June 3, 2006
Support our dead troops
Nevada Army National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan and now his family is fighting our government to see him buried under the symbol he would have wanted. Those neatly arranged military graveyards can be topped with all sorts of headstones. You can get the headstone you want if you’re Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Bahai and all sort of Christian, but if you’re a Wiccan as Stewart was, you can not be buried under the sign of your choice. The Department of Veterans Affairs approved all of the goofy religious symbols found here, but they’ve stalled for nine years on a request to add the Wiccan symbol - a circle surrounding a five pointed star- to the list. See the VA approved symbols here. (I love the atheist atom)
The way I see it, if you die serving your country, even in an inane and unrighteous war like our current sojourn through biblical Eden, you should be allowed to put whatever you want on that headstone. If a soldier who died on the battlefield wants a religious symbol, even if he or she made up that religion, that soldier should get it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a symbol voodoo, Scientology, Zoroastrianism, a Satanic goat head or even Porky Pig saying “That’s all folks.”