Boulder Dude

as ***Dave covered here, here, and we both covered here and here there has been an ongoing battle with the VA over Vets to be allowed to put the Pentagram on their grave stones.

The Pegan Vets haven't updated since '04 from the looks of it.

This all came about because of a tread else blog about Vet's and gravestones.

So, I did some searching and the only thing I could find was a NYT wire service article from the Taipei Times:

Wiccan vets fight to place symbol on graves

ON THE FENCE: The US Department of Veterans Affairs has neither approved nor disapproved the use of the religion's pentacle figure on the tombstones of soldiers

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , NEW YORK
Sunday, Oct 01, 2006, Page 7

US military veterans are entitled to have their headstones engraved by the government with a symbol of their religion. Families of the deceased may choose from emblems representing a variety of 18 Christian churches, a number of Buddhist sects, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and atheism (represented by an atom with an A inside) -- 38 symbols in all.

But the Wiccan pentacle is not allowed because the Department of Veterans Affairs has neither approved nor disallowed it despite various petitions over the last nine years.

On Friday, three Wiccan families and two Wiccan churches sued to force the department to include their symbol -- a five-pointed star inside a circle -- on the list of approved emblems.

Wiccans, also called pagans, are often wrongly confused with Satanists. Theirs is a nature-based religion recognized by the Internal Revenue Service, by the US military itself in its chaplains' handbooks and on the dog tags that troops are required to wear around their necks. There are an increasing number of Wiccans in the armed forces -- about 1,800, according to a Pentagon survey cited in the suit.

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the plaintiffs, brought the action in the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Washington. A spokesman for the VA did not respond to requests for an interview.

In the years that Wiccans have been petitioning, the department has approved emblems for at least six groups, including the obscure Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii.

Kathleen Egbert, a Wiccan priestess in Laurel, Maryland, is among the plaintiffs. Her father, Abraham Kooiman, fought in World War II and received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He died in 2001 at age 77 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, a Wiccan without a symbol on his headstone.

"I'm angry," Egbert said, "because if pagans can fight and die for our country, we should be recognized by our country the same way anyone else would be."

Let's all hope that the VA is forced to allow it's Vetrens to use the Symbol of their choice and of their Religion. It also shows why this country was set up as rule by the Majority but protection of the Minorty, so that no small group would be hurt by the hate and bigotry of the many.The Ameritaliban in this country needs to quit trying to bring about the Apocalypse, the marriage of Church and State, the persecution of other religions and sect’s of non-evangelical Protestant Christians (and Atheists).

However your belief system dictates, please send some positive thoughts to those fighting this fight.