Somehow, I’ve manage to avoid learning that Sikhs are required by their religion to carry a dagger:
The kirpan, one of five items baptized Sikhs are required to wear, is meant as a reminder of the duty to uphold justice. The others are reminders of other things: the kesh, or Sikhs’ uncut hair, to live as God created you; kanga, a wooden comb, to remain neat; kara, a bracelet, to do good deeds; and kachera, or large underwear, to remain chaste and faithful sexually.
The story is about Homeland Security maybe being a little less asshole-ish to one particular group of brown folk, but I’m more excited about a whole group of people being required to pack a blade!
I learned about the knife from a buddy in high school. He carried one even though he cut his hair; I think it was because it made him feel tough. As for the “brown” people talk, I notice a lot of it on left-wing sites I frequent, and it smacks of patriarchy, white man’s burden, etc. No?
I use it more as a commentary on how 9/11 and the ensuing “War on Terra” seems to have given white America free license to a certain flavor of racial profiling.
As in, “Well, that’s OK, because by looking at them, I actually believe they might be terrorists.” [Case in point]
I had a soldier who was stopped and asked questions for almost an hour at an airport. The fact that his last name is Abdelwahed probably contributed to that. He showed his military ID and told them he had just come back from Afghanistan, and they still kept asking him questions. My point? Profiling is fine, but once the military ID comes out, profiling should stop.
And yet it didn’t. How sad is it when “policy” overrides practicality?