Tell KABC Radio Host Al Rantel to Apologize for Calling the Turban a Diaper

From: http://www.saldef.org/


Al Rantel of KABC Compares Turban to Diaper

Radio Commentator, Al Rantel, host of a daily program on Los Angeles radio station KABC 790AM, was discussing airport security on September 10, 2007, when he said:
If my 80-year-old mother has to take off her shoes during a security screening "then why shouldn’t a Sikh be required to take off the hat that looks like a diaper they wear on their heads?”

SALDEF urges you to show your support in asking Mr. Rantel to issue an on-air public apology to the Sikh American community. Add your name to the petition, demanding Mr. Rantel apologize for his comments comparing a religious article to shoes and diaper.

London Calling

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of weeks. Things with work are getting hectic and heated (they're keeping me through the summer but at a price-I won't be able to meet with my students for career counseling, the one aspect of the job that I like. Instead I have to teach resume building???). So my love for my org and my coworkers is dwindling. Plus, with the insane amounts of going away parties to attend and friends saying goodbye and trying to meet others has taken it's toll. So what does a girl do? She blows half of her pay check for a jet-setting weekend to London.




Well, hopefully this trip brings the clarity I need to put things in perspective. If not, at least I'll get to gorge on English breakfasts, fish and chips, Cadbury's, scones, and my favorite, balti chicken.


Have a great weekend everyone and cheerio! :-)

The Not-So-Fun Part of Working in a Nonprofit is:

...you find out that you lost funding for your program :*(.

Sad, considering that in the end it's the kids that suffer...

Looks like it's back to the drawing board.

Life Sucks!

I HATE today!!!

*Walked into the office and one of my coworkers asks me how my new job search is going right when my boss walks in.

*Went to Justin Herman Plaza to see their Conan event and my ex, who almost a year ago to the day after he told me that there was another woman and dumped me, comes up to say hi. He looked good and I looked like crap. Great!

Yeah, I wanna go home and hide!

Will Things Ever Get Better (Part 2)

So, I would consider myself to be one of the biggest Bollywood fans out there, so I was excited when Perez Hilton posted things about the "abhiash" wedding this past weekend. Nevertheless, the comments are getting out of hand here...

http://perezhilton.com/topics/aishwarya_rai/catching_up_with_the_newlyweds_20070422.php

Perez has yet to respond...

Will Things Ever Get Better?

Note: I just noticed ANNA posted this on Sepiamutiny. Check out the discussion on there but you're welcomed to comment here, too...

Just got this off the SALDEF listserve. Thought I needed to share it...

Sikh American Veteran Assaulted by Police Officer in Illinois
SALDEF calls for immediate probe into assault and the xenophobic, anti-immigrant statements by police officer against bronze star recipient

Washington D.C., April 11, 2007 -- The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the oldest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization in the country, today called upon the Joliet Police Department to investigate the actions of one of its officers when patrolling a local neighborhood.

On Friday March 30, 2007 at around 3:00pm, Mr. Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War, was at his home in Joliet, IL when a local police officer noticed that a van parked on Mr. Nag’s private property had expired registration tags. Upon being confronted with this, Mr. Nag’s wife, Vera Kaur Nag, informed the officer that the van is parked on their driveway and was inoperable.

Mr. Nag then came outside to answer the officer’s questions regarding the van. The Joliet police officer then demanded that Mr. Nag park the van inside his garage and not on the driveway, to which Mr. Nag responded to the officer that it was not possible and that regardless, the van is parked on his private property and he has a right to park it on his driveway.

At this moment, the officer pulled out his pepper spray and attacked Mr. Nag. As Mr. Nag screamed in agony, the officer removed his baton and violently struck Mr. Nag numerous times until he fell to the ground. While the assault ensued, the officer was reported by both Mr. and Mrs. Nag as saying, “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!”

Mr. Nag's wife and six year-old child both witnessed the violent assault, which resulted in Mr. Nag immediately being admitted to the hospital where he stayed for five days due to complaints of intense pain and head trauma. Mr. Nag also received numerous bruises and a serious head injury which have caused him to go blind for several minutes at a time

“This case seems to be a clear incident of police misconduct in Illinois,” said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh. “We are horrified at the anti-immigrant sentiment the officer allegedly used as he violently accosted Mr. Nag, and further that his six year old son was a witness to this violent assault. We call upon both Joliet and Illinois officials to investigate this incident and for the Illinois community to stand in solidarity with Mr. Nag.”

SALDEF has garnered the strong support of the Illinois Sikh American community and is currently working with The Chawla Group Ltd to represent Mr. Nag in a criminal case brought on by the City of Joliet.

About SALDEF:
SALDEF is a national non-profit civil rights and educational organization. SALDEF’s mission is to create a fostering environment in the United States for Sikh Americans. SALDEF protects and promotes the civil rights of Sikh Americans through legal aid, advocacy and educational outreach.

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Also, a great documentary on Sikh Americans post 9-11 is A Dream in Doubt. I got a chance to catch it at the SF Asian American Film Festival and would recommend it if it's playing in your area. It might also be airing on PBS soon.

Have you ever?

Have you ever felt that you were meant for something more? That maybe you are pursuing the wrong things, that maybe you are not fulfilling your destiny? This is kinda how I am feeling at this point, at this moment of my life, sitting at my work computer trying to type out a grant proposal. Now, I should be excited about writing this since it's a proposal for my baby, my program that I developed and nurtured into fruition over the past year. Also, this grant is to fund my position for the next three years. It's a program that's unique to the city that I've enjoyed sharing and teaching for a year. But now, I'm sick and tired of it, dread teaching it, and even abhor putting in the effort to write a grant to renew my program. I've been feeling this way a lot towards this job. It's funny, my workshop helps students realize their potential through a series of activities where students take inventory of their interests, their values, and their skills to find their career paths. Here I am at almost 28 (5 more weeks to go) and I'm still trying to figure out how to fulfill my potential, to find a path-and I'm a career counselor (for this year, at least).

For a long time I thought I would find my path in school, both undergrad and grad, both in a rural setting like Davis, CA and a bustling city like NYC, but I ended up more confused than ever. While I am working at a nonprofit I believe in with youth that make me smile, I still feel unfulfilled. I leave work every day not feeling elated but ready to run and do something else, be it hang out with my friends, seeing a show, making a piece of jewelry, shopping, movies, whatever it may be. Yet I've lost that passion after only one year of working at this postition. Maybe it's my overly perky co-workers, maybe it's the ever changing climate of working at a nonprofit, or maybe it might be that I get bored way too quickly with things. I've never held a job for no more than year-part of it because of circumstances and part of it because of the sheer misery of doing the same thing over and over again (at least I have an interesting resume). Although on the surface everyone (including the city of SF perhaps) might say that I am doing an amazing job, fulfilling my duties, I still don't feel fulfilled. I've slowly have been retreating into my cubicle, staring at the computer and decorating my cubicle to make it more interesting to me instead of working. It's hard to escape my co-workers, especially in a tiny office of 12. Not sure if a job switch is the answer, but it's looking tempting. But what would I do? Is this what life is all about-working at the same thing over and over again? Loving your co-workers in the beginning, but later wanting to punch them in the mouth? (I'm not a physically violent person ever-that's why I work out- so it's weird but also strangely comforting to think about it). I don't know maybe I'm normal or maybe I'm just still figuring out things, or maybe I need to go back into therapy again. Not even sure if these words are making any sense, but hey, at least I got these thoughts down and can go back to writing this grant.

So I have this friend...

I've kinda been in a huge slump for a couple of weeks. Part of it is being uncerimoniously dumped and the other part is going through all this grant stuff for work (but the guy thing is more on my mind, of course). While I may not be writing about it, I've been talking to friends, drinking, eating, working out, and some other naughty stuff ;-). One person I've always shared my trials and tribulations with is AR. We always talk on the phone, e-mail, text, but the funny thing is we never met. Unlike the blogging community where there communication is mostly written, with us we call each other in the middle of the night-usually drunk (hey, for a dialing drunk like me, it's better to have him to call than one of the ex's) and text and chat on almost a daily basis. I met him on CL when he was "looking for an attractive Indian woman". At that time I was unemployed and between looking for jobs on CL, I would peruse the personals for fun (and the casual encounters for a laugh). Call it my feminist nature (or more like sheer boredom), I replied to the post basically saying "WTF! Why do all you guys go for attractive?" and he wrote back with "WTF! You girls do the same thing" and from that debate, it lead to us exchanging more e-mails and eventually numbers. Now, why have I never met this guy you ask? As nice as he is, he also is kinda dumb in that when he wrote his initial personal on CL, he didn't realize when you log into craigslist.org, it's for the SF Bay Area. With him logging on from Houston, he thought he was posting in his city, but alas now he knows. Now we've been friends for over a year and we still haven't met. AR now lives in Denver and even though he's closer to SF, we still have not met. Not that I'm looking for anything romantic from him, but it would be interesting to meet the man behind the voice, especially after the past craziness...

This past weekend, he sent me this e-mail and seriously, more than any of my "live friends" he seems to be taking on the role of a therapist and I love it. I think that these steps will hopefully get me out of this slump. Any other ideas?

okay brownsugar.......i know we've been talking for a while as u can see from this email....and lately u've been acting weird and i think u should ease up on the whole guy thing......thinking about guys 24-7 isn't going to solve anything.........and getting ur PhD isn't going to help you forget......u have to make a lifestyle change if u really wanna make things work.......maybe u need a fresh start in san fran....i've been in denver for 6 months and i'm looking for a fresh start in a few weeks, i've had many fresh starts in college too when i was there..and even in texas.....it's always good to have a fresh start....here are some tips for your fresh start:

* u complain u are fat, so hit the gym and work out and set some goals to lose weight instead of complaining...it is easy to lose weight at this age...but not when ur older

* u claim u're ugly so get a makeover, it's not hard, and it's more common than u think.....get a makeoverand start wearing makeup and get a hairstyle change and start channeling some perfumes for your newstart....hit up a make over salon or something

* are you happy with ur job? are you really making what u should?...u have a master's degree so why are u not settling for the best u can get? u should look for something better for urself, just get your resume ready and get out there....

* why not move to another part of town? meet new people? sell ur stuff on CL and buy all new stuff for a new apt. ....make a fresh start and forget about the past guys, delete their names, numbers, email address, whatever u have to do.......

start it over i think these things can channel out your guy frustrations and help you get where u wanna be, but u can't get anywhere if you don't do anything.....

Yet Another difference b/w SF and NYC

Falling at Penn Station in NYC and breaking your heel: People swarm around you, help you up, and hail a cab back to your apt.

Falling at Forest Hill Station in SF and breaking your heel: People walk right past you and you're left taking the bus since no cabs are in the area.

***********

On the R heading into Queens the morning after you break up with your boyfriend: People are handing you tissues to wipe the unexpected tears, asking if you're alright

On the N-Judah heading to the Embarcadero the morning after you get dumped: People get up and and move away from you as you're balling away.

Bad Blogger

The server is down at work which means three things:

1) Can't share my random thoughts (don't have time before or after work)

2) Can't read my other fave bloggers

3) I actually have to work?

Ohh, the joys of working at a nonprofit. Love the work, but hate the technology...

Hope your week is going better :-)