Italian immigrant, Grandmother join Sikh rallies for peace and justice

New York, July 27, 2004
Dennis Duggan
NewsDay

She told me her name was Adele Welty, and that she had come to Kew Gardens from her home in Flushing because "I am as appalled at this hate crime as I was frightened when epithets were hurled at me as the child of Italian immigrants."

She was almost lost in the crowd until she got up and strode to the microphone and gave a stirring speech of the kind you hear on the Fourth of July, talking about how we are all one and a crime against one is a crime against the man.

I wondered what had compelled a 68-year-old grandmother who lives in Flushing to join a protest crowd under a hot summer sun. It was the kind of a day better suited for the ocean and beach or a shady park, but she had that certain spunk that attracted me to her.

"I came because I had to," she said. "I was raised by my family to respect the rights of others. But I read somewhere that some of the people who attack others, people like these Sikhs, say they do it to avenge what happened to us on 9/11."

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I lost my son Timothy Matthew Welty that awful day," she said. He was 34 and was working in the Squad 288 firehouse in Maspeth.

"My son didn't have a discriminatory bone in his body," she said. "I bought up all my children the way I was bought up - to respect others. I have a son-in-law who is an African-American and a daughter-in-law who is Korean."

I talked to Welty by phone after the protest rally, which included Borough President Helen Marshall and several Queens City Council members. (There are about 10,000 Sikhs living in Queens now).

Welty told me she was one of the founding members of Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an anti-war group and that she had been arrested last March during a protest march in Washington, D.C.

"I am trying to leave a legacy in my son's name," she said, "one of peace and justice." She says she wants Bush defeated in November but is perplexed that John Kerry wants to continue a war she thinks is unjustified.

She recalled her son as an all-around athlete who represented the firefighters of New York in skiing and volleyball and hockey competitions, and that he also was into parachuting and motorcycling. She said his wife, Delia, would often drop off their two children, Jake, now 7, and Julia, now 3, in the morning at the Maspeth firehouse.

"My son rebuilt my home in Flushing," she says. "We miss him each and every day."

I also talked to a young Sikh lawyer named Amardeep Singh, legal director of a group he calls the Sikh Coalition. He said he had a rough time trying to convince the police at the 102nd Precinct to charge the people involved in the beating with a hate crime.

"They wanted to charge them with misdemeanors" he said. "That wasn't right. It was totally different with the Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who went all out trying to help us."

"I'm an American," Singh, 33, told me. "But I have heard all the horror stories about my people. They are called 'dot-heads' or 'bin Laden' or 'Muslims.'"

He said he was on his way to visit an eye doctor in New Jersey with the man who was assaulted. "One of the things the police will want is an ID of his attackers," he said.

"Our people are living in fear today," the young lawyer said. They are prime targets because of their turbans, which are religious symbols for the Sikhs. Some consumers now refuse to shop in Sikh-operated stores. Some Sikhs have even gone so far as to shave off their beards and leave turbans at home.

There has been one arrest in the attack so far: a man named Salvatore Miceli, 26, who lives in Valley Stream. He could face up to four years in jail if convicted.

But the pain inflicted on Rajinder Singh still is evident on his face. "I feel pain, but more than pain," he said a few days after the early evening beating outside a catering hall in Richmond Hills. "I feel very sad. This should not happen here in America."

She told me her name was Adele Welty, and that she had come to Kew Gardens from her home in Flushing because "I am as appalled at this hate crime as I was frightened when epithets were hurled at me as the child of Italian immigrants."

She was almost lost in the crowd until she got up and strode to the microphone and gave a stirring speech of the kind you hear on the Fourth of July, talking about how we are all one and a crime against one is a crime against the man.

I wondered what had compelled a 68-year-old grandmother who lives in Flushing to join a protest crowd under a hot summer sun. It was the kind of a day better suited for the ocean and beach or a shady park, but she had that certain spunk that attracted me to her.

"I came because I had to," she said. "I was raised by my family to respect the rights of others. But I read somewhere that some of the people who attack others, people like these Sikhs, say they do it to avenge what happened to us on 9/11."

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I lost my son Timothy Matthew Welty that awful day," she said. He was 34 and was working in the Squad 288 firehouse in Maspeth.

"My son didn't have a discriminatory bone in his body," she said. "I bought up all my children the way I was bought up - to respect others. I have a son-in-law who is an African-American and a daughter-in-law who is Korean."

I talked to Welty by phone after the protest rally, which included Borough President Helen Marshall and several Queens City Council members. (There are about 10,000 Sikhs living in Queens now).

Welty told me she was one of the founding members of Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an anti-war group and that she had been arrested last March during a protest march in Washington, D.C.

"I am trying to leave a legacy in my son's name," she said, "one of peace and justice." She says she wants Bush defeated in November but is perplexed that John Kerry wants to continue a war she thinks is unjustified.

She recalled her son as an all-around athlete who represented the firefighters of New York in skiing and volleyball and hockey competitions, and that he also was into parachuting and motorcycling. She said his wife, Delia, would often drop off their two children, Jake, now 7, and Julia, now 3, in the morning at the Maspeth firehouse.

"My son rebuilt my home in Flushing," she says. "We miss him each and every day."

I also talked to a young Sikh lawyer named Amardeep Singh, legal director of a group he calls the Sikh Coalition. He said he had a rough time trying to convince the police at the 102nd Precinct to charge the people involved in the beating with a hate crime.

"They wanted to charge them with misdemeanors" he said. "That wasn't right. It was totally different with the Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who went all out trying to help us."

"I'm an American," Singh, 33, told me. "But I have heard all the horror stories about my people. They are called 'dot-heads' or 'bin Laden' or 'Muslims.'"

He said he was on his way to visit an eye doctor in New Jersey with the man who was assaulted. "One of the things the police will want is an ID of his attackers," he said.

"Our people are living in fear today," the young lawyer said. They are prime targets because of their turbans, which are religious symbols for the Sikhs. Some consumers now refuse to shop in Sikh-operated stores. Some Sikhs have even gone so far as to shave off their beards and leave turbans at home.

There has been one arrest in the attack so far: a man named Salvatore Miceli, 26, who lives in Valley Stream. He could face up to four years in jail if convicted.

But the pain inflicted on Rajinder Singh still is evident on his face. "I feel pain, but more than pain," he said a few days after the early evening beating outside a catering hall in Richmond Hills. "I feel very sad. This should not happen here in America."