Posted on 05/30/2006 12:53:17 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
FERNLEY, NV - 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 under Stewart's name on a memorial plaque 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 Barneveld, Wis., 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.
What about Jedi?
True.
"...but he's told me I can bury him any way I want to if he goes before me..."
I'm with him. I have beliefs which are very important to me, but one of them is that once I'm gone from this earth none of those decisions will matter at all to me.
"I don't think it's rational to build a house on shifting sand."
Bears repeating.
"...never attribute to malice that which is more easily attributed to bureaucratic inertia..."
You are so right with that one.
Freedom of Religion means ALL religions.
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I work with a Wiccan; swell guy, lousy worker, believes fairies reset his alarm clock, and tell him to call off work. |
He can believe what he wants...until it interferes with my routine. And it often does...
That's funny, I always thought it was determined by whatever was written in Block 12 of the VA Form 40-1330 that gets filled out by the next of kin. Do you have a cite for a regulation saying otherwise?
"I'm with him. I have beliefs which are very important to me, but one of them is that once I'm gone from this earth none of those decisions will matter at all to me."
I agree. The nicest funerals I've been to have been the simple ones and the ones with lots of laughter and good memories and not so heavy on the dogma.
The saddest ones have been for babies and kids; we like to think that they had 'A Great Destiny' ahead of them, but in reality all of our days are numbered like sand grains through the hour glass and all that, whether we're a babe or an old geezer when we die. I'm one of those "there's a reason for everything" types. ;)
And what's that?
I don't know why that strikes me as funny.
Get the symbol approved and let him have what his widow wants on his grave.
LOL! Sorry. I don't watch TV and I'm obviously not up on a lot of popular culture out here on the farm.
I just recently learned that Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher broke up! Some rumor (probably untrue) about him and Liz Taylor!?!? Can you belive it?
Think they'll really get divorced, or can these two crazy kids patch things up? *Smirk*
Neither do I. I download "South Park" from the web.
Oh, it's a South Park thing! I will admit I saw their movie ages ago, as DH rented it. Laughed my butt off!
He also rented their puppet movie. Funny, but the "hot puppet sex" was a tad overdone, IMHO.
I remember "Thunderbirds" and always loved those puppets. Marionettes are scarey, though. They're French, you know. That's probably the only "scarey thing" the French have going for them, LOL! :)
Bears repeating.
I'm glad that someone else agrees with me.
Some folks will use any excuse to slack off. Don't blame it on the religion blame it on the bozo
Well, actually it is a Tom Cruise thing.
See? I told you I'm clueless on 'Popular Kul-ture,' LOL!
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