Date: Sept. 21, 2007
From: www.PaganUnityCampaign.org
Subject: Pagan Unity Campaign's SO VOTE IT BE 2008 campaign
Contact: Ginger Strivelli (EmpressGinger@charter.net), Fallon Glenn (fallon_glenn@ yahoo.com)
What can we as Pagans do to in order to achieve equanimity in the treatment of our faith in
Vote for our rights!
But first you must register to vote!
With the 2008 primary elections quickly approaching, the Pagan Unity Campaign, as part of our ongoing 'SO VOTE IT BE' voter registration and education campaign, would like to encourage the entire Pagan community to get out and register to vote in the upcoming primary elections. This is an excellent opportunity for the Pagan community to get in gear for the all-important upcoming presidential election in November of 2008.
Take part in shaping our world and how you will be treated in it. At this point in time, we are governed by an administration that is controlled by a number of fundamentalist Christians. They would love to see the Separation of church and state become an idea of the past, have first amendment rights removed from the Constitution, and tell us who and how we can worship. If we do not act now we may not be free to act later.
One very important step in maintaining our freedoms is registering and voting in the upcoming elections for the candidates and the issues that we support. Know your candidates and their views on the issues that are important to you. If you are not certain on their views (such as where they stand on religious freedom), look them up online or write the candidates themselves and ask for specifics. Let them know that you will only support and vote for those candidates willing to be a voice for the Constitutional right to religious freedom for all faiths.
In the words of one of the
Please join PUC in helping the Pagan community become a voting block to be heard and listened to in the coming elections. Let the voices of Pagan voters be heard loud and clear. Let the candidates know that we will be heard and that we will stand up for our rights! Help us ensure that as many of us as possible are registered so in 2008 we can SO VOTE IT BE by registering to vote now!
Register to vote at: https://www.govote.org/
Charlotte-Concord-Salisbury Pagan Night Out | |||||
| Date: | Friday September 21, 2007 | ||||
| Time: | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm | ||||
| Repeats: | This event repeats every week. | ||||
| Location: | Carolina Mall Food Court | ||||
| Notes: | We're an eclectic Pagan group in the Charlotte-Concord-Salisbury area. To join our yahoogroup send an email to concord_nc_area_pagans-subscribe@yahoogroups.com We meet every Friday at 7:30pm in the food court at Carolina Mall in Concord, the mall next to NorthEast Medical Center on Highway 29 (Concord Parkway). If you're coming by way of I-85, that's exit 58. We'll be between the stage and the entrance to Bear Rock Cafe. We'll have several tables clustered together. If you're not sure it's us, just approach us and ask, "Is this the Yahoogroup meeting?" We have great discussions. I hope you can attend. We are a 'family-friendly' group, so reasonably well-behaved children are always welcome at our meetings. | ||||
I am not a mother, but I am an aunt. That is a role I take very seriously and so four times in the past month and a half, I've went through the same worry that parents all over the place have undergone and have rushed about the house with my sister (who is a mom), frantically dumping toy boxes and bib drawers.
We've picked up the phone and dialed my mother, my grandmother, my older sister. We've crossed checked toys they have with lists of recalled toys. And in the end, we've breathed sighs of relief that our boys are safe. Despite the toy boxes they have all over our house, my mother's house, my grandmother's house, my older sister's house they owned not a single toxic toy or bib.
That is to say none that we know about at any rate. And that's what worries me the most. I've become quite livid about the entire situation. Not just because it's kids, my kids (or close enough to being my kids that biology and the fact that they have two moms really doesn't mean crap at this point), but because it just keeps piling up.
Don't we have government partly so they can ensure our safety? And doesn't part of ensuring the safety of citizens mean ensuring that the foods they consume are free of killer bacteria, that the products they buy are free of killer toxins? Isn't that what the CPSC the FDA and several other of those acronyms were created to do?
So, why aren't they doing their jobs? And why aren't we kicking up more of a fuss about it than we have thus far? Has consumerism become tantamount to risk and are we really okay with that as a society?
Goddess knows, I'm not okay with it. Not even a little bit.
First it was massive food recalls after people started turning up gravely ill or dead. Peanut butter that we had already half eaten. And then it was blood in the urine of my
And with each frantic check, we became more nervous and more angry. We are a nation of consumers. And, until all of this started, we would happily shell out 20.00 for the train set that would send Kaia into an immediate squeal of toddler delight, 5.00 for the giant jar of peanut butter that would have sis happily munching PB&J sandwiches like she was a kid, a few dollars for the gravy covered dog food that had my pets lolling at my feet like I was the Queen of the World. It wasn't a big deal. We bought because we wanted too and because could afford too.
And now, being a consumer is no longer such a thoughtless deed. Just yesterday I stared for half an hour at a train table the boys would have absolutely adored, torn between the desire to gift them with something that would thrill them into a frenzy of flying toys until every train they own had been depositing onto that table, and the fear that I would be gifting them with something that I would only then have to pry away from them to keep them safe. I walked out of the store without that train table.
And that pissed me off. It shouldn't be like this. We should be free to march into the grocery store, the pet store, the toy store and buy what we want; free of worry that doing so will result in illness or potential death. Instead, we march in and stare in trepidation at the products lining the shelves, wondering which will be next on the ever growing list of killer products. We eat, drink and make merry at our own risk. That's just not acceptable to me. Not as a consumer, not as a wife and sure as hell not as an aunt to toddlers.
The FDA, the CPSC and all of those other acronym known organizations need to step up and do what they were instated to do. Until they do that, they’ve failed society. And we have allowed it by not holding them to their responsibilities, by looking the other way, and by pretending that the latest problem was just another fluke or a
When it comes into our nation and into our hands, it becomes an American problem, whether it was made in
Cross-posted to ProgressiveU.org
### Press Release ###
From: Pagan Unity Campaign
Date: August 5, 2007
Subject: Speak up on H.B. 1034
Contact: Rev. Pia Fontaine (Sunshinemoonraven@comcast.net)
PUC TX- State Chair
www.paganunitycampaign.org
Thomas Jefferson once said,
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.”
The school year is coming upon us and this year our children will be forced, unless you write a note, to now include, in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance, the Pledge to our State flag which will include the verbiage found below:
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and indivisible."
These changes are a result of a 142 Yeas, 1 Nay vote by our 80th Texas Legislature in favor of House Bill no.1034, which relates to the pledge of the Texas State Flag
This is the third piece of legislation since last May that has now been ratified in lieu to Church being associated with the State of Texas.
House Bill No. 1287 now allows Elective Courses in History and Literature of Old and New Testaments Eras. They also ratified House Bill 3678, which relates to the Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act AKA “Marian’s Law”.
There are a lot of other cultures outside of the “Big Three” Monotheist faith systems that honor more than “One God”. Some examples are the Hindu faith, Buddhists, Indigenous folk of the Hawaiian Islands, the people of the First Nations, Taoists, Shinto, and the many varied faiths that come under the umbrella of Paganism.
We are also taught that we have First Amendment rights, one of which includes the establishment clause, firmly separating church and state so that all may feel free to make religious expressions as they deem proper without fear of governmental influence. Let's remind Rep. Riddle and our elected officials that they are elected to represent all the people and their ideals and that "One God" concept has no place in the classrooms of America."
To email your local legislator and find your House Representative and District Information Click Here:
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/zip.aspx
To email Rep. Debbie Riddle Click here:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=150&rep=debbie.riddle
District Office
3648 F.M. 1960 West
Suite 106
Houston, TX 77068
(281) 537-5252
(281) 537-8821 Fax
Links for the Full Text Version of the Bills and Votes Below:
H.B. 1034 Author: Riddle, Berman Flynn, Hildebran, Branch
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB01034I.htm
Relating to the pledge of allegiance to the state flag.
Voted on Record : The motion to concur in senate amendments prevailed by (Record 1616):
142 Yeas,1 Nays,1 Present,not voting.
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/hjrnl/80r/pdf/80RDAY82FINAL.PDF#page=8
H.B. No. 1287 Author: Chisum Joint Authors: Flynn, Zerwas, Berman, Eissler
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/doc/HB01287I.doc
Elective Courses In History and Literature of Old and New Testaments Eras
Voted on Record:iYeas28,Nays2.
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/sjrnl/80r/pdf/80RSJ05-23-F.PDF#page=70
H.B 3678 Primary Author: Howard, Charlie Joint Author : Chisum
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB03678I.htm
Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act AKA “Marian’s Law”
Voted on Record: 107 Yeas,28 Nays,2 Present,not voting.
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/hjrnl/80r/pdf/80RDAY85FINAL.PDF#page=174
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