So Vote It Be 2008

Date: Sept. 21, 2007

From: www.PaganUnityCampaign.org

Subject: Pagan Unity Campaign's SO VOTE IT BE 2008 campaign

Contact: Ginger Strivelli (EmpressGinger@charter.net), Fallon Glenn (fallon_glenn@ yahoo.com)

What can we as Pagans do to in order to achieve equanimity in the treatment of our faith in America today?

Vote for our rights!

But first you must register to vote!

With the 2008 primary elections quickly approaching, the Pagan Unity Campaign, as part of our ongoing 'SO VOTE IT BE' voter registration and education campaign, would like to encourage the entire Pagan community to get out and register to vote in the upcoming primary elections. This is an excellent opportunity for the Pagan community to get in gear for the all-important upcoming presidential election in November of 2008.

Take part in shaping our world and how you will be treated in it. At this point in time, we are governed by an administration that is controlled by a number of fundamentalist Christians. They would love to see the Separation of church and state become an idea of the past, have first amendment rights removed from the Constitution, and tell us who and how we can worship. If we do not act now we may not be free to act later.

One very important step in maintaining our freedoms is registering and voting in the upcoming elections for the candidates and the issues that we support. Know your candidates and their views on the issues that are important to you. If you are not certain on their views (such as where they stand on religious freedom), look them up online or write the candidates themselves and ask for specifics. Let them know that you will only support and vote for those candidates willing to be a voice for the Constitutional right to religious freedom for all faiths.

In the words of one of the USA's foremothers; "We can make a manifestation by going to the polls, at each returning election." Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

Please join PUC in helping the Pagan community become a voting block to be heard and listened to in the coming elections. Let the voices of Pagan voters be heard loud and clear. Let the candidates know that we will be heard and that we will stand up for our rights! Help us ensure that as many of us as possible are registered so in 2008 we can SO VOTE IT BE by registering to vote now!

Register to vote at: https://www.govote.org/

Wiccan Practitioner's Widow Not Invited To Bush Meeting

I apologize for the lateness in posting this. President Bush called and apologized for not including Mrs. Stewart and blamed the exclusion on the U.S. Army (of course).

Wiccan Practitioner' s Widow Not Invited To Bush Meeting
President talked to family members of other war dead

By Sean Whaley
Review-Journal Capital Bureau

CARSON CITY -- When President Bush took time Tuesday to meet family members of some of the fallen soldiers from Northern Nevada , a woman whose husband made the ultimate sacrifice was notably absent.

Roberta Stewart of Fernley, who lost her husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, when the helicopter he was in was shot down in Afghanistan in September 2005, said she was not invited to the meeting that followed Bush's speech to the American Legion's national convention in Reno.

Other members of the Stewart family were invited to the brief, private meeting, including her husband's parents and brother, as were family members of others who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan .

Stewart said her in-laws were contacted by the White House last week in advance of the visit by Bush to Reno . But she received no call or e-mail extending an invitation.

Stewart's parents, Steve and Sandy Stewart of Reno , and his brother, Jason Stewart of Silver Springs, offered no comment on the meeting.

Roberta Stewart said she believes she knows why no invitation was extended to her by the White House.

Roberta Stewart, like her late husband, is a practitioner of the Wiccan faith, and she fought with the Department of Veterans Affairs for more than a year to win the right to display the pentacle, the emblem of their faith, on his memorial marker in the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley.

Patrick Stewart had the pentacle on his dog tags.

Roberta Stewart and several other Wiccans, backed by a major Wiccan religious group and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, reached a settlement with the federal agency in April allowing the symbol to be used in veterans cemeteries.

"I'm upset that I wasn't invited," she said of the Bush meeting. "I think it is because of my faith. I feel like I've been discriminated against again."

Stewart said she would have gone if invited.

"I would have loved to have spoken to President Bush and ask him why he dishonored my husband," she said. "That's probably why I wasn't invited."

White House spokesman Trey Bohn said only that Bush met privately with family members of military personnel who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and that, "we do not discuss private meetings."

Stewart said that while researching a lawsuit to allow the use of the pentacle, Wiccan attorneys came across information indicating Bush was opposed to recognition of the faith. The New York Times reported when the settlement was reached in April that Bush, in an interview with Good Morning America in 1999, said: "I don't think witchcraft is a religion."

The government finally agreed to the settlement "in the interest of the families concerned and to spare taxpayers the expense of further litigation," VA spokesman Matt Burns said in an e-mail announcing the agreement in April.

Additionally, Burns said, the agency settled after it became clear that the Wiccan pentacle would be deemed acceptable under new rules the VA has proposed for recognizing "emblems of belief."

The Wiccan faith is based on nature and emphasizes respect for the earth and its processes. One of its primary tenants is "do no harm."

The space allotted for Patrick Stewart's plaque at the Fernley cemetery remained blank until November, when the state of Nevada sidestepped the federal government and allowed the use of the symbol at the cemetery.

The Nevada Army National Guardsman and four other soldiers died after their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan . Among the dead was Stewart's friend, John Flynn, a chief warrant officer with the guard.

Flynn's widow, Christie Flynn, was invited to the Bush meeting, Roberta Stewart said. "Other local widows were there. I was excluded."

If Bush thought he was honoring Patrick Stewart by meeting with selected family members, he was wrong, Roberta Stewart said.

"I am very, very disappointed," she said.