Posted on 05/16/2006 7:51:05 AM PDT by my_jai_05
It's hard to beat a morning walk. The cool air, the freshness of spring and the topper, getting pelted in the back by half a roll of duct tape. Hate crime or the idiot factor? You decide. Parmjit Kaur Pannu was taking her daily walk in her neighborhood close to the intersection of Hosking and Akers roads, near Ridgeview High. The 63-year-old Pannu is a Sikh and was dressed in traditional Punjabi dress, a kameez -- a long shirt called a salwar -- a pajama looking bottom and a chunni, a long scarf, worn over the shoulder. She lives with her husband Avtar Pannu and her son Jaspal Pannu and his wife and young family. Her son Jaspal drives a truck for Frito-Lay. Avtar, her husband, works at Grimmway Farms. They've been in Bakersfield for 21/2 years. Tim Everton, a neighbor of Pannu's, saw her get pelted by the duct tape. "She was about to turn the corner of the street we live on when a shiny red pickup slowed to allow the passenger enough of a chance to pitch an object at her and hit her in the back (it turned out to be a roll of duct tape) and also to allow this old woman, and anyone else present, to hear the stream of obscenities being hurled," Everton wrote. "The 'crime' she was committing was relishing in the beautiful spring day in Bakersfield and maybe enjoying her life, liberty and pursuit of happiness a bit too much in the eyes of those rogues. Or perhaps it was the darker skin and the sari over her shoulders." Everton called the police. They came and took a report, but told him they couldn't do anything unless Pannu wants to pursue it. She doesn't. She just wants to be able to take a morning walk without getting hurt. "The incident shook my longstanding belief in the innate goodness of man," Everton writes. "This shouldn't happen here in southwest Bakersfield or anywhere else in this city, state, or in this country." Her son Jaspal said he knows many Indians to whom something similar has happened. People throwing beer bottles, yelling and cussing. It's education, or the lack of it. Usually, the more you know about somebody, the more you understand and the less you hate or fear. At least, it sounds good. There are more than 25,000 Sikhs in Kern County, according to Nazar Kooner, a local farmer in Arvin. Many of the Sikhs (Sikh means student) came here in the early '80s to work in the carrot fields at Bolthouse and Grimmway. Word of mouth brought friends and family from New Jersey and New York. If you ever wondered why so many Sikhs are named Singh, which means lion, it's because Singh was the name of an important Sikh leader who told fellow Sikhs to fight back when attacked. "What happens is that Sikhs are frequently misidentified as Middle Easterners," Kooner said. "India is 6,000 miles away from Iraq. We think differently and have absolutely different cultures. We are not those bad terrorists." That's probably what happened to the grandmother in south Bakersfield taking a walk. It's a geography problem. However, even if she were Middle Eastern, this is no way to treat fellow Americans.
I'm 55 years old and never saw a turbanned Sikh until 5 years ago on a visit to Philadelphia. It's really difficult to know all these religions when you grow up in a "white bread" area. My Philly friends had to explain the turban to me. I had no desire to throw things or shout epithets, I just didn't know what it represented.
To learn more about Sikhs you can read:
http://sikhnet.com/s/SikhIntro
They do not all wear turbans or dress in traditional clothing. (My husband doesn't) and may I mention PROUDLY that he is a very LEGAL immigrant!!
And no Granmother should be pelted with anything other than hugs and kisses from her Grandkids!
If somebody shouted or pelted my mom- you can bet heads would be flying. This woman was kind enough to let it go and only asks to be allowed to take her morning walks in peace.
Whoever did that should be very ashamed.
And please keep in mind that these people are not Hindus or Muslims. They believe in one God who isn't a He or a She but rather a loving entity all around us at all times.
And after 9-11 they came out and helped the community despite bias crimes against them. I was hoping to get the reaction of the general public and see how many people are aware of who they are and the difference between them and the terrorists.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post!
I don't know who wrote this, but it is so typical of the modern journalist. The desire to elicit emotional responses from the reader is overwhelming. Thus, a word like "pelted" used not only improperly, but no less than twice in the first half of the article. Pelted means hit repeatedly, as by raindrops, hailstones or meteorites, not a single partial roll of duct tape.
The website is a good one. I disagree with the ending. Racial profiling is right. What is wrong is the denial of due process. Every citizen should know to keep his hands off other people. If a "furriner" is suspected of wrongdoing, a citizen should call the police, and an investigation should be started. This is due process. It is what should be taught in schools. That these attacks and killings occur is evidence that we need to set aside the condoms and cucumbers and start teaching real subjects again. But, in no way should we ignore race, accent, or religion. It is not the Amish, nor a ten year old blue eyed blonde little girl, nor my 98 year old grandma, who is the terrorist. The suspect group is the muslim male aged approx 25 to 35, and those who do not belong to that group but happen to look a little like them will have to endure some inconvenience.
I'm Indian. I can tell the difference. But I think there are ways around it. For instance, I once saw a Sikh walking down 5th Ave. in NY with his hair in a long braid trailing down his back. Oddly, it hyper-masculinized him. He was good-looking, enveloped in testosterone vapors, really a commanding presence. In liberalspeak, he was artist-y.
In the days following 9.11.01, I saw a Sikh in a store. He had his hair discreetly in a cap of some sort. Now, it was larger than the average baseball cap, but that worked too. Also, they keep long beards, but not of the scaggly bin Laden variety. They have them in some kind of hairnet.
Ignorance is ignorance. But the only requirement of their religion is that they not cut it. There are no strictures on how to keep it. The parameters of what it means to be an American are so broad, why do we expect Americans to know everything about everybody, to be able to tell a Muslim from a Sikh? Do all Sikhs and Muslims know to tell the difference between an Arkansas hillbilly and a Missouri college professor? Sikh men should try to distinguish themselves from Muslims. I don't know what Sikh women could do. As I said, ignorance is ignorance.
I got this story off of Sikhnet which had a link to Bakersfield Californian newspaper. I am not from CA but from Jersey.
And yes pelted isn't the best word and also they defined the clothing wrong as one reader pointed out. But I couldn't very well go and change the original news article to post it on here.
The journalist's fault! Not mine,guys!
Not cutting their hair is a requirement of the religion. No word on how it should be worn. They could ditch the turban and still be observant.
They do not all wear turbans or dress in traditional clothing. (My husband doesn't) and may I mention PROUDLY that he is a very LEGAL immigrant!!The temple in Bedford had a big dispute about traditional dress a little while back. They had to call the cops 11 times within a year (during the same year, the bar I work at called them maybe three times). :o
-Eric
Hindus don't wear a turban. Sikhs do.
Right. Brain fade. The caffine hasn't quite kicked in yet. (I always look for the iron braclet anyway.)
Its not a requirement that they don't cut their hair to call themselves Sikh. Many Sikhs cut their hair and still practice their religion.
You are Indian, so I don't know how you can say that. The very religious people still keep their hair(kesh) and many of the new generation does not.
The same applies to very religious Jews or Christans or Hindus or Muslims. Not all people follow practices that were adopted hundreds or thousands of years ago. Some do.
But they are no less for following or not following something like hair cutting.
Sikhs work at 7-11
uh Karl- Sikhs work at 7-11 but also in every major industry in America. Are you trying to be funny or what -
I don't get it.
I have also seen white,black, and hispanic people work at 7-11.
Whats your point?
Sikhs teach Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland.
My point is all the 7-11s in my city are run by the same extended Sikh family.
This is really wrong, and the perps should be convicted.
You have heard of Motel Sikhs?
Spokesperson: Aliva Liteonfaya.
Had a Sikh butler once: Mahatma Cote.
Few folks have suffered more at the hands of Muslims than the Sikhs. I have worked with Sikhs and used to go to the pistol range with a Sikh in Miami who has been here for 30 years. They have told me some interesting stories about how they have had to correct this ignorance.
Mahatma Kote Makane Jeeves
Funny that their religion teaches them to expect it, and another reason why they shouldn't remove it for any reason.
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