Sikh-ing Tall Political Action

After reading a Times of India article (Reprinted Below) about the Bush Administration’s plans to meet with representatives from America’s Sikh community, I began to wonder what it would take for tall people to get the same amount of recognition as a minority community and access to the top echelons of American political power.

Tragedy Helped Set The Stage

In 2001, a Sikh man was killed at the gas station he owned in Arizona by a mob of ignorant Americans who thought he was a Muslim after the 9-11 tragedies. Sikhs wear turbans and there are only about 500,000 of them in the United States so perhaps the confusion is understandable even if the violence isn’t. Some may argue that the Bush Administration’s decision to celebrate a major Sikh holiday is just a reaction to these events.

It doesn’t matter if it was just election year posturing, pandering for goodwill or courting another conservative religious minority – we can take a page from the Sikh playbook and score political points of our own.

Lessons to learn

Regardless of the reasons behind the decision, we wanted to look at some of the details and see if the tall community which is still coming into existence for a lot of taller people and beginning to display signs of future potential could learn anything from the Sikh experience.

1) Get and stay organized
The Sikh community is tied together by daily religious activities and a shared background.

Perhaps tall people should look to one another more for support and strengthen our ties to each other. Those sentiments were behind the creation of tall clubs around the world.

I realize that tall clubs aren’t for everyone, but we also have the Internet and if you’re reading this, you’ve found a large portion of the online tall community already. Getting involved and staying connected is now easier than sending and receiving e-mail.

2) Ask for something simple with a precident
The Sikhs weren’t the first religious minority to get the White House to acknowledge one of their holidays. The White House already honored many Jewish holidays as well as hosting Moslem celebrations for Ramadan and Hindu celebrations for Diwali.

Perhaps the tall community could ask for equal protection in government safety regulations. They currently stop at 6ft3 and the precident for inclusion has already been established by people with disabilities. We don’t have to go as far as the ADA, but it’s not too much to ask that at least ONE vehicle be safety rated for taller drivers and passengers over 6ft3.

3) Show your unity
The Sikhs are easy to spot in a crowd because of their religiously mandated turbans and head coverings. The majority of their community expressed their singular demand for greater understanding of their religion at every opportunity.

Tall people are easy to spot in a crowd because of our height. If we could focus on one pressing and easy to understand issue like the way tall people are treated on airplanes, we could effect change.

Of course the majority of really tall people would have to support the idea and feel strongly enough to talk to the press and politicians as well as their friends, family and coworkers about it.

4) Capitalize on the climate
The attacks on Sikhs all over the country and a president making a bid for election converged to create success for minority recognition.

With safety and security being in the forefront of public policy for the forseeable future, perhaps the tall community could have a victory in this area. Even without a really tall president, there are still enough congressional leaders looking for ways to get into office to ensure initial success.

If they can do it, so can we.

With only 500,000 Sikhs in a nation of about 280 Million, they were able to get official recognition and get their demands met by the government. Surely there are at least 500,000 people 6 ft 4 and over to effect change.

Recent reports that about 5% of Americans are over 6 ft 2 gives me hope that tall people can effect change as successfully as the American sikhs.

Original Times of India Article Reprinted:

Originally posted January 18, 2004 & subsequently moved or removed – NEW DELHI: White House will organise a special ceremony in February to mark the 400th birth celebrations of Guru Granth Sahib, according to Dr Rajwant Singh, President, Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), a Washington-based NGO.

“The ceremony was earlier planned for December last year, but due to some pressing engagements, the government told us to reschedule it. A one-day religious ceremony will now be held at White House, sometime in February,” Dr Singh, who is here, said.

Every year White House hosts a ceremony at the time of Christmas and Jewish festivals. Since last four years, a dinner is also hosted at the end of Ramzan. We had requested the White House that keeping the sentiments of 500,000 US Sikhs in mind, one Sikh event should be celebrated in White House every year, he says.

“The ceremony would include religious renditions followed by speech either by the president or vice-president and senior Bush administration officials,” he says.

SCORE is also planning a dinner at Capitol Hill, for US Congressmen and Senators, where we would also be inviting people from various other religious to increase their awareness about Sikhism, he says.