HCRP OUTREACH AND THE SIKH FAMILY INCIDENT

Recently, the Houston Chronicle reported and commented on an incident involving our county’s Sheriff’s Department and a local Sikh family. Apparently, during the response to a call to the family’s home, deputies may have reacted improperly to a family member’s ceremonial knife that was sheathed on her belt. Although determining what actually happened, and whether the deputies’ reactions were unwarranted, are questions for others to appropriately resolve, our party missed an important opportunity for outreach in response to the family’s and community’s concerns.

Instead, our absence provided an opening for the Democratic Sheriff-Elect to reach-out to the entire Sikh community in Houston and show that he cares about their concerns. In the meantime, he gained free, positive press coverage and editorial praise for himself and the local Democratic Party.

Why should we care? We should care for at least two reasons. First, caring for the concerns of our fellow citizens of this county, and for the respect of their beliefs and rituals, should be a priority of any political party, but especially of the party of Lincoln, which believes in Liberty and effective local government. Second, many members of the Sikh community have been loyal supporters of our party, and our lack of public attention to this matter—either through the party or by elected officials—could be construed as a sign that we are taking them for granted. We can not afford to allow that impression to be created.

It is possible that some of our elected officials, or party officials, have contacted members of the family and the Sikh community privately to address this incident, but we need to start doing so publicly, too. For now, it is not enough just to show the affected family and the Sikh community that we care; we also need to rebuild a level of trust within the entire community that we Republicans understand that what happens to one of us affects all of us. Ultimately, no outreach effort will work unless that message is promoted by the party to all our neighbors in Harris County.