Yesterday night, New Yorkers mobilized themselves beyond expectation, with more than 2,000 people from diverse communities, gathering for an interfaith vigil in Union Square.
The effort, supported by various religious leaders, was part of a nationally coordinated remembrance of the victims of the Sikh Gurudwara Temple massacre in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
The ceremony was coordinated by The Interfaith Center of New York and United Sikhs. Some signs thanked Oak Creek police officer Brian Murphy, a native New Yorker who survived after receiving nine bullets during the shooting that killed six people.
The Sikh community has increasingly been a target since the September 11, 2001 attack by white supremacist affiliates and others who confused them with Muslims. Beyond the discrimination issue, the problem of gun prevalence is out of control. Just a few weeks after the “Dark Knight” Colorado shooting that killed 12 people in a movie theater, having a shooting in a temple — a place of peace and mediation — is truly disturbing.
Tonight Congressman Joseph Crowley, during his short speech, explained that we cannot really address the Second Amendment (the Right to Bear Arms) in the US Constitution but we can pass better gun control legislation. This is, unfortunately, not the last time that we will gather to mourn our brothers and sisters shot by guns. The political will is not here yet to stop this out-of-date and primitive behavior. The US Constitution needs to be amended.
