inadvertently my big fat ass

mistakes DO happen. i'd believe this was an oversight IF it was ANY administration EXCEPT king george's.

of course they ONLY attempted to make things right when they found out roberta stewart wasn't going to roll over and keep quiet.

ms stewart, i'm sorry for the loss of your husband (and i'm sorry for all of the OTHER losses of our troops)

an' it harm none, do as you will

Bush Apologizes to Wiccan Soldier's Widow for Meeting Slip-Up

By Jacqueline L. Salmon Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush has apologized to the widow of a Wiccan soldier after she was excluded from a Nevada meeting this week that the president held with the families of soldiers killed in combat.
Roberta Stewart, whose husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005, was left off the invitation list for the private meeting Tuesday even though other members of her husband's family were invited. When she heard about the exclusion from her mother-in-law, Stewart said, she concluded that it was done because of her public fight to force the federal government to engrave the symbol for the Wiccan faith on her husband's marker on a memorial.
"I was devastated," Stewart said. "I was crying and upset. I couldn't believe that my country would continue this discrimination."..........

picture: page: www.uucheyenne.org/mandalas/

i personally do NOT hide

who i am and what i practice. i don't talk about it unless asked, but almost all of my workmates know as do all of my friends. they know i'm not sacrificing babies in my basement. i am in total agreement with the woman featured in the article though. most people who don't know me the find out i am stregha, assume i worship the devil. listen up, I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL. i try to live my life as a good person. i try NOT to do evil (i'm not a saint and i have done things i'm not proud of and i'm sure i will in the future too). however, i NEVER wish anyone harm. do you know the witch's crede? i'll tell you (it is said a bit differently here and there, but it basically is:)

an' it harm none, do as you will

Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps

By NEELA BANERJEE
DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan.
Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.
But Wicca in the civilian world is largely a religion in hiding. Wiccans fear losing their friends and jobs if people find out about their faith.
“I would love to be able to say ‘Accept us for who we are,’ but I can’t, mainly because of my kids,” said the suburban mother, who agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. “Children can be cruel, and their parents can be even more cruel, and I don’t want my kids picked on for the choice their mommy made.”.............

one of my favorite stories is; a woman at work once got all secretive. she wended her way to my desk and her eyes darted furtively here and there. in a low voice she said, 'i know your beliefs are a bit different than most a rose is a rose. do you celebrate thanksgiving?"

THE ANSWER IS YES I DO. (of course i do it in a different way - but it has NOTHING to do with wicca or stregha. it has to do with my own soul. i celebrate it by fasting. the ONLY DAY i fast.)

i take umbrage with them calling wicca (UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE)

a 'neo-pagan cult'. it's NOT an effing CULT AND it's been around a LOT LOT LOT longer than judiasm and christianity and islam and the lot

at any rate, the armed services is now 'allowing' pentacles on headstones (and of course it's about time) in military cemeteries

'Wiccans' win place in US military cemeteries

Adherents to the neo-pagan cult Wicca soon will be permitted to place their symbol the pentacle -- a five-pointed star inscribed inside a circle -- on headstones in military cemeteries, US officials said Monday.
After months of legal wrangling, the US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to allow Wiccans to place the symbol on headstones, as do adherents to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish and other faiths. The policy change will go into effect in the next few months, officials said.
"VA will be adding the pentacle to its list of approved emblems of belief that will be engraved on government-provided markers," said Matt Burns a spokesman for the federal agency...........

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

a MUCH better article where 1) they don't call wicca a CULT and 2) they mention how wicca is sometimes MISTAKEN for devil worship

Use of Wiccan Symbol on Veterans’ Headstones Is Approved
By NEELA BANERJEE
Published: April 24, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 23 — To settle a lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones..................
..........Though it has many forms, Wicca is a type of pre-Christian belief that reveres nature and its cycles. Its symbol is the pentacle, a five-pointed star, inside a circle.
Until now, the Veterans Affairs department had approved 38 symbols to indicate the faith of deceased service members on memorials. It normally takes a few months for a petition by a faith group to win the department’s approval, but the effort on behalf of the Wiccan symbol took about 10 years and a lawsuit, said Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director for Americans United.
The group attributed the delay to religious discrimination. Many Americans do not consider Wicca a religion, or hold the mistaken belief that Wiccans are devil worshipers...............