“It’s part of their faith to love everyone, Huja and Arora said, but they’re afraid that despite Sikhs’ efforts to quietly teach others about their way of life, there are some people no one can reach, people whose minds are turned to hate.

‘There are people like that living all over the country,’ said Huja. ‘They’re amongst us here.’

‘But good people are much more available everywhere you go in the world,’ Arora interjected gently. ‘The bad are few and far. They make headlines, maybe, to show they exist.’

True, his friend said. And the good, the majority, must keep conversing their way toward greater understanding. Keep smiling and talking to the child who points and says, ‘Are you a genie?’ Keep pouring tea for friends and strangers alike.

‘People need to learn that the solution to problems is not killing each other, it’s talking to each other,’ Huja said. ‘If you don’t talk to each other, you can’t understand each other.'”

– Mayor Satyendra Huja and Dr. Narinder Arora of Charlottesville, VA, interviewed by Graelyn Brashear in C-Ville Weekly