30 Days of Advocacy

I have decided to participate in something larger than myself. I usually shy away from large subjects because I feel there are others who could be more effective than me, but if everyone felt that way and acted upon that feeling, nothing would get done. I am participating in the 30 days of advocacy against witch-hunts. I will be posting articles on examples of witch hunts from modern days to ancient days just to show that the burning times are not over on my Random Madness page on Tumblr. I may be sharing personal experiences with negative experiences I have had as a witch out of the closet.

The point of these stories isn't about pity, it's about highlighting a real issue. We can not allow crimes against humanity to continue in the name of anything and as a witch watching the witch hunts continue, it is literally a personal nightmare brought to life. The crimes being perpetuated are aimed at people who are not even associated with the craft. Most of them are women and children considered to be a burden or just plain inconvenient. They don't even get a trial. They are branded and, often times, murdered by a mob of frightened people who feel justified in committing murder. These things are happening right now in South Africa, the African continent and in Haiti.

Here in the states we also have issues with the persecution of those who are witches. Most recently, a TSA agent was fired after being accused of causing a co- worker's car heater to stop functioning with a spell. After this accusation was made, she was bullied, harassed and then her personnel file began to fill up with negative reports. . . hrm sounds a bit suspicious to me, but we'll see how this plays out.

The most frightening case to me in the states is the West Memphis three. In 1994 three teenagers were accused of a horrific murder of three little boys. The case went on in it's circus type fashion and in the end three teenagers are are convicted with little to no real evidence other than the fact that they are different than the rest of this small town. In fact, there was more evidence that they didn't commit these crimes than evidence that they did. They were convicted by a group of fearful people based upon lies, prejudice and religious zeal. To this day these three, now grown men, are sitting in prison cells: two serving life sentences, one on death row. There was no justice here. The system failed and, in this case, continues to fail epically.

There are more subtle manners of continued persecution. In one case, a beer manufacturer placed upon one of its bottle labels the image of a woman burning at the stake with faceless monks peering on. The brew was called Witches Wit. I can think of many other images to use to depict that title that doesn't include committing murder. Most recently, I was watching a popular online show about film making that depicted a witch burning in jest. I realize they think they were being funny, but I did not see the humor. Making jokes about "burn the Witch" is akin to making jokes about "gas the Jew." It's not funny in any context.

This must stop.

For more information:

West Memphis three:
http://www.wm3.org/

30 days of advocacy:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117751598282929&index=1
http://www.paganrightsalliance.org/30_days.html

Fired TSA agent
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41959553/ns/business-us_business/

Witch hunts in Haiti:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-12-02-haiti-cholera_N.htm