Four Foods on Friday 55

I have to say, this meme is addictive. These week is about traditional Thanksgiving foods.

#1. Stuffing. Boxed or from scratch?
I usually use boxed as a base, and go from there. Add broth from the turkey. Onions. Celery. Mushrooms. Sometimes even giblet bits.

#2. If you were served the perfect Thanksgiving dinner what would it be?
Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, with pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie (with pecan topping) as desert.

#3. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving leftover?
Turkey.

#4. Share a recipe using turkey.
One of my favorite ways to have leftover turkey is a very simple sandwich. Lightly toasted bread. Light spread of Miracle Whip. Turkey. Salt. That's it... want one now... turkey is frozen... sigh..

Freedom of Religion in the US - it's about time

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, but I'm thinking about this today, so I'll start early to get you all thinking about this important day too.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"

Sometimes, in the US, we take our freedoms and rights for granted. Often, we do so to such an extent that we do not notice when others in the US continue to face institutionalized bias and prejudice. It's easy to understand. We believe that our laws cover us, right? I mean, how often do we read that it is it wrong to "discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, skin color, religion, gender, or national origin"? It's everywhere! Wander over to the wiki page on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and peruse a bit of history. Looks pretty good, and there are, clearly written, exceptions, but in this day and age, are people really hurt by that stuff. Does institutional discrimination against religion still occur? You bet it does.

In the year 2002, a World War II veteran, PFC Abraham Kooiman, who had been awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, passed away. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery, and his wife, like many other military spouses, applied to the VA for a headstone. Eligibility for a VA marker is stated as follows: "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) furnishes upon request, at no charge to the applicant, a Government headstone or marker for the unmarked grave of any deceased eligible veteran in any cemetery around the world, regardless of their date of death. The VA may also provide a headstone or marker for graves that are marked with a private headstone or marker, for veterans that died on or after November 1, 1990.". However, although he met the eligibility requirements, the request for PFC Kooiman's headstone, with his emblem of belief, was denied. Why? Because of religious discrimination. PFC Kooiman was pagan.

To put it very simply, the VA has the authority to decide who has a valid religion, and who does not. Oh, they might argue against my wording here, but the reality is, if your symbol of belief is not on their approved list, too bad for you. They can discriminate against you. Oh, and you do not actually have to have a "religion" to be on the list... the symbol for Atheist is on their list, #16, and has been there for a long time... but if the VA does not approve of your religion, you are in for a legal battle. The battle for the pentacle took ten years. Much too long, in my humble opinion. Not only because of the shame of living with the hypocrisy... our soldiers can claim the religion they want whilst alive, they may proudly display it on their ID tags and practice their beliefs on active duty - but the VA does not have to honor them in death. This was shame enough. What is saddest to me though, is that although this particular legal battle ended in success in April of 2007, Mrs. Rosemary Kooiman passed away in March of 2005... the only pentacle she ever saw on her husband's headstone was an emblem, a sticker of protest, taped on the front his empty headstone.

I will not fill my blog retelling the history of the Pagan Headstone Campaign, the Veteran Pentacle Quest, or whatever name people wish to remember this particular fight under. This particular chapter is finally closed and the Wiccan Pentacle was finally included in the list of approved emblems by the VA. A very significant individual in this closing act, was Mrs. Roberta Stewart, wife of Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart who was killed in action in Afghanistan, and officials of the State of Nevada, who determined they had authority over State Veteran cemeteries and approved Sgt. Stewart's marker. Please visit the Circle Sanctuary page on the pentacle quest for more articles, history, images, and news articles.

I must share this quote:

John W. Whitehead, President of the Rutherford Institute, wrote in his June 5, 2006, editorial on Christianity Today's website, "Although our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian base, the Framers of the Constitution understood that religious freedom was for everyone, not just Christians. In other words, the only way that freedom can prevail for Christians is for Christians to stand up and fight for the minority beliefs and religions of others."

If only we all could display such tolerance! The world would be a much kinder place.

Also, drop by the VA website to view a list of 'approved emblems of belief'. True, the title of this page does say 'available', not 'approved', but scroll on down the list. Yes, that is the Wiccan symbol, finally, at the end there. But look further. Notice the fine print: "No graphics (logos, symbols, etc.) are permitted on Government-furnished headstones or markers other than the approved emblems of belief, the Civil War Union Shield, the Civil War Confederate Southern Cross of Honor, and the Medal of Honor insignias."
Did you see your emblem of belief as you scrolled down? If you are a member of a mainstream religion, you probably did. Lucky you. I'm a veteran, a Druid, and my symbol is not on the list.
The Awen

So, tomorrow, if you are off work for Veteran's day, first of all... enjoy the free day! Go shop, BBQ, do nothing, be free... that's what I'm doing! But remember our veterans. Think of our soldiers - past, present, and future. Reflect on our recent election and the historic relevance of our selecting President Obama. Think of the light that he has shone - full of hope and promise - his mere presence in the campaign a reflection of how much we have grown and changed as a nation, and we have, grown and changed, but let's not forget that we still have far to go. There are still pockets of bias, prejudice, and discrimination that should not exist. Keep this in mind, and have a blessed Veteran's day.

Support our heros... all of them.

Miss Mechanical

I had been looking for something to help organize our new computer center for awhile now, and I finally found a printer stand with a couple of drawers and places for paper. It's a cheapo thing, but just the size that I had wanted. It was cheap, probably, because it came completely disassembled with mostly useless instructions - the 4 images that showed the assembly were ok, but the diagrams showing how to differentiate the parts were way off scale and not accurate in description. Fortunately, I'm pretty good at figuring out this kind of puzzle, and after sorting out 21 pieces of similar looking bits of unmarked wood, and 45+ screws of three different sizes - I sat down on the floor to put the thing together.

Then Honor walked up and wanted a turn. Hmm? Well, I asked her to go get another set of screwdrivers, and with Dora the Explorer forgotten on the DVD, we got to work. First she used the little screwdriver to attach the back of the box. These were actually quite hard to do, but she started all 10 of these incredibly tiny screws and did a good job getting them part way in. All I had to do was tighten them down.
Then, as I figured out the drawers and got those started, Honor took the ratchet driver and put the two top pieces on.
It's two-handed work for a little girl...
but look at that concentration!
Ta-daa! Didn't we do a nice job? After I put the stand in place, Honor put things away properly in the drawers. No more desk clutter!
And if you notice, both computers are now loaded with Age of Mythology. Brian is still in love with this game, and now wants to figure out how to play multi-player. In order to find an opponent, Brian has resorted to teaching his little sister how to play. It's kind of neat to listen to them work together. Honor's reading is not quite up to this level of game play, but there is a lot that she can do from memory, and what she needs to read, she can ask... if it encourages her to work on her reading more, what's there to complain about?? Except, maybe, the fact that she's learning to pronounce things as her brother pronounces them... and he sometimes gets his pronunciations from his reading, and not asking! The kids, and a friend - another of Brian's AOM recruits - were discussing various strategies, as well as strengths and weaknesses of a number of God characters in the game this weekend. They were great with the actual gods' names - Ouranos, Chronos, Gaia, etc., as well as the names of the mythological creatures, like Pheonix, Centaur, etc. but when describing these gods and other characters, they weren't sure how to pronounce simple words, like minor. They kept using a Spanish 'en-yay' for the 'n'. We thought it might be 'minion'.. but that wasn't it either, they don't think. I'm still not sure what word they had, but who cares? Now we have a 7yo AND a 5yo (actually, we have 2 7yos, if you count in the friend) debating Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythological characters. Sure, it's in context of a computer game, and this isn't new with Brian, so why should I still be so tickled over the whole idea? Well, picture the two of them at the desk... Brian patiently explaining to Honor - her little legs dangling from the computer chair, toes not reaching the ground - how to build resources and other needed items in the game. It's too cute!

And now, the game area is much neater, thanks to my helper. I used to love to help my dad work on things when I was young, and it seems Honor has that same need to get in there, grab some tools, and figure things out too. She did a great job. As Brian, and then her Daddy, each arrived home at different times, she ran to greet them at the door so she could drag them over to see our work. She was very proud of the work she did - and so am I.