I wanted to wish everyone a happy July 4th! This has always been a great day for me, during which I’ve always found myself humbled by the opportunities that are available to us as Americans. This is a great country. I think the whole world knows that, irregardless of how many toes we’ve stepped upon at times because we’ve elected the wrong people to lead us.
On this day, especially, I want all American Pagans, Wiccans, witches, shamans and other assorted misfits to take pride in their country. Don’t let the Religious Right and the traffickers of hate browbeat you into thinking that you’re somehow less of an American than they are. No one owns the exclusive right to define what it means to be an American. In fact, I am of the opinion that anyone who thinks that you can only be a true American if you think, act and believe just like them knows astonishingly little about the United States of America.
I am Pagan. I am American. I am proud. Anyone who doesn’t like that can go take a flying leap. “American” is not the same thing as “Christian”. I just want all of us Pagans, whatever path we might follow, to take pride in being Americans today and celebrate our country, and resolve that those wingnuts on the Far Right and Religious Right are not what Thomas Jefferson (who was a Deist, not a Christian) had in mind. We are just as American as they are. More so, in fact, because we believe more passionately the rights of all Americans, and not just those who agree with us.
