The Covid19 pan­demic has hit the world com­mu­nity in many ways. Ac­tivists, writ­ers, thinkers have re­sponded through ac­tivism, writ­ing prose and po­etry. So­cial and re­li­gious ac­tivist, who pi­o­neered Sikh ad­vo­cacy in the United States, Dr Jas­mit Singh pens a poem com­par­ing the pan­demic of the Coro­n­avirus with that of hate which is en­gulf­ing in­di­vid­u­als and so­ci­eties and seeks com­pas­sion and in­clu­sive­ness from one and all.

I sat down in con­tem­pla­tion
De­lib­er­at­ing on the world to­day
Pan­demic of a virus or hate
Which one should I ru­mi­nate

One re­duces my lung ca­pac­ity
The other takes my breath away
One does not dis­crim­i­nate
The other in­her­ently seg­re­gates

Ven­ti­la­tors, Hos­pi­tals, Lock­downs
An army of doc­tors and nurses
City Halls, Precincts, Neigh­bor­hoods
A bat­tery of ac­tivists and pro­tes­tors

Fa­tigued, Frus­trated, Fam­ished
Un­able to hold it at bay
Em­pow­ered, Ex­as­per­ated, Elec­tri­fied
Ask­ing for sys­temic change

The world has an op­por­tu­nity
To heal and re­pair
Or con­tinue with our di­vi­sions
That lead to death and de­spair

The choice should be ob­vi­ous
So why do we refuse to see
It beck­ons us in ad­ver­sity
Shed di­vi­sions of mind and see

Dr Jas­mit Singh is co-founder of Sikh Amer­i­can Ad­vo­cacy and com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment or­gan­i­sa­tion -The Sikh Coali­tion, USA -civil rights or­ga­ni­za­tion – founded on the night of Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001, in re­sponse to a tor­rent of vi­o­lent at­tacks against Sikh Amer­i­cans through­out the United States.  He is also a founder of Khalsa Gur­mat Cen­ter, fo­cused on ed­u­ca­tion, em­pow­er­ment and civic en­gage­ment for kids and com­mu­nity mem­bers. He s is also a part of the Hate Crimes Task Force es­tab­lished by Gov­er­nor In­slee.