Pentacles for Vets, Virginia
Shootings
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Volume 1 No. 2 Beltaine/May Day/Galan
Mai/Cetshamain/Rudemas/ Walpurgisnacht 2007
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PENTACLES
FOR VETERANS The US Department of Veteran’s
Affairs has finally accepted the Wiccan Pentagram as a symbol which may be
placed on the headstones of Wiccans who have lost their lives in the service
of their country. You can check this
out on the DVA web site at:
http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmemb.asp One O of A member expressed their
frustration at the lengthy battle to achieve this: “I would love to be happy about this, but
it slightly pisses me off. This is a ‘RIGHT’ that took too long to be
acknowledged by the VA. The only reason it ended in a ‘win’ for Pagan
veterans, is because it was costing the government too much money to continue
fighting it. The decision had nothing to do with the VA becoming
enlightened about our faith. There are 38 other religious symbols already
approved. Some of those faith symbols are far less recognizable than the
Pentacle. Yet it took us this long, and involved a court battle, to have
the same equality. “Am I glad we have finally been
recognized? Absolutely! But I also believe it's overdue, and the
fight for it was a waste of tax dollars. There never should have
been the need for a fight. Our legitimacy is something that should be
recognized along with every other faith. It's not something that we should
have to feel grateful when others are FORCED to acknowledge
it.” O of A Treasurer and Liberty League member Windwalker
commented: “We at the Lady Liberty
League are now working to make sure it gets on headstones, as promised.
We have at least three markers supposedly in progress now… Please tell anyone
you know who has been thinking of requesting this marker for their deceased
loved one to try and do so in the next thirty days - we're supposed to get
rush priority service on any requests made during that time frame.
People can contact the Lady Liberty League through the Circle Sanctuary
website (
www.circlesanctuary.org) if they have any questions. Circle
Sanctuary held a Circle Cemetery Ritual for the Veteran Pentacle Quest
Victory on May 1at their Circle
Sanctuary Nature Preserve, near Barneveld, Wisconsin. Other celebrations coming up include: May 3-6:
Florida Pagan Gathering in Florida Selena Fox
will speak about the Quest & facilitate a celebration circle. May 4-6:
Beltane Festival at Circle Sanctuary Land in Wisconsin Angie Buchanan
will facilitate celebratory workings.
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/beltane National
Celebration: June 17-24:
Pagan Spirit Gathering at Wisteria Land in Ohio includes a
premiere of the film, A Hero Denied, about Sgt. Patrick Stewart & the
Quest. Roberta Stewart will help introduce the film. |
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Virginia Massacre: Signs of Mental
Illness One of our members was directly
affected by the Virginia Tech shootings a few weeks ago: Their cousin was one of the victims. Many more of our members can recall similar
incidents that they’ve been involved in.
We all struggle to make sense of what is essentially a senseless
act. The thing that upsets me after 29
years of police work and a year and a half of police dispatch is the number
of cops that encounter people who are mentally ill and do little about
it. If they intervene at all it is to
try to pack these people off to a hospital on a “voluntary admission” rather
than taking responsibility and escorting them to hospital to see that they
get the attention that they need. Many
of these “voluntary admissions” agree to this to get the cops to go away and
then run out the door of the hospital as soon as they arrive. Waiting in hospital with such people can be
frustrating and time consuming, and many cops would rather be out there doing
what they consider to be more “exciting”.
After an incident like the Virginia shootings occurs we sit back and
point out the many warnings that were clearly there that no one seemed to
take seriously. Yet people seem to
hope that someone else will take the responsibility that is really theirs to
shoulder. We do no one a favor by
taking the easy way out. I spent nine
years in a Mental Health Emergency Services unit of a police department
picking up after citizens and emergency services people who were ‘too busy’
to deal with such things. We need to
take the time to do these things right.
We owe it to ourselves, our families and our community to do so. We owe it to the mentally ill person who is
crying out for help. |