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by Rev. Selena Fox
Senior Minister of Circle Sanctuary
I am with you today in spirit and with these words.
It is fitting that the process of dedicating US Department of Veterans Affairs-issued gravestones with Pentacles begins today with this one marking the gravesite of Abraham and Rosemary Kooiman. They are the first, and for now, only Wiccan couple with remains buried in a government-run veterans cemetery to have one of these Pentacle grave markers. Also, Abe's service extends the farthest back in time, and he is the only World War II veteran to be honored in this way. This is a historic occasion.
I honor the lives and service of Abe and Rosemary Kooiman. Thank you, Abe, for serving in World War II and working on behalf of Freedom in the world. Thank you, Rosemary, for serving in the Pagan Headstone Campaign and the Veteran Pentacle Quest and working on behalf of Freedom for our people and our nation.
Today, with all of you and with their spirits, I celebrate that the Veteran Pentacle Quest has been successfully completed! At last, the interim Kooiman headstone that had been here for the past four years has been replaced by one engraved with the Pentacle, the Wiccan emblem of belief.
In April 2005, Rosemary and I spent several days together in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. She and I were among the speakers at the Mid Atlantic Pagan Beltane. In a series of private conversations, we discussed strategies for getting the VA to approve the Pentacle. I let her know that Circle Sanctuary had recently changed our approach from supporting the efforts of other groups that had applied to the VA for Pentacle approval to direct involvement by sending in our own application. I made a personal promise to Rosemary that Circle Sanctuary and I would do whatever we could to get the VA to put the Pentacle on its authorized emblems of belief list -- and on the Kooiman headstone. A year later, in April 2006, I returned to the Mid Atlantic Pagan Beltane and was among those taking part in that festival community's memorial service for Rosemary. At that memorial, I led the group in a short working for Pentacle victory. At the exact moment we sent off the cone of power, a military aircraft flew overhead. I called out: "That's a good omen!" It was.
The Quest had its breakthrough on April 5 of this year, 13 months to the day of Rosemary's death. That was the day our attorneys and I finalized the amended complaint in our Circle Sanctuary vs. Nicholson lawsuit.
On November 13, 2006, Circle Sanctuary filed this religious discrimination lawsuit against the VA in Madison, Wisconsin in the federal court for the Western Wisconsin district. Americans United for Separation of Church and State represented Circle Sanctuary, some of our members, and a networking associate, Isis Invicta Military Mission. Our church member plaintiffs were Roberta Stewart of Nevada, the widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, the first Wiccan soldier to be killed in action in the War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom, in Afghanistan; Karen DePolito of Utah, the widow of Jerome Birnbaum, a Korean War veteran; and, joining the suit as a plaintiff on April 5, 2007, Jill Medicine Heart Combs of Ohio, the wife and representative of Army veteran Gary Combs, incapacitated due to brain injury and being treated in a VA hospital.
In January of this year, our AU attorneys, Richard Katskee and Aram Schvey, and attorneys representing the VA set April 6 as the date for our filing an amended complaint in this lawsuit. On January 26, the judge denied the VA's motion to delay our case for a year or more, and thus cleared the way for our lawsuit to proceed. He set May 1 as our deadline for filing a motion for summary judgment and June 29 as our trial date.
It was because of this timetable that we happened to be diligently finalizing our amended complaint on April 5. In this amended complaint, we added language and documents obtained in our lawsuit's process of discovery that indicated that the Pentacle had been blocked due to religious prejudice. Late that afternoon before filing it with the judge, our attorneys emailed a copy of our amended complaint to the attorneys representing the VA. Within minutes of receiving this, the attorneys representing the VA called our attorneys and requested that we not file the amended complaint until we had a chance to explore settlement options. At last, there was a breakthrough!
In negotiating our settlement, we knew that it was important not only to immediately get the Pentacle on the VA's list of emblems of belief that can be included on the veteran grave makers it issues, but to get it on veteran headstones, markers, and plaques as soon as possible. I wanted gravestones with Pentacles produced and delivered before Memorial Day. We negotiated terms that would not only get the VA to expedite the production of Pentacle gravestones for the deceased Wiccan veterans whose widows were plaintiffs in our case, but for all those in need, including the Kooimans.
On April 20, attorneys for both sides signed the settlement agreement. On April 23, the judge made the settlement official, the Pentacle went on the VA list, and we announced this victory in AU's press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Production began on veteran Pentacle gravestones.
On May 1, the date we would have filed for summary judgment had our lawsuit not been settled, and the day of the Wiccan holiday, Beltane, Pentacle gravestones arrived at cemeteries. The Kooiman headstone and one for Jan O'Rourke arrived at Arlington National Cemetery and the markers for Sgt. Patrick Stewart and Jerome Birnbaum arrived at Circle Cemetery, our national Pagan cemetery at Circle Sanctuary headquarters in Wisconsin. Since that time, three more markers with Pentacles have been produced and more are in process.
On Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, we will be dedicating three gravestones with Pentacles in our cemetery in Wisconsin, and Jan O'Rourke's headstone here at Arlington National Cemetery will be dedicated on the morning of the 4th of July.
I give thanks to Lady Liberty and Lady Justice for their aid. I give thanks to Americans United for Separation of Church and State for their support and I thank everyone who has been part of the Veteran Pentacle Quest over the years. Together, we achieved this victory. May we continue to work together to uphold our Freedoms so that there truly will be Liberty and Justice for All!
Debby Morris read some excerpts from these reflections by Selena Fox at the Dedication.