We Are One
8-5-2012
These are words posted below the one bullet mark left to remember the senseless loss of so many lives.
This is what it took for a nation to pay attention to a little known religious minority in its midst. It is a minority that believes to its core that they are American, but their faith makes them stand out, and political rhetoric has cast them as “Other.”
I know deep in the recesses of my heart that the Sikh community has been preparing for something horrific since 9/11. It was just a matter of time.
On Sunday I was at the Oak Creek, Wis., gurudwara (Sikh place of worship). I was there with my family to show support and to pray with my community. I brought my daughters, Jind Kaur (4), and Sahib Kaur (7). Sahib was afraid to be here. She couldn’t grasp how it could happen at Gurudwara, a place she goes to every Sunday. She said before we left, “Will we see the bodies?” My husband and I reassured her that she need not be afraid. We were going to Gurudwara — a place that she should never be afraid to go.
The Gurudwara had its first Sunday services exactly a week after a gunman opened fire killing six innocent people before killing himself. Three others are still in the hospital in critical condition. Sunday’s prayer was a testament to my community’s resilience and its collective will to carry on. The Sikhs are used to adversity.
In the aftermath of 9/11 so many South Asian and Middle Eastern community groups reached out to law enforcement and local governments to tell them who they are. The message was simple. We are not the terrorists. We are here and believe in the American dream. It was a plea on their part to make sure their families were safe and not targeted or profiled in an atmosphere of severe anger, mistrust, and a political scenario that demanded action and in its midst created an “other” that matched the look of all of those groups. It was a time when the American flag was used by so many as a sign saying, “I’m American; I am one of you.”
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