April 4, 2007 press release from Lady Liberty League
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ARE WICCAN SOLDIERS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE BURIED WITH RESPECT?
April 4, 2007
CONTACT:
Paula Johnson
Media Liaison, Lady Liberty League
(954) 471-1435
"Does this mean Wiccan soldiers are good enough to die abroad, but not good enough to be buried with respect at home?"
"After nine years of 'reviewing the process,' the Department of Veterans Affairs still hasn't approved the pentacle -- a five-pointed star that symbolizes Wiccan faith -- as an 'emblem of belief' that can be placed on government headstones of Wiccan soldiers."
Charles C. Haynes of the First Amendment Center comments on the VA's refusal to add the Pentacle to its list of 38 approved emblems for use on the headstones, markers and plaques of fallen Wiccan soldiers.
Inside the First Amendment: The Nature of Discrimination
by Charles C.Haynes, Gannett News Service
http://www.courierjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070403/OPINION04/704030380
DOES A SOLDIER WHO HAS SACRIFICED THEIR LIFE FIGHTING THE WAR ON TERROR IN IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN DESERVE A HEADSTONE WITH THE RELIGIOUS EMBLEM OF HIS OR HER CHOICE?
There are bills being considered to memorialize soldiers who died in 1943, to expand and make permanent VA benefits for Government markers for marked graves of veterans buried in private cemeteries, a bill to direct the Secretary of the VA to restore plot allowance eligibility for veterans of any war and to restore the headstone or marker allowance for eligible persons.
There are 143 bills currently referred to both the US House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affair. However, there is no bill being considered that stops the VA's decade long campaign of discrimination against Wiccan and Pagan soldiers and veterans.
Furthermore, there is no bill presently being considered that will guarantee that veterans of all religions and belief systems will be fairly and equally treated when it comes to having their emblems of belief on the grave markers they receive from the government after death.
Are "Wiccan soldiers are good enough to die abroad, but not good enough to be buried with respect at home?"
IN THE HEADLINES:
The American Debate: Voters want opposite of current ineptitude
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, April 1, 2007
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20070401
"The VA is run by Jim Nicholson, who had no previous experience onvets' issues...."