During the Second World War, artist Norman Rockwell was presented with the job of giving eye to the so-called “Four Freedoms” that President Franklin D. Roosevelt first identified in a speech in 1941: Freedom from want; freedom from fear; freedom of speech and freedom of worship.

Rockwell did his job well, and the Four Freedoms became a rallying cry for why the American people were fighting. In fact, on the back of every veteran’s World War Two Victory Medal one finds the Four Freedoms in writing: Freedom from want; freedom from fear; freedom of speech and freedom of worship.

We are here today, with Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in view, to remember all those who died in America’s wars—all who made the ultimate sacrifice for these same Four Freedoms. But we are here today, in Out of Town Park, rather than at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery, especially to honor Sergeant Patrick Stewart and others who, though they died for our Four Freedoms, have yet to receive the benefits of them all.

Freedom from want; freedom from fear; freedom of speech and freedom of worship: artist Norman Rockwell struggled especially with the latter image, freedom of worship. Rockwell wanted to show that we are a nation of immigrants—people with different backgrounds, cultures and religions. And the way he finally illustrated this was to place the heads of a number of people in profile and above them to write the words “each according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

Norman Rockwell, who lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, couldn’t remember where these words came from. He thought, maybe, they came from the Latter Day Saint, Joseph Smith.

In fact, they were the words of John Adams, Second President of the United States, who employed them in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, written in 1779, the oldest such document in continuous use.

To quote John Adams in Article II of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the Universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.”

“…no subject shall be hurt, molested or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience…” Sergeant Patrick Stewart took seriously his right and duty to worship “the Creator and Preserver of the Universe.” And he died for the preservation of this right—this right and others that we so often take for granted.

The fact that the Veteran’s Administration will not allow the symbol for his Wiccan faith on Pat’s memorial marker, despite the fact that the VA recognizes 38 other faith groups with their own symbols, suggests that the Four Freedoms are in peril.

And who is the enemy that threatens them? Pat Stewart is denied the Pentagram on his memorial marker by a government bureaucracy, one that does what it does for reasons that we often cannot fathom. But more than this; Pat is denied, in death, the freedom of worship that he valued so much in life, by us—by all of us who are indifferent to this important cause.

If we, with one voice, demand for Pat his due as an American, the Veterans Administration, bureaucracy and all, would quickly fold. The fact that the VA hasn’t, says that we have much more to do.

Today, we remember the Four Freedoms that rallied our fathers and mothers in earlier days: Freedom from want; freedom from fear; freedom of speech and freedom of worship. We remember the Four Freedoms and we remember men like Sergeant Patrick Stewart, who gave his life for them and for us.

Let us honor them. Let us honor them by fighting for the rights that they held so dearly. In Pat’s case especially, may we never tire until all are free to worship as they please and, when the time comes, to rest under the symbol of the faith that sustained them in life and gave them hope in death.