need here, including how to find out who your Representatives/Senators are, and if they currently support these resolutions. All E-mails and phone calls must be recieved by the end of the business day on October 10th, so please don’t delay.
This strikes me as similar to the rush by our state legislature to make it a crime to enter the cockpit of an airplane. Okay, fine, that’s bad/naughty/whatever. But is passing yet another law the best way to address this problem?
I think Hate Crimes legislation looks good on paper and suggests a strong moral stand by our country, but I don’t think it does much to prevent these. Your average bigot doesn’t check the lawbooks before he targets a victim. In terms of sheer usefulness, I’d rather see a law where we could shoot bigots in the head. But that’s another debate…
One memorable novel from India was Delhi by Khushwant Singh (absolutely one of my fave Indian writers, along with Gita Mehta and R. K. Narayan). I had more fun reading [d]Delhi* (and he had more fun writing it) than any of his other books. It’s a sweeping look at several periods of Delhi’s history across the centuries, tied together by a frame story (an ancient Indian storytelling device, modernized here).
Anyway, near the end of the book, it’s 1984, Indira Gandhi’s just been mowed down and Hindu mobs are running amok killing all the Sardarjis they can get their hands on. The narrator is on a train pulling into a station and sees a mob seething with bloodlust. Quickly he pulls out a pair of scissors and hands them to a Sardarji so he can get rid of his beard before anyone sees him.