From: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Subject: Re: P/pagan bashi how to stop it
Reply-To: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Organization: LaserMaster Technologies, Minneapolis, MN
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 21:19:42 GMT

Liam writes;
>" ... Instead of going out and suing the pants off of our
>enemies, let  us combat hate and ignorance through education and
>love.  To do this why not become more openly active in the
>community through things like food  and clothing drives, tree
>planting, cleaning up our parks and  neiborhoods, and other such
>service projects. Also we can hold folk  festivals at major
>holidays in order to aid in creating an understanding  of
>ouselves and oureliefs.  These tactics have worked for other
>religions  why not us?  This is not to say that we should go out
>and try to convert  people or to compromise our individual
>secrecy but to let the public know  th we are here and that we
>are not what they think. I realize that this  post is probably
>going to attract a serious "flame fest" but think it  over
>anyway.... thank you."

  During the height of the Moral Majority's reign (or, really,
their existance), I and some friends did a newsletter called
"Abolish Intolerance" (tm).  We said some pretty funny stuff and
poked a lot of fun at and sometimes with the "other side".

  Didn't change anything, or make them hate us less, or make
Jesse Helms stop trying to legislate us out of existance.

  It did provide an avenue for a lot of really pissed people to
vent -- both Pagans venting at fundies, and fundies venting back.
All in all, it was pretty awful, and I find that in some social
circles, I'm still trying to drop the stigma of it all.

  But it was a lot of fun, and a lot of Pagans got behind it and
really helped put it together and keep it going.

  'Course, when we tried to get the same group of Pagans together
to do a food drive, or clean a park, or adopt a section of free-
way, or just have a spagetti social, it was a complete flop.  Too
many people got too worked up about the technical bits of who's
coven got listed first, or what council would provide what
start-up funds, or where it would meet, or who we SHOULDN'T
invite because THEY don't do it like we do it.

  Doing it in smaller groups didn't work very well either, because
one or two people would get singled out by "family" groups in
their town and would find pickets on their front lawn, garbage
on their front step, or broken windows when they got home.
Two close friends simply got fired for "unsocial" behaviour.

  Support from the greater Pagan community is uncertain and
fraught with inbred politics.  Support from a smaller, coven-like
Pagan community is often insufficient to see people through
a "coming out" like doing public serivce projects.  Sometimes you
get kudos and nobody tries to slash your tires.  Sometimes you
get your tires slashed.  It doesn't take too many acts of random
violence to keep individuals down, and to keep communities from
stepping in to help.

  Moral that I got from this is that if there is an identifiable
threat to people's existance, they'll stand firm against it.
If, however, the goal is more broad or non-threatening, then 
folks are just as happy to stay the hell out of it.

  I've even heard Pagans say that we should be happy to just
be "getting away" with doing public ritual (with only periodic
lock-outs and police raids) -- if we try to do any more we'd
just lose the little bit we've gained.

  I have to admit that, in the Twin Cities at least, a unified
community action to do public works is highly unlikely, and
solitary action is likely to leave you cut up pretty badly.

  I also think that sueing anyone is a pretty bad idea too.
Although it gives "us" a holy cause, it also gives "them"
a holy cause.  'Course, sometimes a bad idea is all you've got
left when your back's against the wall and someone's trying to
strip what remains of your civil liberties.

  Better to go down fighting than to just lie like road kill?

  Speaking as someone who has their own local family prayer
group praying for my soul every Thursday night, I'm not too eager
to get back into the public spectrum unless my rights are 
completely threatened.

  Civil liberties are important, working together is important,
educating and loving the general population is important, but I
have to be able keep a job and buy food and NOT have my car and
home trashed because someone's afraid of my religion.

  Hell, I'm just happy to be able to get through a ritual without
having the police come up my driveway because a neighbor got
worried about the drums.  It's only happened once, but ever after
you keep an eye on the road.

  Maybe that's a part of the problem, too -- we're all keeping
one eye on the road just in case, and no one wants to be standing
out there all alone when the propriety squad shows up.

  Well, that's enough of my fears for now ... I'm still teaching
publicly, and give lectures periodically when asked, and am just
about as "out" as a Pagan can be without handing out leaflets,
but I'm burnt out trying to get the Pagan community in the Twin
Cities to play nice -- In My Humble Opinion, they just don't
wanna, and no one's gonna make 'em.

  Still, Liam, it's a good suggestion.  Like Arthur sez in
Excaliber; "It is a dream of mine ..."

  Blessed be, Ciaran.

   $uslinit; include oblig.sig <<
  "...And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour heavenly nectar into gold
   cups, and fill them gracefully with sudden joy."  -- Sappho >>


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