and do it like that. (snaps) if you d have told me that i could afford. a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it s like 20 times faster than what most people have. i d of said. i d of said you re dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america s largest gig-speed network. you know, it s nice to have deep conversations with people about their religion and culture, but sometimes, damn it, it s time to eat food outdoors out of a paper cup. yep, it s time for the annual sikh parade, a four-mile celebration of the sikh religion. and i was personally invited by the man in charge of it all. 38 years strong. you just look around to see how many people come from near and far with one common goal, and
22% of the area as 66,000 peep. originally from the punjab state of india, they started emigrating in the early 1,900s. today the presence is so strong that in 2017 this happened. a roaring applause for yuba city s new mayor. heakes htory as the first american sikh woman to be named mayor. to get a better understanding of this town, talking with her seems a great place to start. what was the reaction when the story goes out america s first female sikh mayor is elected. what was that like for you. you know, i never expected it to be even that big. so it was like, you know, starting to receive the phone calls, all of a sudden the newspaper articles and my daughter just, mom, did you hear this? did you read this? so, yeah, just absolutely in shock, you know.
be judged by god i will ask to see your brother. and i will hug him and i will ask for forgiveness. and rhona says, we already forgive you. wow! forgiveness is not forgetting. forgiveness is freedom from hate. what is it about the sikh faith that seems to be like woven into the fabric of the faith. there is certainly a bigger, clearer message about inclusion and equality that i don t necessarily hear from the christianity i grew up in. the sikh faith is a faith about love. they see no stranger, no enemy. the stereotypes are embedded in our nation s imagination. we have been wired to see black criminal, brown illegal, transimmoral, women property, turban-wearing muslims, terrorists. it s just the air that we are breathing. and we can t help they re in the air. we can t help but absorb them even if we don t endorse. i recognize it in myself when i see specifically a man in a turban that i think foreign. yes. hearing the question how long have you lived in america? nope,
what brought your parents to america in the first place originally. to have a better life, the american greem dream. and why yuba city. agriculture. you ll see a large inyan community in farming is common zpl common in india we can farm here. yeah. i m i live in the bay area i ve never been to yuba city. and also had not heard there was a huge sikh population. yeah. why hadn t i heard that am i dumb. you re not dumb. thank you. we just live in our silos. the mayor said i m not dumb so i feel pretty good. can you talk about the sikh religion?
it was just for you to we are the turban and beard it wasn t for any sikh? yeah, correct. so i was the first religious accommodation in like a generation oh, wow. for anybody. not just sikhs. after i got my one-off accommodation. i deployed end of 2011 to hellman province in afghanistan. and we saw a lot of devastating injuries. i m guessing none of the people you took care of he you walk in the room and said i m the doctor said wait you re wearing a turban and have a beard. no. thank god you are here. nobody cares. come on. it took us almost ten years of effort. but we were able to get a policy change that now allows turbans and beards and hijabs, allows for yarmulkes and other religious expression. this is just a policy change for the army. but i was proud and really happy