As part of a 600 year tradition and legacy of service and feeding the hungry, on Saturday, April 7, hundreds of men, women and children from the Sikh community will donate and distribute 1,000 boxed lunches and American flags to the homeless on Skid Row at the Fred Jordan Mission's 63rd annual Easter Festival of Life, 445 Towne Ave, in Los Angeles. Many will be dressed in traditional attire, including turbans. This act of service will kick-off the Sikh's holiest holiday, Vaisakhi, a celebration of the New Year and of the anniversary of the Sikhs' baptism by the 10th Guru, which starts Sunday, April 8.

Sikhs have been the target of hate crimes, racism and prejudice ever since Sept 11. Many of them have been mistaken for terrorists in the last several years. As a result, many Sikhs were brutalized, and there was one known murder of a Sikh as a result of mistaken identity for a terrorist. Just last month, a man in Redding, California did considerable damage to a Sikh temple by repeatedly ramming a front loader into the newly constructed building, saying that, 'he thought they were Arabs' in the temple.

Through all of this injustice and discrimination, the Sikh community has continued to give back to others and stand resolutely with the American people. For the 50,000 Sikhs who live in California, these acts of service are an integral part of their everyday life. The Sikhs are working tirelessly to increase understanding about the universal nature of the Sikh identity that reaches out to people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds, encouraging us to see beyond our differences and to work together for world peace and harmony. [Link]