Posted on 06/28/2019 7:54:45 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It’s 7:20 p.m. when he rolls into Spicy Bite, one of the newest restaurants here in rural northwest New Mexico.
Locals in Milan, a town of 3,321, have barely heard of it.
The building is small, single-story, built of corrugated metal sheets. There are seats for 20. The only advertising is spray-painted on concrete roadblocks in English and Punjabi. Next door is a diner and gas station; the county jail is across the road.
Palwinder Singh orders creamy black lentils, chicken curry and roti, finishing it off with chai and cardamom rice pudding. After 13 hours on and off the road in his semi truck, he leans back in a booth as a Bollywood music video plays on TV.
“This is like home,” says Pal, the name he uses on the road (said like “Paul”).
There are 3.5 million truckers in the United States. California has 138,000, the second-most after Texas. Nearly half of those in California are immigrants, most from Mexico or Central America. But as drivers age toward retirement — the average American trucker is 55 — and a shortage grows, Sikh immigrants and their kids are increasingly taking up the job.
Estimates of the number of Sikh truckers vary. In California alone, tens of thousands of truckers trace their heritage to India. The state is home to half of the Sikhs in the U.S. — members of a monotheistic faith with origins in 15th century India whose followers are best recognized by the uncut hair and turbans many men wear. At Sikh temples in Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside, the majority of worshipers are truck drivers and their families.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Don’t want to pay to read it. What does it say?
I have had good experiences with Sikh cab drivers....they were all over Seattle when I lived there, only polite people in town. One even refused to charge me for a ride.
Better than Pakis with ammonium nitrate filling their vans.
Sikh’s rock.
When my child was young her pediatrician was a Sikh. California has several large communities. Great people
Sikhs carry a ceremonial knife all of their lives. They also carry them in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, the only persons allowed to be armed and be near her, except for her armed guards.
I attended a wedding at a Sikh temple. There were armed men guarding the altar. Only it turns out it's not an altar, it's a library!
Yeah who gives a @#$#??
How many times are they on the front pages blowing someone’s head off?
About as often as Asians.
I wonder how they vote though. Just curious.
Sikhs are the best.
I’ve admired and liked every Sikh I’ve ever met.
On the truckers CB radio, channel 19:
“Are you the personage to whom I am speaking?”
Send them home to India. Put Americans back in those trucks.
As a class, Sikh’s are awesome people!
I worked with one. Just one. He was an asshole.
All you can make out is Mexican, Russian and a few other non English languages.
18 wheel crashes seem to have increased during that same period
So yeah, it's worthy of giving a rat's ass.
Long haul carriers in the U.S. are having major issues recruiting drivers ... turnover rates are off the charts. Drivers are gone for extended periods, the job is lonely and often times thankless. Drivers extend their hours to make a deadline delivery and are berated by the consignee for being marginally late, after a three day trip ... thru no fault of their own. Happens all the time in the industry ...
You know Sikhs aren’t muslims you ignorant ####, right? :)
Did I say they were the same jackass? I said Pakis. As in Pakistanis. I am a TRUCKER, I see them and the Somalis all the time. The Sikhs are benign. Not the Muslims. They are a gathering threat.
I know several Sikhs, all Trump fans.
Great attitudes about life. Love to laugh and tease
One of the families I know has 4 generations that have fought for the US.
Very proud of their service
Great people.
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