Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fatel good afternoon everyone my name is Harkanwal Singh
and actually I'm a native Arizonan. I was born and raised here and I'm also
a Sikh American. The entire Sikh congregation would like to welcome you
to our home today. This is our place of worship and we sincerely are grateful to
you for taking the time to come here on such a hot summer day. I think what is it
110 -115 and we really appreciate the effrt that you guys made, So the Sikh
religion was founded by guru nanak in the punjab region of india and roughly
five hundred years ago his message was that all people are created equal and we should
exercise tolerance and respect for people of all backgrounds and faiths
deep exemplified true interfaith acceptance at a time and place where this
was not the convention. He did not attempt to convert followers of other
faiths but rather he urged them to explore their inner meanings of their
own religious philosophies and beliefs. In essence he felt that the various
spiritual paths are like the different spokes on a wheel and they all led to the
same Center which is a fundamental truth. He was therefore opposed to the idea
that sikhs or anyone else could consider so spiritually superior to any other
group thus it follows that sikhs do not attempt to convert adherents of other
faiths. In fact the Guru Granth sahib which is our holy book that you see us bowing
down to as we enter actually contains writings of wise thinkers of other
faiths in addition to the writings of our own leaders and spiritual leaders
For us the writings that are contained in this holy book are the
embodiment of spiritual wisdom the Sikh religious commitment to equality and
justice is cemented in our Sikh identity the turban which covers the sikhs uncut
hair is a representation of these balance as such the turban is a sikh
crown and an article of faith that represents part of the equality,
freedom, and justice for all. I'd like to share some basic information about the
sikh thing. Sikhism you may not know is the fifth largest religion in the world
and the world's third largest monotheistic faith we believe in an
omnipresent formless God whom we commonly refer to as Waheguru. We
regard men and women as equal in all spheres of life,. The concept of
gender equality is central tenet of the Sikh faith. Sikh woman can do
prayer service and participate in every aspect of life equal to men. We also
believe in equality amongst all human beings regardless of their race or caste
and the freedom to choose and practice religion freely is that the foundation
of Sikhism,. We believe there are many paths to God and many avenues to seek
truth. We are expected to perform selfless service which we call Seva and
we're expected to share with those who are less fortunate than ourselves and
just to let you know 99% of turban wearing Americans that you may see are
Sikh and it represents, the turban that is, our commitment to protect and stand
up for the values of equality and justice for all.
A little information about the gurdwara,
the prayer hall that we're sitting in today the one Gurdwara like we are
sitting in today were founded as places where the, Sangat, the Sikh
religious congregation could come together as a community to worship. We do
this worship by reciting and reflecting upon the hymns contained in the Guru
Granth sahib, our Holy Scripture book. People from all walks of life are
welcome to attend or observe our religious services in the Gurdwara. the
Sikh religious service is centered on the singing of these hymns, which we
call this kirtan and it ends with us sharing a meal together as a
community called LANGAR. As you will notice the kirtan or the singing of the
Hymns is traditionally accompanied by a harmonium, which you see here which is an
accordion like a keyboard instrument and drums, Indian drums which are called TABLAs
which you can see there,, the Guru Granth Sahib or sikh scripture is the embodiment of
spiritual authority for our faith as such we bow down to it as the Word of
God. The PALKI or canopy above the holy book signifies respect of its authority
and this practice is actually rooted in traditional treatment of kings in
India. Likewise the CHAUR or the flowing whisks that you see the gentleman waving
its waved over the Guru Granth Sahib to indicate its sovereignty and at the end
of the service before the community meals evening we also share the
KARAH PRASHAD which is the service of sweet pudding and it's offered to all
and eaten as the acceptance of the sweetness of God's work. So I'd like to
now introduce Anjaleen Kaur who's a Sikh awareness advocate and has been very
active and helping to put this event together. So I ask her to come up
please
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh So when we first put this event in our head
before trying to put together the open house we thought maybe we'll get 20 or
30 people to attend. so I am so thrilled to see this room full of people who are
wanting to learn and experience this event. so thank you all for attending
our open house today. We're very fortunate to have many special guests
with us today as well so I wanted to take a minute to recognize that please stand
and remain standing as I call your name Paul Penzone, Maricopa County Sheriff
Ana Armendarez, Senator John McCain's staff, Kate Gallego, Phoenix
councilmember, Deborah Stark Phoenix councilmember, Ryan Winkle Mesa
councilmember, Benjamin Bratt water conservation board, Philip Mariner
special detective liasion Phoenix Police Department, Mini Hernandez
sergeant of the Phoenix Police Department
Chris detective phoenix police department, Marchelle Franklin
director of community affairs phoenix police Department, Tom Myers lieutenant
Scottsdale Police Department Chris Castle community liaison to the
Scottsdale Police Department, rabbi jeremy schneider
immediate past president of the board of rabbis grreater phoenix
lieutenant colonel Wayne Webb assistant director Arizona Department of Public
Safety and very long executive director governor's office of equal opportunity
a few guest speakers our first speaker is Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and the
mayor Stanton has been a big advocate for the Sikh religion last year
decided the Vaisakhi Proclamation of celebrating recognizing the contribution
of sikhs in our Phoenix community. Mayor Stanton may I please ask you
to come to the podium. thank you.
thank you so much it is my honor to be here representing myself and Councilman
Kate Gallego, I think she is in the back also to be here on this beautiful
national day of community outreach that the Sikh community has been kind enough
to invite myself and so many members of the community
this Sikh community representing the values of equality and being kind to
everyone treating everyone as equal. I think we need more sikhs run, need to
run for public office pleas with their views and values, ....We are blessed in our city, I
signed the proclamation last year because I've seen firsthand how blessed
we are to have so many in the Sikh community in Phoenix in the valley
that's five or six thousand maybe growing at a very very fast pace five
hundred thousand to six hundred thousand across the United States of America and
we are a better city and a better country because of the presence of so many in
the Sikh community. I've been blessed to see it firsthand I worked with a lot of
different people as Mayor of the City of Phoenix in when I have a chance to
interact with the Sikh community and i am inspired, because the community cares so
much not just about other members of the Sikh community but also about the
community as a whole so many charitable acts roll up the sleeves get
involved in the community knowing that on occasion too often the Sikh community
is misunderstood and people have their work sometimes stereotyped sometimes
negative stereotypes and those are handled with such dignity and grace and
class by members of the Sikh community least that's my experience and of course
after the tragic murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi
after 9/11 you know there was a lot of tension, Sikh community how would they
respond and what I saw was just incredible in terms of the grace and
class and forgiveness and love in community that was shown by the Sikh
community and it taught me and some of the other members in the community
important lessons about how we should treat our fellow human beings and I'm so
glad to be here last time I was here was unfortunately after the tragedy in the
Sikh community in Wisconsin, we had a beautiful prayer session right here and
a beautiful meal in the hall afterwards of course I have not been back since, and I'm so glad
that you invited me and leaders of the city's community to be here for this
national day of community outreach. So its incumbent upon all of us, sikh
community members or not to let our community
know what a beautiful faith this is.What beautiful people are members of the Sikh
community and that hate has no place in our community, I know the sikh community
better than anyone else understands that if they were victimized by hate and have always
responded with love and I'm inspired by that so thank you for having me here
today thank you for opening up this beautiful
building for the entire community so we can celebrate the Sikh community here in
the City of Phoenix
sorry I am vertically challenged
Thank You mayor Stanton and I also just want to add that mayor Stanton's team has been a big
advocate of the WE ARE SIKHS campaign and has been sharing it publicly,
they have it on their social media so thank you so much for that, next we have
is vice mayor of Scottsdale Suzanne Klapp to come up and speak and I
also want to share that Mayor Jim Lane of Scottsdale also cited Vaisakhi proclamation
last year celebrating the recognizing
the work of sikhs in the Scottsdale community
I'm very honored to be here representing the City of Scottsdale and the City
Council I have to admit that I know very little about the Sikh faith but I did
look up some things to familiarize myself with what you believe and all of
it is roughly where I go again so we have a lot of common ground I
understand that your major tenets are colonies and freedom and love and who
couldn't support that. so from my Christian community I feel we
always support that I know not always. I also know that you have made concerted efforts
in the last year to try to familiarize the community with your faith and
what you believe in and I think that this event ceremony here today is a good
testament to the fact that you're succeeding and so you have at least
enlighten me you help me better understand what you are about to better
be able to communicate to other people about what you're about so that is a
great learning experience for me and I'm very grateful that I'm able to be here
and understand exactly how passionate you feel about equality and community so
from the City of Scottsdale and specifically from the City Council
and here representing the mayor Jim Lane, i am so very happy that you invited me
it's a little bit of challenge for me to get up and down I have to tell you
that I missed having to sit down and get up be able to get up at moments notice but other
than that I feel very comfortable being here among you and thank you so much for
the Welcome you've given to me and I should also know that interestingly
enough the gentleman who talked to the outside and brought me in is actually my
neighbor that we have never met, same community of scottsdale moountain
and he was very very close to me so thank you - Parminder Singh
for getting me a little bit more acclimated to what would
be going on today. thank you so much
when we said come out with your neighbor
we literally meant come out and meet our neighbor. our next speaker is congressman David Schweikert
who represents the sixth District which includes most northern, includes most
of northern Phoenix Scottsdale Paradise Valley and CaveCreek, So request congressman
to come out oh and his beautiful daughter
it is a joy to be here um she is very very excited
she loves to pull on the beards and looking around the room it's full of
opportunities.
I may have someone of the unique relationship with this community
tell me if I'm about 20 some years ago four huge sikh gentlemen, I've always said
saved my life. I was in Jaipur heading to Rajasthan, i was in rajsthan, i was
heading to jaisalmer and I was being thrown out of a sleeper car and these four
gentlemen who were all military but they were going on holiday came in took pity
on me explained that I did have the ticket and
then I spent the next three days with them some of the most fun I've ever had
in my life how do I say this pleasantly the pasty white kid from Scottsdale
hanging out with these mountains,you know these officers in the Indian
military and showed me part of Rajasthan part of Jaiselmer that I would never see
until this day two of them are still my friends on Facebook and I think with
what you've had that sort of intimate personal experience when you say that
spending every day sleeping in the same room with the
number of gentlemen you become friends and you also realize that I'm really bad in tying
turbuns and try it over and over but from a policy standpoint also as a member of
Congress I am the person who introduce the legislation several years
ago to make it clear that traditional head wear can be worn in the US military
and you see how far we have come now, Can I beg of you for what you're doing right now
you're doing something incredibly important incredibly honorable the
community needs to understand the incredible love and uniqueness of your
faith and it's more than you know I see a handful of people here the
gentleman here that have been friends for a long time we all those of us who
care those of you who want to tell your story we all need to do more of this to
explain the uniqueness and the elegance because you must admit those amazing
elegance of this thing and we need to go tell that story thank you for letting me
have my wife and my little girl here
this is special for all of us thank you
Thank You congressman and thank you so much for supporting sikhs in armed forces.
next we have senator Kate Brophy McGee she represents district 28 which
includes Paradise Valley parts of Scottsdale in North Phoenix and many of
you may remember her because senator Brophy McGeen jus past April
signed and read Vaisakhi Proclamation on the Senate floor here in Arizona
good morning it is an honor and a privilege to be here a little bit of a
personal story throughout, i am third generatioN Arizonan, i grew up in Bisbee and Tucson
and moved to Phoenix 37 years ago when I met ... my husband and the Sikh
community has always been a part of our story we were bankers and found this
community to be extremely industrious hard-working bright professional
entrepreneurs always seeking to better themselves it was an honor and privilege
to work with Anjali who is indeed a lioness to put together the resolution I
recycled and read it on the floor of the Senate this last session my intention
this upcoming session is to spread that wonderful word and most impactful
message to the house and to the governor's office and tell your story it
was one of the most amazing things events I have ever been involved in in
my life as a legislature legislature your
community exemplifies the high ideals that we as Americans aspire to
love of family love of country love faith loyalty honor all the things all
those aspirations but if we just followed through on it
we truly would be the greatest country in the world even more I enjoy working
with your community I so appreciate your contributions small and large to the
tapestry that is Phoenix distinctiveness Arizona and on behalf of the Arizona
State Senate house and the governor's office I thank you thank you for this
beautful invitation
thank you senator brophy mcgee for being a big advocate of our community and
sharing our message. next up is rev Larry Fultz who is executive
directors of arizona Interfaith rev Larry Fultz
see you're wearing our colors today
Hello - I was really honored to be here today about 20 years ago I came into contact
with the gentleman by the name of dr. sachdev I knew nothing about the Sikh
religion about their faith but you cannot be around dr. Sachdev very long and not
know something and learn quickly because this is one of the greatest
ambassadors of the Sikh religion in the world there can be and then I met Rana and
his family in so many other beautiful sikh people in this community and I can
say it's been a really joy for me to be a participant in all your events
inviting me to these colorful times I'm always impressed by your ministry the
service of Seva, I watched you do this I even videotaped it but most of all
but most of all the signature event in my life is your langar meal tht you provide
for us at our moment of experience interfaith and it's always a beautiful
event I thank you for inviting me here to tonight, i agree with you mayor we are a
better community because of the Sikh community is with us and the senator I
would say that you would agree with me we're a better country because of all
the 600k plus Sikh community members that are with us you give us something that
we need desperately in this country and that's the understanding of how to
love one another talk civily to one another to respect
one another and as a member of the Arizona interfaith movement you are one
of our vibrant members that we cherish thank you for inviting me here god bless
you make this a wonderful event
thank you so much reverend to those kind words in our last speaker is Mary
Anne Weismann national chair of education at the ADL
i am also vertically challenged - thank you so much for inviting us here today
I thank my good friend Rana and Sukhi for having us and for being our friends
we've met Rana through misfortune when his brother was killed and a ADL reached
her brother and instead of being instead, of being bitter he became more of messenger of
peace and well you know if a rabbi hillel the Jewish religion had said that
if I am NOT for myself who will be for me if I am only for myself who am i, if
not now when!. I think what you're doing to me feels like you're building community
across all of us and so that I think for that I thank you so much all of you for
opening your doors and telling us about your beautiful religion and the
way that to build communities is to break down all the walls so thank you so
much again thank you to all of our hosts here and of course Rana and Sukhi and thank you all
so when I said that's our last speaker sorry, I wanted to add
Sheriff Paul Panzone so if you would like to say a few words I think our community would love to hear
from your. Sorry Sherrif to put you on spot.
Obviously my height is not vertically challanged. first my wife Veronica I would like to
thank you for allowing us to be honored with your presence today this is a
wonderful wonderful opportunity for me my first exposure to your community
unfortunately was due to tragedy I was the coordinator of a stop whisp program with
a big Police Department a member of your community was murdered and I would tell
you that in tragedy often times we build relationships and become stronger
although our hearts are heavy and we have to suffer great loss it gives us an
opportunity to truly come together to understand but during those trying time
we truly are one big community with many unique cultures so through that
experience for me in many others I had the chance to visit homes of families
good unfortunately suffered some form of crime or violence and to come here with
you today and actually our friendship really grew in 2012 and I began to run
for this office and my passion was to bring back an office that gave respect
to the community that gave service that was compassionate and that is the
friendship that you showed me from the very first day that I had a chance to to
get to know more about you as individuals as much as a community and I
don't think there's any greater show of strength than they have a peaceful
loving client part in this community displays every day so to have a chance
to to be a friend to know you better and to serve you is truly a great honor for
me and I would call you this aspect we go through this process especially from
a law enforcement perspective that you educate us that your call of us is
actually want the office that I represented to be one that is
understanding of all cultures that is supportive and compassionate that is
strong with a peaceful loving heart and there's no greater mentor for us to learn
that then through you so look forward too our relationship growing into having a partnership in
this effort to make it better for the beautiful showman we see in this room
and through other community to come from all different cultures so again me and my wife
Veronica are honored to be here with you we thank you so much but thank you for
the love compassion and that quiet strength that you display all the time
throughout your life because it is truly an example for all of us thank you
thank you so much sheriff that means a lot to us and then our last speaker will
be Phoenix Councilwoman Kate Gallego we can have you come up
thank you so much for welding all of us from the City of Phoenix but we want to
offer a specific things for the great partnership with our Police Department
Sheriff Penzone alluded to that some of these partnerships have come through more difficult times but really have gotten a lot of national
praise for our relationship and our particularly in the Sikh community
advisory board so want to thank Marchelle Franklin who leads that effort and thank
all of you for participating hopefully it has contributed to creating a safer
more welcoming community and for those who are interested in that advisory
board the next meeting is coming up on the 25th of this month on the person
note I have a lot of friends and family a lot of friends here who have helped
welcome my new baby and many of their personal milestones and I just enjoyed
you welcoming all of us from the City Council at great community events even
the arizona on the diamond backs played better when it was the Sikh community
day so people have to have that day every week maybe a really key
to success it's been a wonderful day appreciated all the educational efforts
leading up to this event the beautiful tours and just how welcoming this the
planning committee has been so thank you so much to the planning committee for
the wonderful effort
so just to conclude and the speaking part of the program I would like to
thank all of our guests for joining us here today from young to old and I'd
like to extend a special thanks to our speakers who took the time out nere to
come and spend the day with us and all the volunteers that put
in countless hours to make this open house a success.. the goal of this open house
was really to help change perceptions and for our future generations I have
two small boy clearly that's my passion for doing this making them and
I'm making the world a better place for them and they feel protected like any
other mom we want to do. so will conclude a service with the hymn called Anand
sahiib followed by a prayer called ardas for which we will all stand and and then a
reading from our Holy Scripture the GURU GRANTH SAHIB as Harry mentioned. Will then
distribute sweet pudding in called 'KARAH PRASHAD' and then we will move to the hall across the
breezeway from LANGAR so you've heard people talk about langar and people do
like the food here and so langar is the community meals serve at the end of
every sikh service. we also sit on floor side by side and receive and eat
food together and that's really a symbol of equality so that was a radical
gesture that was developed at a time when social rules kept the rich and the
poor separate from daily activities so by putting them all in a place together
the same level and being together it took away that kind of social status so
for those of you that have food allergies before you eat Parshad or Langar
please make sure you consult with a volunteer
and also for those who would like to experience what it feels like to wear
a turban, we have turban tying going on during langar in one of the rooms
and so everyone is welcome to get a turban tied on them and they get to take the
turbun home as well- so encourage everyone to join for that it's
only by taking the time and effort to get to know one another
that we learn about our neighbors and community we hope that by tending the
something else we learn more about your neighbors and then we share the
same great American values of equality and justice we sincerely thank you for
joining us here today and commend her contributions to strengthen our society
in creating mutual respect
great so what are your favorite dish I love yogurt yogurt okay I also love this
pudding pudding yes what with my diet everything was very great and rice
excellent the vegetables everything's good
what did you like most
ofcourse the pudding - it is close to you. how about you ma'am
what did he like
i liked the lentils and .. the riata to cool it out is it too spicy maybe - its good that's good
which what was your favorite food,
i will have to say th- okay and the pudding
I'm Italian so I know a lot about food yes and rice was
very good but the custard was my favorite awesome
so many wonderful people I didknow a lot about the sikh community. Scottsdale PD is welcoming to the sikh community to
learn more about us and we would like to learn more about you
and what was your favorite food - i enjoyed everything everything awesome yeah I
like you're like me
so good to have u - we do indian food atleast once a week. what do you do. i cook more southern indian.
What do u cook.i took cooking classes in Trivendrum southern india. i do more dosas. You can make dosas. ofcourse. WOW. Like do you do
the batter also yeah well I cheat sometime you get mix or raw from flour. My wife is from South India she
grew up in Hyderabad. really. oh i see up until few years ago we had certain relatives next to hyderabad
right right I grew up from Punjab so I didn't know anything about the South
Indian cuisine but now I love her food
we'll be it's very different nice nice most
Americans only have Punjabi food - right North India mostly - never had
southern yeah exactly that's that's awesome and my teacher
Krishna so she wouldn't even use garlic and onion oh yeah
so they're very strict on certain food
mam what was your favorite food what did you like most - i like the beans and rice. excellent thank you
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