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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 17348
[Pagan]
Date Posted:
2/25/2007
8:41:05 am EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 7,568
RSS: 19,472
Comments: 5
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Veterans Rally For Right To Show Their Faith
Author: Pamela Miller Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune (MN)
Title: VETERANS RALLY FOR RIGHT TO SHOW THEIR FAITH
Oblivious to an icy, spitting wind, Vietnam veteran Al Hensel held high an American flag as he and three fellow vets marched Saturday into a circle of birdseed laid out in front of the State Capitol in St. Paul.
Hensel, 53, of Minneapolis, who served in the Marine Corps from 1971 to 1973, was among about 150 pagans and Wiccans who rallied Saturday to urge the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to add the Wiccan pentacle to the list of 38 religious symbols approved for use on military-cemetery gravestones and other markers. Participants -- women and men, old and young -- came from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
"We have served our country, too, and everyone should have the right to have their religious symbol on their gravestone," said Hensel, who follows the Wiccan faith, a set of traditions that is in turn part of the diverse and eclectic Earth-based spiritual tradition called paganism. "This is my church, and I love it."
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Community Thoughts: There are 5 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Religious Freedom | Feb 28th. at 11:10:21 am EST
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Hydro Ariel Red (Richfield, Minnesota) - Email Me
I agree! I am enlisted in the United States Navy and although I am 17, I still think that we DESERVE to have the pentacle on our gravestone. After all, we serve our country faithfully. We lay down our lives for those who are unable to do it themselves. We do it for love and freedom. Is it to much to ask that I get a Pentagram on my grave stone should I be called to give my life to save another?
Hydro Ariel Red
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| I Was There In Spirit | Feb 26th. at 8:48:52 pm EST
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Aidan Odinson (Collingdale, Pennsylvania) - Email Me - Web
If there was ever a place where I wanted to be - snowstorm or no - it was there. After all, I was born in Minneapolis and often long to return.
And it being there, it is most appropriate, because Jerome Birnbaum, one of the veterans waiting in unmarked graves, is a very special person to my wife and myself.
I did put the word out to the Temple of Gaia and also on "The Secrets In Plain Sight." And I also joined in ritual at the appropriate time.
I like what I have seen of the coverage. It seems that the mainstream press has gotten the right clue on this issue. This is not a Wiccan issue. This is not a Pagan issue. This is an American issue. If the VA snubs or excludes anyone, then is their anyone who could be safe from their snubbery or exclusion?
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| I Just | Feb 26th. at 1:48:15 pm EST
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Erihu (Sunset Beach, North Carolina) - Email Me
finished my comments to the VA and posted them to the site. I also sent a copy to Lady Liberty League. I hope that others are taking this opportunity to voice your opinions about the VA's list of approved emblems of belief, and their proposed regulations.
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