Your star in a circle ain't welcome on your memorial

[ebonlock]

via The RudePundit:

Another scrotum bludgeoning is courtesy of the Department of Veteran's Affairs, which, in case you didn't know, has a list of approved religious markers for headstones for dead soldiers for its cemeteries and memorials. Christian, Muslim, Serbian Orthodox, Tenrikyo, you die for your country, and the symbol of your faith can be displayed for all eternity on your grave. Fuck, if you're an atheist, they got a symbol for that - looks like a nuclear atom, but, what the hell, you know. Except if you're a Wiccan.

Yep, if you're a nature-worshippin' pagan, motherfucker, doesn't matter if you left half your internal organs festering on the hillsides of Afghanistan. Your star in a circle ain't welcome on your memorial. So when Wiccan soldier Patrick Stewart of Nevada died when his Chinook helicopter was shot down by an RPG, his family wanted to emblazon his plaque on the memorial wall for Nevada vets with the Wiccan pentacle. Turns out, though, for Veterans Affairs, freedom of religion means the agency decides how you're free to worship. They were told, "Nope. Not on the approved list. Go fuck a tree."

Sure, sure, this'll all be solved soon when the right forms go through the right offices and the right stamps are placed on the right documents, but, still, and all, is this censorship really something the government oughta be involved in at any level?

Comments

[forkmonkey.livejournal.com]

It's not that at all, and I don't mean to be dismissive. Discrimination is very serious. In fact, when I first looked, I was alarmed, outraged, and ready to act. The armed forces telling adherents of a religion I respect deeply to "fuck a tree"? That's very alarming.

When I read more deeply, checking his source links, and learned that there was no discrimination that I could discern, beyond a little paperwork lethargy, my alarm changed to incredulity. I felt teased, and I felt that a false-start had been made.

I don't think it's unreasonable to use the word "alarmist" in this case, and I don't think it is dismissive to do so. It's not shorthand for "their opinion doesn't count." I wouldn't have been alarmed if their opinion didn't count. Their opinion *did* count. They got me alarmed. Falsely alarmed, in my most terribly humble opinion.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

And now I get where you're coming from on this, but if you go back to your first comment I think you'll see my point. It *was* dismissive and meant to end the conversation right there. Can you see how I'd read that into your previous remarks and draw that conclusion? I am glad, though, that you stuck with it and actually explained your thinking here because it helped me see in the end that you didn't mean to come off that way at all, you were just annoyed at what you saw as a bit of a "swerve", so to speak.

[forkmonkey.livejournal.com]

"Can you see how I'd read that into your previous remarks and draw that conclusion?"

In retrospect, certainly. And likewise, thanks for the follow-through. :-)

-F