Support the campaign the pressure the Department of Veterans Affairs to authorize a 33rd headstone symbol, a Pentacle so that Pagan veterans can be buried under a headstone that shows their religion rather than a blank stone.
Whereas the pentacle (an interwoven five pointed star, one point
upwards, surrounded by a circle) is a widely recognized and utilized
symbol for the Neopagan and Mesopagan religions known collectively as
'Wicca' and is also used by many other Neopagan and Mesopagan
believers who do not call themselves 'Wiccans" but just 'Pagans' or
'Neopagans;'
And whereas, there are hundreds of thousands of American citizens who
belong to the above mentioned minority belief systems, including many
hundreds of members of the United States Armed Forces, some of whom
have 'Wiccan' or 'Pagan' or 'Neopagan' inscribed upon their identity
tags;
And whereas, members of the United States Armed Forces who belong to
majority belief systems, as well as those belonging to many minority
belief systems, are entitled under United States military laws and
regulations to have the symbols of their belief systems inscribed
upon their headstones upon burial in Veterans' cemeteries;
And whereas, the Veterans Administration has already approved the
headstone use of symbols of Paleopagan belief systems such as
Hinduism and Shinto, as well as of Mesopagan belief systems such as
the Native American Church of America, and New Age belief systems
such as Eckankar and the United Church of Religious Science (both of
which have fewer members than the overlapping Wiccan and Neopagan
communities have);
And whereas the Veterans Administration has refused for several years
to approve official requests from the families of Wiccan and Pagan
members of the United States Armed Forces to have pentacles inscribed
upon the headstones of departed American veterans;
Therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States of America
hereby petition the Congress of the United States to direct the
Veterans Administration to immediately approve and initiate the use
of pentacles upon the headstones of any member of the United States
Armed Forces buried or to be buried in a United States veterans'
cemetery when so requested by that member or that member's survivors.
Furthermore, we petition that this directive be made binding upon all
public and private cemeteries receiving funds from any federal,
state, regional, or local government agency.
