Deep Thought

“Four American vets stood up, men from Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne who had been under fire with Tim and me many times in eastern Afghanistan. They filed out of their pew carrying two folded American flags that had been sent by Senator John McCain, himself a veteran of Vietnam. The young men presented my country’s flag to the Hetherington family and then to Idil [Hetherington’s girlfriend whose parents emigrated from Somalia]. I missed most of that beautiful moment because I was crying too hard, but later I did savor one comforting thought: this may be one of the…

A piece I wrote on racial minorities is up at Goatmilk. “The Balbir Singh Sodhis of America” by Hussein Rashid « GOATMILK: An intellectual playground edited by Wajahat Ali. Balbir Singh Sodhi. I don’t know if that name has the resonance that it should. Amongst Asian-Americans, names like Vincent Chin or Navroze Mody are part of our collective conscious. But Balbir Singh Sodhi is a name that is so important for the telling of the tale of minorities in America, but also a story that sits at the base of a crushing horror of what’s happened in this country after…