Correction...Abe was a WWII vet...not a Korean War Vet... http://www.paganvets.org
-----Original Message----- From: Eric Roberts [mailto:ow...@threeravensconsulting.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 9:42 PM To: 'cf-community@houseoffusion.com' Subject: RE: Shocker: Major corporations may dump health insurance, pay penalties instead >> The DOJ just removed a WWI memorial cross from the desert because it's >> public land. Just imagine what it's going to cost to update all the >> tombstones in national cemeteries. >Interesting deal, crosses and the military. >You know about the fight to get a pagan star vs. a cross, right? First off...the cross was stolen, not removed by the government. I can comment about the second statement as I was one of the people deeply involved in the fight to get the pentagram approved by the VA. It all started over 2 decades ago in 1989, when Korean War Vet, and Wiccan Priest, passed away and his wife filed for his headstone, which is guaranteed to us as veterans, and petitioned to have the Pentagram approved for Abe's headstone. The VA stalled his wife (who, unfortunately, died not long before the courts ruled against the VA and didn't get to see her husband's headstone with a pentagram on it...very sad), all the while approving symbols for several obscure groups like The Aaronic Order, The Native American Church, Baha'i, Konko-Kyo, Sufism, Tenrikyo, Seicho-no-ie, The Church of World Messianity, the Moravian Church and Enkankar. It finally came to a head with SSG Patrick Stewart, a Wiccan Priest, who died when his helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. His home state of Arizona was forbidden to put a pentagram on the plaque they made honoring him and the other soldiers from Arizona that died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Arizona had to remove the original plaque and replace it with one without the Pentagram on it...even though other plaques with other religious symbols were there. Several large pagan groups stepped in as well as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State and filed 2 lawsuits against the VA. Courts ruled against the VA in both cases thankfully and these soldiers were able to be putt o rest with their religious symbols on their headstones. The VA wants to have the power to determine what is a frivolous religion and what is a legitimate religion (guess they forgot about that whole 1st Amendment thingy...). They even tried to write that into eh new regulations regarding religious symbols. Hel...if you believe that Mr. Potatohead is the creator of the universe and you want a spud on your headstone...as a soldier or a veteran, you earned that right...As an American...that right is guaranteed. We still have yet to test the new regulations as we have to have a vet or soldier die first before they will even start the approval process (Pretty stupid if you ask me...they should be a bit more proactive and find out what symbols they need to approve so that when someone dies, there is no delay in honoring the greatest of our citizens. Eric ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:319665 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
