badstar

I wish things like this didn't need to happen...but there will be a rally tomorrow (7/4) in Washington DC concerning the struggle for fallen soldiers and veterans of the US millitary who are Wiccan (or practice other pagan religions which use the pentacle) to have the right to have the pentacle on their tombstones. This has been a struggle for over 10 years now, while various other faiths- some that most people have never even heard of have their symbols approved. (I know I've never heard of Konko-Kyo or Eckankar or Tenrikyo...but they can have symbols on their headstones.)

This struggle has been brought to light in the last few months by RobertaStewart, whose husband, Sgt Patrick Stewart who was killed in Afghanistan about 8 months ago. She has been working tirelessly to bring people's attention to the issue and to get the symbol approved.

If you're in the DC area and can attend, great! the information is right here:

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmd&c=words&id=10928

If you can't attend...well, I'd like to say consider writing to your congressman about this but I'm honestly not sure how it works, as I understand it this is a VA administration thing...but I'm *trying* to find out.

You might say "Hey, but I'm not Wiccan" or "I think that pagan religions are wrong"...that's not what this is about. This is about fellow Americans who have fought- and some who have died serving your country- their country too. But the VA won't provide for a symbol of their faith on their tombstone as they have one that covers almost everyone else, including atheists (this isn't meant to be a dig on atheists, but an illustration of how otherwise diverse the list is.)


Here is the VA form which lists the approved symbols (some illustrations are shown, not all)
http://www.va.gov/vaforms/va/pdf/VA40-1330.pdf

Here's an article with a lot more information about the issue, including details of symbols that were approved while people waited on the pentacle (which was ultimately rejected, stating that no new symbols were being aspproved while regulations were changed)):

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usok&c=words&id=10947

And finally, if you don't look at any other link on this email, this one:

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/062206Wiccans.html

I can provide no better commentary than the last line of this article:

"After all, if we can't live up to religious freedom at home, we have no business asking soldiers to die for religious freedom abroad."***

there's no registration to read anything I've linked here.


***Yeah, I know...the whole issue abroad isn't about religious freedom, but bush and co. have said it...at least in part...how many times?