Butterfly Cauldron
Thursday, September 14, 2006
So much drama over a pentacle?
At last, common sense prevails. If a soldier can put the symbol of their faith -- including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and 20-plus other religions -- on their headstone, then Wiccans should get fair play too.
ENO, Nev. (AP) — The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan won state approval Wednesday to place a Wiccan religious symbol on his memorial plaque, something the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had refused.
“I’m honored and ecstatic. I’ve been waiting a year for this,” Roberta Stewart said from her home in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.
Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan last September when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his helicopter. Four others also died. Stewart was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize and therefore prohibits on veterans’ headstones in national cemeteries.
But state officials said they had received a legal opinion from the Nevada attorney general’s office that concluded federal officials have no authority over state veterans’ cemeteries. They now plan to have a contractor construct a plaque with the Wiccan pentacle — a circle around a five-pointed star — to be added to the Veterans’ Memorial Wall in Fernley.
“The VA still has not determined yet if a Wiccan symbol can go on the headstone,” said Tim Tetz, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services. “But we have determined we control the state cemetery and that we therefore have the ability to recognize him for his service to his country.”
Wiccans worship the earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.
The Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration allows only approved emblems of religious beliefs on government headstones. Over the years, it has approved more than 30, including symbols for the Tenrikyo Church, United Moravian Church and Sikhs. There is also an emblem for atheists.
This always seemed to be a no-brainer to me. If you allow one faith, you have to allow all faiths. Period. (Although -- what symbol would be used for athiests? I'm curious, really, that's not a snarky question.)
Labels: death, non-christian, pagan, religion, war
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Well, technically it's not a draft...
But I'm willing to bet that's what's next.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Up to 2,500 Marines will be brought back at any one time, but there is no cap on the total number of Marines who may be forced back into service in the coming years as the military battles the war on terror. The call-ups will begin in the next several months.
The Army has ordered back about 14,000 soldiers since the start of the war in Iraq, but this is the first time the Marines have resorted to an involuntary recall.
So, after you've served your time and fullfilled your obligations, you can still be recalled. I know this is a facet of military life, but damn. Technically, this isnt' a draft, but really...isn't it? It's just drafting from a smaller, more select pool. Your draftees have better training than average, but they're not coming voluntarily. Which, I think, is part of the point of a draft.
The Bushies have bungled things so badly, no one wants to enlist anymore. You'd think, if we had thinking people in government, this might give them pause. Why would no one want to enlist? But, no. No, there's no reconsideration of strategy or troop deployment, no reconsideration of if we should be in Iraq in the first place. No no. We're not leaving Iraq while Bush is still in office!
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Up to 2,500 Marines will be brought back at any one time, but there is no cap on the total number of Marines who may be forced back into service in the coming years as the military battles the war on terror. The call-ups will begin in the next several months.
The Army has ordered back about 14,000 soldiers since the start of the war in Iraq, but this is the first time the Marines have resorted to an involuntary recall.
So, after you've served your time and fullfilled your obligations, you can still be recalled. I know this is a facet of military life, but damn. Technically, this isnt' a draft, but really...isn't it? It's just drafting from a smaller, more select pool. Your draftees have better training than average, but they're not coming voluntarily. Which, I think, is part of the point of a draft.
The Bushies have bungled things so badly, no one wants to enlist anymore. You'd think, if we had thinking people in government, this might give them pause. Why would no one want to enlist? But, no. No, there's no reconsideration of strategy or troop deployment, no reconsideration of if we should be in Iraq in the first place. No no. We're not leaving Iraq while Bush is still in office!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Death by (non-existant) rescue
Admittedly, I'm biased. But I so hope this lawsuit goes all the way through. Even if he doesn't win, it'll expose more details of what went on in New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The son of a 91-year-old woman who died in her wheelchair awaiting rescue from a shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sued the city and the state on Thursday.
Herbert Humphrey Jr. filed a lawsuit in state Civil District Court in New Orleans accusing numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of willful misconduct in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman.
Freeman died sitting in her wheelchair outside the city’s Convention Center, which was overwhelmed with desperate evacuees. Her body, pushed to one side and covered with a poncho, became a widely noted icon of the botched hurricane response.
Humphrey’s lawyer, John Paul Massicot, said Freeman was instructed to go the fetid Convention Center — even though there was no aid available and no way out.
“Let’s not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn’t get her. She didn’t survive the rescue,” Massicot said.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The son of a 91-year-old woman who died in her wheelchair awaiting rescue from a shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sued the city and the state on Thursday.
Herbert Humphrey Jr. filed a lawsuit in state Civil District Court in New Orleans accusing numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of willful misconduct in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman.
Freeman died sitting in her wheelchair outside the city’s Convention Center, which was overwhelmed with desperate evacuees. Her body, pushed to one side and covered with a poncho, became a widely noted icon of the botched hurricane response.
Humphrey’s lawyer, John Paul Massicot, said Freeman was instructed to go the fetid Convention Center — even though there was no aid available and no way out.
“Let’s not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn’t get her. She didn’t survive the rescue,” Massicot said.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Finally. Compassion.
I know this will not be a popular verdict in may places, but Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity in her re-trial today.
The 42-year-old will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. If convicted of murder, she would have faced life in prison.
Yates’ attorneys never disputed that she drowned 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah in their Houston-area home in June 2001. But they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.
I can think of no greater punishment for this woman than to live with the knowledge that she killed her children. A lot of people will doubtlessly say that this verdict excuses her crime, or does not bring justice to her children. I disagree, but I can see their point. However, I'd say to those people that they've probably never lived with a mental illness and felt firsthand it's crippling effects.
Yates had a documented history of severe mental illness. She had been to multiple doctors and hospitals, on many, many medications. She needed to be committed for longterm care, but that never happened for her. I've heard reports that her husband didn't want that for her, I've heard reports that other people in her family didn't want that and objected. I cannot say if those stories are true, but if they are, I would not be surprised. Most people have no real concept of just how sick mental illness makes you. There are diseases that you can't just take a pill for. They don't go away because you want them to, they don't go away because you get a prescription. Complex mental illness requires medication and therapy, sometimes intensive therapy away from the typical living situation.
I get a little angry at her ex-husband. She was told after the birth of her fourth son not to have any more children, because of the severity of her PPD. Her doctors warned her that a recurrance was almost guaranteed and would likely be worse, if she had another child. And yet...and yet, they had a fifth child.
I get angry knowing how very religious her family/friends/she was, how unhealthy that was for her. Demanding, fundamentalist religions are bad for women, clearly, but it's very hard to make people understand that when they're in the middle of them. For years, the Yates' family lived in a small travel-bus. They were deeply committed to their faith, and the gender roles it proscribed. On it's own, that's something a person can survive. But combine those teachings with severe mental illness and you've got the makings of a tragedy.
Once she had been on medication consistantly and under treatment by doctors, Yates came out of her PPP. She knows, now, what she did. Can you imagine, just for a moment, what it would be like to know that you held your children under water until they died? Can you imagine, just for a moment, what it's like to realize that you're responsible for that? Does anyone think, really think, that this verdict does anything to ease her guilt and grief? I don't have children, but if I did, the thought that I had hurt one of them....I'd probably kill myself.
I say this is compassion, because at least she can get treatment and medication. At least she can have the chance to pull some kind of life together. There are people who believe she shouldn't be allowed to do that, that she should be allowed to do anything but suffer endlessly. Sadly, most of those people claim to be Christians. But I remember Jesus talking about forgiveness and redemption and second/third/1,000th chances. Five lives have already been lost, what good does it do to throw away a sixth? No amount of retribution is going to bring any of those children back. Doesn't Andrea Yates have a soul? Doesn't she have value, even as flawed as she is?
I don't mean those questions to sound like some flaming liberal (even though I am.) I mean those seriously. I don't see how there are easy answers in cases like this for truly thoughtful people.
The 42-year-old will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. If convicted of murder, she would have faced life in prison.
Yates’ attorneys never disputed that she drowned 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah in their Houston-area home in June 2001. But they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.
I can think of no greater punishment for this woman than to live with the knowledge that she killed her children. A lot of people will doubtlessly say that this verdict excuses her crime, or does not bring justice to her children. I disagree, but I can see their point. However, I'd say to those people that they've probably never lived with a mental illness and felt firsthand it's crippling effects.
Yates had a documented history of severe mental illness. She had been to multiple doctors and hospitals, on many, many medications. She needed to be committed for longterm care, but that never happened for her. I've heard reports that her husband didn't want that for her, I've heard reports that other people in her family didn't want that and objected. I cannot say if those stories are true, but if they are, I would not be surprised. Most people have no real concept of just how sick mental illness makes you. There are diseases that you can't just take a pill for. They don't go away because you want them to, they don't go away because you get a prescription. Complex mental illness requires medication and therapy, sometimes intensive therapy away from the typical living situation.
I get a little angry at her ex-husband. She was told after the birth of her fourth son not to have any more children, because of the severity of her PPD. Her doctors warned her that a recurrance was almost guaranteed and would likely be worse, if she had another child. And yet...and yet, they had a fifth child.
I get angry knowing how very religious her family/friends/she was, how unhealthy that was for her. Demanding, fundamentalist religions are bad for women, clearly, but it's very hard to make people understand that when they're in the middle of them. For years, the Yates' family lived in a small travel-bus. They were deeply committed to their faith, and the gender roles it proscribed. On it's own, that's something a person can survive. But combine those teachings with severe mental illness and you've got the makings of a tragedy.
Once she had been on medication consistantly and under treatment by doctors, Yates came out of her PPP. She knows, now, what she did. Can you imagine, just for a moment, what it would be like to know that you held your children under water until they died? Can you imagine, just for a moment, what it's like to realize that you're responsible for that? Does anyone think, really think, that this verdict does anything to ease her guilt and grief? I don't have children, but if I did, the thought that I had hurt one of them....I'd probably kill myself.
I say this is compassion, because at least she can get treatment and medication. At least she can have the chance to pull some kind of life together. There are people who believe she shouldn't be allowed to do that, that she should be allowed to do anything but suffer endlessly. Sadly, most of those people claim to be Christians. But I remember Jesus talking about forgiveness and redemption and second/third/1,000th chances. Five lives have already been lost, what good does it do to throw away a sixth? No amount of retribution is going to bring any of those children back. Doesn't Andrea Yates have a soul? Doesn't she have value, even as flawed as she is?
I don't mean those questions to sound like some flaming liberal (even though I am.) I mean those seriously. I don't see how there are easy answers in cases like this for truly thoughtful people.
Labels: crime, death, mental illness
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
You can die for your country and we'll just pretend you're a Christian, 'k?
This isn't news, of course, but the armed forces are still refusing to acknowledge Wicca as a legitimate religion. Apparently, even giving your life in the line of duty isn't enough to earn a soldier the right to have his faith acknowledged on his tombstone.
War widow holds protest service for husband, awaits plaque decision
By TOM GARDNER
Associated Press Write
FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) -- A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband?s memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby.
"This is discrimination against our religion," Roberta Stewart said at the gathering of about 200 at a park east of Fernley for her late husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart. "I ask you to help us remember that all freedoms are worth fighting for."
A few hours later and a few miles away in this pastoral community east of Reno, official Memorial Day ceremonies were conducted at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
The space reserved for a plaque in Stewart's name on a wall at the cemetery remains blank.
The Department of Veterans Affairs so far has refused to grant the Stewart family's request to have the Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle, placed on the government-issued plaque.
Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 25 when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his helicopter. Four others also died. Stewart was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Wiccans worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white"or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.
"We are here today to honor American religious diversity of all faiths," the Rev. Selena Fox said at the alternative memorial service.
Fox, senior minister of a Wiccan group based in Wisconsin, said Stewart died defending the country that is denying him the right to express his religious freedom.
Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the VA, said Friday she did not know when a decision would be made on the request.
Approximately 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics
I'm struck by the image of that blank plaque. I can imagine it, surrounded by other plaques bearing crosses or Stars of David or sigils of other offically approved religions. I assume it bears Stewart's name, but perhaps not. But suppose it does. A name and nothing more, completely ignoring a lifetime of faith. You can't, of course, obliterate that faith -- regardless of how hard you try. Not marking a plaque or a grave does not mean that faith does not exist. It does not mean domination for the Approved Tirade (that being Christianity, Judiasm and Islam). It only provides an illusion.
Interestingly, to me anyway, the image of a blank plaque can be read as rather pagan. It can be seen as an image of the rune Wyrd (and yes, yes. I'm aware of the controversy surrounding the use of a blank rune in casting. I'm merely saying, lots of modern casters use it and it therefore can serve as a symbol of a pagan faith.). Wyrd is a totally blank rune, generally interpreted as signifying fate, the inevitable. Neither good nor bad, it simply is. Sacrifice is inevitable. Death is inevitable. Grief is inevitable. And, as anyone who follows an 'unapproved' path knows, fighting for recognition is inevitable. So, while Stewart's plaque (and, I'm assuming, at this point his gravestone) does not bear a particularly Wiccan symbol (although I know plenty of Wiccans who use runes), it may well already bear a pagan image.
Not that his wife should stop fighting. Frankly, she should be able to put anything on her husband's tomb she damned well pleases. We had a recent problem at our army base here where two kids were basically kicked out of Boy Scouts because they admitted they were Wiccan. There was a big to-do and eventually they were let back in. At which point, a bunch of other kids got pulled out by their parents because they didn't want their sons "preached to" by the Wiccan boys. Ironic, isn't it? Those boys had been in the club for a while, no one knew about their beliefs and wouldn't have, if the scout leader hadn't asked them what church they went to. (Funny story -- the info came out because the leader was trying to show the boys how religiously "diverse" the group was. He was saying how they had Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and a Pentecostal. No, seriously. That's what passes as religious diversity down here.) So, to keep peace, the boys parents took them out of Boy Scouts and have started a chapter of Spiral Scouts on base. And they've gotten lots of interested parties. A lot of people don't realize just how many Wiccan/Pagan/Heathen soldiers there are.
Which is why I think it's inevitable that we're gonna get recognition. It's like water, slowly reshaping the world. I hope Stewart wins and gets her pentagram. And I hope it becomes easier, for the next soldier, to have the government he/she died for recognize their belief system.
War widow holds protest service for husband, awaits plaque decision
By TOM GARDNER
Associated Press Write
FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) -- A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband?s memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby.
"This is discrimination against our religion," Roberta Stewart said at the gathering of about 200 at a park east of Fernley for her late husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart. "I ask you to help us remember that all freedoms are worth fighting for."
A few hours later and a few miles away in this pastoral community east of Reno, official Memorial Day ceremonies were conducted at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
The space reserved for a plaque in Stewart's name on a wall at the cemetery remains blank.
The Department of Veterans Affairs so far has refused to grant the Stewart family's request to have the Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle, placed on the government-issued plaque.
Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 25 when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his helicopter. Four others also died. Stewart was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Wiccans worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white"or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.
"We are here today to honor American religious diversity of all faiths," the Rev. Selena Fox said at the alternative memorial service.
Fox, senior minister of a Wiccan group based in Wisconsin, said Stewart died defending the country that is denying him the right to express his religious freedom.
Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the VA, said Friday she did not know when a decision would be made on the request.
Approximately 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics
I'm struck by the image of that blank plaque. I can imagine it, surrounded by other plaques bearing crosses or Stars of David or sigils of other offically approved religions. I assume it bears Stewart's name, but perhaps not. But suppose it does. A name and nothing more, completely ignoring a lifetime of faith. You can't, of course, obliterate that faith -- regardless of how hard you try. Not marking a plaque or a grave does not mean that faith does not exist. It does not mean domination for the Approved Tirade (that being Christianity, Judiasm and Islam). It only provides an illusion.
Interestingly, to me anyway, the image of a blank plaque can be read as rather pagan. It can be seen as an image of the rune Wyrd (and yes, yes. I'm aware of the controversy surrounding the use of a blank rune in casting. I'm merely saying, lots of modern casters use it and it therefore can serve as a symbol of a pagan faith.). Wyrd is a totally blank rune, generally interpreted as signifying fate, the inevitable. Neither good nor bad, it simply is. Sacrifice is inevitable. Death is inevitable. Grief is inevitable. And, as anyone who follows an 'unapproved' path knows, fighting for recognition is inevitable. So, while Stewart's plaque (and, I'm assuming, at this point his gravestone) does not bear a particularly Wiccan symbol (although I know plenty of Wiccans who use runes), it may well already bear a pagan image.
Not that his wife should stop fighting. Frankly, she should be able to put anything on her husband's tomb she damned well pleases. We had a recent problem at our army base here where two kids were basically kicked out of Boy Scouts because they admitted they were Wiccan. There was a big to-do and eventually they were let back in. At which point, a bunch of other kids got pulled out by their parents because they didn't want their sons "preached to" by the Wiccan boys. Ironic, isn't it? Those boys had been in the club for a while, no one knew about their beliefs and wouldn't have, if the scout leader hadn't asked them what church they went to. (Funny story -- the info came out because the leader was trying to show the boys how religiously "diverse" the group was. He was saying how they had Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and a Pentecostal. No, seriously. That's what passes as religious diversity down here.) So, to keep peace, the boys parents took them out of Boy Scouts and have started a chapter of Spiral Scouts on base. And they've gotten lots of interested parties. A lot of people don't realize just how many Wiccan/Pagan/Heathen soldiers there are.
Which is why I think it's inevitable that we're gonna get recognition. It's like water, slowly reshaping the world. I hope Stewart wins and gets her pentagram. And I hope it becomes easier, for the next soldier, to have the government he/she died for recognize their belief system.
Labels: death, non-christian, pagan, religion, war
