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same world, but because we all come from
differing educational, social, and cultural backgrounds, we see different
things. This is one of the reasons that there are so many different religions
to choose from. If ten different people standing in a field share a religious
experience, it is likely that one may see Gaia, one may see Jehovah, one may
see Jesus, one may see the Virgin Mary, one may the Goddess Erzulie, one may
see a UFO and at least one will be standing there looking about him saying:
“Hey! What are you all looking at?” People being what they are, they will
very often assume that the person standing next to them sees the world the
way that they do. One
day when I was working the Patrol Division in the West End of Vancouver, my
partner and I were summoned to an apartment building to investigate a report
of a sexual assault which was alleged to have just occurred. The scenario
unfolded something like this: A young artsy woman with interests in
parapsychology, philosophy, “white” (her word) magic and other things that
she really didn't understand goes to a nightclub. She was new in town and
kind of lonely. She meets two young men, one of whom engages her in a long
conversation on parapsychology, philosophy, “white” (his word) magic and
other things that he doesn't understand. When the club closes, these three go
for something to eat. After this they go to the young men's apartment, which
is in the aforementioned apartment building.
Once
there, the artsy female wants to continue the metaphysical discussion that
they had started at the nightclub. The artsy male informs her that, as far as
he is concerned, the previous conversation was merely a preliminary to sex,
which he wants immediately. She tries to leave, he tries to prevent her, and
the fight is on. He rips some of her clothes off. She finally breaks away,
naked from the waist up, bleeding from the mouth and sporting a black eye.
She runs to a neighboring apartment whose occupants call 911. Upon
our arrival, we first went to the artsy male's apartment. I arrested this
individual and explained to him his charter rights. He then told me a tale of
how a “Witch” had picked him up in the bar after discussing “black” magic and
Satanism. He told me that as soon as she arrived at his apartment, she threw
herself at him and assaulted him. I found this hard to believe, as he had no
discernable injuries. After a few minutes of listening to his drivel, I told
the suspect to sit down, shut up, and answer some simple questions. Once he
became more candid about what the conversation in the bar had been about, it
immediately became apparent that the female involved was neither a Satanist
nor a Witch. I
then went downstairs and spoke with the female victim. When I entered the
room the victim said that she didn't know why she had even bothered asking to
have the police attend. When I asked her what she meant by this, she replied
that a “chauvinist Christian” like me wouldn't understand her philosophy
anyway. The victim carried on to me about how she knew that I wouldn't
believe her story because the suspect had probably already convinced me that
she was a Satanist and a lunatic. After a few minutes of listening to the
victim’s drivel I told her to sit down, shut up, and answer some simple
questions. In this fashion I confirmed both the content of the conversation
in the bar and the superficiality of her “Pagan” beliefs. This young lady
then sat there with her mouth open as I informed her that this Wiccan officer
was neither chauvinist nor Christian. In
this case, both the accused and the victim made assumptions about me: The
accused figured that I'd buy his Satanic story and didn't count on getting a
Wiccan cop to tell it to. The victim probably figured that all police
officers were chauvinistic Christians. I'm sure that the Goddess had a hand
in putting me in the middle of this situation, and a good thing She did too.
Thus what might have been labeled another “occult related crime” turned out
to be a pretty straightforward sexual assault and the artsy male went to
jail. Here
is another example: Several years ago, a Fundamentalist Christian tour group
from a small town in Georgia checked into a hotel in downtown Vancouver.
Their tour director registered himself under the name “Roger Moore.” This was
not his real name and I don't know why he chose to use it, but you can draw
your own conclusions from what follows. The
tour director next retired to the lounge where he met up with two women and
got into some serious drinking. He offered to pay for the drinks. This wasn't
a very bright move. You see, the bartender routinely checked credit cards to
see if they were lost or stolen by taking them up to the front desk. In the
process the bartender discovered that the name on the card was not the name
registered to the room. The card, of course, had the director's real name on
it. The bartender notified hotel security. The
security person then approached the tour director and asked him to explain
the discrepancy. The tour director eventually satisfied the security officer
that the card was indeed his and that “Roger Moore” was merely an alias he
had assumed. The two women that the tour director had been trying to impress
overheard this exchange. They left him for greener pastures. The
tour director, now a trifle embarrassed, frustrated, and a little drunk,
moved over to the bar. He found himself sitting next to three Englishmen who
worked for a large engineering firm. One of them was confined to a
wheelchair. The tour director attempted to start a conversation going by
telling some rather tasteless jokes about disabled people. The disabled
engineer was so upset by this that he left the bar. His two friends made
remarks to the tour director to the effect that they were not impressed with
his conduct. At this point the tipsy Christian tour director took stock of the situation. In his opinion these men had no sense of humor. They had English accents and were not Fundamentalist Christians like he was. The tour director concluded from these observations that these English engineers must be homosexuals. He then made his conclusions known to the engineers in a very loud |
Yule pg 3
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Dispatches: Volume 1 No. 7 Yule/Alban Arthan/Mean Geimhridh/La
Ceimbroadh 2006 |
