NY Post insults Wiccans

[rickrok66]

I found this from the Pagan Witchcraft group on myspace. I couldn't believe it. I looked up the article and it is for real:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04242007/news/nationalnews/something_wicca_this_way_comes_nationalnews_scott_bauer__ap.htm




The article is not the problem - the article is from AP. The insult comes from the faked photo of a tombstone referring to a dead Wiccan soldier who was a "warlock" and earned a "Black Heart" and was born in "1667". So I guess Wiccan soldiers who die in their war in Iraq are open to insult.

Some of the posts on the myspace group say that after calling the NY Post (Evelyn Cordone). She passed the buck to the Managing Editor and said to call Scott Bauer. Maybe you should call Scott Bauer and let this AP writer know what kind of crap photos they are using to accompany his articles.

Please write or call and pass on, thanks.

This is from http://www.webnik.com/coven/insult.html (The Wytches Hill Coven)

"4/28/07

New York Post Insults Wiccans in the Service (and everywhere else)
Dear Friends, This recent headstone victory for Wiccans is indeed an historic moment, but it has been dampened by The New York Post. While the text of the article was a fair and balanced report, it was accompanied by a mocking and insulting composite picture of what a Wiccan GI's headstone would look like. The said photograph is seen below. We will let the picture speak for itself, but I think we should let the Post know how insulted and outraged we all are. Please send a letter to the editor and call the editorial room if you are as insulted as we are. Their email is: [e-mail] and the phone #: [phone].

NOTE: The article also appears on the New York Post website, www. nypost.com but the composite photo is missing. Maybe the Post removed it because it had already become a hot potato. However it kept the article's headline with its pun on "Wicked".

The article appeared on page 9, April 24, 2007"

[Why Syzygy]

1. November 2

is All Souls Day and Day of the Dead.

Whoever made the picture is a sad individual.

[icymist]

2. I'm not really offended by that obviously photoshoped picture.

To practice Wicca in the USA these days one needs a very thick skin at times. It would be nice if people had better things to do with their time than to try and insult others, let alone dead soldiers. According to the link on the OP, the Post pulled the photo and allowed the AP article. The headline, 'Something Wicca This Way Comes' doesn't offend me. There is a lot of good coming from all this.... people are now talking more about Wicca and trying to understand it as a religion.

[Marrah_G]

3. They are just ignorant

Yes this makes part of me really sad and even a little angry. But then the logical sides takes over and I realize these people have no clue about anything if they are reading a rag like that.

And Icy has it right. We pagans have a thick skin. We are one of the last acceptable targets in this country and yes even on DU. If we spent all our energy getting upset by ignorant people we wouldn't have time for anything else. This is why I laugh at all the "I am so offended" posts.

I have faith that it will all balance out in the end.

[rickrok66]

4. Not so offended, but expected

This is typical of Rupert Murdoch's lack of journalistic integrity and standards. To place a spoofed photo like this next to a real AP article is just plain bad journalism in every sense. I would never read the NY Post since I am not from NYC or am not a concervative. However, I work with the kind of people who eat this stuff up everyday as fact.

I know as Wiccans, we never proselytze and are not an organized religion, but sometimes, I am disheartened that we don't have a spokesperson on Fox News getting in Billy Boy's face or defending us against this crap.

[Marrah_G]

5. We don't need to

We as Wiccans can change opinions one person at a time. For each person we meet there is an opportunity to break the stereo-types. In my family unless you are pagan you probably wouldn't realize that we are. No Lori Cabot "look at me" types here. Just a normal family who happens to be Wiccan. I think that is the best way to reach to people. I believe we have changed dozens of peoples views, if not hundreds over the last 15 years.

Especialy here in the North East it is more accepted every year that goes by. People don't react with shock now, most of the time they ask a couple general questions and leave it at that.

I have great faith that in time, people will come back to the old ways, especially with focus being brought to humans relationship with the enviroment.

[AnnieBW]

6. While I Am Offended

Because one of my Elders, Rosemary Kooiman, was very active in the push for pentagrams on military headstones. Her husband, Abe, was a WWII Vet. Both Rosemary and Abe are buried in Arlington Cemetery. (Anyone who was honorably discharged has the right to be buried in a military cemetery.) But, this IS the NY Post. I can't expect anything better from them.

These Pagans served their country, and some died for it. That's probably more than I can say for the person responsible for this awful picture and article.

[LibertyLover]

7. Nah-

Rosemary would have laughed at that picture and suggested a few more embellishments. Maybe not Kathleen, Rosemary's Baby, but Rosemary would have. She had such a wonderful sense of the absurd. Heck, she would have loved her funeral - well, ok - she loved her funeral, with us all putting stuff in the grave with her cremains, like a pen, because she could never find something to write with even with that huge cup of writing equipment in her kitchen, and cigarettes. We even put in a pair of driving gloves so that she and Abe could drive off in style. I'm glad that the pentacle is one her grave marker and Abe's and sorry that she did not live to see it, but don't worry - she knows.