Pagan In Paradise
It has been an emotional couple of weeks for me. The efforts around the Pahokee Solstice Festival came to fruition. Pagans were able to conduct their gathering in peace and harmony despite community concerns and a few examples of hate speech. My efforts around this event were emotionally draining. While speaking with love and compassion to hate was effective, internally my emotions were enraged. Hearing, face to face, the things said about my beliefs was profoundly unsettling. This situation taught me much about how far we have yet to go in establishing true religious freedom in this country.
Sitting along the shores of the lake I watched the alligators, visioning them as “Water Dragons”. Each would eventually slip below the surface, ancient, dangerous and waiting. For me they represented the nature of religious discord, waiting, hidden, always just below the surface. They also reflected the idea that we are engaged in an ongoing struggle, that our community must always remain diligent, that religious hate is as ancient as these creatures and will always exist.
Returning from the festival I was greeted with the news that the Supreme Court had gutted the voting rights act. Taking the position that progress has been made the court essentially withdrew the very protections that have created the change they cited. My heart is heavy with thoughts of what this change will mean. Conservative legislators across the south are already engaged in manifesting laws that will cause the voices of minority Americans to be even further marginalized. For those, like myself, who are interested in freedom and justice for people of color it is a sad day in America.
My personal engagement in this struggle for equality goes all the way back to the second grade when my school elected me to speak to the Governor of Colorado about school desegregation. Even as a child I was interested in confronting discrimination and speaking for equality. I am profoundly disappointed in the courts ruling.
Today, however, was a day of joyful tears. It is not often when I shed tears of joy; Today’s ruling on DOMA and Prop 8 had me in tears. Our nation re affirmed its commitment to the foundational principles of equality, justice and fair treatment under the law. Yes I celebrate for my friends in the LGBT community, but even more, I celebrate for all minority communities, religious, racial, gender based etc. This ruling is a victory for all Americans who are driven to uphold our nations ethic of equality.
Religious discrimination, racial inequity and LGBT rights, each has touched me emotionally recently. For me the political is personal. The struggle for justice continues, stirred in the very foundations of my being.The Goddess calls me to action. I would have it no other way.
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