It's About Bloody Time!

Now there are 39. Until today the Department of Veterans Affairs had a list of 38 religious symbols that it allows to be engraved on the tombstones of out fallen military. Today we add the pentacle to that list. Normally it takes only a few months for a faith group to petition and win approval from the DVA. This time it took ten years and a lawsuit. Can anyone tell me why that is? I mean a legitimate reason, not one based on ignorance and bigotry.

My question is this: Why is there even a list at all? Ignoring the fact that through-out history all attempts to regulate faith has resulted in chaos and blood, we are talking about folks who died in service of their country. No matter what we think of the current cluster-fuck in Iraq, these people died, at least ostensibly, to protect and enrich our lives and freedom. Why are they limited at all. If someone wanted that girl from the back of mud flaps on their grave who are you or I to deny them that. I think they have earned the right.

The fact that this particular symbol took ten years and a lawsuit to approve should have we as a people asking some very serious questions of ourselves and our government. Are some of us so insecure about our own belief system that allowing others to express their own that we try to legally stop them? Does freedom of religion only apply to some of us? What happens when someone decides that it doesn't apply to you?


Rant Over... For Now