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The witchees respond:

I preface this by saying that I don't see a way to respond to all rather than just one, so I am responding to BlackElk and including my global response to all.

My uncle, John Day, is a past grand knight of the Beverly Knights of Columbus. He did many things for that organization over the years and was probably one of the finest human beings I've ever known. We lost him to brain cancer in 2000, but the legacy of his life goes on.

It saddens me that an organization he devoted so much of his time to would be so filled with purveryers of hatred. Never did he lump in what I do as a Witch with Nazis, NAMBLA, and other truly horrific things as has been done on this Web site. I am quite sure he would be saddened to see it and it would fly in the face of the kindness of what he perceived to be the Christian ethic. In no way am I hostile towards Christians. One of my close friends pastors an evangelical protestant church here in Salem, Massachusetts. He has taken the time to understand the truth about what Witches do here in Salem, and does so from his own conservative Evangelical perspective.

This brings me to the fact that I am the co-host of Festival of the Dead, the umbrella event series which the event in question is part of. To contrast these unfounded accusations of insidious intent (along with the assocations of Naziism and "NAMBLA"ism), the *reason* that we chose the Knights of Columbus Hall was *not*, as some poster assumed, because the local UU church was booked, but because Witches have been holding events there for years and we never knew there to be an issue. In fact, my own co-host, Shawn Poirier, has held events there numerous times, as have other local Witches, some of whom even have events there on videotape. Oh the horror! Because of this, we saw no real issue with renting the place because they didn't hate us, and, contrary to the various volcanos of vitriol on this Web site, we didn't hate them either. I've never personally rented the hall, but when it was brought up, I supported it because my uncle had been Grand Knight and I thought it would be great to support the organization through the rental fee. Personally, Shawn and I now host each of our own events in the at fine restaurants with fantastic food mostly because the ambience is better. But, Sandra Power was putting together an event designed to help people overcome addictions and bad habits and transform their lives. As someone who has lost over 108 pounds, she knows about conquering vice and she wanted to help people regardless of denomination or religious affiliation through ritual enactment of the death process, a symbolic death and rebirth, if you will. Because of this, holding her event in a restaurant where alcohol or fattening foods would be served simply didn't make sense and so we supported her in finding a hall, such as that of the KofC in Salem, that would be appropriate for people seeking to overcome vice. Just terrible, eh?

We rented the hall in good faith, knowing that it had been rented to local Witches for years, and never saw any cause for concern. It had been rented for months until, two weeks before the event, Sandra was called by the local chapter and told that it would be voted on. All but one person voted to honor the contract, which is important to note because they were not stamping their approval on the event, merely voting to do the right thing, so to speak, because two weeks is not a long time to find another venue. The following day, the state chapter threatened to pull the charter and we were forced out of the venue, setting a new standard of intolerance in a town known for one of the greatest violations of personal freedoms in American history. Only this time, the local office was tolerant and the parent group outside of town was not.

All's well that ends well, of course, and we have the local chapter of the KofC, which has lived up to the standards of human decency and good Christian behavior that my uncle John always embodied to me, to thank for it. Though they could not risk having our event, because they simply didn't have enough minutes in the day to explain the difference between W.I.T.C.H.C.R.A.F.T. and N.A.M.B.L.A. to the confused masses (is the mention of the latter here a Freudian slip?), they helped Sandra to find a new location and we had one within three days, and it's private business sector so it is essentially untouchable. And even if it weren't, we had other local businesses in town ready to back us up and forgo the alcohol requirement for the evening. Here in Salem, Massachusetts, we understand, Catholics, Evangelicals, "mainline" Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Witches, Unitarians, and others, how to work together towards community and understanding. We may not agree on everything, but that doesn't mean we won't protect ourselves against outsiders who seek only to cause divisiveness in our hard-won community. The various religious groups who live here have learned to work together. There are Witches on our interfaith council here in Salem. My evangelical minister friend, who has made national news for his modern approach to evangelizing, attended one of the Festival of the Dead events (albeit the historical one - *grin*) with his wife and they both enjoyed it immensely. Our town has matured much since real Witches first came here and nobody knew what one was.

The right thing to do was to honor the event, and from then on, never hold an event like that again. Given that there were only two weeks left for us to find something else (which they helped us do), it was simply the wrong way to go about it, for community good will, contract obligations, and just plain human decency.

I am a "lavender" person also and, believe it or not, I supported the rights of the Boy Scouts under the freedom of association not to allow who they don't want to join, preferring to change things like that with my wallet and not through Governmental intervention. However, contrary to what someone on this board said, this is *not* the same because we were allowed in where it was known full well what we were doing. We not only have a serious breach of contract suit should we have wanted to pursue it. Out of respect for the local chapter, and for their kindness, we have chosen not to take this route. The local chapter came through for us even in the face of adversity, knowing that Witches are part of their community too. No, they couldn't let us in the hall because their parent group acted out of fear and ignorance, but they did what they could do to help us and that honored my dear uncle's memory for me. Those in the Knights of Columbus who would act out of a place of hatred or meanness could learn a lot from the Salem chapter.

Many blessings,

Christian Day (RavenMoon)
Festival of the Dead
Salem, Massachusetts