Sikhs want to serve in the military.

Only problem is, they need to wear beards & turbans for religious reasons.

I'm torn. I believe that part of military discipline is holding to somewhat arbitrary standards of personal appearance so as to provide a uniform image by all members at all times. Civilians should be able to look at you and say "he's obviously military. God bless him".

On the other hand, I know for a fact that there are very few things the military doesn't have a waiver for. Shaving is high on that list. Fact is, due to the fact that black people have curly hair, they are very susceptible to ingrown facial hair, which causes bumps on their faces, making daily shaving difficult and painful. A lot of black guys weren't required to shave for medical reasons. Didn't make them any less capable of serving.

What it DOES do, though, is cause a little resentment among their co-workers. NOBODY wants to shave every day, and it's a pain in the ass, even if you like the clean-shaven look. So it's a small cut to morale and unit cohesiveness. Then again, when you serve in the military, EVERYTHING is a pain in the ass, and adding one more item to the list is just a tiny drop in the ocean of things that military folk bitch about, yet still accept as "part of the job".

So in balance, I say Sikhs should be allowed to serve with beards & turbans, but in exchange, they have to realize that we're fighting a war that involves killing Arabs. So if they want to serve, they can't bitch about being offended when someone makes a comment about wanting to kill "hairy-faced rag-heads".

Fair enough?

Posted by: Harvey at 10:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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