The debate about the construction of a pocket park in West Windsor, whose proposed design aims to highlight the ethnic diversity of the township by creating a “dragon scaring gazebo,” are neither right nor wrong. The for-and-against arguments doing the rounds are neither good arguments nor bad arguments. They are just downright silly.
It is silly because it is wrong about two important assumptions — the composition of the township’s ethnicity and the visible symbols with which an ethnic minority would want to be associated. The largest ethnic minority in West Windsor township is Indian, with a population of 5,100 according to the 2010 census. So if the intent is to create a park to underscore the ethnic culture, the design has to be something very different from the one involving dragons or koi ponds. But that does not mean that Indians want to be represented by holy cows or lotus flowers, either.
In my opinion, the proper way to show recognition for an ethnic minority like U.S. citizens of Indian origin is to highlight their contribution to our nation and to our society. There are numerous Indian Americans who have contributed in very significant ways to build, protect, and enrich our nation — Sergeant Uday Singh, the first Indian American soldier to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom; Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian American astronaut and one of the seven crew members killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster; Captain Sunita Williams, who holds the record for longest space flight by a Women; Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khurana, a pioneer in genetic engineering; and Nobel laureate S. Chandrasekhar, in whose honor NASA named its most advanced space observatory are just a few examples. The list of prominent U.S. citizens of Indian origin in the fields of mathematics, physics, and medical sciences, deans of reputed universities, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists is indeed a very long one.
Having said that, however, I feel that there are a quite a few distinctive and representative aspects of our township that should make the list of being symbolically recognized at the proposed park prior to giving recognition to ethnic diversity. Who are we as a township and as a community? Yes, we are an ethnically diverse community, but that is just one of the many virtues of our community of which we should be proud.
More importantly, we as a community should be proud that we are a community of highly educated professionals, scientists, engineers, and doctors. At the very core of what makes the modern American society the greatest society in the history of human civilization is our intellectual scientific foundations and our technological achievements.
Why not design the pocket park to honor this most impressive aspect of our community? The next thing we should be proud of as a community is our dedication to family values and to individual responsibility. Drive 100 miles in any direction and find me one community where people care about their kids’ education and enrichment like the parents in our community do. Find me one community that has a higher percent of households where the parents would rather enjoy spending time together and with the kids every evening than going out. That is what we should be proud of as a community and that is what we should honor in our communal symbols.
Alok Sharma
Davenport Drive, West Windsor
