Dear Senator Weicker: Today I am writing you on a subject very dear to my heart and indeed to the heart of each and every Sikh living not only in your constituency i.e.: Connecticut, but all over America. This subject is my religion, Sikhism. Senator, I have written to you in the past on numerous occasions and have contacted your staff whenever I needed help and you always came through for me, I hope you will not disappoint me this time as well.

You may perhaps recall our brief meeting at the Bradley Airport in Winston Locks, Conn., on February 16, 1987. At that chance meeting, I acknowledged gratefully you’re supporting and voting for Senator: Jesse Helmes of north Carolina for Vice Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At that brief meeting, I also raised the issue of the need of your help in the U.S. Senate at the appropriate time when the vote will be taken to allow Sikhs to wear a turban in the U.S. Army. Senator, you told me while you were rushing to catch your flight that even though you recognize that Sikhs are the finest warriors in the world (as told by your father to you) you could not support such a bill in the Senate because allowing a Sikh in the Army to wear a turban would spoil the uniformity in the Armed Forces.

Senator, do I, a foreign born yet a proud naturalized American citizen, have to remind you about the basis on which the foundation of this great country was laid by the founding fathers?

Senator, imagine the pilgrims of May Flower coming back to the reality of 1987 Congress and discovering that law makers of this great Republic are denying to its citizens the same freedom of religion for which they themselves left the land of their birth. I am sure many of them must be timing in their graves on hearing this.

In the end, Senator, I on behalf of the entire Sikh community of Connecticut and even North America request you to please give this matter a serious consideration and please allow the children of future generations of Sikhs to practice their religion while serving the Armed Forces of this great country of ours.

Thank you.

Sincerely Amarjit Singh Buttar Vernon, Connecticu

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 10, 1987