Dedication Speech for Sgt. Patrick Stewart's Veteran's Pentacle Plaque Dec. 2, 2006
First, let me say that I am honored to be here in the great state of Nevada for this momentous occasion, for in the end, I am here first and foremost, to honor Sergeant Patrick Stewart for his service to our country. And secondly, I would like to give thanks to the State of Nevada, the Governor of Nevada and to the Nevada Veterans Services, for showing the courage to stand up for what is right.
And as I stand here looking at the plaque marking the final resting place of one of our nation's heroes, I can feel tears welling inside me as I see for the first time, MY SYMBOL OF FAITH included in such a place of honor on the wall of heroes, for it has been a long and difficult battle, and there has been with much suffering and humiliation for many of us who've fought for this cause.
But I also have other conflicting feelings bubbling up inside. While I am pleased to see that we've made progress in this pursuit, I also feel anger and frustration at the bureaucracy in Washington, who still deny Sgt. Stewart and all the rest our Pagan veterans their symbol nationally.
In a time when our Commander In Chief has asked our brave men and women in uniform to answer the call of democracy and freedom overseas. And in a time when those very same men and women sacrifice their lives daily, to uphold the fundamental principles for which our great country stands, our own Veterans Administration dishonors them.
Sergeant Patrick Stewart gave his life for his country and for the principles for which he and all of us hold most dear, Liberty, Justice, and Equality for all. Yet the very agencies created by our forbearers to protect the sanctity and honor of those who've served their country with dignity, have forsaken both sergeant Stewart and the very principles for which those agencies stand.
Our own Veterans Administration and those in the White House who direct its policies; refuse to honor one of our country's oldest and most sacred military customs. And what custom is that? It's the custom of honoring those who've fallen in the service of their country, by presenting them with a marker, graced with the symbol which that particular soldier held most sacred.
There are plaques in veteran's cemeteries across the country with the symbols for Christians and Muslims, and Jews. And there are plaques for Buddhists and Hindu's and Sikhs. There are even symbols for Eckankar & for the Church of the world Messianity and for those who don't believe in the divine at all.
But the Pagans who defend our country, those who give their lives in service freely to defend our highest ideals, are denied the most fundamental rights guaranteed to all Americans by our constitution in the Fourteenth Amendment. And what rights are those? They are the rights to be treated with equality and equal dignity under the law.
And yet --- after years of submitting applications, attending meetings, and jumping through bureaucratic hoops, we are still marginalized and denied our Constitutional rights by our administration.
And don't let anyone fool you; this refusal, this total lack of acceptance, is not one of blind indifference or bureaucratic restructuring. The truth be told, those in power, those who we've entrusted our most precious and irreplaceable resources to -- our soldiers who defend our freedom -- refuse Sergeant Patrick Stewart and all of our other worthy Pagan veterans, their final honor, not because of trivial bureaucratic bumbling, but because their own religious bias informs them to do so.
It has long been known in this country that religious tolerance leads to peace and that religious discrimination leads to tyranny. And how do we know that? We know that because that single factor, the very idea that we should promote religious tolerance, combined with our founders beliefs that each and every human being should be left to seek the divine or in its place, reason, in their own personal way -- fueled the very founding of our great nation. How can we now, allow these great guiding principles to falter? I say that we cannot!!!
I -- am a man of faith, a Pagan chaplain devoted to the service of my country and to all those who find themselves in need, no matter what their faith. And I believe in the inherent dignity of each and every human being as our founders did, whether Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Jew, Buddhist or non believer, including a myriad of many other possibilities. And I have to tell you, that our founding fathers would roll - over - in - their - graves, if they knew what our Veterans Administration was up to.
And how do I know this? Our founders left us great writings to use as a touchstone in order to guide us in the future. And it just so happens that they left one that specifically applies to Pagans and to the very situation we are dealing with today.
In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote:
Neither Pagan nor Mohomitan (muslim) nor Jew ought to be excluded from the rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. Shall we suffer a Pagan to deal with us and not suffer him to pray to his god?? It is the very refusing of toleration to those of different opinion which has produced all the bustles and wars on account of religion.
Now I don't know about all of you, but I don't have any trouble understanding Jefferson's message at all. Its principles and intention are crystal clear. But it seems that some of our politicians and those in our Veterans Administration have forgotten these important words. And it's clear to me today, that it is our job, yours and mine, to reacquaint them with them.
So if you truly want to honor Sergeant Patrick Stewart today, then do so by honoring the principles that he fought and died for. Make a pledge to him as you pass his marker, and promise him to take action on his behalf. Promise him that you personally will continue the fight for our rights until every Pagan veteran, and for that matter, all veterans of every faith, are honored equally.
For there is far more at stake here than just a veteran's plaque or a principle. What's at stake here today is the very principle that underlies the core foundation of our democracy and freedom. And that my friends is what Sergeant Patrick Stewart, a Pagan veteran, sacrificed his life for!